“Velocity’s a big thing for us,” said Australia coach Darren Lehmann in the wake of Australia’s aberrant Test loss against South Africa last February. The November prior he’d marveled at the velocity of Mitchell Johnson’s bowling in Australia’s home Ashes. When Ryan Harris looked doubtful for the fifth Test of that series, Lehmann saw velocity too in his potential replacements, Doug Bollinger and Nathan Coulter-Nile.
In his thirst for that explosiveness and aggression, Lehmann now has an ally in national selector Rod Marsh, who included in his squad for Australia’s current Test tour of the UAE both Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell. Both would presumably measure high on Lehmann’s velocity index. Marsh was most excited about (the other) Marsh’s capabilities with the ball, particularly his speed, though would effectively install him as a Test number six batsman as well.
In contrast to all this searing velocity of recent times, last summer saw staid and steady limited-overs fixture Clint McKay jettisoned from Australia’s limited-overs sides in unceremonious fashion. Though it had never particularly held back his metronomic bowling, McKay is noticeably lacking in velocity. In the wake of his demotion, Lehmann left the bowler in no doubt as to his future prospects: “his speed isn’t up to scratch for us and that’s the message we’ve sent to him.”
In fairness this ballsy, aggressive approach is the cornerstone of Lehmann’s success in transforming Australia from also-rans to rankings-toppers, with Mitchell Johnson the sharpest point of his deadly arrow. With Johnson, Ryan Harris and a rampant David Warner blasting away all comers, Lehmann’s reign couldn’t have started any better, but what this bash and crash approach was never likely to do on a long-term basis was disguise the obvious faults that lay elsewhere.
Over the past five days in Dubai, as has been the case for so many Australia teams through the past four decades, velocity, attitude and aggression didn’t count for a whole lot on slow, turning wickets and in the presence of late movement. The limitations of Australia’s top six was thus laid bare. As a notable exception there was the resourcefulness and fight of Steve Smith and Johnson late on day five. This doesn’t underestimate Australia’s centurion but as jaw-droppingly magnificent as his first innings effort was, Warner would have hit the same notes if he was playing on Mars.
What the Australian top six lacked most throughout this game was an ability to adjust to the tempo that the playing conditions and the ever-lurking dangers in the opposition bowling line-up should have dictated. Lehmann’s brief era in charge has been characterised by brute aggression, which is compelling and highly effective when things go well but has looked guileless and one-dimensional on the handful of occasions when his charges haven’t stuck their landing.
All of Australia’s classic batting frailties were on display in this game. The unheralded but constsantly-probing spin pairing of Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah either tied Australia down or else in knots and whatever batsman they couldn’t extract was finished off by the reverse swing and late movement of Pakistan’s pacemen.
This Test could also serve as further proof that after a long spell without Test action, the last team you want to face is the barmy and magnificent Pakistan and the last place you want to do it is on a slow, spin-friendly wicket in the UAE. It’s hard to do justice the glorious unpredictability of Misbah’s team without condescending or diminishing its blinding beauty. Australians have historically tended to believe that Pakistan present a microcosm of cricket’s myriad problems, but when playing like this they actually make the impending sense of cricket’s doom melt away entirely.
Smith’s second-innings effort was the type that will probably be forgotten within months, but it showed why outside of Warner’s manic and now-regular demolition jobs, he’s actually the most vital cog in the Australian top six. His 55 from 175 deliveries turned out to be a futile resistance but for a while his unflappability for bred confidence not only in his most willing and patient partner, Johnson, but made you genuinely believe that Australia could pull off a draw.
The contrast with the jittery fragility of Doolan, captain Michael Clarke and Marsh couldn’t have been more stark. Chris Rogers applies himself with such devotion that you find yourself believing entirely in his incredulous, barely-concealed rage upon dismissal.
Sadly, there wasn’t much about Alex Doolan that looked believable in this Test. Twice in almost pitiable fashion he labored to a cheap demise. It seems unfair to contrast Doolan’s haplessness against Younis Khan’s serene masterclass for Pakistan, but what they both produced from similar positions in each innings told a story of the game itself. Younis gradually bricked himself inside an impenetrable wall. Less successful in establishing some foundations, Doolan just dug himself into a hole in the first innings and then quickly and haphazardly filled it in the second.
Any batsman would have marveled at Younis. The first of his centuries required 220 balls of unwavering attention and came after Johnson had looked likely to blast his way to glory. In that effort Younis employed tantric batting but the undefeated 103 that came in the second innings was something far more passionate and ecstatic and showed a supreme ability to adapt to the game’s biorhythms. By comparison the Australians fumbled around like schoolboys.
This match also served to highlight Australia’s worrying reliance on lower-order runs when Warner misses out. So often his side’s savior in the past twelve months, Brad Haddin lapsed to his far less appealing habit of looking utterly culpable when he fails. His first-innings dismissal came from an ostentatiously loose drive that made debutant Imran Khan’s new-ball offerings look like those of his famous namesake. In the second he left the gate open even further for Zulfiqar’s arm ball. Having watched all fifty-seven of Steve O’Keefe’s overs up close, you wouldn’t have predicted that it would be a straight one that would bamboozle the Aussie keeper.
Neither Australian spinner will want to re-watch anything that happened across the five days. O’Keefe looked pedestrian either side of some handy breakthroughs while Lyon threatened in brief patches but also slid into the kind of anonymity that fuels his critics. Likewise, captain Michael Clarke is in a tricky spot; he can’t be written off on account of his mounting failures when his best is as transcendent and masterly as only a Test ago.
Australia’s potential inclusions for Abu Dhabi offer little that the current eleven couldn’t manage, though James Faulkner could consider himself unlucky to have been left out in favour of Marsh here. Aside from the modest returns of the spinners, the greatest strides need to be made by the batsmen. Doolan might be put out of his nerve-jangling misery, though of all the feelings that Phil Hughes inspires, stability is not high on the list. Based on the second innings here, only a partial reverse of the Australian batting order would provide much of that.
With a crushing inevitability, Australia has again been undone by spin and reverse swing. Pakistan comprehensively dictated the cadence of this game: speeding it up, slowing it down and then convincingly taking it away from the tourists.
When Zulfiqar finally claimed the last of his five second-innings wickets to finish the game off, his victim Peter Siddle called for a review. Mostly he did so because Australia had two left and there was nothing to be lost in trying but also, you’d hope, merely to make the opposition wait. As with most of Australia’s attempts in this game, it was futile.
