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Australian fast bowling sensation Jackson Bird has been removed from the Indian tour, with a back injury also putting his Ashes prospects in doubt.
Bird flew home a few days ago, much to the delight of headline writers, to have scans after complaining of some soreness in his lower back.
Some commentators questioned why he would need to travel all the way home just for scans, but perhaps team management knew more than it let on, with the confirmation that Bird will not be in further contention for this tour.
“Initial tests performed in Melbourne have confirmed that Jackson Bird has a bone stress injury of the low back,” announced the Australian team doctor Peter Brukner “He will not be re-joining the team in India.”
It’s a real shame for the touring Australian team. Bird was omitted for the first Test, with the selectors wanting the shock value of James Pattinson back in the team, with Peter Siddle seen as the heart of the attack, and Mitchell Starc included with the expectation of swing and reverse swing on the rough pitch.
But I was a strong advocate of Bird making the playing XI for the coming matches, believing that he may well be the most effective Australian pace bowler in Indian conditions.
He was exceptional both on debut and in his second match against Sri Lanka, and would have been enjoying the surge of confidence those results generated. He is also coming off two dominant seasons in the Sheffield Shield.
His substantial height would have created an awkward angle for the generally shorter Indian batsmen, and would not have relied on the pitch to generate that difficulty.
His accuracy is exceptional, which would have allowed him to tie the run rate down, a vital part of the game for pace bowlers on the subcontinent. Bird conceded just one run per over in his tour game at the beginning of the series.
Then add to that his ability to bowl long spells, which sets him apart from the more fragile Pattinson and Starc, who are used bursts.
It makes a convincing package, but one that can no longer be delivered. Siddle will have to retain the role as workhorse, while with Pattinson a chance to be rested or Starc a chance to be left out, Mitchell Johnson is in the frame to make yet another comeback to the Test side.
Cricket Australia have not yet announced whether a replacement player will be flown to India. If one is, he’s likely to be a spinner.
The selectors will be hoping Nathan Lyon’s confidence can recover from being bled for a double century in the first Test. Xavier Doherty is the second spinner who might play alongside Lyon in the next match.
After those two, the cupboard looks bare. Of the spinning all-rounders in the squad, neither Steve Smith nor Glenn Maxwell indicated in the tour match that their bowling is up to Test level. And with Moises Henriques likely to keep his place, Australia surely won’t risk two all-rounders and a wicket-keeper in its top seven.
To the options back at home, selectors specified before the tour that Doherty was preferred to Steve O’Keefe as their left-arm spinner. O’Keefe’s batting, though, might be enough to make them reconsider, given the side’s paper-thin performance in their last innings.
Ashton Agar was the bolt from the blue to play in the tour squad, and was even mentioned as a slight prospect for a Test, but headed home. Picking an unknown with only four first-class games smells of desperation, but he already has two half-centuries to his credit, and 15 wickets at under 30.
Then there’s the forgotten man of Australian cricket, Nathan Hauritz, who hasn’t done much wrong since his Test career was ended by India in 2010. Hauritz was never a game-breaker, but has a lot of experience, and none of his successors have exceeded his standard.
With Mickey Arthurs’ groundbreaking admission that “you would have liked two spinners” on the Saharan pitch in Chennai, there will be many a chin stroked and a head scratched in the halls of Australian cricket power as we approach Test number two.
Who’s going to make the cut?