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| October 14, 2005 | Friday | Ramzan 9, 1426 |
World XI drops rusty Shoaib for Super Test
SYDNEY, Oct 13: Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was on Thursday left out of the ICC World team twelve for the six-day Super Test against Australia starting at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
World skipper Graeme Smith said Shoaib, who was a major disappointment in last week’s 3-0 loss to Australia in the one-day Super Series in Melbourne, had been omitted from the 12.
Smith will finalise his starting team before the start of play in the one-off six-day Test.
Shoaib was left out after an inglorious wicketless haul off 17 games for 110 runs in two one-dayers last week.
“Shoaib is missing out of the 12, so we’re pretty confident in the 11 we’re going to pick and where we’re going to go and we want to pick the best 11 we feel can win the game,” Smith said on Thursday.
The 30-year-old paceman was left out of the Pakistan team on the tour of West Indies last May over fitness concerns soon after refusing to tour India.
“He’s been left out of the squad and it’s got nothing to do with his weight, or anything like that, we’ve just left him out,” Smith said.
“We felt that he wouldn’t fit into the 11 or 12 that we wanted to pick so that’s why we’ve left him out.”
The World XI was lambasted from all quarters for its tame submission in last Sunday’s final one-dayer, humbled by 156 runs, yet Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes they still deserve to be favourites to knock over Australia in the Test.
The Australians are looking hungry and keen to atone after the fall-out over losing the Ashes to England last month.
“Even though we won the one-day series convincingly I still think they have to start favourites in this game just for the absolute quality of players that they’ve got all the way down their list,” Ponting said.
“It’s an amazing team and one that will challenge us in every aspect of the game, but if we play our cricket we’ll challenge them in every aspect as well, that’s the exciting thing about this Test match.”
Australia have boosted their bowling firepower by including all-rounder Shane Watson and leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, discarding their usual four-man bowling attack by going in with five bowlers.
Watson, who was man-of-the-match twice last week with bat and ball, takes over from sacked Damien Martyn and MacGill forms a dream leg-spinning tandem with Shane Warne on the spin-friendly SCG pitch.
Batsman Brad Hodge will have to wait longer for his Test debut after he was named 12th man with Michael Clarke to bat in Martyn’s batting slot.
“Michael Clarke will bat at No.4. He’s pretty excited about it, he’s another one whose game has developed over the last couple of years and he’s looked at home every time he’s come to the crease in both forms of the game and he has a big future,” Ponting said.
There were plenty of mentions Thursday of the lessons from the Ashes defeat to England, who will have two of their stars, Andrew Flintoff and Stephen Harmison, in the world team.
“It was the big moments in the Tests in England that let ourselves down, which the Australian cricket team had been renowned for winning over the years, but they were the ones we actually lost so we’ve addressed those areas,” Ponting said.
“We know that we have to play better cricket for longer periods in Test cricket if we want to win.
“We made mental and physical mistakes in the Ashes series and our team preparation was slightly off.”
The selection of MacGill (160) to partner 623-Test wicket-taker Warne in the officially-sanctioned Test offers the enticing prospect for purists of seeing four of world cricket’s great spinners on view, along with the world’s Muttiah Muralitharan (563) and Daniel Vettori (207).
MacGill has an outstanding record at his home SCG pitch, taking 40 wickets in six Tests.
“I think there will be moisture in the wicket on the first morning, which means the ball will seam a bit but it also means it will spin as well, making it a tough decision to make at the toss,” Ponting said.
“It’s also a six-day Test and if it goes that long there’s absolutely no doubt that the Sydney will turn.”
Ponting, who took the brunt of criticism for the loss of the Ashes, said he was under no extra pressure as normal leading Australia in the Super Test.
“Looking back on the Ashes there weren’t too many of us that came back knowing that we had played as well as we could, so all the guys are keen to get back.”
Teams:
AUSTRALIA: Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke, Simon Katich, Shane Watson, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Stuart MacGill. 12th man: Brad Hodge.
ICC WORLD XI (from): Graeme Smith (captain), Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Inzamamul Haq, Brian Lara, Jacques Kallis, Andrew Flintoff, Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher, Steve Harmison, Muttiah Muralitharan, Daniel Vettori.
UMPIRES: Simon Taufel (Australia) and Rudi Koertzen (South Africa).
MATCH REFEREE: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).—Agencies
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