Only one person will know whether Australia captain Michael Clarke truly has a future in Test cricket beyond this Ashes series, and that is the player himself.
Scrutiny over his place in the side has intensified after the eight-wicket defeat at Edgbaston, where he was honest enough to admit that, as a batsman, he is yet to get off the plane.
Quite simply, Clarke is the No. 4 for Australia and he has to step up and do his job if England, sitting 2-1 up after three Tests, are to be prevented from regaining the Urn.
He knows 94 runs in six innings is not good enough and while people can talk about technique or physical issues that may be affecting his game, he must be judged on his output, which is run-making.
Clarke will play at Trent Bridge on Thursday but if the lean trot continues there and in the fifth Test at the Kia Oval, questions will rightly being asked—that is the nature of the beast. No player should be immune from this. Just look at the last period of Ricky Ponting’s career.
Like him, Clarke has been an immense batsman for his country but as to whether he still can be, only he has the answer.
From the outside, the Australia camp is not looking the happiest right now—and rightly so after a defeat like that—but the debate over Brad Haddin’s exclusion at Edgbaston, after being granted personal leave at Lord’s, needs to be put to bed or it will rumble on.
It is such a unique situation and one which I know will have caused the selectors sleepless nights.
Even at county level, I can find myself agonising over the make-up of a side in the midst of a tough, tight call. But looking at it from a cricketing perspective, I can only say they made the right choice by selecting their strongest XI going forward.
Irrespective of the circumstances behind Hadds’ absence from Lord’s, the fact is that his replacement, Peter Nevill, came in and performed.
I always say to players that they are their own best selectors: if you get your spot, don’t let go of it.
Making a Test debut in an Ashes Test, he could easily have been a rabbit in the headlights but he delivered with seven catches and useful first-innings runs.
And let’s not forget that Hadds, for all his fine service for his country —and this is indisputable—Hadds was already a player facing questions after averaging 15 with the bat in 12 Tests since the last Ashes series.
However it has come about, Australia have there a wicketkeeper of the next number of years, while with all due respect, at 37 Hadds was not going to be around for much longer.
We need to take a moment to appreciate Nevill’s performance at Edgbaston too. With this debate swirling around—both inside the dressing room and out—he came out to bat in the second innings of just his second Test match with the score on 92 for five, still 53 runs behind, and scrapped his side to setting a target of 121.
Amid some pretty ordinary batting from those above him, and while some of the greats of the game were saying someone else should be in his place, a knock like that suggests to me that Nevill has the temperament to go far in international cricket.
In terms of the response for Trent Bridge, I don’t anticipate wholesale changes from Australia.
Shaun Marsh may come in with the bat after two centuries in the tour games and Peter Siddle should be considered with the ball.
Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc will be disappointed with their performances at Edgbaston and this was in part down to inexperience.
When a side posts a score like 136 in the first innings after winning the toss, young bowlers often fall into the trap of searching for the wicket-taking delivery to make amends. But your best ball doesn’t change whether there is 400 on the board or 150—that’s what these young guys need to understand and understand quickly.
You cannot allow scoreboard pressure to cloud your judgement. Find your spot on a good length and keep hitting it.
That’s what you train for, so it can be replicated out in the middle.
The Birmingham crowd was vocal but that should not have been a factor either.
Test cricket is about what is inside the top four inches of your body—your brain—because nothing changes from any other cricket you play. The bats are the same, the ball is the same, the pitch is no longer. It is just the margin for error that is smaller because of the quality of player at the other end.
In England’s first innings at Edgbaston, Ian Bell showed his experience on his return to the No. 3 position by sensing Australia’s bowlers were striving too hard and that the pressure could be put back on them.
He looked to me like a player who knew it was make or break time for him and the team and he showed his class with some good aggressive cricket.
England have been quite smart in their selection for Trent Bridge. Replacing a guy like Jimmy Anderson, with over 400 Test wickets, is impossible—no team can go like-for-like in terms of that nous—but they have given themselves options depending on the surface.
If it calls for pace, Liam Plunkett is the answer. If they think the ball will swing, the left-armer Mark Footitt could make his Test debut. If there’s nibble off a good length, Mark Wood must return.
