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Acting selection chairman Trevor Hohns added Hilton Cartwright to the MCG squad for the second Test against Pakistan, after fatigue suffered by the Australian pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Jackson Bird at the Gabba.
Starc and Hazlewood each bowled 56 overs, and Bird bowled 45 in a total of 157 overs between them in 200.
“The bowlers got through a high workload in Brisbane, and although everyone has pulled up okay, on reflection we wanted to give ourselves the option of including an all-rounder in Melbourne to ease that workload somewhat,” was Hohns’ explanation.
All-rounder is the operative description.
So the panel picked Cartwright as the 13th squad member who can bat, but he’s mighty costly with the ball.
The 12th man in both Adelaide and the Gabba was Chadd Sayers, who bowls very well, but can’t bat.
The obvious choice is Pat Cummins who can not only bat and bowl, but he’s under cotton-wool management from another Pat as in Howard, the GM – Team Performance of the Australians.
Howard was appointed in October 2011, just a month before Cummins played his only Test which was against South Africa in Johannesburg where he was man-of-the-match as an 18-year-old.
Since then Cummins has suffered a litany of injuries that have kept his Test appearances to one, and just eight games for NSW.
But he’s played 21 ODIs, and 15 T20 internationals, despite Howard’s cotton-wool ban.
And why is Howard cotton-wooling Cummins?
Howard wants the expressman fit to take on England in the Ashes series at home next season.
Next season? It’s already five years since his debut, the frustration must be mountainous.
Cummins should be playing at the MCG on Boxing Day, opening the bowling with Starc, leaving Hazlewood and Bird in support.
That would mean the struggling Nic Maddinson missing out, replaced by a genuine all-rounder, not a make-believe one.
That would give Cummins two Tests against Pakistan this summer he richly deserves, and the question on the arduous four-Test tour of India in February-March can be revisited later.
To prove the point, these are the relative stats on the trio:
Western Australian Cartwright will be 25 in February, he has a Sheffield Shield bowling average of 74.75 this season for his four wickets, but he’s scored 890 runs at 44.50, including two centuries, and five half-centuries.
South Australian Sayers is 29, and the reverse.
He’s captured 23 Sheffield Shield wickets this season at 18.74 apiece, and played two Australia A games against India for six wickets at 16.93.
His batting doesn’t compare with the ball – 92 runs at 18.40 in the Shield, and 22 runs at 7.83 for Australia A.
New South Welshman Cummins in 23, and a timely reminder of what he achieved in Johannesburg with 1-38 off 15 and 6-79 off 29, dismissing Hashim Amla, Jacques Rudolph, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, and Morne Morkel.
And hitting the winning runs in a ninth wicket stand of 18 runs with Mitchell Johnson with Cummins finishing unbeaten on 13 for Australian to win by two wickets.
This season of limited appearances thanks to Howard, Cummins has played all three ODI matches against New Zealand, taking eight wickets at 16.13 apiece, and was only required to bat once without scoring or losing his wicket.
There’s no comparison between Hilton Cartwright, Chadd Sayers, and Pat Cummins, with Pat Howard stopping the obvious selection.
Howard is answerable only to Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland.
It’s time for the boss to get his GM – Team Performance up to speed.