Although England’s winning draw against India in the first test has obviously hogged the headlines in recent days, I doubt it escaped your attention that Australia were absolutely hammered by South Africa in Hobart. The Cricketboks have already won the series and Australian cricket is in crisis once again. Ho ho ho.

Our spy down under, Frazer Loveman, reports back on what has been a chastening few weeks for Steve Smith and his team. In fact, news has just broken that Rodney Marsh has stepped down as chaiman of selectors. I’d still take him over James Whitaker though. Over to you Fraser …

Australian cricket is not in good health. After South Africa’s hilarious innings victory in Hobart earlier this week, in which the Aussies were skittled for just 85 in their first dig, England supporters might actually be looking forward to next year’s Ashes series. The chances of another 0-5 whitewash seem remote at the current time, and here in Australia the media is at sixes and sevens over the team selection and how to prevent continuing embarrassment.

The first symptoms emerged in Sri Lanka when the Aussies were whitewashed and failed to score 200 in four of their six innings. Steve Smith and Shaun Marsh were the only players to bag centuries. This marked the third straight whitewash for the Baggy Green in Asia and they appeared utterly incapable of playing spin bowling.

The current series against South Africa has seen the prognosis worsen substantially. The Proteas are no longer the side that rose to number one in the world, and arrived without AB De Villiers and an unfit Morne Morkel, yet they’ve still run riot.

It all started well enough for Austrlia on a seemingly decent WACA wicket, when the double-headed pace attack of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood bundled South African out for 242 on the first day. But after Shaun Marsh and David Warner put on 158 between them in Australia’s reply, the wheels came off dramatically.

After Warner went for 97, the next nine wickets fell for just 86 runs, leaving the Aussies two behind the South African first innings score. And all this happened after Dale Steyn had injured himself. Imagine the carnage if the world’s best fast bowler had been fit and firing.

South Africa amassed 540/8 declared in their second innings to grab hold of the match. Dean Elgar (127) and JP Duminy (141) seemed utterly untroubled by the Aussie bowling with Quinton de Kock (64) and Vernon Philander (73) notching up decent runs down the order too.

Australia’s second innings started ok, but after Warner was run out by the most phenomenal piece of fielding from the diminutive Temba Bavuma, a steady stream of Aussie wickets followed. The only top-order batsman who impressed was Usman Khawaja. Despite a brave rear-guard 60 off of 153 balls from Peter Neville the Aussies didn’t have enough and Kagiso Rabada (5/92) finished them off.

Things got worse for the Baggy Greens when Shaun Marsh and Peter Siddle were ruled out for the second test at Hobart. They were replaced by the previously dropped Joe Burns and debutant Joe Mennie. Mitch Marsh, the media scapegoat, was dropped in favour of another debutant, Callum Ferguson. Things didn’t go well.

On an overcast day by the Tasmanian coast, Australia were put in to bat at 7:30 West Coast Time. By the time I woke up at 8:00 Australia had lost 4 wickets for 8 runs and were shot out for the grand total of 85. Only Steve Smith, who made 48, showed any fight. Had Australia’s sickness reached a terminal phase?

Just to rub salt into the wound, South Africa showed that batting was indeed possible on the Hobart pitch: de Kock (104) and Bavuma (74) put on 144 for the sixth wicket as South Africa posted 326. Hazelwood (6 for 89) was the only Aussie to capitalise on the miserably overcast conditions.

Everyone knows what came next. After Warner (45) and Khawaja (64) made a relatively decent start, the Aussies collpased in a heap again. After reaching 129/3, it was all over 32 runs later. Australia were defeated in a humiliating two and a half days (day 2 was entirely lost to rain).

So what now for our canary yellow friends? It is clear where their problem lies: they can’t bat for toffee. A collapse never seems to be far away. In this series they have faced some fearsome fast bowling – Rabada is already up there with the best fast bowlers in the world – and Kyle Abbott bowled like a man possessed in Australia’s second innings. However, the Australians really have no excuse.

There are some signs of life, so we’ll start with those. Smith, Warner, Khawaja and Shaun Marsh are likely safe and have all shown glimpses of their abilities in this series. The fast bowling attack is also safely in the ‘not broke, don’t fix’ box. Hazelwood in particular should give England’s top order problems next year. Mennie also looked very capable with the ball on debut in Hobart. Peter Neville has also cemented his place in the side, although there’s little competition at state level.

The rest of the side, however, look totally inadequate. It seems eons ago that Adam Voges was swanning around with a gaudy triple figures average. Unfortuanately an out of touch  37-year-old has no real future in international cricket. Joe Burns has been apocalyptically awful both in Sri Lanka and back at home. Shaun Marsh has looked ok but he can’t get fit.

Callum Ferguson has done nothing to impress so far, and unless they choose to go back to Mitch Marsh, the options left at Shield level are 30-somethings Cameron White and George Bailey or T20 specialist Glenn Maxwell. Personally I’d go with Marsh, a genuine all-rounder who was far from the worst player on the park at the WACA.

Meanwhile, Nathan Lyon now appears to only be in the team because everyone in the dressing room likes him. Ashton Agar is producing very good results at Shield level and should be given another trial before the India tour in February 2017.

For England this is obviously highly amusing and gives us all cause for optimism. Australia’s problems have no clear solutions. Indeed, some of them seem to be partly mental given their batsmen’s propensity to turn into pumpkins at the drop of a hat.

Having said that, they still have some very talented players. It’s still a year until the Ashes and a top 4 of Warner, Marsh, Khawaja and Smith is not to be sniffed at. At the moment, however, Australia’s bowling attack needs to be performing at a high level for the team to be anywhere near competitive. And long may this continue.

Frazer Loveman

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