Australia v Zimbabwe, 10th ODI, VB Series, Melbourne

Act of faith

Wisden Verdict by Dileep Premachandran

January 29, 2004

Damien Martyn: symphony replaces cacophony © Getty Images

In recent years, Australia's team selection has been guided by one underlying principle: faith. Unless you had a really bad attitude, or were going through a midlife crisis that involved a Superman tattoo, the chances were that a temporary loss of form wouldn't see you shunted into the siding.

Ricky Ponting was one of the beneficiaries of that policy on the tour of India three years ago. Despite being chewed up and spat out by a rampant Harbhajan Singh - 17 runs in five innings, encompassing dreadfully indecisive footwork and hard-handed defence - he played in all three Tests, while Damien Martyn, the reserve, watched from the sidelines.

The bowlers have been treated no differently. Despite some indifferent displays this summer, Andrew Bichel has got his fair share of opportunities, reward perhaps for some superb allround performances at the World Cup. And despite his whinge about bowling with the wrong arm, Brad Williams too has got more than the occasional look in, while the likes of Shaun Tait and Matthew Nicholson wait their turn.

The biggest talking point in recent weeks though has been the form, or lack of it, of Martyn. Having started the Test series against India with three fluent cameos, he appeared horribly out of sorts by the end, mistiming cut shots into the slip-gully cordon with monotonous regularity.

And it was worse because it was Martyn, one of the game's supreme touch artists when in form. When Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid struggle, they tend to knuckle down and grind their way out of trouble. The attrition game doesn't come quite so easy to the stylists, whose game is irrevocably intertwined with precise timing. Without it, the sublime symphony on 78 rpm becomes a screeching cacophony at 45, and spectators lose patience far quicker than they would otherwise.

India's greatest flair player, Gundappa Viswanath - whose supple wrists once resisted the irresistible force of Andy Roberts on a lighting-quick Chennai wicket - was only 33 when he was jettisoned after a poor tour of Pakistan. He paid the price for playing the game the way he did - the troughs were always magnified, just as peerless crests had been.

Martyn isn't quite in the same class but as he showed during an entertaining 42 today, he still has plenty to offer. The drives and cuts through the offside once more had the stamp of authority, and a couple of languid flicks off his pads indicated that confidence was once more coursing through the veins. It's a crucial time for Martyn, with the tour of Sri Lanka looming. For all his excellence in England and Australia, he still hasn't done anything of note on the sub-continent (Test matches), and no batsman with claims to modern-day greatness can have a resume with such a gaping hole.

The next couple of matches against India will reveal whether he's back in 78rpm groove, or whether this little gem was a lone swallow on a rainy Melbourne day. But whatever happens, Ponting and the think tank deserve credit for not having taken the easy way out by dropping him. Faith may not really move mountains, but it can certainly help a very fine player emerge from a funk. Ponting knows that better than most.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo in India.

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Players/Umpires

Damien Martyn

Ricky Ponting

Series/Tournaments

VB Series

Teams

Zimbabwe