Cricket Australia – Page 4 – CaughtOutCricket

Just a day after announcing their limited overs and Test squads for the upcoming tour of the UAE, the Australian’s received the best possible news.

Ajmal's career is now in serious jeopardy after his bowling action is deemed illegal. — Ajmal’s career is now in serious jeopardy after his bowling action is deemed illegal.

Pakistani mystery spinner Saeed Ajmal has been given an indefinite bowling ban by the ICC.

The 36-year-old had been ordered to the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane for expert tests after his action was deemed to be illegal for all of his repertoire of deliveries. He was reported by umpires Ian Gould and Bruce Oxenford during the first of his side’s two Tests in Sri Lanka last month.

The news of course comes as a massive blow to Pakistan. Ajmal has been the world’s leading wicket taker across formats in the last three years and is the spearhead to his side’s commonly spin orientated attack.

Although the PCB could have appealed the decision to the ICC straight away, it could have risked inducing a longer ban on Ajmal in the long run. Instead the spinner is set to begin work with former Pakistan favourite Saqlain Mushtaq next week in an attempt to rectify his action with a hopeful timescale of 3-6 weeks being muted.

With such a timescale being indeed optimistic for a full renovation of a bowling action and with Ajmal having to go through a thorough re-assessment process after modifying his bowling – It is now certain he will still miss the entire Australian programme, which starts in less than a month’s time and includes a T20I, three ODI’s and two Test matches.

For Australia the news must come as a huge boost. It is no secret that the current set of players, Michael Clarke and Steve Smith aside, have regularly struggled against slow bowling in helpful spin conditions and the absence of Ajmal will ease many a heart rate in the camp.

Although Pakistan still have solid spin options in fellow veterans Abdur Rehman, 34, Mohammad Hafeez, 33, Zulfiqar Babar, 35, Atif Maqbool, 32 and Adnan Rasool, 33, it was Ajmal, the current No. 1 ranked ODI bowler and a man also inside the top ten ICC rankings in both T20I’s and Tests, who was deemed their most potent weapon.

Without their key weapon to lead the line, Pakistan must now be looked at as very much outsiders especially in the two Test series. Apart from the five veteran candidates named above it remains to be seen who they will draft in to replace the mystery and nous of Ajmal – who has 67 Test wickets over 12 matches in the UAE.

The likes of 22-year-old left-armer Raza Hasan have been touted as the next spin sensation, but despite bursting onto the scene with impressive first-class and T20I form two years ago, injuries have taken there toll and he remains on the outside looking in.

The current Australian outfit have had a retched time against quality spin bowling on turning surfaces in recent times and their last Test tour of the subcontinent ended up in complete shambles with a 0-4 whitewash to the Indians 18 months ago.

The general theme of that series was the complete inept that the Australian’s played the trio of Indian spinners Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and Ravi Ashwin with. The tour famously ended with an injured Australian captain, three players being suspended for not doing their homework and it was also the beginning of the end for then coach Micky Arthur.

Such a low ebb of course brought about change and the appointment of Darren Lehmann has brought about a change in mentality and an improvement of team sprint and on field success. Despite all of this and the fact that Lehmann was such an aggressive and productive player of spin bowling in his own playing career, his sides struggles against the turning ball still remain.

Australia's batsmen stumbled against the spin of Zimbabwe in their recent 3-wicket loss in Harare. — Australia’s batsmen stumbled against the spin attack of Zimbabwe in their recent 3-wicket loss in Harare.

This was most recently highlighted in Harare last month – where the side were restricted to a total of 9-209 in an eventual 3-wicket ODI defeat to Zimbabwe.

The bowling quartet on that occasion wasn’t the likes of Ajmal or Ashwin it was the lesser known names of John Nyumbu, Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams and Malcolm Waller who each had the Australians in a stranglehold. They would go on to bowl 36 of the allotted 50 overs and claim impressive match figures of 36-3-117-6.

It was unsurprising that Clarke (68no) was the only player to truly get to grips with the Zimbabwean attack before he limped off with a troubled hamstring. Post match the captain was annoyed at the selectors decision to omit Smith for the starting XI that day and said that they had got the decision undoubtably wrong.

Clarke’s hamstring remains a problem, especially after a long haul flight, but he is set to arrive early ahead of the ODI and Test series in the UAE to allow himself extra time to recover.

One area in which CA have sought to improve their handling of spin bowling for the tour of the UAE is the hiring of former Sri Lankan off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan as a coaching consultant. Murali will not only be used as a net bowler and brain to the batsmen but also as a bowling mentor to Nathan Lyon and the freshly called up New South Wales left armer Steve O’Keefe.

O’Keefe’s call up is a deserved one. The 29-year-old topped the Sheffield Shield bowling charts last season with 41 wickets at just 20.43 and has been the leading spinner in the competition for the past two years during a career that has brought him 128 victims at 24.72.

Elsewhere, Clarke has been given a 15-man squad for the two-Test series, which seems to have all based covered. Alongside the spin duo of Lyon and O’Keefe the party includes all rounders Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh – who have both impressed in ODI and first-class cricket in the recent past.

So with a settled Australian side coming into the series on the back of series wins over England and South Africa, it’s hard to look beyond the baggy green’s against an unpredictable Ajmal-less Pakistan outfit.

Australia must stick with Chris Rogers in the mid-term.

So the Ashes are over! Well as a contest that is, England deserve their win as the better side across three of the four Test matches – but for Australia – more questions than answers lie ahead.

The Aussies must re-group and start the post-mortem ahead of the return series down under in November. It maybe that there will be casualties along the way as they seek to find the correct balance for success, but one man who must now surely be in their mid-term thinking is Chris Rogers.

The 35-year-old opener rose above the rest at Chester-le-Street with twin scores of 113 and 49 and he should now be given a decent run at the top of the Australian order.

His first innings 113 – made in difficult overcast conditions suggested that he not only has the technique for grinding it out at Test level but also the mental toughness.

He played and missed, nudged and nurdled but off his 227^th ball of a growling second day’s play, Christopher John Llewellyn Rogers could finally say he was a Test centurion.

After been stuck on 96 for 20 deliveries, Rogers could have be forgiven for thinking his maiden Test century would never arrive – but this is the same man who only six months ago thought he would never represent his country again.

When it finally arrived, via a sweep off Graeme Swann, he was calm and reflective in his response – an acknowledgment to his partner Brad Haddin was followed by a brief raise of the bat and a removal of the helmet – fifteen years of toil were finally rewarded.

Rogers is a true fighter, an old fashioned opener, he accumulates his runs rather than caressing them and the innings that brought up his maiden Test ton was nothing unfamiliar – in all honesty it was ‘One hell of a scrap.’

But he is used to a scrap. His fifteen years in first-class cricket has seen him play for four different counties and two state sides – while he has just recently gone past the twenty thousand first-class runs mark – not bad for a guy who almost lost his Victoria contract a year ago – with his side keen on developing younger players instead.

At 35, he is the second oldest Australian to score a maiden Test century behind only Arthur Richardson, 37, who reached the feat in 1926 – but despite his age he is a player Australia must base their batting around in the next 18 months.

Originally brought back into the Test scene for this series as an experienced hand to replace the loss of both Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey – who retired at the conclusion of the Australian summer, he has suddenly become one of the side’s most important top order players.

After scoring just 4 and 15 – whilst replacing the injured Matthew Hayden on Test debut in January 2008, he had to wait a further five years for his opportunity on the international scene, and he started his comeback with mixed results.

A promising second innings fifty at Trent Bridge was followed by struggles at Lords and the doubters started calling for his head. Unflustered, Rogers went away to work on his game – before he went back to basics at Old Trafford and came out to score a fluent 84 in the first dig.

After so long in the international wilderness, it seemed he needed to prove he belongs at Test level to not only the public but to himself. His 84 in Manchester certainly brought him the confidence that he could succeed against this England attack and although his maiden century contained its fair share of luck – no one could begrudge the man they call ‘Bucky’ his long overdue success.

His second innings partnership of 109 with David Warner also brought positives for the Australians after Warner replaced Shane Watson at the top of the order. The pair seemed to compliment each other well in their differencing styles at the wicket – although they [Australia] will be looking for reinforcements in the batting line-up they should look no further than the current opening combination. Instant success will not come overnight but at least by keeping the opening combination the same they have a good base to work with.

Tag: Cricket Australia

Ajmal absence makes Australia favourites

Rugged Rogers finally reaps rewards