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Tours of India are normally accompanied by nervous apprehension among Aussie cricket fans – and with good reason.
Our record over there is pretty dreadful, with precious few series victories and lots of massacres. At a time when more Australians than ever are familiar with playing in India due to the IPL, when we can get vision of games over there easier than any time in history, our ability to win Tests seems to, if anything, have got worse.
No close follower of world cricket gives Australia a chance to beat India in India. And it’s tough – but not impossible. We just need to give ourselves the best possible chance.
Forget all-rounders
Please. Please, please, please, please, please.
Teams touring India seem to think the best way to win is to stuff their teams full of all-rounders . “You get more batsmen! More bowlers! The pacemen can rest!”
Only problem is, you often wind up with these bits and pieces players who weaken the batting without notably strengthening the bowling – or adding a bit of starch to the tail, but weakening the bowling.
This happened to Australia in 2013 (Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell) and 2008 (Shane Watson, Cameron White) and for England in 2015 (where they played four all-rounders) and New Zealand in 2016 (where they played up to three).
Look, I get the theory, I do, but if the theory keeps resulting in defeats maybe it’s time to look in another direction?
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having batsmen who can bowl a few overs to give the specialist bowlers a rest – but they should be batsmen and part-time bowlers, not all-rounders.
All-rounders fall into this never-never performance land where a few wickets keep them in the team despite constant poor batting (eg Mitchell Marsh, Shane Watson at the beginning and end of his career). “Giving bowlers a rest” shouldn’t be anyone’s main job in a Test team, whatever David Saker says.
If Hilton Cartwright plays in the top six, he plays a batsman – if he fails to score runs, he should get dropped, like Nic Maddinson was. If Glenn Maxwell plays he should play (and be judged) as a batsman. This is what should’ve happened to Watson and Marsh. If Ashton Agar plays he should play (and be judged) as a bowler.
There is clearly a battle going on around the Australian selection table with the pro-bits-and-pieces-all-rounder lobby (eg Saker, Darren Lehmann) fighting ferociously to regain their former dominance which wavered after the five Test defeats in a row. We can only hope they lose.
In India, you need six proper batsmen and four proper bowlers – that’s how we won in 2004 and almost won in 2001 and 2010 (before anyone yells “Shane Watson played in 2010” at me, in that series he deserved his spot as a batsman – in 2008 and 2013 his bowling was keeping him, undeservedly, in the side). That’s how England won in 2012 (Samit Patel barely bowled).
PS. Steve Smith needs to bowl more.
2) Base the attack on pace instead of spin
Yeah, yeah, I know Indian wickets turn and Indian spinners are so hard to play at home and blah blah blah. But the stuffing your team full of second rate spinners in response doesn’t work. We came very close to beating India in 2010 with a three pacemen and one spinner, with others chipping in. (Again, this was during that period when Watson justified his place in the team as a batsman – when he wasn’t a bits and pieces all-rounder.)
Steve Smith is a fast bowler’s captain and Darren Lehmann is a fast bowler’s coach. I don’t think they can captain and coach spinners effectively. That’s a shame but that’s life.
In their defence, they’re no orphan on that score (hello, Ricky Pointing and Tim Neilsen).
Also, our spinners simply aren’t as good as our pacemen. In the past, Australia have a lot of mediocre spinners in India – Peter McIntyre, Gavin Robertson, Nathan Haurtiz, Jason Krezja, Cameron White, Xavier Doherty, Dan Cullen – and it’s never really worked. Someone who isn’t that good in Australia might be a little better in India but they’re not necessarily going to win you games.
We have really good pace bowlers – let’s go with them. Yes, it’s hard for them to get wickets on Indian pitches but not impossible. Just use Nathan Lyon and/or Stephen O’Keefe with Smith helping out. They should bring a specialist spin coach so the spinners have someone to confide in who knows what’s going on, but that’s another issue. Play three fast bowlers – Starc, Hazlewood, and Jackson Bird/Chadd Sayers/Joe Mennie/whoever else.
Leave Ashton Agar at home.
3) Give the selectors and players at least one more first-class game to help choose a squad
I like the Big Bash. I don’t want to bag it, but its scheduling does make things hard for our selectors. I know it’s too late to change the Sheffield Shield, but could Cricket Australia not organise a four-day trial game between now and when the squad is picked?
A Wade XI versus a Nevill XI or something. It would be awesome… you could play all the “maybe” aspirants. The Marsh brothers, Callum Ferguson, Maxwell, Agar, Henriques, O’Keefe, Peter Nevill, Matthew Wade, Mennie, Sayers, Joe Burns (remember him?), Adam Voges (remember him?), Cartwright… There’ll be others the selectors will want to look at – you could easily get 22 and, what’s more, they’ll all be dying to play.
Pat Howard would be better off organising stuff like this than ideas like wild and wacky practice pitches in the UAE.
4) Pick a proper keeper
No side ever had an extended period of success when the wicketkeeping position was in flux. Wicketkeepers are the heart and soul of the side – the captain of the fielding team, the head of morale.
They need to be able to catch, keep and stump so brilliantly you barely notice them doing it. They should be a confidante for the captain. They should occasionally contribute useful runs, but that is a lesser priority.
Australia have to figure out what they are doing with their keeper. It was harsh for Nevill to be dropped (especially when having a number six like Mitchell Marsh above him), but if Steve Smith felt more comfortable with Wade then I appreciate that.
And I like his experience, which Smith needs.
It’s just, Wade’s batting isn’t very good, and hasn’t been for a while. And his keeping is so… uninspiring. I don’t have faith in him in India. Maybe I’m being fair but I sense lots of other people share my worry.
Is returning to Nevill the way to go? Does Smith not have faith in him? I just really wish they’d get it sorted. Just remember that a good keeper who averages 25 with the bat will win you more games than a sloppy keeper who averages 40.
My random prediction, coming from Greg Chappell’s presence on the panel: they’ll do an Ian Healy in 1988 Pakistan and pick Sam Harper, Victoria’s back-up keeper.
For what it’s worth, my team for India is:
1) Matt Renshaw
2) David Warner
3) Usman Khawaja
4) Steve Smith
5) Peter Handscomb
6) Hilton Cartwright/Shaun Marsh/Glenn Maxwell
7) Peter Nevill
8) Mitchell Starc
9) Josh Hazlewood,
10) Jackson Bird/Chadd Sayers
11) Nathan Lyon/Stephen O’Keefe
They couldn’t do worse that the team in 2013, anyway!
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