Gqeberha: “It’s not that hard!” At tea on day five, Jason Gillespie exclaimed these words while admiring the way Scott Boland had held up South Africa for three hours with a straight bat, the occasional cut shot, and a heap of determination.
Twenty-nine years ago, Gillespie had played an underrated role in what is still Australia’s most recent Test victory at St George’s Park, taking eight wickets then surviving a critical over from Jacques Kallis. Ian Healy sealed the epic, by a two-wicket margin, with a mighty six over square leg the following over.
Gillespie’s statement was also tinged with the same exasperation felt by Australian cricket followers both here and back home. The rush of wickets that made this innings defeat possible was the boiling of water that has grown steadily hotter for an ageing and patched-up Test batting order for some considerable time.
Though coach Andrew McDonald had been keen in mid-game to take the view that the day four loss of 13 wickets in a single day was not representative of the team he has mentored since early 2022, skipper Pat Cummins was a little more forthcoming at game’s end.
He did not have much choice. To suggest that Australia does not have significant problems in the batting order, issues that have attempted to be band-aided by the selection of seasoned domestic role players like Beau Webster and Nic Maddinson, while Marnus Labuschagne has been persisted with through thin and thin, would have been foolish. Cummins is no fool.
So it was that he spoke, perhaps with a little of the underlying indignation that bowlers like him – Boland and Gillespie – sometimes feel about malfunctioning batsmen, with a fair sense of perspective about how Durban’s opener, while handsome on the surface, had been somewhat deceiving.
“Even last week, [Matt] Renshaw had an amazing game, but I still think we weren’t at our best, particularly in batting,” he said. “Looking around the change room, how good our batters are, and the standards they all hold themselves to, I think we’re probably a little bit shorter in runs of where we’d like to. So it is that balance.
“It’s what do we look like at our best? We’re still finding ways to win. We make it hard for ourselves sometimes, but we’ve got three or four days to get it right for Cape Town. There’ll be lots of conversations.
“I think a loss can sometimes kick yourself into gear. I know there’s paper over the cracks sometimes in a win, whereas I think in a loss, it makes you ask questions as a player of yourself. What could I have done differently to try and win?”
The views from Australia after day four had been blunt and uncomplimentary. And as much as this team has made great strides through remaining calm and level, the tendency to favour older players is becoming increasingly hard to stomach. That’s true not only of many figures around the states, who are constantly trying to graduate young talent to the next level, but also those serving as custodians of Cricket Australia.
McDonald and selection chair George Bailey have been adept at managing up to CA’s senior management and board, most recently in frank discussions with chief executive Todd Greenberg in Durban. But regeneration of the team will become unavoidable, even during the current 12-month glut of Test cricket, if this week’s scenes come even close to being repeated.
Perhaps the most significant name in this context right now is not Cameron Green or Josh Inglis, the two players most likely to come back into the side should change be made for Newlands.
Instead, it is the young left-hander Cooper Connolly, adept against pace, who may be the bellwether for further change. In 2024, Bailey and McDonald had made a calculated gamble on Sam Konstas and been rewarded by turning a 1-1 series ledger with India into a 3-1 Border-Gavaskar trophy haul.
Konstas’ inclusion didn’t just surprise India. It also served as a shot of adrenaline to the team. Labuschagne, for one, played arguably his best Test innings since 2023 in the teenager’s slipstream. There is cause to look at Connolly in a similar vein for Cape Town. Cummins acknowledged that his men needed something to spark them, certainly in terms of partnerships.
“It’s the little moments that, at the end of the game, you look back, and they’re the things that really add up,” Cummins said. “I just think there’s a lot of moments this game where we just weren’t good enough. Whereas last week we weren’t at our best, but those little moments we won. And again, the game becomes a little bit easier once you get through those little moments.
“So a couple of key partnerships, you know, look pretty solid, and if you have another go at them, maybe extend them a little bit longer, and suddenly you’re away, and you’re into the game. So that’s all part of the conversation. As batters, could we have played some better shots at different times? Could we have hung in with a batter and you know extended that 99 into 150 or something?
“As a bowling group, we didn’t take 20 wickets, so you know I don’t think we’re out of the woods either this game. So as a team effort, you’re always looking at that.”
A common accusation levelled at this team following Justin Langer’s exit four-and-a-half years ago is that it has become a club run by the bowlers. While that is an exaggeration, there is undoubtedly a closeness to the senior group – both players and staff – that will be challenged by more bad results.
And in terms of what Australia need to win at Newlands, nothing matters more than partnerships. Between batsmen, between bowlers, and between players of whatever generation are chosen. In 1997, at their moment of glory, Healy was 32 and Gillespie 21. It’s not that hard.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Friday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.