Stuart Clark, the Australian fast bowler, is confident the team will bounce back from the series defeat to South Africa, just as it did after the Ashes loss in 2005, and says the experience will benefit the relatively junior bowlers standing in for the first-choice attack.
Injuries to Stuart Clark and Brett Lee over the last month have forced Australia to pick the inexperienced Peter Siddle and Doug Bollinger to line up the pace attack along with Mitchell Johnson in the Tests against South Africa.
But Clark was bullish on their potential. "Results haven't gone their way, and we can all point fingers, but I think they're doing a really good job considering they haven't played a lot of international cricket," he was quoted as saying in the Melbourne-based
Age.
The SCG Test is Siddle's fourth and Bollinger's first. In his three previous Tests, Siddle has taken nine wickets at 46.55, with a best of 4 for 81 at the MCG against South Africa.
Bollinger, who made his Test debut in Sydney, has played 48 first-class matches, three times that of Siddle's, in which he has taken 151 wickets at 30.42. Clark, who is still
not certain for the tour of South Africa in February, said the two had performed well considering their limited international experience. "Experience is the thing that you can't buy in state cricket. It's the intensity … you need to get that experience, play the game in front of that sort of pressure. It's invaluable."
Clark felt Australia had a good team for this year's Ashes in England. "We've got a good blend of youth and experience and that's important because it'll [Ashes] be a very tough series.
"I see things turning around very quickly," he said. "It hasn't been the most ideal series, but at the same time, a couple of losses, as we saw with the Ashes in 2005, is the start of something new. After those losses in the Ashes, we won 16 straight Tests."
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