Rotation is a must

It is the dirty word many cricket fans, former players and the media hate – rotation.

But Nathan Bracken insists rotating players in the Australian cricket team is a must if they want to reclaim the Ashes and become the No.1 Test side in the world.

The former Test, One-Day and Twenty20 international player was in Mudgee on Thursday conducting a clinic on behalf of Shaun Brown’s Cricket Coaching.

Speaking to the Mudgee Guardian, Bracken, who was part of the rotation policy during his career, said it was necessary for players to be rotated – or rested - these days.

In the next 12 months, Australia will play eight more ODI’s at home (against Sri Lanka and West Indies), four Test matches in India, a 10-Test Ashes series, the Champions Trophy in England, and 12 ODIs against England and India.

“The biggest thing for the Ashes, we have to come out of India unscathed, we cant afford to lose players to injury and that is where the rotation system is right, I think we need that,” Bracken said.

“I know the past players are jumping up and down saying ‘I did this and I did that’ [but] it’s really different at the moment. 

“The guys are getting highly tuned and anything that goes wrong it causes major problems... You see it in rugby league you see it in the AFL, if a guy gets a niggle they are pulled out because it’s never one week, its two or three.”

Bracken knows what it is like to be sidelined for a period of time.

His career was cut short because of constant injuries, in particular with his knee.

The 35-year-old took 12 Test wickets in five matches at an average of 42.08, 174 ODIs wickets in 116 matches at 24.36 and 19 T20 wickets from 19 matches at 23.05.

“As a cricketer, as an athlete, you want to play as much as you can,” he said.

“We did it in 2007, that was the only time we did it, John Buchanan wanted to implement it, Cricket Australia didn’t. He ran it through the one day series there. I missed the game against England in Adelaide where we knocked them over for not many and it was good to sit back for a day, put your feet up, put ice on the knee. It gave you a break for a period of time that you didn’t normally get.”

Cricket Australia and the team have come under fire for resting players from Test and the first two matches of the One-Day series against Sri Lanka.

“You can’t look at what is directly in front of you, you have to look down the track and for the bowlers it is about getting out there and performing as much as you can, playing in India, playing on the Ashes and winning those series, and if you break down tomorrow you are not doing that.

“You have to sit back and listen to it and say ‘well it is a hard call to miss one game. It might mean I might have a Test career of 100 Tests instead a Test career of 20 Tests’,” Bracken said.