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Cameron White just had to play for Australia this summer

11th January, 2018
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Cameron White returns for the Melbourne Renegades against Adelaide. (AAP Image/ Hamish Blair)
Expert
11th January, 2018
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This was going to be the preview block in which I pushed the barrow for Cameron White’s recall to the Australian Twenty20 team this summer.

That he was just batting too well to ignore, I was going to argue. Even more illogical than overlooking Glenn Maxwell, I had pencilled in. Had to pick him; madness not to. Just do it.

And then the selectors went and bloody picked him… early!

This is now credit where it’s due for the selectors, even though the T20s were the logical point to pick White – particularly if a few of the Test guys did the logical thing and headed to South Africa early to prepare for the four matches against the Proteas.

White and national selection panel chairman Trevor Hohns had a fair difference of opinion last summer, around the selection of Australian one-day sides and the role of the state one-day comp in those selections. In the irony of ironies, it was Hohns who told White he’d be needing some new Australian gold pads.

With Chris Lynn out with yet another injury – and picking him in the first place escaping the deserved scrutiny – the decision on who replaced him appears to have been a three-horse race.

D’Arcy Short is the leading BBL run-scorer, but playing one-day internationals would still be a big step up for him. The upcoming T20 tri-series is the perfect chance to introduce him to international cricket however, and I’ll be stunned if he doesn’t play.

Maxwell might – and should – have been a chance of being recalled, but his exile from national teams appears complete.

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AAP Image/Rob Blakers

That just left White, who is next on the BBL hit parade after Short. They just had to pick him.

White looks perfectly suited to the ODI top order, even saying in Melbourne on Thursday, “Hopefully one of my strengths is playing to the situation. I’ve probably done that pretty well in the Big Bash in the last four or five games.”

And he has indeed. His consistency this BBL series has been great: scores of 79*, 51, 3, 49*, 35*, and 68* most recently on Monday just gone. In batting first drop for the Renegades, he’s walked to the middle in the first over three times this summer, and in the third over twice. The latest he’s gone in to date is the fifth over. Red-Melbourne won three of the four games he’s been not out at the end of the innings.

He’s been great at stemming the flow of wickets, getting set, consolidating the innings, and then accelerating.

It’s another good selection from the NSP, and they’re still riding high on a pretty decent summer so far. But it does raise another curious question around how they view the older players – particularly batsmen.

White’s recall at 34 comes on the back of Shaun Marsh’s reentry to the Test side at the same age. The older batsman still has a big role to play in Australian cricket, even if that point is forgotten from time to time. White is toward the top of the Victorian Sheffield Shield averages, as is Ed Cowan for NSW, but both players have been limited to two games each.

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If the old blokes are getting the job done, then the number of candles on their birthday cake shouldn’t matter.

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BBL07 table
The Sydney Thunder beat the Perth Scorchers in Sydney on Thursday night – just – and so, the table looks this way.

Adelaide 10
Perth 10
Melbourne Renegades 8
Brisbane 8
Hobart 8
Sydney Thunder 6
Sydney Sixers 0
Melbourne Stars 0

Upcoming games

Friday – Game 26
Melbourne Renegades vs Melbourne Stars; Docklands, Melbourne

Though White’s recall is a good thing for the Australian ODI side – and obviously White himself – it does leave the Renegades vulnerable in the return leg of the Melbourne Derby.

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Red-Melbourne wouldn’t have counted on losing White at this stage, and their line-up now looks a bit light in the batting department, despite the arrival of West Indian ball-clobberer Kieron Pollard.

On the other side of the coin, the last time Maxwell was left out of an Australian side, he made his highest first-class score in response.

Tip – Stars, now. And a big, angry score from Maxwell.

Saturday double-header – Game 27
Adelaide Strikers vs Perth Scorchers; Traeger Park, Alice Springs

The first test of both finals-bound sides minus their Australian reps, and it’s on another ground making its BBL debut, with the SACA and WACA committing to do more for the game in Indigenous communities by playing this game in the Red Centre. Both sides will be sporting impressive-looking Indigenous-inspired playing strips, too.

This is an interesting contest: who copes best without their Australian reps? The Strikers have plenty of depth to cover Travis Head’s absence, but I’m not sure about the Scorchers’ bowling without AJ Tye and Jhye Richardson.

Shaun Marsh could return for this game, but they’ve lost David Willey to the England squad, too.

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Tip – Strikers to take the outright BBL lead, which would be something, given how widely they were written off.

Saturday double-header – Game 28
Sydney Sixers vs Sydney Thunder, SCG

It’s the return derby block of games, with the reverse Sydney Smash (though surely there’s a better name for it). However many of the pink-Sydney crowd are still left may well get their first look at new import Carlos Braithwaite – formerly of the Thunder last season, and responsible for all of my daughter’s cricket team performing that stupid ‘dab’ motion every time a wicket fell last summer.

That’s about all this game has going for it – it’s sixth vs seventh, for goodness’ sake! The Sixers will have Jackson Bird and Nathan Lyon will be back, and hopefully that can contribute some runs, too.

Tip – Thunder, and quite possibly Usman Khawaja on his own.

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