Melbourne, Feb 1: Cricket great Jeff Thomson has compared Australian bowling attack with a "third-grade club side," and said that South Africa will relish on the pace battery.

Thomson believes Australia will struggle to take the required 20 wickets to win a Test on their tour of South Africa, following Stuart Clark's injury setback on last Thursday,.

Thomson took particular aim at off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, tour hopeful Shaun Tait and spearhead Mitchell Johnson.

He was dismayed when Australia took just two wickets in their crushing one-day loss last Monday and predicted more pain for Ponting''s bowlers in South Africa. The bowlers fared little better in Perth on Friday night, FOX Sports reported.

"From what I saw of the Australian attack the other day, what they bowled was absolute crap. Every one of them was terrible," said Thomson.

"It looked like South Africa was playing a third-grade club attack. I'm not the only one who thinks that. What I saw the other night was just gun-barrel bowling. There was no creativity. Nobody likes bowling on a flat wicket with no swing, but that wicket (in Adelaide) the other night showed how wanting our bowling attack is," he said.

"You have to be able to perform when the wicket isn't doing too much and South Africa showed them up the other night.

"The South African wickets are very similar to here, but they'd want to have something up their sleeve because at the moment how are they going to take 20 wickets to win a Test? We took two in 50 overs the other day, so maybe if we bowl 250 overs we'll get 10 wickets," Thomson said.

National selectors are expected to take one spinner to South Africa, but Thomson insists they can't pick Hauritz.

He also canned Tait''s selection prospects and said Johnson was showing signs of burnout after a gruelling summer in which he carried Australia's Test attack. (ANI)