No Form for Australia | Thebigtip

With the ICC Cricket World Cup only a month away, the Australian team seem to be in dire need of some stability. After a disastrous Ashes series that saw Australia go down to England convincingly, you would expect that the same sort of results would carry over to the Twenty/20 series and the one day series against England. However, after two impressive outings against the English in the Twenty/20 games and a strong effort in the first one day game, the reigning World Cup champions have little to no consistency going into one of cricket's biggest events.

After going through a long patch of glorious wins, the last three years have been difficult, to say the least, in every aspect other than one day games. Although the Australians have a good one day record, the team for the World Cup is still far from settled. With the deadline approaching, most teams have a general idea of what their side will look like. However, the Australians have struggled to keep the same side consistently all summer with names such as Doug Bollinger, David Hussey, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle, Steve Smith, Shaun Tait and Cameron White in ans out of the team so regularly, there is no team solidity that is a key component when going into a big competition. On top of that, regular contributors such as Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Haddin and, most notably, the Australian captain Ricky Ponting are all struggling to post high scores in a solid innings.

The first word that comes to mind when thinking of the Australian cricket team is disoray. The players are struggling to put partnerships together and as a result, the selectors are having trouble putting together a consistent team. There have been times where it has clicked for the Australians but the overall lead up to the ICC Cricket World Cup is a shambles.

It has been a disastrous summer for the Aussies so far but there are glimpses of hope. What the team needs at all levels is to find some consistency so that one man doesn't have to carry the team each game. Cricket is a game where your performance severely impacts on both your team's performance and your team's confidence. The Aussies need more men to step up and lead the way to get the rest of the squad in a positive frame of mind, and the best way to do that is to beat the English in the one day series on the road to the ICC Cricket World Cup.