Why the Australian team is unbeatable?

I

assume that the reader is aware of all the events that have taken place in the cricketing world in the past 2-3 months, especially the Cricket World Cup.

Many teams in the past have shown a tendency to underestimate the World Champions and this is most visible in the ICC rankings. Consistency is the hallmark of champions and this separates the Australians from the rest. I have discussed this topic in one of my previous articles, i.e. In Search of Excellence. However I shall briefly tell you why the Aussies are way ahead of the rest.

I read somewhere just prior to the CWC that the Aussies have won almost 90% of the tournaments they have played in the last 4-5 years. In the CWC 07, with the exception of Bangladesh with whom they played a match similar to 20-20 and Sri Lanka in the finals, they bowled out every other side they played against. Their tailenders or the bottom three never had to bat in the tournament. Combine the last two facts and you reach the obvious conclusion that no side managed to give even a decent fight back to the Aussies who have been on a CWC winning streak for almost 30 matches.

The Aussies have so systematically “terminated” their opponents that luck has been reduced to an irrelevant factor. For example, you are unlucky to be given out when you are not or you get run out while backing out from the crease. You can be unlucky if your key players are not in the field due to injuries. Similarly you are lucky when you are given reprieves while batting or given not out when you are not. However it does not matter to them whether they lose the toss or don’t have their strike bowler.

The Australians had their share of luck but it did not seem to matter them. They were coming into the tournament having lost the last five matches. Their strike bowler, Brett Lee was not a part of the squad thanks to injury. The reasons are the same as I wrote in my earlier article i.e. In Search of Excellence. Let us have a look into the three core departments of the game to understand why they are better than others.

Bowling: Ian Chappell said that the Sri Lankans had a more varied and therefore a stronger bowling attack than the Aussies. However much of the difference was compensated by the quality of the Australian fielding. Such thinking seems to have been influenced by the performances of the Australian bowling just prior to the tournament. However, as I have said before, Australia managed to bowl out almost every other side in the mega event of cricket.

Fielding: Aussies dive to stop the ball and hardly concede any run. They throw flat and straight onto the stumps and have fielders who with their reflexes and athleticism practically pluck catches from the air. What else can you ask for?

Batting: They have six specialist batsmen (Hayden, Gilchrist, Clarke, Ponting, Symonds and Hussey) and almost all of them have occupied the top 15 ICC rankings for batsmen for quite some time. All the batsmen mentioned here have an average of 40+ and strike rate above 80.

The formula for Australian success is simple but effective. Almost everyone in the team is very talented and more importantly professionally trained. Simply put, they don’t have to rely on one Ponting or McGrath to win and have a team where everyone is a match winner. Thus they have backup options more than any other team.

The Australian team we are seeing today is the product of a system that identifies the best and trains them accordingly. Unlike India, they have a domestic system where there are fewer but much more competitive teams. They play tough cricket on fast, bouncy pitches and bigger grounds. Most importantly they expect everybody in the team, irrespective of age, to be fit and athletic. Do I need to tell you more on why they are the best?