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Sydney, Jan 9(ANI): Noted cricket columnist Peter Roebuck has said that the Australian team and skipper Ricky Ponting will be hard-pressed to recapture the Ashes on the basis of form shown at the SCG against Pakistan.

Roebuck said that the current England squad has the potential to beat any team, while at present Australians must be cast as outsiders.

“Admittedly, the Poms have frailties of their own: they lack a fast bowler, and need Kevin Pietersen to recapture his former powers, but they will not wilt in the heat or be cowed by Australia’s victories this season,” Roebuck wrote in a syndicated column for the Sydney Morning Herald.

“On paper, it looks good: four wins in five attempts and every reason to expect a clean sweep against shattered opponents in Hobart. But, the tally is misleading. Australia ought not to read too much into their dramatic triumph at the SCG,” he added.

Roebuck further said that the hosts were outplayed by the world’s sixth-ranked side, as the batsmen and the bowlers failed to perform to their capability.

“Certainly it was an extraordinary victory, but sober reflection removes it from the list of great wins likely to remain in the memory. Australia’s performance was too flawed to carry the weight assigned to it,” Roebuck said.

“None of the bowlers surpassed themselves, and Peter Siddle was downright ordinary. Nathan Hauritz invited batsmen to plunge into folly, and they obliged. The pitch did not break up, Pakistan did,” he added. (ANI)