Out there in the middle,champs have a crisis

Though not as destructive as the Hayden-Gilchrist combo,Watson and Brad Haddin,with three half-centuries each,have provided the Australians with decent starts in most of their games in the ongoing World Cup so far. The rest,except Clarke,however,have struggled to get going so far.

While the shallowness and vulnerability of their middle-order was beginning to show up from the early stages of the tournament,it hogged the spotlight in Colombo against the Pakistanis on Saturday,as Australia recorded their worst World Cup score in almost 20 years a paltry 176.

There have been a lot of worries plaguing Ponting8217;s mind over the last few weeks. From the Ashes losses to a painful little-finger and of course his abject form with the bat in the recent past,And it8217;s shown in the Australian captain8217;s performances during the tournament. Apart from averaging only 20.40 in five innings,even the 102 runs that he has notched up so far have hardly been impressive or Ponting-like. And he can be pardoned for standing his ground and waiting for the referral despite having gotten a visible edge off Mohammad Hafeez8217;s bowling on Saturday.

Michael Hussey,who only came in as a replacement for Doug Bollinger,on the other hand,still doesn8217;t seem to be out from his convalescent period and despite a half-century against Kenya hasn8217;t looked comfortable in making the sudden shift from the Australian pitches to the subcontinental conditions yet.

While the Australian batting did falter on a couple of occasions during the previous World Cups famously against the Pakistanis at Johannesburg in 2003 they always seemed to find a Symonds to bail them out. But at the R Premadasa Stadium with Clarke8217;s dismissal,a collapse seemed almost inevitable,especially against a quality attack like Pakistan8217;s.

Cameron White,in the side these days as a specialist batsman,has always seemed to be batting at a position higher than where he should be. Though still a threat in the later overs with his big-hitting,the slow and low wickets here have not allowed the blonde Victorian,who has averaged 19.33,to get settled or break-free.

And despite his valiant 25 against Pakistan,the time has now come for the Australian team management to make a hard call with the young Steve Smith. His innocuous technique has hardly fetched him any runs,while his handy leg-spin has often worked in the opposition8217;s favour whenever Ponting has thrown the ball to him. Not only would David Hussey provide more depth and experience to the lower-order,his off-spin and ability to bowl in the powerplays could be a handy addition to the jittery Australian line-up.

There will be no chances for any let-ups from this point though for the Australians though. And while Ponting would like to believe that the one bad-show is out of the way following his team8217;s loss to Pakistan,another one and a telling one at that might just been round the corner if the middle-order doesn8217;t come to the party soon.