Australia Cricket / Andrew Hughes / 25 October 2007 /

Cricket expert Andrew Hughes look at who will be coming in to replace the old guard and what they can achieve

In this year's New Year Test at Sydney, after the chore of crushing England inside four days was out of the way, the Aussie crowd had the opportunity to show their appreciation to Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, two of the greatest players ever to don the baggy green and to Justin Langer, a gutsy opener and hero of many Ashes battles. An era came to a close that day and it has lead many to conclude that the much predicted decline of Australian cricket might finally be imminent.

The forthcoming series against Sri Lanka is the first chance for us to assess the new look Australia. No one can deny that the loss of McGrath and Warne will make the team weaker. The question is, how much weaker? Not weak enough to make opposing them a worthwhile betting proposition, in my opinion. They are currently trading at 1.33 to win the two-match rubber. That price looks about right to me.

Australian cricket is built on solid foundations, from a combative domestic game to a consistent and well thought out selection policy that means they are always well placed to cope with such transitions. Chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch indicated earlier this year that there would be no shuffling of the pack or changing the balance of the team. Replacements will be found for Langer, Warne and McGrath and business will carry on as usual.

Top of the list to fill the vacancies in the bowling line up are perennial understudy Stuart MacGill and the young left-arm speedster Mitchell Johnson who has been auditioning for the role for some time and was top bowler on the recent one-day tour of India.

MacGill is fortunate that the Australian set up is strong enough to tolerate such a loose cannon. Last season, he was reprimanded for arguing with an umpire and this summer, as senior professional on the A tour to Pakistan, he was fined for his onfield misconduct. He barely knows one end of a bat from the other and his fielding is from the Tufnell school of outcricket. But he will be there at Brisbane for two reasons. Firstly, his younger rivals, Cullen and Bailey are a season or two away from being ready. Secondly he is currently the most dangerous spin bowler in Australia and in any normal era, would have got a hundred caps for his country.

Johnson and MacGill will take wickets, there is no doubt. On their day, both of them can blow a team away and for most teams their occasionally expensive bowling would be tolerated as par for the course for a tearaway fast bowler and a leg spinner. The problem is that their illustrious predecessors were inhumanly accurate and expectations have been raised to an unrealistic degree. Consequently, the Aussie batsmen will be under more pressure than they have known for some time to give their bowlers the runs to play with.

Unfortunately for those itching to hit the 'lay' button, the Australian batting line up is more than capable of taking on the extra burden. They are by some distance the best in the world and the addition of Phil Jaques for Langer will not change that. A specialist opener, Jaques has been banging on the door for some time, had an excellent tour of Pakistan and scored 167 in the opening Pura Cup game. He is categorically no weak link.

So even allowing for the extra runs they will concede, there is at the moment no team in the world that can live with them, certainly not in their own backyard. This may be the best Sri Lankan side ever to tour Australia but their top heavy batting is not strong enough to take advantage of any increase in Aussie profligacy and the last minute addition of former captain Atapattu is a destabilising influence. Given that they are yet to win a Test match down under, I wouldn't be interested in Sri Lanka at less than 9.00 and they are currently around 7.80 for the series. The only option is to lump on Australia at 1.33 and watch the dawn of a new era.

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