Australia’s ageing pack of fast bowlers have done it again. The famed trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood claimed 15 wickets as the Aussies inflicted a 214-run thrashing on South Africa in the opening Test in Durban on Tuesday.
On a wearing Kingsmead wicket, the reunion of Cummins, 33, Hazlewood, 35, and Starc, 36, has set the tone for the three-match series. They shared eight second-innings wickets between them, with Hazlewood’s reverse swing and Alex Carey’s exceptional glovework combining to dent South Africa’s flickering hopes on the final day.
The bowling was relentless and as intimidating as it could get. By generating 140-plus kmph consistently, the trio held good lengths, making some of the batters flinch in the face of pace and uneven bounce. Hazlewood’s personal best of 6/49 inflicted on South Africa their first Test defeat under Temba Bavuma.
Coming as it did in their first Test in South Africa since the 2018 Sandpaper scandal, it will also help the backroom staff breathe a bit easy. Defying conventional wisdom, Australia’s sports medicine staff had kept faith in what was considered an over-the-hill pace attack.
Cummins was returning from a back injury, Starc has adopted a pick-and-choose policy to manage his workload and Hazlewood played just seven of Australia’s last 16 Tests due to a series of side strains, a hamstring injury, and Achilles problems.
Yet coach Andrew McDonald resisted the attempt to replace experience with the next generation of pacers. He knew the challenges of managing the ageing cohort and nurturing emerging talent was going to be “incredibly complex”.
Age is just a number for the George Bailey-led Australian selection panel and consistent success has bred confidence. However, across the continent, in India to be precise, such an ideology is found missing.
Till last month, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel was hell-bent on axing seniors like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the 2027 World Cup probables list. Intervention from the BCCI bosses led to Agarkar’s departure, paving the way for the former captains to continue without being under constant scrutiny.
The stress on youth at the cost of experience seems to have been shelved for the time being once its counterproductive effects showed on the team performance. Pragyan
Ojha, who replaced Agarkar as interim chief, recalled 36-year-old Bhuvneshwar Kumar in an attempt to restore experience and sanity in a fledgling attack.
Experience and maturity cannot be brought overnight because they are forged through time and resilience. In high-pressure circumstances, such traits help to read game situations in advance through tactical awareness and camaraderie.
Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood have won 25 Tests (out of 41), eclipsing the Glenn McGrath-Jason Gillespie-Brett Lee combination by 10 matches. Also, that Steve Waugh’s team had Shane Warne for all but six of their 22 Tests together was a huge advantage. Cummins has Nathan Lyon, but he hasn’t been a regular in the line-up for the last year or so.
“Mitch and Josh (and me) in particular, we’re going to be mates for life,” Cummins said soon after winning the 2023 World Cup. “There will be plenty of times when we’re reminiscing, and probably over the years we’ll get better and better in our own mind than what we actually were.”
Their biggest test would come in January-February during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India, followed by what should be an equally gripping Ashes contest. The ODI World Cup will be up next, after which the baton could pass to the next generation.