Bollinger bowled over by strange team selection

 
Brett McKay Columnist

By , 25 Nov 2010 Brett McKay is a Roar Expert

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Doug BollingerThe Australian selectors have done it again. Fresh from naming every second Sheffield Shield player in the country in a failed public event, they’ve sprung one last surprise before the Ashes kicks off in earnest.

Michael Clarke proved his dodgy back is fine-ish with a couple a light net sessions, and will therefore deny young New South Wales tyro Usman Khawaja a Test debut.

There’s no doubt the team will feel more confident with the vice captain taking his place in the batting order, though Khawaja would not look out of place at this level.

However, Doug Bollinger, the man whose preparation for the Indian series last month was hindered, and then ruined, by Cricket Australia’s insistence that he stay on and play the final of the Champions League Twenty20, has somewhat surprisingly been left out.

Victorian quick Peter Siddle has won the third seamer’s spot, and he’ll return to the Test team after succumbing to back stress fractures late last season.

I’d reckon Dougie would have been fairly aggrieved to hear he’d missed out, and particularly the explanation offered that he just didn’t have enough overs under his belt going in the opening Test of an Ashes campaign.

Bollinger bowled 20-plus overs in the NSW-Tasmania Shield game in Sydney last week, which was his return from the injury suffered in India. Of course, Bollinger wanted to return in the previous game for NSW, but was left out and rested on advice from CA medical staff.

So here’s a guy that wanted to play one week, was held back a week by his employers so as not to risk re-injury, and now these same employers are telling him he’s missed selection because he hasn’t bowled enough! That will do me…

I thought Cricket Australia’s insanity had reached new heights with the whole Selection Idol debacle, but this trumps even that.

Bollinger was almost a lone star in the Australian attack this time last year, and now he’s on the sidelines all because of the unique logical workings of the cricket administrators and selectors in this country.

It makes you wonder just how much they really want the Ashes back.

Peter Siddle has done nothing wrong, obviously, and his recall is a just reward for a successful return from injury himself.

But it’s fair to say that unless he plays one of the games of his life this week in Brisbane, the general view is going to be ‘that should have been Bollinger.’

Strangely though, the same theory of workload doesn’t seem to have been applied to Michael Clarke.

After injuring his back in the NSW-Victoria Shield game two weeks ago, Clarke has been undergoing intense physio work and trying to prove his fitness since. But even this week, his workload has been kept deliberately low, and questions will undoubtedly remain about his fitness. And thus, the perceptions of double standards for batsmen and bowlers will remain.

On arrival up in Brisbane yesterday afternoon, I was pleased to see sunny skies and only patches of cloud. The forecast rain and showers didn’t eventuate, and for that I was very glad.

The ‘Gabba wicket didn’t look anywhere near as green as I was expecting, and although it still has an appearance that Don Burke would enjoy, it wouldn’t at all surprise me to see the side who wins the toss batting first.

That said, showers are still set to play a part during this game, and the forecast of localised showers remains for all days of the Test.

It would be a great shame if weather played too big a part in this Test, as Brisbane traditionally sets the tone for the entire Ashes series.

Nasser Hussein still refers to his ill-fated decision to bowl first in Brisbane in 2002/03 as the biggest regret of his captaincy, and similarly, England’s campaign was almost doomed from the moment Andrew Flintoff fielded Steve Harmison’s first delivery of the 2006/07 series at second slip.

It’s hard to see this current England team making these same mistakes, so settled a unit are they, and they will be super-determined to twist the knife even further into a vulnerable Australian outfit.

Conversely, Australia needs a First Test win to reinforce their own belief and confidence levels, but also to extinguish the increasingly doubtful Australian public of their abilities.

It will undoubtedly be an enthralling contest.

Follow Brett McKay on Twitter: @BMcSport
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