Australia losing grip as number one team: Chappell

LONDON: Ian Chappell has joined the increasing chorus of opinion that Australia are slowly losing their status as the world number one team which they have held with little challenge for more than a decade.
    
Chappell felt because of Australia's weak bowling attack, opposition teams like India, having good opening batsmen, would milk runs and it would be increasingly difficult for the Aussies to win Test matches, as is currently happening in India tour.
    
"Australia are rarely a poor side but this team is nowhere near the class of yesteryear. They still know how to fight to the death, as India have found out in Delhi, but they are now a flawed team," the former Australia captain said.
    
"There's a lack of balance in the bowling attack that could easily see the selectors occasionally risk playing four faster bowlers and rely on part-timers like Andrew Symonds and Clarke to handle the slow bowling duties.
    
"Teams like India, with a good opening combination, are going to regularly set Australia stiff targets and they are going to find it harder to win Test matches," he wrote in his column in 'Sunday Telegraph'.
    
The former captain said Australian batting was still scoring runs with the quartet of Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey and Michael Clarke doing their job but it is the bowling department which is cause of concern.
    
"There's not too much wrong with Australia's batting; they have battled India's spinners on a helpful but slow Feroz Shah Kotla pitch and displayed an admirable mixture of caution and aggression. Sure, they still have a few tremors when the ball swings, whether it be old or new, but they have one champion batsman in Ricky Ponting and three very good players in Hayden, Hussey and Clarke.

While this quartet are around there will always be runs to play with.
    
"Unfortunately, the bowlers are now giving up runs at a greater rate than batsmen can score them. In India's previous two innings Australia have claimed just 10 wickets and the back-breaking process has seen them haemorrhage 927 runs," wrote Chappell, considered one of the shrewdest brains in world cricket.
    
Chappell agreed that Australian pacers have got little help from the slow Indian pitches but made it clear that their Indian counterparts were more penetrative.
    
"Sure, it's India, and the pitches aren't helpful to pace bowlers, but the problem for Australia is that the rest of the world's batsmen have seen Brett Lee and co blunted, and this will give them hope. Give a good batsman hope and he'll quickly move up to faith and expect charity.
    
"Lee has shown glimpses of form, and it appears he may be getting over his recent marital trauma. Time will no doubt heal even further, and a better guide to his bowling form will be his performance in Australia against the potentially strong South African line-up.
    
"Both Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson have also suffered from the slow pitches. However, it will be a concern that both the Indian pace bowlers, Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan, have looked more penetrative than the Australian trio when the ball is old," he said.
    
However, spin department is the one which Chappell painted the most grim picture.
    
"And then we come to the slow bowling, which these days is a poor imitation of the exceptional Shane Warne-Stuart MacGill era of class spin bowling that served Australia so well. Australia's lack of a front-line spinner is chronic and there don't seem to be any viable options."