After the Ashes

So, that's what you get for regaining the Ashes. You get ruthlessly whitewashed the next time.

However, I see problems now that Warne and McGrath have decided to hang up their boots. Rewind to three years ago, when India toured and you'll know what I'm stressing. The duo's absence inspired our batting, and their replacements in the form of Gillespie and MacGill were simply not good enough. Brett Lee is 30-plus, and express pacemen don't really go around for too long, although I might be proven wrong in his case. Stuart Clarke is doing a decent job too. The only viable replacement seems to be Mitchell Johnson.

I don't think Langer's retirement changes anything immediately; they have Ponting in the best form of his life, and they still have Hayden, Hussey, Gilchrist, Symonds and Clarke for now. But in the long run, say five years hence, only Clarke (and perhaps Hussey) will remain.

A mass exodus of players is never good. Australia will be the first to concede that; they fell apart after Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee, and Rod Marsh retired at the same time in 1984, and took a long time to recover as a test side.

Asad Rauf and Daryl Harper need to learn the finer nuances of counting numbers. An over generally consists of six balls, more so when it might make a difference to the outcome of an entire test series. But then again, you need to be very stupid to lose from 395/5. Or, you just have to be India.