It's clear to many cricket lovers than the current iteration of the Australian Test team is a far cry from the ones that dominated all comers around the turn of the century and into the first few years of the 21st. In the nine years from 1999-2007, Australia were an unstoppable force. For many, some version of the team either under Steve Waugh, or in the early years of Michael Clarke's tenure, helped shape their love of our national sport.
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Ask any cricket fan in their 20s to rattle off Australia's best XI from just after the year 2000 and they could do it without blinking (Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Waugh, Waugh, Martyn, Gilchrist, Warne, Lee, Gillespie, McGrath...usually with the great Andy Bichel as 12th man) - but now? It's an entirely different ball game.
A lack of continuity
In 1999, a powerful wicketkeeper/batsman by the name of Adam Gilchrist made his Test debut for Australia, replacing the long-serving Ian Healy behind the stumps. In 2007, left-handed quick Mitchell Johnson entered the Test arena. In between, another 16 men pulled on the baggy green, for a total of 18. In the time since then, should all four debutants named in the squad for Adelaide go on to make the final XI ... Australia will have given out 52 debuts in the past nine years.
From unstoppable force to moveable object
Interestingly, this dominant period of Australian cricket is almost bookended by two streaks of 16 straight Test wins. When Australia beat Zimbabwe in a single Test match in Harare, and then swept Pakistan aside at the Gabba to kick off the summer of cricket in 1999-2000, this was the start of what would become a record-setting run of victories. Australia equalled their own run of wins again between 2006 and 2008, and in the entire time in between, lost only two Test series. Once in India in 2001 (and who could forget VVS Laxman playing one of the greatest innings of all time after being forced to follow on?) and the Ashes in England in 2005 - when, again, they were so heart-breakingly close to not losing at all.
So in that whole time Australia lost two Test series, and NONE at home. Since then? Australia have now lost 12 series in total, with four coming at home - strangely enough, three of those four were against South Africa.
Old enemy gaining the upper hand
Regardless of how good or bad Australia are playing, priority number one has always been the Ashes. Since they clobbered the Poms 4-0 back in 1989, Australia held onto the urn for seven more series after that one, before finally succumbing in 2005. In that time, Australia won 28 Tests against England, lost seven and drew eight for a winning percentage of roughly 65 per cent.
Since then, apart from those two glorious 5-0 whitewashes, the Ashes have either been won or retained by England on the other five occasions. All up, Australia won 15 games (and again, 10 of them came in two series), lost 13 and drew seven, for a winning percentage of just under 43 per cent...more than a 20-point drop. This horror run reached its lowest of lows in the 2013 series, when Australia failed to record a single win for the first time since 1977.
