Not every player in a batting order will be producing runs at the same time. Usually a couple will be coming off a failure or two, perhaps some unconverted starts, perhaps an adverse rub of the green. Sometimes, too, that batter will be in your top three. It takes excess of bad planning, bad luck or both for every member of your top three to be misfiring at the same time. And, of Australia, it is hard to remember a triple-witching hour such as 2025.
Cricket Et Al will never forget the glories of Galle - after all, we love the merch. But if we eliminate that Test as an outlier, then Australia’s average score at the fall of the third wicket this year has been 48, with Cameron Green’s timely 52 in Grenada the only half century, coming after Marnus Labuschagne’s falling by the wayside. Worse, there are longer-term questions about Usman Khawaja and Sam Konstas. Discounted for that aforementioned great day out, Khawaja has averaged 24 since Boxing Day 2023; discounted for his brace of hundreds at Cricket Central last season, Konstas averages 25 in first-class cricket. There’s also the evidence of our own eyes.
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