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The Australian cricket selectors have had their proverbial cake and eaten it, too, in announcing a surprisingly large squad for the first Ashes Test in Brisbane.
In an all-new stage-managed public announcement, which The Australian had dubbed “Selection Idol” (but which was largely ignored because of the ordinary weather), the selectors yesterday named a 17-man squad that includes the usual suspects and some token youngsters.
The official line will be something about looking to the future, in naming Usman Khawaja, Callum Ferguson, and Stephen Smith, but it’s very hard to see that their naming is for reasons any other than being seen to be bringing in new blood without actually bringing in new blood.
And in doing so, the selectors have therefore proven that Status Quo is not just a still going classic rock band of my parents’ era. Indeed, it’s a set-in-stone selection policy.
The expectant selection room showdown between the entrenched Chairman, Andrew Hilditch, and newly appointed full timer, Greg Chappell, disappointingly amounted to nothing.
A few weeks ago, Chappell was giving frustrated cricket fans reasons for hope, making comment about the need to manage the exit of older players while bringing young players in at the same time.
But by late last week he’d been pulled back into line by his Chairman and was instead treading carefully, preferring to give aging champions “one Test too many, than one too few.”
And so instead, we were with left yesterday’s announcement exercise in Sydney, which while I’m sure was designed to be an excitement-building event in the lead-up to the start of The Ashes, it really had that feel of desperate marketing about it.
I mean, would something like this still have happened if the Aussie team was still dominating as it was years ago, and cricket was booming rather than the perceptions (and reports) of its demise?
I have my doubts, and I’ll be surprised if I’m on my own.
When this extended squad gets trimmed back to the less-than-surprising Test Match twelve closer to the game, form and injury concerns will remain over several members and the squad announcement will be seen for the publicity stunt that it was.
While Mike Hussey and Marcus North will be probably be the subject of form concerns for the rest of their Test cricket days, team hierarchy have plenty of other personnel questions remaining, with Michael Clarke’s ongoing back problems and Mitchell Johnson’s radar at the head of the queue.
Clarke didn’t field after his first innings century for NSW in the Sheffield Shield game against Victoria, and then batted well down the order in the second, finishing 39 not out but in obvious discomfort. He’s already been withdrawn from the NSW-Tasmania game this week in Sydney. Only as a precaution, though. Of course.
Johnson, fresh from making his WA debut last week 18 months after relocating from Queensland for love, turned out on Saturday for Perth grade side Wanneroo in a one-day match. While he and the Test team management would be happy with a 1/24 return from his ten overs, the worry is that eleven of those came from wides.
Some good news over the weekend came in the form of opener Simon Katich’s successful return from a thumb injury with Sydney club Randwick-Petersham. Admittedly, Katich was out in the nineties yet again, but that’s not the worst problem in the world a batsman can have.
(Actually, Katich was apparently caught on the boundary, so credit to him for trying to beat the problem with one big shot!)
On the spin-bowling front, Nathan’s Hauritz remains an innings-to-innings prospect, and his place in Brisbane will come down to how well he responds to the presence of uncapped Tasmanian spinner Xavier Doherty in the squad.
The biggest question in this selection puzzle would have been whether Ryan Harris could have forced his way back into the Test team, just weeks after returning from a knee injury, or whether Dougie Bollinger comes back into the side after missing the last Test in India.
Bollinger has proved his fitness over two spells on Saturday, taking 1/30 from twelve overs for Fairfield-Liverpool in Sydney. The “status quo” policy should dictate that that’s more than enough to slot Bollinger straight back in.
However, just as Harris posted super impressive match figures of 9/140 in the Tasmania-Queensland Shield match in Hobart last week, and was brought in to replace in injured Mitchell Starc in the Australia A side for the tour match against England, his knee blew up again over the weekend. He now won’t play the tour match, and you’d imagine he’d be long odds now to be right for Brisbane.
Peter Siddle is also in the enlarged squad currently, but doesn’t really bring the same elements to the equation that a fit Harris would.
Status quo had already decided ten spots for Brisbane, and just as it appeared that a good old-fashioned bowl-off might decide the eleventh, a chronic knee problem has deprived us of the prospect.
Therefore, and just a touch over 15 months since England regained The Ashes at home, Australia will likely begin efforts to regain them in Brisbane with 9 of the 11 players who surrendered them at The Oval.
Not just an old rock band indeed.