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It doesn’t matter where Rod Marsh looks, there are plenty of options available to make room for Usman Khawaja, the ignored but most prolific Australian run-getter thus summer.
With the selection chairman and his team constantly leaving Khawaja on the one-day outer, they are as embarrassing as yesterday’s humiliating 159-run loss at Eden Park to New Zealand.
Chasing 8-307, Australia was bundled out for 148 off 146 deliveries, the fastest dismissal in Australia’s ODI history, breaking the previous record of 156 deliveries when they were dismissed for just 70 by England at Edgbaston in 1977.
Ouch.
More cricket:
» Scorecard: New Zealand vs Australia first ODI
» Selectors should not be commentators
» The Liebke Ratings: New Zealand versus Australia first ODI
» New Zealand vs Australia highlights: Kiwis dominate hapless Aussie batting line up
» Slow and spinning will win the race at World T20
» World Twenty20: Sixth verse, same as the first
There are four obvious options available for Marsh to punt – Shaun Marsh, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh.
S. Marsh has scored 23 off 41, 9 off 12, and 5 off 8 in his last three digs – total 37 off 61, average 12.33.
Bailey has only batted once in that period, yesterday, with 2 runs off 10 – average 2.
Maxwell has been by far the worst performer since he was awarded the Australian ODI Player of the Year, ahead of the far better-performed Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith, and David Warner.
‘The Big Show’ hasn’t troubled the scorers since, with 1 off 2, 3 off 5, and a duck off 3 – total 4 off 10 for an average of 1.33.
With the ball, Maxwell’s taken 0-10 off 1, 1-17 off 2, and 0-30 off 3 – that’s 1-57 off 6 overs.
M. Marsh, like Bailey, has only batted once, with a duck off 4, and has bowling figures of 2-35 off 7, the second-most economical Australian yesterday, to veteran paceman John Hastings’ 1-39 off 10.
So M. Marsh has the ball to save him from the sack for the second ODI at Wellington on Saturday. Maxwell’s fielding will probably see him retained – it’s the only part of his game that’s always world class.
Having said that, Maxwell must do something of import in a hurry, or he will miss next month’s World Twenty20 in India.
That leaves S. Marsh and Bailey to give way for Khawaja.
At last.
May Usman Khawaja be named in every Australian team for the foreseeable future, and that includes Twenty20.