Run fest awaits Australia in next two series at home

Australia's all-conquering Test batsmen must be salivating at the prospect of what awaits them before the year is out.

Following the fourth Test against the West Indies, Australia will face two of the tamest international attacks in world cricket, followed by India - all on home soil.

Once the Caribbean tour is completed, Australia return home to confront Bangladesh in what must certainly be a traditionalist's nightmare. The two-Test series, to be held in Darwin and Cairns, looks to be a David and Goliath battle of gargantuan proportions. The only chance Bangladesh has of bringing some semblance of respectability to the contest is if the unlikely event of Australia playing a second-string team occurs.

Australian selectors are not in the habit of handing out baggy green caps cheaply and since Brett Lee's debut in 1999 only two new faces have made the cut in an Australian Test XI. They will field close to a full-strength side and the Bangladesh attack will be demolished.

The major worry will be for the Australian middle-order as they contemplate whether the top three will leave any room beneath Steve Waugh's declaration target for them to join in the run-fest. The likes of Adam Gilchrist face the possibility of five days without unsheathing his blade.

Logic would suggest that a first innings score of around 400 should be more than enough to bowl Bangladesh out twice. However, ruthless commander and chief Steve Waugh will expect nothing less than 600 from his crack troop. On the other hand, such is the man's respect for the history of the game that, unlike South Africa, he might shuffle his batting line-up and enforce premature declarations and retirements just to ensure that no long-standing historical records are broken.

Waugh will no doubt be looking at the next few series as his only chance to bump his career average back above the mark of greatness and make sure that it stays that way for all time. Another 72 runs undefeated will see his average exceed 50 for the first time since it dipped to 49 some seven months ago. His sub-50 average, coupled with his exclusion from one day international cricket has all but removed him from the company of Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar as world cricket's greatest batsmen. If Waugh can raise his average to 51.13 then he will possess the highest mark of anyone to exceed 10,000 Test runs, although Tendulkar will be hot on his heels.

One batsman who looks set to continue gorging himself with a feast of runs is Ricky Ponting. Before the year is out, Ponting should have stamped himself alongside Lara and Tendulkar in the new big three, if he is not there already. In his four Test matches this year, Ponting has scored 541 runs at an average in excess of 90. It is frightening to contemplate just what he might accomplish batting at No 3 against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and India, all at home.

Ponting has recently seen his Test average rise above 50 for the first time and with nearly 5000 runs next to his name it can be said that his form has stood the test of time. Comparisons to the little master, are inevitable and a call of the Aussie Tendulkar, seems almost justified by his 51.47 average which is rocketing skyward.

Another who looks set to cash in on the feeble opposition is Andy Bichel. No longer is Bichel seen as a bowler who can bat a bit, but is being considered recently as a genuine all-rounder, and rightly so. His world cup form and his 71 batting at number seven in Bridgetown must place enormous pressure on the Australian selectors.

Ten years after his first class debut, Bichel finally looks to have shored up his defence and become the elusive all-rounder that Australia has yearned for. It, although unlikely, will complete the fairytale if the 33-year-old fast-man becomes a permanent fixture at No 7 in the powerful Australian combination.

The Zimbabwe series to be held in Perth and Sydney offers contrasting pitches of pace and spin but neither should aid the Zimbabwe attack too much. The reality is that they are not quite up to Australian domestic standard in either quality or depth and the only bowler to pose any sort of threat to the Australian batsmen will be Andy Blignaut.

The blonde speedster can bowl whole overs above 145km/h and reached 148.9km/h to be the seventh fastest bowler at the 2003 Cricket World Cup. However, it is unlikely that this will hold too many fears for likes of Justin Langer and Mathew Hayden.

The Indian attack looks to possess the only assailants with the potential to conquer the impregnable Australian batting side at least once inside five days. But the reality is that even with new found pacers Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan they should struggle to take 20 Australian wickets, and scores in excess of 400 should be par for the course.

Judging by the supremacy of Australia's batsmen in the West Indies and looking forward to the series ahead, the Australian batting juggernaut looks set to embark on a period of unheralded dominance.

The once mighty West Indian attack took until the third Test before they had racked up 20 Australian wickets and by that stage they had conceded 1732 runs. That kind of domination looks set to continue for the rest of the year as the Australian batsmen should gluttonise on the appetising attacks that await them.