Phil Jaques surprises no-one
There was one other Australian retirement last year, Justin Langer’s. There was no real worry about replacing him, however. That’s not to dismiss Langer, who was as tough as biltong at the top of the order, it’s just that great Australian batsmen seemingly DO grow on trees.
So Australia called Phil Jaques down from a nearby eucalyptus for the first Test against Sri Lanka and he’s promptly scored a hundred. He was dropped twice, but Jaques isn’t the kind of batsmen to let something like that bother him.
Last January, Phil Jaques made 94 on his one-day international debut, the highest debut score by an Australian. They dropped him for the next match.
In June, Jaques hit 244 for Worcestershire against Essex and learning from his one-day international dropping, followed it up with 202 in the very next match.
At the very start of England’s Ashes tour, he battered 112 for the Prime Minister’s XI in a one-day game and knowing he still wasn’t close to the Australia side, he hit another hundred against England two days later, this time in a three-day match while representing New South Wales.
So overall we’re not hugely surprised by Phil Jaques taking to Test cricket like a depressive to gin.
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"It’s not that I’m lazy - it’s that I just don’t care"
Oh god, not another one. Just when you start to think life will be easier after Hayden et al retire.
It’s ok, he doesn’t irritate me anyway as much as ‘Haydos’ yet so let’s give him another 50 tests and 5000 runs before we start to build the bile and hatred!
Bugger.
Somehow, I just knew this would happen. I hoped it wouldn’t, but secretly knew that it would.
I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was check the score – ouch. I felt sad, and was thinking about watching SA – NZ instead, just for the novel sight of a non Sri Lankan wicket falling.
My glimmer of hope is this: in the Lords test England put on 551 against SL and didn’t win. Maybe Aus’s 551 is a sign. Maybe history will repeat itself but in an even better way so that this happens: SL crumble again in their first innings, follow on and, um, establish a lead. By then it’s nice and dry at the Gabba, and Murali gets last use of the pitch, and bowls the Aussies out taking all 10 wickets. There, I feel better already.
Miriam, hate to tell you this, but there’s one very subtle, yet crucial difference.
Australia are resolutely not England.
And now I am right back to sad again.