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It is early 2018, Australia have just won the Ashes 3-1 after a hard-fought contest. Batsmen Steve Smith, Dave Warner, Peter Handscomb and Usman Khawaja all performed admirably against the English attack and the bowlers were led by a strong pace attack of Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins.
In 2017, the Test team put up a good fight against India in India, eventually losing the four Test series 2-1, having drawn one Test thanks to a strong batting performance and got a win thanks to an amazing display of pace and reverse swing by Starc and co. on the one pace-friendly deck in Dharamasala.
In India, Smith continued to lead by example with the bat, making plenty of runs, but was criticised for the way he used his spinners as a captain on the field.
Going into the Ashes, there was little certainty over who Australia’s first-choice spinner was, with both Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe having done little in India to demand selection, and Ashton Agar and Mitch Swepson not getting much of a chance.
During the Ashes, Lyon and O’Keefe were both tried as the lone spinners but made little impact in the series. Throughout both of the last two big Test series, Smith has been accused of letting the game get away from him at times and not rotating his bowlers well.
Over-reliance on Starc contributed to an injury to the star pace man and now it seemed the same fate looked likely to befall the fragile Cummins. Questions were also asked in the media about Smith’s body language and temperament on the field when things were not going his way, with a few high profile incidences of visible disagreements with other players.
Meanwhile, Peter Handscomb had cemented his spot in the team at number five, becoming a key part of the Australian batting order. During the Sheffield shield season 2017-18, whenever Handscomb was not occupied with the Test team, he was back captaining the Vics while Matt Wade was out with the ODI side.
His captaincy style had been complemented by all that watched him and was reaping strong rewards for the Victorians who were looking for their fourth straight Shield title.
With a tough away series in South Africa coming up, Smith and Boof call a press conference to announce to the media and cricket-loving public that Steve Smith has decided to step down from the Test captaincy with immediate effect and that Peter Handscomb would take over as captain of the Australian Test side.
David Warner would remain as vice-captain. The move, explains Darren Lehmann, is to allow Smith the time to concentrate on his batting and to also work on his secondary skill as a part-time leg spinner, in order to contribute more overs during Test matches.
The decision to leapfrog Handscomb into the captaincy and leave Warner as vice captain is a forward looking move, aimed at ensuring stability for years to come. With Handscomb being five years younger than Warner, the Victorian taking the reins would allow for Australia to hopefully keep the same captain for 8-10 years.
What else? Boof Lehmann also announces his retirement, and Dizzy Gillespe is given the coach’s job. Oh well, one can dream.
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