Tail wags Australia's Test team

It was the irascible Jarrod Kimber who spoke for much of the cricket world in his brief verdict on the brutal finish of the Dominica Test match. "Australia's tail," he tweeted, "is the second best Test team around after South Africa."

Such ribbing of Australia's batsmen has been going on inside the dressing room as well, and with good reason: the regularity of the lower order bailing out the top is one of the few longest running themes of the team, beginning even before the retirements of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn signalled the end of the golden age in 2007.

At Windsor Park, Australia's final four wickets piled up enough runs to leave West Indies in a parlous position, and the last one alone added 97 through an inspired union between Adam Voges and Josh Hazlewood. Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Lyon also played their part, proving themselves more adept than their full-time batting colleagues at adapting to the prevailing conditions.

Johnson, who was once spoken of as a potential allrounder but is now content to be the most destructive No. 8 batsman in the game, offered a warm grin when asked to expand on the performances of the Australian tail during his time in the team. It cannot be forgotten that Johnson's stand with Brad Haddin on day one of the 2013-14 Ashes gave him enough of a platform to terrorise England with the ball.

"There is a little bit of ribbing going on, not too much," Johnson said. "We take pride in what we do down the bottom order there. Myself personally I like to score runs when I can and I know Mitchy Starc likes to and Josh did an outstanding job. To have that big partnership down the bottom was outstanding. We do pride ourselves on that and we've done that very well over the last few years where other teams haven't quite being able to do it.

"There has been a little bit of ribbing going on but we've got a big Test match coming up and I'm sure they [the batsmen] will be out there to put on some big partnerships and some hundreds so I wouldn't worry about it too much."

There is less reason to worry when the reasons for Australian lower-order success are examined. Chief among them is the fact that many of Australia's bowlers possess techniques and methods far more correct than they used to be, and at times more aesthetically pleasing than those of the batsmen above.

Johnson, Hazlewood and particularly the injured James Pattinson play with the clean lines and simplicity of top six players, while Nathan Lyon gets his eyes over the ball with fierce commitment and both Mitchell Starc and Ryan Harris offer the sorts of robust, thumping techniques that can have fielders scurrying if they can survive their first few balls.

By contrast, the relative struggles of Fawad Ahmed to be a batting concern of any merit have arguably played against his inclusion - if you want to bowl for Australia these days, you'd better be able to bat at least a little. Hazlewood's growing confidence as an international cricketer is reflected in his batting as well as his bowling, while Starc can expect to offer more with the bat than he did in Dominica.

"Josh is still really new to the game and still very fresh but he's been able to go out there and play his game and do what he has done for New South Wales, and I guess do what he did as a junior," Johnson said. "He's got that height, he's got a great pace about him, he can step it up when he needs to I think with his pace. But I think think what he does for our team he brings a great balance.

"And Mitch Starc, I think there's been a lot of talk about how good his one-day performances and Twenty20 performances have been, to be able to come into this Test match on a slow wicket a turning wicket and to be able to bowl the way he did, cleaned up the tail for us which was really exciting for me. But those two guys have been outstanding.

"We've got a lot of fast bowlers in the Australian team that have been performing for a while and it is really hard being a fast bowler in Australia right now because we do have the stocks there, and you know, it is really exciting for Australian cricket."

And if the success of the bowlers must continue to be built upon runs of their own making, then at least they will be used to the pressure.