- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
On the very day the new-look Australian selection panel of Trevor Hohns (acting chairman), Greg Chappell (interim selector), Mark Waugh, and Darren Lehmann lost their first international in six, the panel left Travis Head out of the Test tour of India.
Pakistan beat Australia by six wickets at the MCG yesterday in the second of five ODIs. Steve Smith dropping his opposition skipper Mohammad Hafeez on nought in the opening over was costly, Hafeez winning the man-of-the-match award with 72.
Earlier in the day, Head was left out of an overkill squad of 16 for the four-Test series in India starting next month.
Head was in the melting pot with Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Hilton Cartwright, and James Faulkner for the contentious all-rounder number six batting berth, but the selectors gave the nod to Marsh and Maxwell which will give skipper Smith and the vast majority of Australian supporters nightmares, as one of them will bat at six.
Marsh can’t buy a run and his medium pacers are all over the shop, while Maxwell’s inconsistent batting comes with offies that are so ordinary Smith hasn’t bothered to use him once in the first two ODIs against Pakistan.
Both Head and Cartwright would be better propositions, with Head’s batting and offies offering his skipper better options.
David Warner and Matt Renshaw have the opening batting berths locked away for at least the first Test.
Last week Lehmann made the ridiculous comment Renshaw was no certainty to be picked.
Thankfully there were three other selectors who rightfully reckoned the 20-year-old Queenslander with a four-Test career average of 63 that includes his maiden Test ton of 184 was an automatic selection.
Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Peter Handscomb fill the next three berths, no argument.
Either Mitchell Marsh or Maxwell will follow, heaven help the side, and keeper Matthew Wade.
Then it becomes very interesting with only four spots left.
There are three pacemen – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Jackson Bird – with four spinners – Nathan Lyon, Steve O’Keefe, Ashton Agar, and rookie leggie Mitchell Swepson.
Starc and Hazlewood pick themselves, leaving Lyon and O’Keefe as the senior spinners for the first Test.
Also floating around in the overkill 16-man squad will be Shaun Marsh and he’ll be joined in the grandstand by Bird, Agar, Swepson, and either Mitchell Marsh or Maxwell.
Virtually half a team in the grandstand with only four Tests to be played.
The selection of 23-year-old Swepson over a proven international in Adam Zampa has been explained by Hohns with the reasoning that they would prefer a more attacking spinner.
“We thought we would go for a more attacking leg-spinner more so than a defensive leg-spinner.”
Swepson has only played 14 Sheffield Shield games for Queensland, but his figures stack up with 41 wickets at 33.
But how Steve Smith is going to cope with three pacemen and four spinners for just four berths should give the skipper many sleepless nights on top of his dodgy number six batsman.
The tour will be tough enough without internal issues.
Australian Test squad for tour of India
Steve Smith (c)
David Warner (vc)
Matt Renshaw
Usman Khawaja
Peter Handscomb
Mitchell Marsh
Glenn Maxwell
Matthew Wade
Steve O’Keefe
Mitchell Starc
Nathan Lyon
Josh Hazlewood
Jackson Bird
Shaun Marsh
Ashton Agar
Mitchell Swepson
Fixtures
First Test at Pune – February 23-27
Second Test at Bangalore – March 4-8
Third Test at Ranchi – March 16-20
Fourth and final Test at Dharmasala – March 25-29