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Geoff Lawson: Australian cricket is in good hands

Shaun Marsh has surely trudged off a Test cricket field for the last time. Photo: Getty

Shaun Marsh has surely trudged off a Test cricket field for the last time. Photo: Getty

In professional sport the mantra is all about ‘getting a result’.

To the players, coaches and the majority of fans, ‘winning ugly’ transmutes directly to ‘winning beautifully’.

The England fans are ecstatic with the return of the Ashes urn.

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The England players, regardless of a thrashing at The Oval, are simultaneously dumbfounded and delirious.

They were not expected to compete with Australia, let alone win, yet they won the contest with a match to spare.

Shaun Marsh has surely trudged off a Test cricket field for the last time. Photo: Getty

Shaun Marsh has surely trudged off a Test cricket field for the last time. Photo: Getty

It has been a curious rubber to say the least.

The 2015 Ashes had very few moments of raw, in-your-face, head-banging competition.

Batsmen capitulated when the bowlers deviated the ball and bowlers couldn’t curtail Joe Root or Steve Smith when it mattered.

The 3-2 scoreline is indicative of both the differences between the teams and the similarities.

Rarely has a five-Test series been so bilaterally lopsided – no match went into the fifth day.

Neither team could recover after having the worst of the opening day or indeed the opening couple of sessions.

Neither team had the brilliant and mentally resilient players who could withstand the challenges and then redirect the momentum of match.

Meek surrender was the flavour of the series and Australia surrendered one time too many.

The conditions of play invoked much debate, but the Duke ball has been used for decades and the pitches were as typical of a cool, damp English summer as the flint-hard WACA is of a sunburnt, cloudless Perth.

Home ground advantage is just this and the Australian players, coaches and selectors have no excuses for not picking appropriately skilled players and for not preparing them for such a known environment.

The era of longer tours with numerous preliminary games gave the players the opportunity to acclimatise – perhaps Australia’s modest showing in the matches against the counties should have rung alarm bells.

The retirements of Michael Clarke, Chris Rogers and Brad Haddin, the lack of ability at Test level of Shaun Marsh and the gross uncertainty around Shane Watson’s future leaves a serious hole in the batting ranks.

Usman Khawaja could be a candidate for the number three position. Photo: Getty

Usman Khawaja could be a candidate for the number three position. Photo: Getty

Adam Voges deserves a longer tenure at number five and Mitchell Marsh’s bowling may keep him at six for the meantime.

The obvious man to replace Rogers in form, presence and technique is Ed Cowan.

Usman Khawaja at three and captain Smith at four sounds like a plan but the next Test series will be on dusty, slow spinning pitches (in Bangladesh in October) and will present an examination of a very different ilk.

The bowling depth is notionally strong but the failures in consistency by every part of the battery contributed heavily to the series loss.

Clarke could not throw the ball to any bowler and expect them to keep it tight until Peter Siddle bowled like, well, Peter Siddle – when it was all too late.

Pat Cummins must surely start the next Test.

Nathan Lyon emerged with his reputation enhanced but was never put into a position where he could win a match, as the batsmen couldn’t make decent totals.

The enigmatic Mitchell Johnson remains exactly that.

A new captain with new ideas, different priorities and boundless, if fidgety, energy is about to take charge and I reckon Australian cricket is in good hands.

Well done the Poms, but it won’t be that easy to keep the urn when you have to play in our conditions Down Under.

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