Batting issues loom over Australia with big five in focus

The centre wickets at the WACA Ground in Perth are going to do a lot of heavy lifting over the next few weeks.

They form the cornerstone of India's preparation for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Series, with the tourists having opted to shelve an intra-squad game. That apart, the WACA is also shaping up as pretty critical for several of Australia's batters heading into the first Test, as the hosts' squad will also be training there.

Although Pat Cummins was answering a question about himself when he said the "mind now switches to the red ball" at the post-match presentation after Pakistan handed his team an almighty drubbing in the second ODI in Adelaide, there is a fair amount for Australia's established batting line-up to ponder. The Test players in the one-day squad will miss the final game in Perth on Sunday before reconvening in the city in a week's time for the final build-up to the India series.

It's not panic stations, but there's enough evidence to say there's cause for concern.

While most people have been focusing on the race to fill the vacancy at the top of the order - an answer to which may not be completely clear even when the Test squad is announced in the coming days - it hasn't exactly been an early summer full of runs for those inked into the side, other than for Alex Carey, who has two centuries and averages 90.40 in six innings in first-class cricket this domestic season. To add to that, Cameron Green and David Warner, who had the two highest Test averages for Australia last season, won't be there against India due to injury and retirement, respectively.

Merging formats when judging form isn't ideal, but the first two ODIs against Pakistan in the 2024-25 home season have given Australia's batters enough of a Test-style examination on lively surfaces to at least be worth assessing. The delivery from Haris Rauf that nicked off Marnus Labuschagne on Friday is one we might see plenty of from Cummins, Jasprit Bumrah and others over five Tests, and the examination against the short balls earlier this week in the first ODI against Pakistan at the MCG wouldn't have looked out of place in whites.

Labuschagne has passed fifty once this season - in his first knock for Queensland, in a first-class game against Western Australia - and has a highest score of 22 in his last five innings across four-day and one-day cricket. His record in Tests at the Optus Stadium in Perth, the venue for the first Test against India, is outstanding - he has 519 runs at an average of 103.80 there - so there is every chance that things click for him, but he has twice been rushed by Rauf in the last few days.

When Steven Smith made two single-digit scores in his Sheffield Shield outing against Victoria last month, he specifically referenced the work he would do at the WACA ahead of the series. Smith has since made 56, 44 and 35 in three white-ball innings - the last two came against Pakistan - and has looked fluent in each of them. After the ODI at the MCG, Smith said he felt ready to play a Test.

"I could go out and play a Test match tomorrow; I feel like I'm in a good place," he told SEN radio. "I've had a really good week of training. I was just trying to get a few things right that I felt like I didn't quite have in sync, and it all just clicked.

"I didn't spend as long as I would have liked in the middle in that Shield game [against Victoria]. But I had a hit the day after that game, and I started to feel really good then; I was a day late [though]. But my last week of preparation has been really good. I feel like I'm in a nice place. I'm moving really well, I'm really balanced at the crease, and I feel like my bat is coming down on a nice plane."

In Adelaide, it took Smith 11 balls to get off the mark when he opened his account with a square cut in front of point, followed by a perfect drive wide of mid-off. Another precision drive bisected cover and point, and there was a pull into the stands for six. But soon, Smith was inches away from being lbw after walking across the stumps while facing Mohammad Hasnain.

Although he survived, Smith got a top edge to the wicketkeeper next ball while looking to cut a wide delivery. That shot was similar to how he had fallen to Rauf in Melbourne, and also to a reprieve he had got earlier in the game in Adelaide when was dropped at point. While ODIs bring the need for added aggression, and he may not chase such deliveries in a Test, Australia will need a ruthless Smith against India.

As with Virat Kohli, there is much intrigue into whether Smith can scale previous summits in the upcoming series, even if it may stir fewer raw emotions in Australia than the Kohli question does in India. Though there have been some positive signs for Smith, it still feels like a wait-and-see for Australia's second-greatest batter as he returns to his preferred No. 4 spot.

Of the other batter who fits into veteran category, Usman Khawaja has quietly ticked along in the early part of the season: he has two four-day half-centuries, and two in domestic one-day games. He has spent good time in the middle.

But back in the middle order, Travis Head has played one game this season, and scored 30 and 11 in a first-class fixture for South Australia against New South Wales. Head won't have batted in any competitive match since early October come the first Test against India on November 22, having missed the ODIs against Pakistan on paternity leave.

Similar is true of Mitchell Marsh, who won't have played for a month by the time the Perth Test against India arrives, although he had scored 94 in his first game of the summer, in a Shield match for Western Australia against Queensland. Last season, Marsh had produced critical innings in four of the seven Tests across series against Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand.

Much has been made of the batting issues surrounding the India side in the wake of their 3-0 loss to New Zealand at home, but Australia are not entering the series from a position of great strength either. Those pitches at the WACA will be getting a good work out. The Test series may be beginning on Perth's new ground, but the old one could have a big part to play in how it starts.