Australia lose but Forrest stands out from the trees
Columnist By David Lord, 13 Feb 2012 David Lord is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- Cricket, Indian cricket, one day international, Peter Forrest
Peter Forrest smacks the ball while making an impressive debut for Australia (AAP Image/James Elsby)
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Peter Forrest was the only plus to surface from the highly-criticised rotation policy for yesterdays ODI between Australia and India at Adelaide.
Mike Hussey was ‘rested’ from the Australian lineup, India ‘rested’ Sachin Tendulkar. Both were fit to play.
Former England captain Tony Greig led the Channel Nine commentators on a verbal lashing of the policy. The station’s viewers lent support with a resounding 82% vote against rotation.
But without it we wouldn’t have seen the superb international debut of 26-year-old Forrest, whose composure, footwork, clean striking, and power showed he was right at home with the elite.
His 66 off 83, with five fours and two massive down-the-ground sixes, plus his 98-run fourth-wicket partnership with the very experienced David Hussey (72), shored up Australia from a dicey 3-81.
It wasn’t enough in the end, but it was entertaining while it lasted. India (6-270) beat Australia (269) by four wickets, with two deliveries in hand.
But it was Peter Forrest’s day.
He was a left-field selection, averaging only 29.33 for his adopted Queensland in the interstate 50-overs, but 58.10 in the Sheffield Shield with three centuries from 11 visits.
It begs a raft of questions as to how the selectors will react for the next ODI against Sri Lanka at the SCG on Friday, and the game against India at the Gabba on Sunday?
Mike Hussey must return, Forrest can’t be dropped. And there’s still the 20-year-old Mitchell Marsh to be given a run in this series with his all-round talents.
Is it Ricky Ponting’s turn to be “rested”? Will Michael Clarke’s tweaked hamstring be right to play? If not, who will lead the side?
If Ponting and Clarke don’t play, it would be the ideal time to blood David Warner as skipper, something the selectors should have done with the two Twenty20 games against India.
Warner has shown strong leadership qualities as captain of the Chairman’s X1 against India at Canberra, and the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League.
The other alternative would be to recall keeper Brad Haddin to the side as skipper. The Warner proposition has more legs.
But the dashing left-hander needs some runs, and the team needs an opening stand.
In the three ODIs to date the opening partnerships have been 15, 22, and 14 – leaving Australia under the pump from the start. The alternatives are light on, so the Warner-Matthew Wade combination looks the safest bet.
And with expressman Brett Lee ready to return from a broken toe, Mitchell Starc would be a casualty along with Ponting, and possibly an injured Clarke.
In that case, how about David Warner (c), Matthew Wade, Peter Forrest, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Marsh, David Hussey, Dan Christian, Brett Lee, Ryan Harris, Clint McKay, and Xavier Doherty.
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- Explore:
- Cricket, Indian cricket, one day international, Peter Forrest
February 13th 2012 @ 8:47am
Chris said | February 13th 2012 @ 8:47am | Report comment
Yeah, I don’t mind that lineup, but why drop Starc? I’d have him in the team before Harris. And why not either of the Hussey’s as captain? As much as I think Warner has potential for being captain, he’s probably better off trying to get some consistency in his game first.
February 13th 2012 @ 10:00am
Brendon said | February 13th 2012 @ 10:00am | Report comment
Because Starc is hopeless? Isn’t that reason enough?
February 13th 2012 @ 11:12am
Chris said | February 13th 2012 @ 11:12am | Report comment
A tall left-arm fast bowler in good form who has been taking wickets in all three forms of the game. And has taken more wickets and scored more runs than Ryan Harris.
So, no Starc isn’t hopeless. He’s actually been bowling pretty well.
February 13th 2012 @ 4:25pm
Brendon said | February 13th 2012 @ 4:25pm | Report comment
Like last night’s 0 for 49 off 8 overs?
February 13th 2012 @ 10:34am
Matt F said | February 13th 2012 @ 10:34am | Report comment
Yeah I wouldn’t be making Warner captain either. It’s easy to forget that he wasn’t even in the ODI teams in SL and SA. He’s in it now based on his T20 and test form. He hasn’t exactly set the world on fire so far this series either. Let him concentrate on cementing his spot in the ODI XI before giving him leadership responsibilities. I do think that he should have been made T20 captain though.
I wouldn’t mind Mike Hussey being captain for a game. He’s been vice captain a few times and seems to have a decent cricket brain on him. Having said that, if Clarke isn’t right for Friday then they’ll probably play Ponting as captain and rest him in a later game. Either that or it gives them the perfect excuse to recall Haddin……….
I would be very susprised if the dropped Starc for the next game, especially given it’s at the SCG. If Lee really is fit enough to play then I’d give Harris a rest. He hasn’t been brilliant so far this series (not bad either, just ok) and we know all about his injury troubles.
February 13th 2012 @ 6:40pm
lolly said | February 13th 2012 @ 6:40pm | Report comment
He was in the ODI team in SA. I think they are going to give him a very long run in ODI’s hoping that he’ll come good.
February 13th 2012 @ 10:02am
Brendon said | February 13th 2012 @ 10:02am | Report comment
Without Lee our bowling looks very bland. He can’t come back soon enough.
February 13th 2012 @ 11:05am
Blazza said | February 13th 2012 @ 11:05am | Report comment
Lee is overrated and should not be picked. How is this guy involved in the team when we should be rebuilding for the World Cup in our country. The one bowler we do miss is Mitchell Johnson, even with his weirdly inconsistent test bowling the guys ODI form for years has been outstanding. The one thing we miss is someone with raw pace that can bowl 150 km/h consistently, if that’s Lee then fine but its hardly our future.
And with the whole resting point, why isn’t Ponting “rested” like Haddin. His batting and now his fielding have been horrid.
Australia lost that match last night by having Ponting open the batting which forced Wade down the order. Had we kept the same line up and put Forrest at 5 and have David Hussey/Christian finish off the innings we would of scored 290. It was poor all around yesterday but the Aussies and now we could of given India a sniff.
February 13th 2012 @ 11:22am
Matt F said | February 13th 2012 @ 11:22am | Report comment
Lee overrated? With a career ODI bowling average under 23, strike rate under 30 and economy rate under 5, he is anything but overrated. I agree that, given the World Cup is 3 years away, he’s not the future but then neither are Harris, Ponting, Hussey x2 or Haddin (though he may not be picked again.) You can’t drop them all at once though, but need to slowly phase them out and our batting line up is older then the bowlers. I’d rather start with Ponting and let him concentrate 100% of his energy on Test cricket.
Long term we should have Pattinson, Cummins and maybe even Starc who will all be able to push, or surpass, 150km/h consistently.
February 13th 2012 @ 11:39am
Blazza said | February 13th 2012 @ 11:39am | Report comment
I just don’t like a guy who is 35 leading our attack . The guy has still got it but he wont be in the team much longer. Yea i don’t think having Ponting in the team is the right decision. Yes we need to phase them out but they don’t want to go. Rumors were that one on the older players didn’t want to get rested from the perth game and thats why Forrest didn’t play till yesterday. Wasn’t the biggest fan of David Hussey playing for Australia but he showed real class yesterday but yea he isn’t a player for the future and his taking up a spot for say Callum Ferguson.
February 13th 2012 @ 12:06pm
Matt F said | February 13th 2012 @ 12:06pm | Report comment
I don’t mind a guy like Lee being in the team for a while. We’ve got so many young bowlers coming through that having a player as experienced as Lee around will be invaluable for their development. The batting is a bigger concern for me because, if Haddin were to come back into the side, then you’d have 4 out of the top 7 batsmen (Ponting, Haddin and Hussey x2) who won’t be around for the 2015 World Cup. At some point we’re going to have to start building for that tournament and, to me, it makes more sense to ease one of those players out every 6 months or so from now (start with Haddin as Wade has looked very promising so far.) I’d like to see at least 2 of those 4 out of the ODI side by the start of next summer.
As you said there are quite a few younger batsmen doing well in the domestic one-day competition that we should be looking to build the team around (Ferguson, Cooper etc.) Khawaja is another player who many people don’t really think of as a potential ODI player yet he has scored 2 centuries this season, despite only playing 2 games and has a career average over 40.
February 13th 2012 @ 12:11pm
Blazza said | February 13th 2012 @ 12:11pm | Report comment
Yea agree, our batting will cost us games, i trust no one to go out there and score a solid 70-80.
Love Khawaja he is our best young batsmen. Until our selectors grow a pair our middle order will stay the same. Haddin has turned into a joke and will only hurt this team if he gets picked again over Wade.
We also have Watson to come into it soon which will be interesting on how they play him.
February 13th 2012 @ 12:20pm
Matt F said | February 13th 2012 @ 12:20pm | Report comment
Watson should open in ODI and T20 team but bat in the middle order (4-6) in the test side. The batting of all 3 sides hasn’t looked that great so far this tri-series, especially the top orders.
February 13th 2012 @ 12:11pm
Red Kev said | February 13th 2012 @ 12:11pm | Report comment
I have to agree with MattF. Despite me being in favour of forceably retiring the older players Brett Lee should still be in the limited overs formats. Pattinson and Cummins are coming back from injury; Cutting, McDermott, Coulter-Nile, and Faulkner are all probably a little too young to thrust into the ODIs this season; that leaves Lee as pretty damn important.
February 13th 2012 @ 6:16pm
Maggie said | February 13th 2012 @ 6:16pm | Report comment
+1 from me re Oz need for Lee’s return asap. He was desperately missed last night. Lee is the master in both T20 and one-day matches in bowling tight last overs. Unfortunately Clint McKay, who had bowled well earlier in the match, crumbled under the pressure in that last over.
February 13th 2012 @ 11:09am
jameswm said | February 13th 2012 @ 11:09am | Report comment
I don’t get the issue with the rotation policy.
You’e got – what – 8 semi-meaningful ODIs. Forrest is in your squad, so if you don’t rotate, then how exactly does he get a game? You want to play your squad to keep them fresh.
This is ODIs, not tests. This is part of what they are for – to blood our younger guys.
Warner, Ponting and Clarke could be rested too. And Mitch Marsh needs to come in, whether for Christian, a batsman or a bowler.
You play a squad of 13 throughout the pool games, and then pick your strongest team for the finals, if they have them.
It’s like in footy – you get in front, and you give your best players a break. Or you play a weaker team and give them a break. Sure this can come back and bite you on the butt, but it’s how you manage a squad. In cricket you can’t rest a player half way through, so instead when you’re ahead in the series you rest a player.
I’m all for it.
February 13th 2012 @ 6:44pm
lolly said | February 13th 2012 @ 6:44pm | Report comment
I have no problems with rotating players. When he was skipper, Punter was always rested in the summer. It’s just commentators getting worked up over nothing as they so frequently do. Its a long series so it’s the perfect time to get some experience into the new batsmen.
February 13th 2012 @ 11:15am
Chris said | February 13th 2012 @ 11:15am | Report comment
After Ponting’s brief resurrection during the Test series, he seems to have gone back to his bad old habit of falling over while playing his shots. Really not sure how Australian cricket is benefiting from him being continued with in the ODIs.
February 13th 2012 @ 11:20am
jameswm said | February 13th 2012 @ 11:20am | Report comment
Maybe he can be rested next game. Wade can open and Clarke 3.
Although with Clarke injured, the rotation policy can be put to bed for now, unless both Christian and MMarsh play.
Before Ponting’s renissance this season, I’d still have kept him in the ODI side. He bats at a very good tempo for it.
February 13th 2012 @ 7:32pm
aussie1st said | February 13th 2012 @ 7:32pm | Report comment
Agree does look worrying. All the more reason to keep him on a series by series basis especially if he keeps getting out in the same fashion.
February 13th 2012 @ 11:29am
formeropenside said | February 13th 2012 @ 11:29am | Report comment
Forrest certainly timed and placed some shots brilliantly – a real change from watching sheer brute force.
Reminded me a bit of Greg Chappell, in a way.
February 13th 2012 @ 11:46am
Chris said | February 13th 2012 @ 11:46am | Report comment
He’s a bit odd – looks like a nuggety, power hitter, but plays in a more classical manner like Greg Chappell or Mark Waugh. Unfortunate that the Channel 9 commentary team decided to describe him as “Australia’s new batting superstar”. Poor bugger…
February 13th 2012 @ 12:11pm
Matt F said | February 13th 2012 @ 12:11pm | Report comment
They didn’t did they? Good lord…….
February 13th 2012 @ 6:45pm
lolly said | February 13th 2012 @ 6:45pm | Report comment
He really needs to learn to rotate the strike though. He faced a lot of dot balls.
February 13th 2012 @ 11:44am
Andyc said | February 13th 2012 @ 11:44am | Report comment
Warner is due for the weekend off, he looked jaded in the field and is one of the few playing all three forms of the game.
February 13th 2012 @ 6:09pm
Behold said | February 13th 2012 @ 6:09pm | Report comment
Warner needs to be dropped not rested from this team, he doesn’t have the record to back up his selection and can’t seem to find a way into an ODI innings. His fielding was horrible, he is a good catcher and quick across the outfield but his ground fielding is on par with being the worst in the team apart from Clint McKay who is a liability all round.
February 13th 2012 @ 6:37pm
roarr said | February 13th 2012 @ 6:37pm | Report comment
I think he is probably suffering a bit from jumping from T20 to test back to T20 now to ODI. Despite being the same sport, they really do require different skills and moreso they require a change in mentality. Even from 20 over to 50 over… you can see he’s a little bit unsure when he should be upping the gears and when he should be leaving balls.
Its not as easy to go back and forward through all forms of the game as people think. I would strongly advocate more division between the teams… so much so that eventually the T20 team probably wont have any test players at all and might even play on a different touring schedule to that of the test team.
February 13th 2012 @ 12:22pm
Luke of GC said | February 13th 2012 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
Forrest looked fantastic to me. The only miniscule criticism I had of him out of yesterday was that he allowed the bowlers to bowl a few too many dot balls at him and didn’t quite rotate the strike enough for ODI Cricket (not a problem in Test Cricket however).
Technique wise he looked top notch though. Didn’t look like playing a false shot (until he eventually did and got out trying to lift the tempo).
The only problem with him being in the Aussie team is all the Forrest puns that we will have to endure. “Forrest stands out from the trees” and “Runs Forrest, Runs!!!” being the best I’ve heard so far.
February 13th 2012 @ 12:29pm
Blazza said | February 13th 2012 @ 12:29pm | Report comment
I think your criticism is correct when you compare him to Gambhir who had 40+ singles in his knock but i disagree that he doesnt need to do it in test cricket. Its more common and better to rotate the strike more in test cricket otherwise you get bogged down for to long.
His technique looked quite good. Khawaja has the best technique in Australia that i’ve seen and Clarke’s is fine aswell and Forrest certainly looked comfortable out there .
February 13th 2012 @ 7:35pm
aussie1st said | February 13th 2012 @ 7:35pm | Report comment
I don’t think Forrest will be in the ODI side long term unless Clarke goes. They are too similar and you can’t have two of them in one side. However happy to be proven wrong if either Clarke starts scoring like he did in the last game or Forrest proves this was debut nerves.
For me I was looking more at how he would go in the Test arena and so far so good. Short ball is one thing he might need to work on.
February 13th 2012 @ 12:26pm
Blazza said | February 13th 2012 @ 12:26pm | Report comment
Couldn’t agree more Matt F about Watson. Open for the T20s and ODIs and the 4or 5 for tests
February 13th 2012 @ 12:39pm
jameswm said | February 13th 2012 @ 12:39pm | Report comment
He needs to be 5 or 6 in tests, so that after bowling he has time to have a shower, a feed etc and recovr, before padding up again. No.4 needs to be semi-padded up at the first ball.
February 13th 2012 @ 3:22pm
Chris said | February 13th 2012 @ 3:22pm | Report comment
Agreed. Although I noticed Ian Chappell advocating for Watson to be retained as opener in the Test team in his column on cricinfo.
February 13th 2012 @ 4:57pm
jameswm said | February 13th 2012 @ 4:57pm | Report comment
Ian Chappell is losing the plot.
February 13th 2012 @ 3:03pm
DC of nz said | February 13th 2012 @ 3:03pm | Report comment
Ponting is too old for this competition ..so drop him.
I would say that Wade, Forrest, the Husseys are your middle order. Clarke doesn’t have the power to score fast in T20… And sometimes one day contests… He will be a brake in some crucial run chases…
February 13th 2012 @ 3:37pm
Blazza said | February 13th 2012 @ 3:37pm | Report comment
I think your wrong about Clarke in ODIs .
He has a great record. AVG of 45 with a strike rate of 78 is pretty good for a middle order batsmen.
And just over a year ago he scored 82 off 70 to help the Aussies beat England chasing 334 to win. So he proved he can chase.
February 13th 2012 @ 3:57pm
Luke of GC said | February 13th 2012 @ 3:57pm | Report comment
If Watson is to stay as opener he has to dramatically drop his workload with the ball. He can’t continue to do both and still perform to his peak level.
12 months ago, Watson not bowling as much would of been not worth contemplating as our attack needed him. But the last 3-4 series our bowling attack has improved markedly and his bowling may not be as important as it once was to the side.
February 13th 2012 @ 4:15pm
Red Kev said | February 13th 2012 @ 4:15pm | Report comment
I am not convinced that Watson can be selected on his batting alone. I believe him to be a formidable all-rounder, especially in the shorter forms of the game (and is without question one of the first-picked for those formats), but he is not one of the best six “pure batsmen” in the country in my opinion, he needs the added ability of his bowling to force his way into the lineup.
That is just an opinion and I am not certain his stats support my viewpoint (test average of 38, FC average of 45).
It is worth noting however that since the Ashes, Watson (5 tests @ 20.22) has performed worse than Hughes (7 tests @ 27.69), Khawaja (5 tests @ 29.29) and Marsh (7 tests @ 27.36) with the bat.
February 13th 2012 @ 9:06pm
Chris said | February 13th 2012 @ 9:06pm | Report comment
And as such is regarded as an integral part of the undroppable boys club that is the team within the team.