Australia have an opening dilemma

The Australians are in grave danger of going into an important Test series without the service of a regular pair of openers. The world's number one Test team arrives in India for a four-Test series that gets underway in Bangalore from October 9.

Veteran Mathew Hayden is suffering from an achillies tendon injury and that has kept him out of the three-match one-day series against Bangladesh. Whether he travels to India next month is a million dollar question.

Simon Katich and Phil Jaques opened the innings for Australia in West Indies; Katich was making a comeback to Test cricket after a gap of three years and he was given the job to open the innings for injured Hayden.

The Australians could have used Michael Hussey to partner Jaques, but instead they gave Katich a go. Katich and Jaques managed to get their team off to some good starts - but their starts pales away when one compares them to the starts that the old firm of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer used to give Australia.

Was Australia looking to get some one who can play a grinding innings at the top of the order. If that was the case, then Katich was the right batsman to open the innings for Australia.

When Langer and Hayden opened together in their last series, they did not do anything spectacular; although Australia won the series 5-0, they averaged 37 as a pair, with only two half-centuries.

Once Langer retired, it was always going to be difficult for Australia to find a replacement for him. Although Hayden is quite intimidating with his style of batting, he needs a partner who can adjust to his style of aggressive strokeplay. This gives Hayden enough space to settle in and get into a zone. Batsmen like Phil Jaques, Michael Hussey, Simon Katich and Chris Rogers, unlike Langer, who used to play freely, are conventional openers. That is perhaps why the Australians have opted to look at traditional-style openers, who grind the bowlers down.

© AFP Matthew Hayden's injury is a huge cause of concern for the Australians

Langer was an important cog in the Australian line up; he was similar to Adam Gilchrist in ODIs, as he always went after the bowling, irrespective of pitch conditions and situation of the match.

Hayden might not tour India next month, but Katich who is currently leading an Australian A side in India will be the key to give them a solid start. He did well last time in 2004, but he was batting in the middle then, rather thn opening the innings.

Jacques who perfrmed pretty well against India last year, will most definitely open the batting with Katich. At the same time he has only played 11 Tests, and only one innings in sub-continent. A tour of India will be an acid test for his skills.

It will Australia's second successive tour that they will travel with an inexperienced opening pair. 

With Hayden (2001 to 2007)

Openers	Inn	Runs	HS	100s/50s	Avg
Hayden / Jaques	11	784	159	2/6	71.27
Hayden / Langer	113	5655	255	14/25	51.88

Without Hayden (2006-2008)

Openers	Inn	Runs	HS	100s/50s	Avg
Katich / Jaques	5	328	223	1/0	65.60
Jacques / Rogers	2	33	21	0/0	17.50

During their tour of West Indies, the Aussies had to do with Simon Katich as a make-shift opener. Although he scored two hundreds in that series, he was struggling to build his innings.

His shuffling across the stumps is his biggest flaw; he tends to go for the wider balls outside the off and has the tendency to play away from the body, which also means that his middle & leg stumps are exposed to the pace bowlers.

Australia found Langer to partner Hayden in 2001 and they went on to become one of the best opening pairs for Australia in Test cricket history. Though Hayden was the key wicket for the opponents, it was Langer who generally gave them the launch. They were outstanding as a pair and had more than a few big partnerships; as a pair, they managed 14 hundreds and averaged 51.88 !

Against India this pair had a good outing, in 2003-04 season  

In India	Openers	Tests	Runs	HS	100s/50s	Avg
1997-98	Slater-Taylor	3	201	91	0/2	33.5
2000-01	Slater-Hayden	3	331	103	1/2	55.16
2004-05	Hayden-Langer	4	342	136	1/3	42.75
Total		10	874	136	2/7	43.7
In Australia
1999-00	Slater-Blewett	3	27	9	0/0	5.4
2003-04	Hayden-Langer	4	372	147*	1/2	46.5
2007-08	Jaques-Hayden-Rogers	4	495	159	2/2	70.7
Total		11	894	159	3/4	47.05

In the last few years Hayden has been the mainstay of the Australian team and his performance against India has been very impressive. He is averaging 66.66 in 14 Test matches… which has 6 hundreds and fifties.