Tons of trouble: High time Australia's batsmen banish the yips
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Individual analysis of what is happening this season leads down several trails. Travis Head made Australia’s season-high score of 84 against Sri Lanka in Brisbane last week, to follow two half-centuries against India. He played across an inswinging ball that was on track to graze his bails, unluckily perhaps, but Head has a career-long knack of falling short of three figures. He chased his first Sheffield Shield century for four seasons; in his second season, 2013/14, he was out for 98, 98 and 92. Before he can be blamed for everything, it should be noted that, after his long wait, Head has since scored seven Shield centuries.
Marnus Labuschagne made 81 in Brisbane. It was less of a surprise that he fell short of his hundred after a high-energy four hours in the heat led to a tired shot. Labuschagne has made four first-class centuries in five seasons of first-class cricket, which leads to a more feasible explanation of the century drought.
Young players on high-performance pathways are fed through the Australian system on perceived natural talent and potential rather than weight of big scores. It is difficult to make hundreds in shorter-form junior cricket anyway, but there is a story about Phillip Hughes having a changing-room conversation with fellow batsmen in an Australian representative team, comparing their total number of career centuries in all forms of cricket. Around the room the numbers came up: five, eight, four, six … until Hughes, somewhat abashed, confessed to having scored more than sixty. Little surprise, then, that he surmounted the mental introduction to Test cricket, scoring twin centuries in his second Test match. It is a rare prodigy nowadays who comes into the Australian team with that much experience of heavy scoring, rarer still one who can continue it so immediately on the big stage.
This is no mitigation for the experienced likes of Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh, whose Test seasons have been so underwhelming. But with the leaders struggling for continuity, it is little surprise that the newer players in the Australian team have to some degree caught the contagion.
Article source: http://smh.com.au/rugby-league/rugby-league-match-centre/nrl-live-2017-newcastle-knights-v-melbourne-storm-sydney-roosters-v-wests-tigers-north-queensland-cowboys-v-cronulla-sharks-20170818-gxzjck.html
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