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Bancroft in hunt to replace Rogers in Aussie Test team

2nd August, 2015
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Cameron Bancroft is among a number of the country's brightest. Is he due a baggy green? (AAP Image/Will Russell)
Expert
2nd August, 2015
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Young West Australian Cameron Bancroft has made himself a serious contender to replace Chris Rogers in the Test team after impressive showings for Australia A on their tour of India.

On dusty pitches in Chennai, which made batting difficult even for India A, the 22-year-old opener scored almost twice as many runs as any other player in the series, finishing with 224 runs at 75.

He was the only player to register a century, stroking 150 from 267 balls in the second match to be the bedrock of Australia’s first innings.

Bancroft reportedly was assured and fluent in his countering of India’s spinners, which included the highly-rated Pragyan Ojha, who has 113 wickets at an average of 30 in Tests.

More than his impressive haul of runs it was the circumstances in which they were earned which will have left a mark with the Test selectors.

Australia’s Test team repeatedly has floundered with the blade in these kind of conditions, on parched pitches against a unit of tweakers.

Bancroft has already shown in the Sheffield Shield that he is well suited to neutering quality pace bowling on lively surfaces.

Based at the WACA, he has displayed the ability to weather torrid spells against the new ball.

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This was evident time and again last season as Bancroft emerged as arguably Australia’s best batting prospect under the age of 23.

The third highest runscorer in the Shield, he cracked 896 runs at 47, including three centuries.

Now he also has given the selectors an indication that he has the kind of versatility required at the highest level.

Bancroft’s showcasing of his skill against spin could not have come at a better time.

Not only is Chris Rogers just weeks away from retiring, but Australia’s next Test series is in October in the spin-friendly conditions of Bangladesh.

An improving Test team, Bangladesh surely will believe that slow bowlers are the key to challenging Australia.

Were Bancroft to join David Warner at the top of the order, Australia suddenly would have a top three which is accomplished against spin. This will be in the selectors’ minds.

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The other factor working in Bancroft’s favour is that his two main rivals for the Test opening berth, Shaun Marsh and Joe Burns, are falling out of the race to an extent for different reasons.

Marsh looks set to replace Adam Voges in the Australian middle order and would likely stay there rather than making another shift in the order to open once Rogers is gone.

Burns, meanwhile, is in a form trough after consecutive prolific Sheffield Shield seasons and impressive cameos in his two Tests last summer.

In seven county games for Middlesex this season, he scored just 320 runs at 29. After leaving England to join Australia A in Chennai, Burns batted only once, being dismissed for eight while Bancroft was at the other end compiling a big ton.

Bancroft’s grafting style, not too dissimilar to that of Chris Rogers, would complement the cavalier approach of David Warner.

We may just see them paired up in baggy greens in two months’ time.

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