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Adelaide has done it again. India provided another dramatic day of Test cricket thanks to the precocious talent of stand-in skipper Virat Kholi and great support from reliable opener Murali Vijay, who pushed Australia all the way.
However, spinner Nathan Lyon exorcised some demons by finally producing a match-winning fourth innings display, claiming 7 wickets and a career-best 12 for the match.
It was a Test that Australia dominated. India’s threadbare bowling attack only picked up 12 wickets in two innings with the Australians bowling them out twice. But while Kholi was in they were always a chance.
It was a baptism of fire for Brad Haddin as Australian captain for large portions of the last day, with Michael Clarke’s ailing body letting him down again.
He has torn a hamstring and even admitted after the match that his playing future is not certain.
With Clarke out, Shaun Marsh, who was on standby for Adelaide after making a century in the previous Sheffield Shield match for Western Australia against Victoria, will return to Test cricket. He has had a stop-start career so far due to injury and spasmodic form.
He made 55 and 11 in the last Shield match, but batted at five when he most likely won’t bat any lower than four at the Gabba.
As mentioned, his form is solid with a 50 and a century in two of his last three innings, but has he been knocking the door down like Tasmanian Ed Cowan? Cowan has four hundreds in the first half of the season, including a century in each innings of Tasmania’s comprehensive thrashing of South Australia during the week.
Cowan last played a Test in the 2013 Ashes series at Trent Bridge, but had a double failure batting at number three after all his previous Tests had been as an opener.
Chris Rogers, despite a top score of 48 in his last Test innings, has been retained to partner the rampaging David Warner for Brisbane, but Cowan is in the best form of the players not in the Test side at the moment.
If Rogers’ run of outs were to continue next week, surely Cowan must be considered to return at his expense, even though his average is under 35 with just one century in Test cricket.
There is also the issue, but it shouldn’t be one, of whether he fits into the culture of the current Australian cricket team. Everyone in the media loves Cowan for his frankness, friendliness, eloquence and the fact that he doesn’t give cliched answers. They are all well thought-through and he always has something to say. He is not unpopular in the dressing room, but he seems to be an opposite to coach Darren Lehmann.
Boof loves Shaun Marsh as he can be one of the lads like his brother Mitch, Warner, Ryan Harris, Clarke, Haddin and even Rogers.
Since Steve Waugh became captain, and it continued under Ricky Ponting, some players have seemingly been selected because they fit into the culture of the dressing room. If it was a line ball in a selection battle between two players, where there may have been doubts about one’s capacity to fit in, it was a no brainer.
Former Victorian star batsman Brad Hodge appeared to be one who was cost several Test appearances due to that selection policy, along with Queenslander Stewie Law.
Going back almost 40 years to the 1975-76 West Indies series in Australia, a young Victorian, Graham Yallop, was in good form and got chosen for the fourth Test in Sydney at the expense of Rick McCosker, who had a top score of just 22 not out in in the first three Tests.
His teammates, like the Chappells, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee, were angry that McCosker had been dropped, claiming he had already earned his stripes after dominating the previous tour of England that Australian winter. Yallop said later he wasn’t made to feel very welcome, even though his performances were solid for the rest of the series.
If the selectors were picking on form and pure volume of runs for a middle order player, Western Australia captain Adam Voges must be right up there. He did a Cowan, Warner and Kholi when smashing a hundred in each innings of last week’s Shield match in Perth.
There are younger middle order prospects in better form than Marsh, like Queenslander Joe Burns and South Australian Callum Ferguson, but Marsh seems to be the right mix for this team and gets the nod to play his first Test with his brother.
Let’s hope he bats much better than the last time he played against India in a Test series in Australia in 2011-2012, when he hardly made a run.
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