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The 2015 Ashes series has been an unmitigated disaster for Australia. With one more Test match to come, at The Oval, and the imminent farewell of a number of senior players, one cannot be blamed for having one eye on the upcoming tour of Bangladesh and indeed our very own Australian summer.
The new world order of the baggy green, and more specifically its batsmen, is about to arrive but what does it look like?
Rags-to-riches story Chris Rogers is set to say farewell at the end of this series. The 37-year-old fought hard to get back in to the Test line up and his level head and dourness will be sorely missed at the top of the order.
So who replaces him?
Cameron Bancroft, the 22-year-old opener from Western Australia, seems to have the best claim. 896 runs including three big hundreds in the last Sheffield season plus a very impressive 150 against India A is proof that the man they call ‘Bangas’ is one of our brightest prospects.
It has been a while however, since the selectors opted for somebody so young and they seem hesitant to give younger players an extended run. But there are plenty of experienced openers doing the rounds as well.
Queensland pair Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja have both been lucky enough to receive a coveted baggy green. Just last summer Burns enjoyed a fruitful pair of Test matches against the Indians before not even being picked to tour England. Although he batted at 6 in those games the 25-year-old has opened the batting at domestic level and has been confirmed as David Warner’s opening partner for the upcoming ODI series.
Usman Khawaja was an unfortunate victim of two losing Ashes campaigns and then a knee reconstruction. He is no doubt in the selectors’ minds, being chosen to captain Australia A is proof of that. For the Pakistani-born left-hander to force his way back in to the Test side he will need to score mountains of runs for the Bulls, something that is certainly not beyond him.
As far as the middle order is concerned, we say goodbye to over eight-and-a-half-thousand Test runs and 28 Test centuries in the form of Michael Clarke. Adam Voges will be lucky to be given another chances. The Shaun Marsh experiment appears over, so it is time to look elsewhere for middle order ‘glue’.
In 2009 current Test batsman Chris Rogers moved to Victoria from Western Australia to help progress his chances for more cricket in the baggy green. In 2011 Marcus Stoinis followed in his footsteps and it looks like history could soon repeat itself. The 2014-15 Sheffield Shield season yielded 785 runs at just under 50, which included nine half-centuries. Those figures, combined with a more than honest One Day Cup, has seen the Northcote Cricket Club all-rounder selected in Australia’s upcoming ODI tour of England and Ireland.
Averaging over 40 seems a rare feat in Sheffield Shield cricket these days but Queensland enforcer Chris Lynn has managed to score his 2340 first-class runs at an impressive 45.88. At 25, Lynn has already developed an international reputation through T20 cricket, playing for Australia and in both the Indian Premier League and the Caribbean Premier League. He is a ready-made Test number five and would relish any opportunity.
South Australian veteran Callum Ferguson has also thrown his hat into the ring with an impressive 2014-15 season. Seemingly on the cusp of selection for a number of years now, Ferguson has never been able to land that killer blow, with a short run in the ODI side at the top of the decade all the classy right-hander has been able to muster. At 30 he has experience on his side, a trait that is a proven favourite of the Australian selectors.
It is important for Cricket Australia not to go back to the future when it comes to picking the next crop of Test batsmen. Players like Ed Cowan, Alex Doolan, Shaun Marsh and Rob Quiney must not be revisited. Destined to be serviceable first-class players, those men must make way for the new world order of Australian Test cricket.
October 9 is the date of the first Test against Bangladesh. The last time we played there the squad included players like Dan Cullen and Mark Cosgrove. What will it look like this time around?
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