The Ponting and Hughes show
The Australian line-up playing Sussex at Hove is not the most enchanting one, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian
Ricky Ponting and Phillip Hughes. The only questions with these two are: is there any visible sign that age is beginning to diminish the powers of the greatest Australian batsman of this era (Ponting)? Can he continue to bat like that and get away with it at the highest level (Hughes)? Don't blink when this pair is at the crease.
Australia should win because it is more talented than England and the four players who will open the batting and bowling — Katich, Hughes, Johnson and Siddle — are stars. But if the events of the last nine months are anything to go by there is cause for concern. It hasn't been a good start in England: our swift banishment from the Twenty20 world championship was no less than we deserved. The selection and tactics for this unique form of the game were atrocious, yet in many ways it's been swept under the carpet as the focus switched to the Ashes.
Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo