The mighty Aussies have been thoroughly humbled. Renowned Australian commentator Jim Maxwell analysed the heavy defeat and pinpointed that the Australian Captain Michael Clarke has been in a woeful run of form against England in England in the Ashes.
“I am not sure what is going through the heads of some of Australia’s batsmen at the moment. Their shot selection and decision-making has been really poor.” he told the BBC.
“It’s hard to put a finger on why that has occurred, but when the captain is in such appalling form it can’t help.”he added.
Ten years after England registered that historic win by 2 runs at the very same venue, they have thumped their rivals in scintillating fashion at Edgbaston. Some inspired fast bowling from the experienced James Anderson and Steven Finn wrecked the famed Aussie batting line up on seaming Edgbaston track. While everyone scrutinized the batting of Steven Smith and Chris Rogers, Jim Maxwell felt that the skipper too had just not done his bit.
“The more desperate he is to succeed, the more he seems to fail. His confidence has gone and unless he gets it back in the next two Test matches I would think his Test career is over.” he added in his BBC talk.
“If you look at his numbers over the past two years, he has scored two hundreds in 28 innings but has not gone past 50 on any other occasion.” he added.
Clarke has a highest score of 38 in his last 10 Ashes innings in England. But are the batsmen the only ones to be blamed, Jim Maxwell thinks otherwise. He feels that Peter Siddle must be swapped for Mitchell Starc.
“Starc is bleeding runs and has only taken five wickets in the past two Tests. If you give him a white ball he seems to knock everyone over but he’s not doing a consistent job in Test cricket at the moment.” he added in his talk. He also believes that Siddle who is fresh from his Lancashire stint would give the australian bowling attack the much needed ‘control’. Siddle also picked up a hat trick against England in 2010.
England were left in a similar position after their Lord’s defeat, but bounced backed emphatically, now can the aussies reverse their fortunes is the big question but Jim Maxwell believes that would be heavily challenging.
“Clarke’s biggest challenge in the remainder of the series is uniting the Australia dressing room.” said Jim about the Australian primary objective.
