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Gilly urged to return to earth

Source: Herald Sun - January 1, 2006

Cricket great Richie Benaud has offered out-of-form Adam Gilchrist a timely tip: hit the ball along the ground.

After Gilchrist's Test average dropped below 50 for the first time in five years, Benaud said it might be time for him to adopt a less flamboyant approach, starting with the third Test against South Africa at the SCG tomorrow.

"I'd offer the same advice as Don Bradman offered to Neil Harvey early on the famous '48 tour," Benaud said.

"Neil had been missing out early on and the message came back via his room-mate Sam Loxton: 'Tell your little mate he can't get out if he doesn't hit them in the air'."

Gilchrist, 34, is in the biggest slump of his career entering his 80th consecutive Test.

He has been caught in eight of his past nine Test innings since October and his average has dropped from 55 to 49.

But Australian coach John Buchanan said Gilchrist needed to stay true to his natural instincts.

"He hits the ball in the air," Buchanan said. "That's just the way he plays."

Gilchrist's predecessor Ian Healy said the keeper-batsman might not be as focused as usual or might simply be trying too hard.

"He's keeping as well as I've ever seen him, so maybe it is just a mental rather than a physical problem," Healy said.

Gilchrist admits he had a nightmare Ashes tour, averaging only 22, and has been equally inconsistent since.

"He's aware he needs a (big) innings," Australian team manager Steve Bernard said.

"We feel he's ready to explode and hopefully it'll happen in the next Test."

Until he claimed four dismissals in South Africa's second innings at the MCG this week, Gilchrist had gone a month without taking a catch or a stumping.

- KEN PIESSE