The retirement of major players like Shane warne, Mcgrath, Gilchrist, Hayden, Martyn, Langer in a quick succesion raised a doubt over austrlia's ability to rule the world of cricket. Just after these players departed australia stumbled a bit with series loss to india,england and south africa in 08-09 and overall loosing 6 tests in past 3 years... the speculation were raised that Australia is no longer invincible and either india or south africa would replace it as a top team.
However these spuculation proved to be right with india grabbing the top spot in ICC test champiuonship for the first time and south africa retaining 2nd spot. It was happened first time in more than 8 years that any country was able to remove Australia from rank no. 1. Such was their tyranny in the world of cricket.
The team was then considered beatable as they lacked quality spinner in the absence of Warne... lacked solid opening pair in the absence of Hayden and Langer... but the performance of Nathan hauritz as a spinner and of Shane watson as an opener has given a great boost to australia chances of regaining the rank no.1 title. With current series win against West indies and Pakistan, Australia has proved that they cannot be taken for granted. Their domestic structure is so strong that their playing eleven never lacks in any of the depatrment.
Most of the credit also goes to Ricky ponting for Australia's success in past 7-8 years. His continuous elegant batting has fetched him 'Player of the decade' award both in tests and one day. His captaincy has also been phenomenal. He holds the record for most wins by any captain. In the 2nd test with pakistan, at the end of forth day his team was 89 runs ahead With only 2 wickets remaining, he was the only person optimistic about winning the match.
Even the astute cricket expert would have not agreed with him. But in the end australia won comprehensively by 37 runs. These gives paradigm of his leadership qualities. Many times ponting has been critisized severely for his 'win at all cost' theory and involvement in racial abuse......... but these had not much effect on him becoming one of the greatest leaders ever in cricket.
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