Best day of cricket ever, Clarkey stands up as captain...as he has done in his first 4 series. Against Sri Lanka. The ton v South Africa would have to go down as one of the great hundreds, against the Shaggers and now against India.
This side is slowly starting to look very Steve Waugh-like with its bowling performances, just a bit more consistency with the batting and we will be tough for anyone to beat.
The Clarkey haters are notably absent which is great. I am getting excited that we may have seen the last of Mitchell Jackson or whoever he is in the baggy green.
With a new captain, new coach, new selection committee and a promising young bowling attack, I'm 99.9% sure we have seen the end of Mitchell Jackson (as you like to call him). Good state bowling performances aren't going to cut it for him now. He's going to have to rely on a lot of luck with injuries to the bowlers in front of him. Pattinson et al. have showed how to get wickets with good bowling rather than pinball machine-like bowling.
Regarding the Steve Waugh-like performances, we're not quite at that level yet. The good news is the worst years are definitely behind us, and we will only be moving in one direction: forward. We hit rock bottom with our atrocious performance last summer in the Ashes, and we have remarkably improved during Clarke's tenure. It's still going to be a while until get back to #1, but a series win vs India will be a HUGE step towards that direction after the series win vs Sri Lanka and drawn series vs South Africa. The only thing that is a cause for concern is the consistency and stability in the top 7 batsmen. However, the good news from today is that Clarke is in form, Ponting's back in form and hit a century for the first time in 2 years (2 1/2 years if you exclude the previous century vs Pakistan) and Mr Cricket is still going strong at 36 yrs old.
The one in the firing line is Brad Haddin. He hasn't performed well with both bat and gloves for a while and I have doubts whether or not he'll be there in the 2013 Ashes (especially since he will be 35 then). If he doesn't continue to perform, I'm starting to wonder whether it's time to blood a new keeper and give him 18 months between this summer and the Ashes? Cowan, Warner, Marsh, and Khwaja are still very new to test cricket. Watson qualifies as an all-rounder at number 6 in the batting line-up, but is definitely not an automatic selection as opening batsman. His batting performance over the past year or so don't justify his place in the side solely on batting. I think the new selectors realise that having him as opening batsman compromises his ability to bowl, and they need to get more value out of his bowling. He's very useful with the ball, and is able to reverse swing. I wouldn't mind seeing:
Cowan, Warner, Clarke, Ponting, Hussey, Watson as the top 6. Clarke should definitely be #3.
