AFTER being just a solitary wicket away from a 5-0 Ashes sweep of England, life is all roses for the Australian cricket team isn’t it? Right?
Certainly it reads well on paper, but I think we’re all well aware Australia’s Test team is still a work in progress.
A horrid series from the tourists certainly made the picture rosier, but there are plenty of questions still to be answered as tours of Sri Lanka and Pakistan coming up.
Perhaps the biggest still surrounds the opening positions. Doesn’t Usman Khawaja’s timely performance at the SCG complicate matters?
The ideal situation would be that Victorian Will Pucovski would be fully fit and in form to join the squad. Following multiple concussions, however, that still looks unlikely.
In the meantime, hopes were high Marcus Harris could finally take advantage and make some big scores and while he improved, he was a victim of Ussie’s standout knock.
With Travis Head player of the series, he’s locked in at five, so to play, Khawaja has to open with David Warner, where he’s done well but isn’t his preference.
Most likely he and Warner will open when they head to Pakistan but it’s no long term solution as they have a combined age of 71.The hope will be that Pucovski, Henry Hunt or Bryce Street can make a big impact and soon.
From a bowling standpoint, there may be a number of different names within Australia’s bowling contingent, but in general it looks pretty healthy now.
With the retirement of James Pattinson before the start of the series, the door was opened for Jhye Richardson and Michael Neser to back up the key trio of Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc and Josh Hazelwood.
No one prior to the series would have seen it coming that Hazlewood would miss the final four Tests with a side strain, Cummins being out of the Adelaide Test due to being a close COVID contact and even Scott Boland being added to the squad later on.
What we discovered was the fast bowling stocks are in a good position, perhaps the best since the likes of Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Andy Bichel and Michael Kasprowicz.
Boland was an absolute revelation, claiming 18 wickets at an average of less than 10 in his first three Test matches, including that magical 6/7 on his home turf of the MCG.
You know the crazy thing – he still might be pushed out of the team!
There are other promising bowlers in Shield cricket, with Queensland’s Mark Steketee and South Australian Nathan McAndrew high on the wickets tally.
The biggest issue is the back-up for spinner Nathan Lyon. Mitch Swepson is the incumbent but at 28 he hasn’t been given his chance as yet. No doubt he’ll come into calculations on upcoming Asian tours but that’s a hell of a place to be thrown to the wolves.
Fellow Queenslander and left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann is also knocking down the door, having taken the most Shield wickets in 2021-22.
Wicketkeeper Alex Carey is not secure yet, either. A few mistakes in later Tests became talking points but in general, his glove work was tidy early in the series.
The big issue is many people like West Australian Josh Inglis and if the South Australian isn’t putting in good performances, the jungle drums could start beating.
There’s plenty to be excited about, but it’s too early to think we’re on top of the world yet.(sub head) Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme…
ANYONE who knows me would be well aware that Cool Runnings is one of my favourite movies of all time. If you don’t know the Disney film, there’s a fair chance I don’t want to know you.
Like all “true stories” there’s probably a fair amount of embellishment to the tale, but if watching John Candy take a bunch of sprinters and turn them into heroes in Calgary, Alberta, Canada doesn’t make you feel good, you have no heart.
Why am I bringing this up? Well, for one, with the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics right around the corner, guaranteed every free to air TV station will air the movie at some point.
The big thing is Jamaica have a four-man bobsled team back at the Games for the first time since the 1998 Nagano Olympics, 24 years ago.
In Beijing, Jamaica will have not just a four-man bobsled team competing, but, in a first for the country, also a two-man bobsled team and a female athlete competing in the monobob competition, an individual event making its Winter Olympics debut.
While the team is yet to be officially announced, Shanwayne Stephens has been piloting the four-man sled with Rolando Reid, Ashley Watson and Matthew Wekpe the push athletes.
Australia will also be well represented at the ice tracks.
While at the time of writing Breeana Walker’s position in the team had not been confirmed, the Queenslander sits sixth in the standings of the monobob World Series, with four podium finishes at various rounds and two silvers. She is a genuine chance of an Olympic medal.
Walker and Kiara Reddingius are also a chance to be in the two-women bobsled.
On top of that, earlier this month Jackie Narracott became the first Australian to win a World Cup gold medal in Skeleton, or any sliding sport, with a dazzling performance in Switzerland.
After debuting in PyongYang in 2018, the Queenslander (seriously, where is the snow in Queensland?!) now looms as a realistic medal chance for the green and gold.
Add in the on-fire curling team of Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt and snowboard halfpipe stars like Scotty James and Tess Coady, and there are plenty of Aussie hopefuls to follow.
