Cricket: Bracewell boosts NZ, Aussie lose (nearly) half of test side

Doug Bracewell. Photo / APN

Doug Bracewell's progress within the New Zealand side took another step forward in Brisbane yesterday.

He grabbed three Australia A wickets on the second day of the four-day game at Allan Border Field in Brisbane, to follow a belligerent, unbeaten 73 off 79 balls including three sixes, to boost New Zealand's first innings to a healthy 423.

At stumps, Australia A were 187 for four, the 21-year-old Bracewell having taken three for 37. The other wicket taker was Tim Southee.

Bracewell made a decent fist of his first experience in the national side in Zimbabwe, taking five second-innings wickets to bowl New Zealand to a test victory at Bulawayo, and generally impressing in the short-form games.

So while New Zealand will feel things are settling into place halfway through their only test warm-up, Australia's new selection panel has furrowed brows.

Yesterday, injury ruled five players out of the first test starting at Brisbane next Thursday.

Most worrying was that three of the players are frontline seamers - Mitchell Johnson (swollen foot), Ryan Harris (hip) and 18-year-old speedster Patrick Cummins, who succumbed to a heel injury.

Allrounder Shane Watson (hamstring) and batsman Shaun Marsh (back) are also out. Australia's team is due to be named today or tomorrow.

Of the five, Watson and Marsh are rated the best chances of being ready for the second test in Hobart.

Compounding the seam bowling problem is that the quartet playing against New Zealand for Australia A battled to catch the eye.

Faced with Brendon McCullum's bracing 146, James Pattinson, Ben Cutting, Ben Hilfenhaus and Mitchell Starc all failed to take a giant stride ahead of the others in what amounted to a straight race for a test place.

It's wise to hold close the old line about there being no such thing as a poor Australian side, but that injury news should have run an extra edge of anticipation through the New Zealand camp yesterday.

McCullum, however, was urging caution.

"We'll just have to wait and see what we come up against," he said. "It's not the McGraths and Lees but they're still pretty threatening so we have to make sure we're on top of our game.

"The Australian team is still dangerous - it's not the team they had, with five of the greatest players of all time in it.

"So they've probably come back to the pack a little bit, but they're still very much a dangerous team so we respect that."

New Zealand haven't won a test in Australia since 1985 and any urge to start shouting the odds on their behalf should be tempered by Australia's two-wicket win in a thriller in Johannesburg last week.

Looming over the Australian selection is former captain and batting great Ricky Ponting's position and, to a degree, wicketkeeper Brad Haddin's ordinary form of late.

Ponting, 36, has gone 28 test innings without a century.

New Zealand could end his career in the next fortnight, with Australian patience in official quarters evidently wearing thin.

Failures in Brisbane and, if he gets that far, Hobart could mean curtains, even though his test average still sits at 52.53.

"This is obviously a really testing time for the depth of Australian cricket," Ponting said yesterday.

"It's something we'll have to cope with."

Ponting also made plain Australia are thinking about India rather than the challenge posed by New Zealand.

Australia had to ensure their leading players were "fit and healthy for when the really big series comes around", he said.