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SPIRO's Six and Out: Steve Smith could solve the number three problem

18th December, 2014
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Steven Smith continued his amazing form in India. (AFP PHOTO / GREG WOOD)
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18th December, 2014
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Steve Smith dominates the talk following his debut as Australian Test captain, though the Blarney Army also has something to shout about.

Should Ireland be installed as a competitor in the Test arena? And is Josh Hazlewood Australia’s new Glenn McGrath?

1. Steve Smith should promote himself to No. 3 in the batting order
So far this series against a lively Indian attack, Steve Smith has scored 162 not out, 52 not out and now at the end of play on the second day of the second Test at Brisbane 65 not out.

The first two scores were made batting from the number five position. Smith’s latest effort was scored from batting at number four, taking Michael Clarke’s batting position.

All these runs were scored with a certain ease and efficiency, the mark of a master batsman. Smith’s strike rate in his 65 not out, for example, was 73.86 per cent. He faced 88 balls and hit six fours and two sixes.

The big hits provide an insight into Smith’s instinct for batting. He and Shaun Marsh were being tied down by some off-spin bowling from Ravi Ashwin. In the over after the drinks break, Smith launched into a calculated and expert assault on Ashwin, hitting him for 16 off the over. Ashwin’s tenacious grip on Smith was broken.

With the continued failure of Shane Watson to entrench himself at no three, Smith should take the opportunity in the third Test at the SCG to promote himself (using the captain’s prerogative) to the number three position. Watson should move down to number five, which is probably more suited to his game right now.

The attacking but ruthlessly efficient number three has been one of the glories of Australian XIs with Charles Macartney, Don Bradman (both of whom scored centuries before lunch in Ashes Tests), Neil Harvey, Ian Chappell and more recently Ricky Ponting.

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Steve Smith deserves his chance to become part of this great tradition.

2. Will Michael Clarke return to Test cricket as the captain of the baggy green caps?
It was interesting that in a pre-Test interview with Mark Taylor, Steve Smith referred to himself as a ‘temporary captain for three Tests’.

This suggests that he believes that Michael Clarke will be back playing Test cricket for Australia for the tour of the West Indies in June next year.

Shane Warne, who seems to be Clarke’s publicity agent (and a great and supportive mate), told his fellow commentators on Channel Nine that Clarke’s surgery on his recently damaged right hamstring had gone particularly well. So well, in fact, that the Clarke camp are talking about his return to international cricket as early as the ODI World Cup tournament early next year.

Warne has been supported in his confidence in Clarke’s early return by the Australian team physio Alex Kantouris who reckons that the skipper is “still a chance” to play in the World Cup.

But even if Clarke returns, should he remain captain given his alarming tendency to break down physically so often?

Ian Chappell, always controversial, believes that this breaking down tendency should force the selectors to remain with Steve Smith as captain. It makes no sense, he argues, to chop and change captains: “If Smith is doing a good job you just say, ‘right we’ll stick with him and have Michael Clarke as a player'”.

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3. Is Steve Smith doing a good job as captain?
These are early days, the first two days of his first Test as captain. But the early indications are that Smith is a natural, like Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell and Michael Clarke.

Smith lost the toss and India, on a sweltering day with the Australian bowling attack crumbling in the heat, smashed their way to 311 for 4, the highest first day score by a touring side in a Brisbane Test.

Smith had captained calmly and intelligently. But with bowlers breaking down and catches dropped, it was a hard slog for him and his team.

On the second day, Smith wrested some of the initiative back from the rampant Indians with some skilful captaincy and then some belligerent and intelligent batting.

In the first session of the day India lost six wickets for 97 runs, a victory of sorts for Australia, and the skipper.

When bad light ended play Australia was 4-221, with the late wicket of Shaun Marsh slightly tilting the balance of the game towards India, especially as Australia are virtually certain to have to bat last on a wicket that is taking spin and bounce.

I liked Smith’s calmness on the field. There was no Napoleonic posturing so beloved by so many imposter leaders. He set reasonable fields for his bowlers and used his spinner Nathan Lyon very shrewdly. Using spinners well, to my mind, is the truest Test of a good captain.

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My conclusion is this. If Michael Clarke does come back for either the West Indies tour or the Ashes Tests in England, Smith has shown enough to be the automatic choice as his successor.

If for some reason Clarke does not come back, Smith is ready, in my view, to take on the captaincy on a permanent basis with excellent prospects of doing a splendid job.

4. Josh Hazlewood is the Real McGrath
Josh Hazlewood was given a rookie contract by NSW in 2008 when he was in Year 12. Sometimes batsmen are precocious like this. But it is rare for a fast bowler.

Stress fractures ruled him of touring India in 2010 with the Australian side. Now, still a youngster, he has made a tremendous Test debut taking 5-68 off 23 overs, with six maidens. This is the best debut by an Australian fast bowler in years.

Ian Chappell was so impressed with Hazlewood that he compared his debut with that of Dennis Lillee in 1971 against England when he took 5-84.

The real comparison for Hazlewood, though, is not so much with the great Lillee but with the equally great but different in method, Glenn McGrath. Hazlewood is tall and rangy like McGrath, slightly quicker but with the same accuracy of line and length.

Geoff Lawson, a handy fast-medium bowler himself, made the point about Hazlewood that “it’s hard to think of a bad over he’s bowled .. He’s getting people out, no matter what the pitch is, and that’s what you want”.

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5. Where are the batting equivalents of Hazlewood?
Greg Chappell is Australia Cricket’s scout and mentor of young talent. He told Michael Slater and Mark Taylor during the lunch break at the Test that there is a lot of talented young bowlers coming through the system. But batting talent is harder to find.

Why is this, he was asked?

Chappell reckoned that the three formats of the game, with the television emphasis on the shorter forms, has encouraged young batsmen to try extravagant shots and big hitting before getting their technique right to fit the requirements of first class cricket.

Vivian Richards made the same sort of comment about the lack of great young West Indian batsmen some years ago and pointed out that he was not allowed to play one-day cricket until he was 17.

Somehow Greg Chappell has to find a way that allows a brilliant ‘boy from the bush’, one of Australian cricket’s enduring myths, to emerge into the spotlight to delight us with his instant mastery of the hard craft of making tons of runs.

6. Raise a glass (Guinness surely) to toast Jason Gillespie’s idea for Ireland to play Test cricket
Part of the reason why Jason Gillespie wants Ireland to play Test cricket is that the side’s supporters, the Blarney Army, liven up the somewhat stolid atmosphere at many Test matches.

There are cricket reasons, too, why Ireland should be supported as a Test country. In the 2011 ODI World Cup Ireland were good enough to beat England in their group matches.

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Wikipedia has a long entry on cricket in Ireland. The first national side played in 1855 against a touring English national side. A touring South African side was defeated in 1904.

But when Ireland became a Republic, the English ‘foreign’ games were effectively banned from most of the new nation. Rugby suffered from the same restriction. The ban was finally lifted in 1970.

One of my favourite cricket questions is this: who was the only Nobel Laureate to play first class cricket?

Answer: Samuel Becket, the great Irish playwright who played two first class matches for Northampshire as a left-arm medium pace bowler and aggressive left-handed batsman.

Currently cricket is flourishing in Ireland and Test status would encourage players with Irish credentials to play for the national side and in the Irish competition, rather than for England and in its country championship.

Incidentally and importantly (I think), a national Ireland cricket team would embrace the south and the north of Ireland. Cricket, like rugby, is one of the few sports where there is no demarcation between Ireland and Northern Ireland. With the Blarney Army as supporters, I think Ireland would make a more interesting contribution to the Test cricket arena than, say, Zimbabwe or Bangladesh.

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