- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Who should captain the Australian T20 team? Should you pick your best 11 players before selecting the captain? And if so, would George Bailey be in the team?
This is the inevitable debate prompted by Australia’s capitulation at the World T20 in Bangladesh, where Bailey’s leadership and batting have both been sub-par.
In Australia’s opening match against Pakistan, Bailey came to the wicket with a win all but gift-wrapped by Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch. The Aussies needed just 66 from 50 balls, with seven wickets in hand.
After struggling to counter Pakistan’s slow bowlers, Bailey tried to manufacture a shot through cover and was bowled by a Shahid Afridi straight ball. As a result of his inability to get off strike, the equation had been turned into a suddenly tricky 46 runs off 28.
Maxwell again ran rampant against the West Indies, but with Australia three wickets down within seven overs he needed his skipper to stick around. Bailey battled to move the run rate along before succumbing, scooping an innocuous delivery from Marlon Samuels straight to midwicket.
He compounded these woes with an embarrassing effort in the Aussies’ encounter with India. Australia were 5-63. They required 97 from 58 balls to win, a difficult task but far from insurmountable.
Having seen a parade of teammates gift their wickets with thoughtless strokes, Bailey replicated their mistakes. One delivery after striking a six, he arrogantly tried to repeat the feat and lobbed the ball to deep mid-wicket. At 6-63 the game was now done and dusted.
His captaincy has also been flawed, particularly his mishandling of the spin bowlers. Bailey showed little faith in either veteran Brad Hogg or precocious leg spinner James Muirhead as Australia’s specialist tweakers delivered just eight overs combined in their first three matches.
Against the West Indies, Bailey was reluctant to introduce Muirhead and then refused to employ him as the opposition charged towards victory.
Against India, Muirhead secured the crucial early wicket of champion strokemaker Virat Kohli. Yet a pair of long hops delivered to Yuvraj Singh were enough to see the young spinner banished after two overs.
Opposition captains, particularly those from subcontinental sides, are not so swift to lose confidence in their slow bowlers when they concede a boundary or two.
As I argued on The Roar yesterday, Australia cannot haul themselves up the T20 rankings without investing more heavily in their slow bowlers. Bailey must then properly utilise the tweakers who are selected.
There are actually a few alternatives for the captaincy, with Cameron White, Shane Watson, David Warner and Steve Smith all realistic options.
The unknown, of course, is whether any of them would be more effective than Bailey.
White led the Aussie team for 12 months after Michael Clarke stepped down at the start of 2011 – a period in which Australia triumphed in only two of the six matches they played. White subsequently lost not just the captaincy but his position in the line-up, replaced in both by Bailey.
The Victorian has strongarmed his way back into the side thanks to a robust limited-overs season in Australia. He is a proven leader, having captained Victoria for almost a decade and steered them to trophies in all formats before taking a break last season.
Having only just returned to the national side, he surely needs to cement his position before being handed back the captaincy.
What, then, of Watson’s credentials? He has led Australia at limited-overs level before and, importantly, is one of the first players picked in the T20 team.
He did, however, step down as Australian vice-captain in all formats just a year ago following the Indian tour debacle, so he may no longer desire a leadership role at international level.
Warner, his fellow top-order blaster, has been reported to have a keen interest in captaincy. Like Watson, he is a fixture in the T20 line-up. He has also led the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League.
The belligerent opener has been described as a potential future leader of the national side by Clarke, Smith and former Australian coach Mickey Arthur. While many cricket followers look down on Warner due to his churlish behaviour, he is clearly held in much higher regard among those in the Australian set-up.
Then, of course, there is Test-captain-in-waiting Smith. The 24-year-old could not even earn a spot in Australia’s 15-man World Cup squad, but he must have been very close to doing so as a result of his sterling form in the BBL and Ryobi Cup – 485 runs at 48 across both domestic competitions.
Smith has captaincy experience in all formats at domestic level and is widely regarded as an astute tactician and leader. But he’s in an even less desirable situation than White in that he still must earn and solidify his place in the T20 side before being considered for the captaincy.
So where does that leave all the alternative T20 skippers?
We have two players in White and Smith who are not even assured of a place in the team, another in Watson who seems to have abandoned his leadership dreams, and a fourth in Warner who is viewed as a boorish moron by much of the public.
Despite this perception, Warner is probably the best option among the four were Australia to look to make an immediate change to their captaincy.
But I doubt that will happen. Bailey’s status as Australia’s skipper and leading player at ODI level will buy him more time in the shortest format.