By Benjamin Conkey
November 26th 2008 @ 3:15am
Selectors should stick with Watson and Symonds
When Australia lost the Ashes in 2005, I remember trying to picture the team four years down the track. At the time I thought Simon Katich had no chance and I suspected Michael Clarke might not be there because he lacked discipline and concentration when bowlers pitched wide of off stump.
Interestingly, they both did get axed from the squad, but now they’re stand-outs in Australia’s top order. Who knows what would have happened if they weren’t there to rescue the Aussies in the first Test against the Kiwis?
Unfortunately Shane Watson is now learning how harsh life can be in an Australian cricket team where performances sometimes count for little (just ask Brad Hodge).
The decision to play two all-rounders in Brisbane was interesting, but it appears it was only an experiment that confirmed to selectors that they want ‘Roy.’
Perhaps it was the amount of runs Symonds saved in the field; perhaps it was the enormous ovation he got from the Gabba faithful.
Whatever it was, Watson is now feeling the sharp edge of the axe.
Poor old ‘Wato.’ You’ve got to feel for him. He did the hard yards in India on batsman friendly pitches, and then he bowled well against New Zealand, finally producing some decent in-swing with the Kookaburra ball.
The sheer intimidation factor of Symonds, with his ambidextrous fielding, hard-hitting and versatility with the ball looks to have won out for now.
However, I still feel two all-rounders is the way to go, especially now that Watson is finding his feet in the Test match arena.
Having both of them works because Symonds is more a batting all-rounder, whereas Watson is a bowler by trade, just like Collingwood and Flintoff in the England side.
To make room, Matthew Hayden will have to go as Geoff Lawson alluded to in his article this week.
Regardless of how many runs he scores for the remainder of the summer, his time is up. Australia can’t afford to have a repeat of his woeful Ashes batting of 2005 when he looked hopelessly out of touch against the swinging ball.
I know that we have plenty of back up opening batsmen around the country, including Chris Rogers and Phil Jacques. But I would be tempted to promote Michael Hussey into the opening position alongside Katich.
Moving Hussey up the order will allow three pace bowlers, a spinner and the two all-rounders into the starting eleven.
It will give the side a good balance because, without Warne and McGrath, Australia desperately needs the extra bowling options – as the Indian tour showed.
It will have the added benefit of increasing the batting strength due to the so-called inadequacies of Haddin (then again anyone looks inadequate compared to Gilchrist).
So what other changes can we expect?
Obviously Krejza will slot in as the preferred spinner after such a stunning debut. Whether he’ll be there come Ashes time depends on his results. I’d like to think the selectors will stick with him the same way their predecessors did with Shane Warne sixteen years ago after he had a less than impressive start to his career.
As for wicket keeping, Haddin looks pretty safe.
His only real challenger is Luke Ronchi, who averages close to 34 with the bat in first-class cricket. There are a number of young keepers, including Tim Paine and Matthew Wade. But you wouldn’t expect Cricket Australia to throw them in the deep end because of the modern Aussie mantra of earning your place in the team.
So with just eight months till the Ashes, this is the 15-man squad I’d be taking to England at the moment:
M Hussey
S Katich
R Ponting
M Clarke
A Symonds
S Watson
B Haddin
B Lee
M Johnson
S Clark
J Krejza
B Hilfenhaus (12th Man)S Tait
C Rogers
L Ronchi
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(5)
LeftArmSpinner said | November 26th 2008 @ 6:16am | Report comment
Ben, Symonds has confirmed that he has a drinking problem. Why was he in a pub?
For the sake of the man, help him. After all, we are only playing the rag tag New Zealand team that dont even approach Shield standard.
Put the man first and the game second!!!
JohnB said | November 26th 2008 @ 11:32am | Report comment
Seems to me that picking a “balanced” cricket team is not particularly hard (in principle at least), as there are some fundamental requirements that are pretty much immutable. You need your 5 best batsmen, best wicket keeper and 4 best bowlers. Of course, in practice it is made more complicated because what is meant by “best” is not always clear or constant – it will depend on the conditions, the opposition and in at least some cases the abilities of the players in disciplines other than their main speciality (thus you can prefer a reasonable keeper and very good batsman over a good keeper/fair batsman, fielding skills may divide players of otherwise similar ability, superior batting of one contender may tip the scales between similar bowlers etc). Nevertheless, that basic framework – 5 batsmen, 1 wk, 4 bowlers – remains constant in my view.
You are then left with one position to play with, and who you pick there depends again on the conditions and the opposition, but also on who else you have picked. Do you want more batting or more bowling? Do you want more spin or more pace? Can the ability of this last player allow you to adjust who you pick as the 4 bowlers (or as the wicket keeper)?
If you want to pick both Watson and Symonds, it seems to me that you have to be saying that one of them is either in the best 5 batsmen or best 4 bowlers. I just do not see that you can say that. While I think you can make a case for picking either one of them (Symonds – on last season’s form a good test batsman at 6, with fielding and handy bowling a bonus; Watson – good enough to contribute as 4th seamer in a 4 seam 1 spin attack, or as 3rd seamer in a 3 seam, 2 spin attack, and has clear ability as a batsman, even if he is yet to make much of it), picking both while still picking 4 specialist bowlers leaves you dangerously short of batting. And, on the flip side, if as in Brisbane you pick them and only 3 bowlers, your bowling is at risk of ending up being light on.
I’m also always puzzled when people want to fiddle with a strength in a sporting team in order to try to address a weakness (as in shifting Hussey from 4 to open). I wouldn’t say you should never do it, because sometimes you have no alternatives and sometimes people are ready to take on bigger responsibilities. However, it seems to me that if someone has been making a pile of runs against all comers in one of the key batting positions, you should be very reluctant to move him from there. It’s not like Rogers (or even Marsh) isn’t well worth a go when Hayden goes or is pushed.
JMM said | November 26th 2008 @ 6:52pm | Report comment
Great article Ben, it seems to me as if there is an in-crowd and and out-crowd for the Australian cricket team – players like Symonds and Hayden are in the side despite their recent poor batting performances, and players like Watson and Hodge miss out despite good performances. I agree, too, that the mantra of earning your place in the team means that we have all old timers going around – time for the selectors to take a risk and bring in a few players under age 30!
Drewster said | November 27th 2008 @ 6:19pm | Report comment
As much as i have enjoyed watching Hayden over the years, The time seems to be here for that tap on the shoulder from the selectors. You have to feel for Watson, I hope he returns soon and with an attitude of this could be my last test so i am going out all guns blazing as he is great to watch with bat and ball when he is firing.
Lets hope the selectors get it right before the end of the New Zealand Test series because South Africa is going to be a different prospect and make no mistake they owe us big time on the cricket field.
Derryn said | November 28th 2008 @ 1:13pm | Report comment
Get rid of Ponting as captain and put Katich as Captain
Get rid of Watson and White
Hayden has had long enough
Hilfenhaus should get start
I wouldnt worry about playing a spinner when our batsmen can bowl better then the specialist spinners anyway.