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Struggling but Gilchrist not dead in water

Source: The Australian - November 18, 2006

Cast an eye over the slowly growing queue of doubters who believe Adam Gilchrist's remarkable batting powers may be on the wane, and you will notice a distinct absence of contemporary opposition bowlers.

That's the same group which continues to celebrate loudest when it captures the vice-captain's wicket at either Test or one-day level.

If Gilchrist is no longer the batsman who taunted attacks on all surfaces and in a variety of match conditions for a decade, then word has not filtered through to the bowling fraternity.

Joy that rival teams exhibit on Gilchrist's dismissal in either form of the game is matched only by the delight in snaring his captain, Ricky Ponting.

Or, in the case of a Test-strength Queensland line-up in Perth yesterday, it was unmitigated relief when he eventually mis-hit a catch having carved a peerless 131 from 95 balls.

Former England skipper Nasser Hussain still believes it is Gilchrist's batting that holds the key to this Ashes series.

"If Gilchrist has a good series then Australia will be favourites. If he struggles, then I think England have a chance," Hussain said.

There is no denying Gilchrist has struggled of late. Since the 2005 Ashes loss in England - a series in which he made minimal impact as a batsman for the first time in his Test career - he has averaged 28.88 in 12 Tests, almost half his batting median of 48.80.

The English bowlers exposed a hitherto unseen chink in his technique by attacking him from around the wicket and bowling marginally short of a length with little width for the left-hander to play his prolific run-scoring shots.

Cramped for room and with the added problem of the ball swinging, Gilchrist found himself regularly chopping the ball on to his stumps or edging into the slips.

The ploy was noted by bowlers around the world.

But Ian Healy, Gilchrist's predecessor as wicketkeeper and vice-captain, saw nothing new in the English strategy and is in no doubt Gilchrist's lean run is a mere aberration.

"They have bowled at him like that for his whole career," Healy said yesterday. "Right from the start, opposition bowlers have tried to go around the wicket and cramp him for room around off-stump.

"He's dealt with that for seven years, and he's got the ability to counteract it.

"He just needs to get in and watch the ball intently.

"Maybe at the moment he does have to fight his way through that initial 20-ball or 20-run barrier.

"And it's obviously better if he keeps the ball along the ground during that period."

A more detailed study of Gilchrist's recent batting returns suggest Healy's final observation is the most salient.

In 12 Tests since the Ashes changed hands at The Oval, Gilchrist has batted 17 times in Tests and been dismissed for 12 runs or fewer on 11 of those occasions having faced no more than four overs on each of those ill-fated trips to the crease.

That constitutes 65 per cent of his Test innings over that time. Before, he failed to reach 12 in just 28 per cent of his trips to the middle.

The findings are as conclusive as they are obvious. Gilchrist, like any international batsman, has proved vulnerable when he first arrives at the crease and has given chances because of his naturally attacking batting style.

And even though Gilchrist turned 35 last Tuesday, Healy does not subscribe to the theory that, when the years advance, it is a keeper's batting acumen that deserts him before his glovework.

Healy claimed that in the final year of his career (from age 34 onwards) he felt his batting skills were undiminished at training, but he just couldn't pull it together in the middle and he failed to reach 20 in his final 16 Test innings.

That became a concern for his newly installed captain Steve Waugh, but Gilchrist's skipper has no such misgivings about the form of the most prolific wicketkeeper-batsman in 130 years of Test cricket.

"I get asked these questions a lot about some of the senior players in the side, and it's never a concern of mine," Ponting said yesterday.

"I don't need to worry about those blokes. It's like when I get asked about (Glenn) McGrath or (Shane) Warne, or how (Matthew) Hayden is batting.

"They'll be fine. They'll sort it out because they have been too good for too long not to."

- ANDREW RAMSEY