Why opening the batting is getting tougher in Australia

When Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer intimidated bowling attacks around the world and particularly in Australia, most Test pitches on which they played had a little in them early before flattening out into very good batting surfaces.

Innings like Hayden’s 197 at the Gabba in 2002 or Langer’s double hundred against England at the MCG, later in the same series, were sculpted on straw-coloured and true pitches that offered plenty to players capable of long concentration. The colloquial “ball with your name on it” was truly rare.

Australian batsmen Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden keep an eye on Anil Kumble, who was nearly unstoppable in 2004. Credit: Brendan Esposito

Even a decade ago, when Steve Smith had his first big summer for Australia, batting for long periods of time was rewarded because there was generally little in the pitches or the Kookaburra ball to challenge that concentration.

“The wickets were probably better then as well, the ball wasn’t as big a seam, so there were less good balls to get you out, if that makes sense,” Smith told this masthead. “A lot of it was batter error, and at that stage I felt like I wasn’t making many errors. I think I said to Hadds before that first Test, ‘They’re not going to get me out’, and it turned out to be the way. Maybe I need to say that more often and try to stick to it.

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