"Not the standard": Gilchrist's confusion over Australian Test crisis

Cricketing legend Adam Gilchrist wasn’t overly concerned by Australia’s lacklustre decision making in their series loss to South Africa.

It’s the string of inconsistent decisions over a number of years that raise alarm bells for the former Test vice-captain.

Australia crumbled on day five of their Test decider in Cape Town, bowled out cheaply to lose to South Africa and ultimately lose their title as the world number one Test team.

Captain Pat Cummins’ decision to bowl first came under fire as a result of the loss, with Australia’s chase attempt falling well short of the mark on day five.

However, the decision to field first is far from where Gilchrist’s confusion lies.

“Going back a bit, there's other things that were confusing,” Gilchrist told SEN WA Breakfast.

“Steve Smith going to open (in 2024) was confusing. They said the best player in the country was Cam Green, so he had the bat four, so that meant that one of the best players we've ever had in Steve Smith had to move - pretty quickly that all sort of fell apart.

“There's just been a whole inconsistency around selection, but that's the thing - they don't conform to what history has shown is the way to go about it.

“That’s fine, they have won a lot of games of cricket, but the bowling first didn't bother me.

“I mean, it surprised me, but if you win the toss on day one of any Test match and choose to bowl first, and you get all 10 wickets that day, I reckon you've achieved your objective.

“Back in 2005, we did that at Edgbaston, famously or infamously. Ricky (Ponting) was hammered for bowling first. We bowled England out in 70 overs on day one. That's job done.

“Only trouble was they'd scored 400. That was our biggest issue in that one. It looked like South Africa were going to score 400 on day one in that first session.

“Australia were deep in that game, were almost in control of it. South Africa were 4/40, effectively, in that second inning at the start of day four. Australia was sort of in the driving seat there.

“So, the toss to me wasn't one of the major blunders. It doesn't conform to the way you do it, but they were in a winning position well and truly late in that game or deep in that game.

“The selection… I can only assume there's a lot of confused batsmen around the country.

“Whether it's in the setup, whether it's a guy like Josh Inglis who, fantastic innings, so happy for him to go in and get that 100, but he's been in around the team for about four years without any look of a consistent run.

“Then you throw a Nic Maddinson in there - albeit Inglis was injured in that one - I think there's some confused players, both those in and around the team and those on the periphery that are trying to work out what value Shield Cricket has.”

This season has been far from ideal for Australia; a shocking loss to Bangladesh in Darwin set the tone for what has been an incredibly shaky few months of Test cricket, capped off with the disappointment that was South Africa.

While the results are only now going against the Aussies, Gilchrist sees this is as an amalgamation of recent indecisions.

“I think there's been signs for a little while,” he said.

“They've lost four of their last seven, and that’s not the standard that the Australian Test Cricket team operates by. And it's not the standard that this team's operated by. They've been very successful.

“They haven't been able to nail the big moments, particularly overseas. They haven't achieved, on foreign soil, the results that will put them in the real upper echelon of cricketing teams.

“They've still got that opportunity ahead of them obviously with India and England in 2027, but this was one that they probably felt they should have ticked off.

“There's been things amiss, mainly around the batting. A lot of people are focusing on the aging bowling unit - I don't know where you could have, up to this point, said that any one of those big four needed to finish their career.

“There’s talk that Nathan Lyon didn't penetrate in this series and he didn't. You look at Simon Harmer and the effect that he had, so, that's where the microscope will go.

“But up to this point, I don't think you could have been saying, ‘you've got to get rid of one of the bowlers because you need to get a youngster in.’

“That's just the nature of career timelines and so on. They'll be trying their best to have bowlers ready when that comes around.

“But the batting... I think they needed to be a bit more firm about what their batting unit's going to be going forward whilst the bowling's been so strong.

“So that when those bowlers do disappear, you could go, ‘okay, well, now we can really formulate our game plan around batting and batting big and give bowlers time who are new to Test cricket.’”

Australia has just over a month to recoup, with a four-match series against New Zealand on home soil commencing in early December.

Listen to the full interview with Adam Gilchrist on SEN WA below: