Australia’s all-conquering Test batsmen must besalivating at the prospect of what awaits them beforethe year is out

Eddie Smith07-May-2003Australia’s all-conquering Test batsmen must besalivating at the prospect of what awaits them beforethe year is out.Following the fourth Test against theWest Indies, Australia will face twoof the tamest international attacks in world cricket,followed by India – all on home soil.Once the Caribbean tour is completed, Australiareturn home to confront Bangladesh in what mustcertainly be a traditionalist’s nightmare. The two-Test series, to be held in Darwin and Cairns, looks tobe a David and Goliath battle of gargantuanproportions. The only chance Bangladesh has ofbringing some semblance of respectability to thecontest is if the unlikely event of Australia playing a second-string team occurs.Australian selectors are not in the habit of handingout baggy green caps cheaply and since Brett Lee’sdebut in 1999 only two new faces have made the cut inan Australian Test XI. They will field close to afull-strength side and the Bangladesh attack will bedemolished.The major worry will be for the Australian middle-order as they contemplate whether the top threewill leave any room beneath Steve Waugh’s declarationtarget for them to join in the run-fest. The likes ofAdam Gilchrist face the possibility of five days withoutunsheathing his blade.Logic would suggest that a first innings score ofaround 400 should be more than enough to bowlBangladesh out twice. However, ruthless commander andchief Steve Waugh will expect nothing less than 600from his crack troop. On the other hand, such is theman’s respect for the history of the game that, unlikeSouth Africa, he might shuffle his batting line-up andenforce premature declarations and retirements just toensure that no long-standing historical records arebroken.Waugh will no doubt be looking at the next fewseries as his only chance to bump his career averageback above the mark of greatness and make sure that itstays that way for all time. Another 72 runsundefeated will see his average exceed 50 for thefirst time since it dipped to 49 some seven monthsago. His sub-50 average, coupled with his exclusionfrom one day international cricket has all but removedhim from the company of Brian Lara and SachinTendulkar as world cricket’s greatest batsmen. IfWaugh can raise his average to 51.13 then he willpossess the highest mark of anyone to exceed 10,000Test runs, although Tendulkar will be hot on hisheels.One batsman who looks set to continue gorging himselfwith a feast of runs is Ricky Ponting. Before the yearis out, Ponting should have stamped himself alongsideLara and Tendulkar in the new big three, if he isnot there already. In his four Test matches this year,Ponting has scored 541 runs at an average inexcess of 90. It is frightening to contemplate justwhat he might accomplish batting at No 3against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and India, all at home.Ponting has recently seen his Test average rise above50 for the first time and with nearly 5000 runs nextto his name it can be said that his form has stood thetest of time. Comparisons to the little master, areinevitable and a call of the Aussie Tendulkar, seemsalmost justified by his 51.47 average which isrocketing skyward.Another who looks set to cash in on the feebleopposition is Andy Bichel. No longer is Bichel seen asa bowler who can bat a bit, but is being consideredrecently as a genuine all-rounder, and rightly so. Hisworld cup form and his 71 batting at number seven inBridgetown must place enormous pressure on theAustralian selectors.Ten years after his first class debut, Bichel finallylooks to have shored up his defence and become theelusive all-rounder that Australia has yearned for.It, although unlikely, will complete the fairytale ifthe 33-year-old fast-man becomes a permanent fixtureat No 7 in the powerful Australiancombination.The Zimbabwe series to be held in Perth and Sydneyoffers contrasting pitches of pace and spin butneither should aid the Zimbabwe attack too much. Thereality is that they are not quite up to Australiandomestic standard in either quality or depth and theonly bowler to pose any sort of threat to theAustralian batsmen will be Andy Blignaut.The blonde speedster can bowl whole overs above145km/h and reached 148.9km/h to be the seventhfastest bowler at the 2003 Cricket World Cup. However,it is unlikely that this will hold too many fears forlikes of Justin Langer and Mathew Hayden.The Indian attack looks to possess the only assailantswith the potential to conquer the impregnableAustralian batting side at least once inside fivedays. But the reality is that even with new foundpacers Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan they shouldstruggle to take 20 Australian wickets, and scoresin excess of 400 should be par for the course.Judging by the supremacy of Australia’s batsmen in theWest Indies and looking forward to the series ahead,the Australian batting juggernaut looks set to embarkon a period of unheralded dominance.The once mightyWest Indian attack took until the third Test beforethey had racked up 20 Australian wickets and by thatstage they had conceded 1732 runs. That kind ofdomination looks set to continue for the rest of theyear as the Australian batsmen should gluttonise onthe appetising attacks that await them.