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Darren Lehmann’s seeming lack of respect for specialist Test openers is baffling. The Australian coach this week all but declared that any batsman in the Australian Test side was capable of opening.
This may be the case against the West Indies, so lacklustre were their quicks in the first Test massacre at Hobart.
But Australia’s next series is against the quality new ball pair of Trent Boult and Tim Southee in New Zealand, where the pitches may well be difficult, seaming decks like those on which Australia’s batsmen floundered in England.
Using a makeshift opener in such circumstances would be ridiculous. In discussing the immediate future of incumbent opener Joe Burns, Lehmann argued either injured first drop Usman Khawaja or current number five Shaun Marsh could do Burns’ job against the new ball.
“I would be comfortable with Khawaja opening the batting, but the captain might not want that, so we have to work that out,” Lehmann told media.
“Shaun’s probably more comfortable [batting in the middle order] but if we need him to play and we need an opener then he can do that job as well.
“It gets down to the make-up of the side, what we go with. If he’s in that and he has to open then you’d rather that than not playing.”
Khawaja has only a couple of first-class innings to his name as an opener. Ditto for Marsh, whose biggest struggles in Test cricket have been opposed to the moving ball.
Khawaja may be able to make the adjustment to opening, but he will have to do so despite a complete lack of experience.
Marsh, though, is not at all suited to opening the batting – he has hard hands, a propensity for sparring at deliveries outside off stump and feeds the slips cordon more than any other Australian batsman.
Marsh patently is better suited to the middle order and his captain Steve Smith indicated that this week. Fortunately it is Smith who decides Australia’s batting order and not Lehmann, although the coach undoubtedly will have some sway.
One of Marsh, Burns or Khawaja look set to miss out on the Boxing Day Test against the West Indies. Expected to be fit in time for that Test, Khawaja is coming off the back of two tons against New Zealand. Marsh’s case is compelling too, having made a crucial 49 in a tough chase at Adelaide before cruising to 182 at Hobart.
Burns, meanwhile, has had a lean couple of Tests but since returning to the team has made 298 runs at 43, while also averaging 87 for the first wicket with Warner. They are very solid numbers for a rookie opener.
Australia are in a rebuilding period and dropping a young player like Burns when he has been above average sends an awful message to incoming rookies that they are expendable.
I wrote last month that Burns and Khawaja should be given all six Tests this season to afford them a proper chance to prove themselves in Tests.
Burns has had four Tests, averaging 43, and now looks like being dropped. That would be a hammer blow to the confidence of one of the young batsmen Australia hope can carry them into a successful new generation.
If Burns was being edged out by a specialist opening batsman in prolific form there at least would be a modicum of logic to him being dropped.
But to accommodate a makeshift opener? C’mon selectors you should be wiser than that. Such a move would be unfair not only to Burns but also to Khawaja.
The graceful left-hander finally made his mark as a Test batsman against the Kiwis. He is a specialist number three and made the most of the opportunity he was offered to bat in that role. To now shunt him up the order into an alien position is not in his interests.
It’s also not to the benefit of Smith, who indicated after the Ashes he did not want to bat at three and seemed all too happy for Khawaja to fill that spot so he could slide back down to four.
So, just to accommodate Marsh, Burns’ career would be dealt a major blow, and Khawaja and Smith both would have to bat out of position.
That is a major upheaval. All to find a spot for a batsman who has a proven track record in Tests of following big scores, like the one at Hobart, with a string of failures.
What are you thinking, Lehmann?