Change is afoot as Australia heads into a Test series without some experienced campaigners but former coach John Buchanan believes the good times will roll on.

Australia is set to take on Sri Lanka in the first Test at the Gabba on Thursday week and for the first time in a long time, Ricky Ponting’s team sheet will not feature retired stars Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer.

Buchanan, who relinquished his role to Tim Neilsen after the World Cup but has been retained by Cricket Australia as a coaching ambassador, admits the team will have a different dynamic without the experience trio.

But while opposition teams may finally see this as the ideal time to unseat Australia from the top of the cricket tree, Buchanan believes a winning mentality is now part of the Australian cricketing psyche.

He has no doubt the platform has long been laid for Australian cricket to cope with the loss of such quality.

“No, not at all,” he told the ABC’s Offsiders program.

“In a sense I’d be very disappointed if things weren’t going to continue on reasonably well, because that means that much of the work that I’ve done, which for me was all about system and process, I won’t have done my job properly.

“I’d be very disappointed if the Australian cricket team suddenly nosedived - I can’t see that happening.”

Buchanan admits the opposition will change the way they approach Australia but he is backing the side to come through.

“There’s an external expectation which is obviously the public and the media, and what’s happened [with] the results - ‘yes, that’s how Australia play, that’s how it’ll continue to be, you lose some good players but we’ve got more good players coming in, it will continue on’.,” he said.

“There’s still an internal expectation because the Australian players have a pride and passion in what they do.

“[But] this will be a little bit of a test, there’ll be new dynamics for the team with new coaching, new support personnel, new playing personnel.

“All that will combine to test what’s been before, but it’s an exciting future in terms of what’s going to occur.”

Play MacGill and Johnson

Buchanan has backed Stuart MacGill and Mitchell Johnson for inclusion should Australia stick with its traditional set-up of seven batsmen, three pacemen and a leg-spinner in Brisbane.

The former Queensland coach believes Bulls quick Johnson has done more than enough to join Brett Lee and Stuart Clark in a three-man pace battery.

“Brett Lee will move into the number one strike bowling role, I’d say he will be supported by Stuart Clark,” he said.

“Hopefully Mitchell Johnson will be one of the three that step on to the Gabba in his first Test, which’d be a fantastic way to start a Test career.”

He said South Australia’s Shaun Tait, Queensland’s Ashley Noffke and New South Wales pair Doug Bollinger and Nathan Bracken also shaped as viable pace-bowling alternatives.

And he dismissed the notion that Michael Hussey could be shifted to open the batting alongside Matthew Hayden.

“I think the selectors again are very keen to keep Michael Hussey in the middle order position,” he said.

“Phil Jaques, he toured well in Pakistan when the Australia A side went there, I know he impressed Jamie Cox as a selector.

“He’s come back, he’s put a hundred together over in Perth, so he’s really doing everything that’s asked of him.

“Obviously Brad Hodge from Victoria is a quality player, his credentials will be the thing that they’ll judge him by, not necessarily his current scores in India (where Hodge struggled).

“But whether or not the selectors view him as an opening batsman, I’m not sure.”

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Tags: Doubt, Ponting's, peril, Buchanan

Posted on October 28th, 2007 by Klaus Roe
Filed under: Cricket