ONCE the final day of this one-sided Ashes campaign is wrapped up by England, seven long months await before an Australian Test line-up next takes the field. Much soul searching lies ahead for a set-up thoroughly humiliated and in drastic need of a re-think.
The scale and tone of an all-but-completed 3-1 series defeat - hammered home by embarrassing mis-matches in Melbourne and Sydney - demands that heads roll. By the time Australia lands in Sri Lanka in August for a three-Test series, the team will have a new bowling coach, and quite possibly a new chairman of selectors in the shape of Greg Chappell. Upheaval in the playing ranks is also required.
There is no such reprieve for Michael Clarke on evidence to this point. Leadership skills aside, his batting is plainly not up to scratch. An alarming slide since his move to No. 4 (he averaged 8.75 in India in October and slightly more than 21 in the Ashes) point to Clarke no longer being untouchable.
Instead, after Ponting comes Michael Hussey, Australia's most outstanding performer since November, and Watson, who moves to a more conventional all-rounder's position, No. 6. Brad Haddin remains as wicketkeeper.
Peter Siddle, whose persistence has earned rave reviews, would stay but the other two members of the pace trio are gone. An ineffective Ben Hilfenhaus and inconsistent Mitchell Johnson fall to an experiment of genuine generational change. Their replacements: highly-rated Victorian seamer James Pattinson and threatening NSW left-arm quick Mitchell Starc (who turns 20 later this month).
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