Australia have won the VB series in some style after the initial hiccup. Many weaknesses of the Australian one day team, once invincible, are there for all to see now though.
The biggest problem has been the bowling. A look at the VB series stats is enough. Apart from Lee and Bracken, NO one impressed. With Warne (who I believed would be back for the world cup) not looking in that direction (at least for now) and McGrath is future uncertain with his personal crisis the bowling cupboard is extremely bare. Can we really expect Brad Hogg to perform better than ordinary? He is no great force. And even if we consider him to pass the cut, who play the roles of the 4th and 5th bowlers? Watson, perenially injured, may solve a bit of the problem. But guys like Watson, Symonds can play support roles. If some player doesn’t step up, the Aussie team can look to chase big totals against the other strong one day teams.
Regarding the batting – the team has had collapses. With Katich and Martyn not performing at a level required, there have been situations of trouble. It is an area which needs to be strengthened to ensure not losing matches because of collapses. It is an area which Australia can rectify hopefully in the future (with Jacques or some one else stepping up).
But I do not know how Australia can counter the first problem it is encountering.
The VB series showed there are plently of problems for South Africa (specially since the world cup will be played in the slow, low pitches of the Windies) and a lot of positives for Sri Lanka. Without going into those details, the marathon series, often sluggish, has shown a lot regarding the three participating teams.
UPDATE – Peter Roebuck holds similar views to mine here.
yeah australia bowling will be tested against very good batting sides.their attack looks very thin without McGrath and warne.i think they should get back to Gillespie he is too good a bowler to be sidelined like this .
Gillespie has been struggling domestically so far..