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Another Test squad announcement, another round of disappointment for Aussie cricket fans.
It seems each and every time Trevor Hohns and his ghoulish panel of selectors gather to pick another Test side, they do so in spite of every fan’s best interests, drinking and toasting to evil in the process.
Well, not quite.
However, the panel’s most recent round of ludicrous selections are just the latest in a long line of head-scratchers.
Let’s talk about Mitch Marsh.
The all-rounder was dropped from the Test side for gross incompetence with both bat and ball. He then failed to perform on return to domestic cricket. Now he is patted on the back and restored to the Test side.
Flawless logic.
Enough about the glaring inadequacies of the lesser Marsh, I’m going to get too mad.
Glenn Maxwell. Never been a Test player – never will be a Test player.
Like any other Aussie cricket fan, I can sit here and criticise selections no end – regardless of who was selected.
Albert Einstein once said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Albert may not have intended for this to be applied to the game of cricket, nor even knew what the game was, but the Australian selectors continue to prove him right.
Tour after tour, we pick teams of players who simply aren’t the most equipped to tackle the waiting conditions.
India is the best reflection of this, with doctored pitches which turn and provide terror after terror for Aussie batsmen, whose foibles against a turning ball have been exposed repeatedly.
And incidentally, those weaknesses against spin were again on show in the second ODI against Pakistan on Sunday.
Will selectors ever get it into their head that they need to pick Australia’s best players of spin to tour the subcontinent?
It seems unlikely at this point – in fact, it almost feels gratuitous to pose the question.
If they were to do so, the first man on the plane should be George Bailey.
Before you sign the forms to admit me into the looney bin, hear me out.
Bailey was a tried and failed experiment on his previous selection in the Test squad, however his numbers in India – albeit in ODIs – make a compelling case for his inclusion.
Across six innings on the subcontinent, Bailey procured 478 runs at an average of 95.6. Sounds like a player who can handle the conditions which have halted the run-scoring prowess of so many before him.
However, the Australian selectors don’t think in such a fashion.
Rather, they opt to stick with players who possess obvious deficiencies against spin and other hallmarks of subcontinental conditions – with no inkling of a thought ever given to a ‘horses for courses’ strategy.
Australia will be found out in India. I have no doubt about that.
And when that happens, I hope they take Einstein’s words to heart.
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