Australia confidence growing after two Test wins give

ADELAIDE: The Australian team was the butt of jokes in world cricket only eight months ago in India, when players were suspended for not fulfilling off-field assignments in the now infamous "homework gate.

"They were ridiculed as a rabble after being swept 4-0 in that series in India, and were subjected to further scorn after a failed Champions Trophy defense in June — and that was before Mickey Arthur was fired as coach only weeks before the last Ashes series in England.

Darren Lehmann was rushed into the coaching job but couldn´t conjure an immediate remedy to the break the drought as reports of disharmony in the squad swirled around during a 3-0 series loss to England, a third consecutive Ashes series defeat.

No wins in nine Tests had critics comparing Michael Clarke´s squad of 2013 with the beleaguered team of the mid-1980s, which is widely considered the darkest era of Australian cricket.

But back-to-back Test wins in the return Ashes contest suddenly have the Australians on the cusp of a series win that few people anticipated when England landed Down Under Australia selectors retained the squad that won by 381 runs in Brisbane for the second test in Adelaide, the first time Clarke had been handed an unchanged lineup for back-to-back tests in a year. After another win, they´ve stuck with the same group again for Perth, although James Faulkner might come into calculations after being 12th man in the first two Tests.

England has been ranked No. 1 in recent seasons and is still in the top three, while Australia has slumped from the summit of the last decade to No. 5. Cook´s squad hadn´t lost a Test in a year before the first Test in Brisbane, and won a series in India this time last year after rebounding from a defeat.

Clarke was cautious on Monday about getting swept up in predictions of an Ashes whitewash.

The main difference between this Ashes series has been the impact of Mitchell Johnson, who wasn´t selected for the tour to England but already has 17 wickets in two Tests. He has been voted the player-of-the-match for the Tests in Brisbane and Adelaide and could very well back that up in Perth, where he produced his career-best eight-wicket haul against South Africa and where he helped Australia to its only win over England in the 2010-11 Ashes series. (AP)