Here at Outside The Line, we have never really
made a secret of our vicious antipathy for the Australian team and its ongoing
Age of Empire. In fact, we generally like to announce our hatred as loudly and
frequently as humanly possible. At the same time, there are a few Australian
players that we don’t mind to see excelling, for a variety of different
reasons.
Back in his day, Mark Waugh, like a high school
Queen Bee, was just too damn pretty to deny. Adam Gilchrist, in a similar way,
is just such an obvious kinesthetic freak of nature that all one can honestly do
is shrug, nod in acknowledgment, and wait for him to retire. As
for the bowlers, Stuart MacGill can collect as many of his trademark six-fors-at-7/over
as he wants, since all that means is less of the spoils go to actual
players with a future, like Nathan Bracken or Mitchell Johnson.
Michael Clarke is most definitely not one
of those players we can stand to see succeed, given his (odd for an Australian)
youth and undeniable talent. Let’s hope yesterday’s 130 is not a sign of an
upcoming resurgence -- one Ponting is more than enough at the moment, thank you very
much.
Clarke, of course, cemented his status in the Australian rotation with a spectacular debut Test series in India, which made me think of the surprisingly large number of recent players whose careers have been based on astounding records against India. Off the top of my head, I can already think of half a very decent XI:
1. Alastair Cook
2. Matthew Hayden
3. Younis Khan -- a player whose career could’ve
easily mirrored Misbah-ul-Haq’s if it wasn’t for those regular double-centuries
against the old foe.
4. Michael Clarke
5. Shahid Afridi
Any thoughts on the bowlers? (This one’s
tougher, and it’s not hard to see why… India’s batting has been a lot stronger
than its bowling for a while, so there’s less of a chance for a visiting bowler to shine.) The only ones I can think of at the moment are Michael Kasprowicz and (maybe) Saqlain Mushtaq.
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