Clarke was rubbish in the last Ashes (ave 21), Kat never got going (ave 24) and Hughes was worse (ave 16), Ponting was utter gash (ave 16), North got his arse punted (also ave 16) and Smith (ave 32) and Khawaja (ave 29) showed only minor glimpses of being up to the level.
So yeah Huss (ave 63), Watson (ave 48) and Hadds (ave 45) made the few runs we strung together. But you'd have to have some pretty rose coloured glasses on to think that pile of **** will go better than our current line up. We stank massively and those numbers are pretty comparable to what we just turned out in India. It really was that bad - for a home series.
Now Clarke is the obvious one to fill the Huss role. No guarantees of course, but on form you have to pick him as most likely to score heavily. Haddin seems to be at his best against England and had his best summer in a long while so no reason to assume he won't contribute again. And our tail bat much better than the last Ashes series too.
Watson's runs are a little harder to make up, but I reckon Warner has them covered. Whilst we haven't seen him in English conditions yet I think he'll do a lot better than he has managed on the slow tracks in India and Carribean. He averages 50 in Australia and whilst English tracks aren't going to be as good for him as home, they will still come on enough for him to make runs. Even his 24 ave in India last series would have had him in our better bats in the last Ashes. He'll go ok.
As for the rest Hughes, Cowan, and Rogers will all go better than the men they've replaced from last time (or were last time) I've no doubt. Watson is an enigma, but if he doesn't perform Khawaja or Wade will come in. Whatever way we go, it's hard to imagine we won't go better with the bat than the last Ashes effort which was utterly disgraceful. Nothing like way worse, we're better (but have no depth). The question of how much better will be answered on the field. A couple of break outs will be much much better obvs, but even just solid mid-30s Cowanesq averages will be an improvement.
India was a massive kick in the guts for us no doubt, but India has always been our bogey trip. You can't read too much into that. We performed reasonably well last summer and SA were damn close to being 2-0 down before they got really firing in Perth and we accounted for SL pretty convincingly. That's more indicative of what we'll be like in the Ashes. Not saying we'll come over and give you a repeat of 89, but we're in this. Should be tight and probably will come down to a 2-1 result like the last two tours. Hopefully 2-1 to the good this time though.
