Published>Tue, Nov 30 10 02:46 PM
London, Nov 30(ANI): Former England captain Nasser Hussain reckons that the drawn Ashes opener in Brisbane establishes that Australia's perpetually bragged about special powers of the baggy green had more to do with legends Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.
"As I watched England's batsmen rack up the runs on the fourth day at the Gabba, one thought kept coming back to me: welcome to Test cricket, Ricky Ponting," Hussain wrote in an article for the Daily Mail.
"For years the Aussies lectured us about the special powers of the baggy green, but my feeling was always that any special powers they had were more to do with Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath," he added.
Hussain said that on the evidence of the first four days, left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty is short of Test class, while fast bowler Mitchell Johnson continued to disappoint.
"I keep waiting for Johnson to show us what all the hype is about, but he's got a slingy action, bowls gun-barrel straight and isn't express pace. He's not the most confident of guys either. All in all, you'd say Australia have more selection issues than England at the moment," Hussain wrote.
The former captain further accepted that the Brisbane pitch was very flat, where plenty of fielding captains have suffered in the past, but he insisted that credit must be given to Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook's performances.
"Unlike Johnson, Strauss is not the kind of guy to let things get on top of him. After his third-ball duck on the first morning, I didn't think to myself: 'Oh no, how is he going to recover?' I trusted in his mental strength - and he was superb in the second innings. His driving was especially good and you can tell he's on form when he's crunching it through the covers, not picking up streaky runs off the edge," Hussain wrote.
"I also liked what I saw from Cook, who began his second innings with the kind of conviction he showed during that career-saving hundred against Pakistan at The Oval.
Yes, the conditions were great for batting and the attack was run of the mill, but Cook is removing the monkey from his back after struggling here four years ago," he added. (ANI)
Source: Web Search
0 comments:
Post a Comment