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Australia's Marcus North in action against New Zealand. AAP Images/NZPA, Ross Setford
Should Marcus North be wary of shady trench coat-wearing characters, lurking in the shadows around WA training, bearing a suspicious resemblance to several fringe Australian batsmen gunning for his spot in the Test team? No, probably not. Although, Marcus, you just never know.
Following on from last week’s column, in which I suggested that Marcus North remained the batsman most vulnerable in the Australian team for the First Ashes Test in Brisbane late next month, I thought it might be worth exploring the main threats for his current number six spot.
Up front, I think only a Simpson Desert-dry month in the Sheffield Shield ranks over the next few weeks will cost North his place in Brisbane. His first innings hundred in the final Border-Gavaskar Test in Bangalore will probably ensure that the notoriously conservative Australian selectors retain the batting order as is.
However, this will be overlooking his second innings 3, a failure that came as Captain Ricky Ponting needed a batsman to stick around with him.
North’s dismissal, where he played around a straight one from Harbhajan Singh, left Australia vulnerable to a lower second innings total than they’d have wanted, and brought undone all the good work and plaudits he’d earned for what was thought to be a career saving century in the first dig.
That’s not to say that he was solely responsible for Australia’s low total, of course, but with his spot already under intense scrutiny, his second innings disappointment means that once again he’s in the crosshairs.
A reasonable return for Western Australia in the next month will secure North’s Test spot for the time being, but if the lean pickings continue, who is in line to come into the side?
Well, to be completely honest, I don’t think there are any major surprises here.
A new test number six will almost certainly be known to the Australian setup already, especially for a crucial series like The Ashes at home. The last thing Ponting will want is a tentative work-experience kid walking out to bat at four wickets down.
And so despite throwing down an early-season double-century from NSW in their Shield match against SA two weeks ago, comparative ‘rookieness’ might count against Usman Khawaja.
I can hear the crying disapproval of the NSW-supporting Roarers already.
There is no disputing Khawaja’s talent, and equally, there’s no doubt he will have a successful Test career before too long. Talent like his can’t be ignored forever, although the Victorian Roarers will quickly offer up Brad Hodge as proof that it has been already.
Despite touring with the Australian side this year, for the Pakistan series in England, Khawaja has had very little time in the Australian setup. He’s not played a One-Day or Twenty20 International to date, and being contracted only to NSW means that he’s not been that exposed to the greater Australian “squad” regularly.
On the other hand, someone like Cameron White or Callum Ferguson is already well known within the Australian squads through their numerous outings in the coloured gear.
Ferguson has been long-regarded as a Test player of the future. Furthermore, the fact that he came straight back into the Australian one-day side for that leg of the Indian tour, despite only recently getting back to top-flight cricket after a knee reconstruction, suggests to me that it’s only a matter of time before some former Australian great is handing him a Baggy Green.
Ferguson, not quite 26, is a known entity, and his proven ability to bat his teams out of tight situations in the shorter games has surely had him earmarked for future honours, despite a First Class record that hardly screams from the rooftops. You couldn’t rule him out.
Similarly, White is the sort of player that already holds a decent amount of respect in the Australian squads, and has been in and around the current team hierarchy for several years, including four Tests since his debut in India in 2008.
The big difference in White’s game is that he’s essentially now a specialist batsman; his once-promising leg spin has seemingly been assigned to ‘very occasionally’, only a few notches above ‘just don’t bother’.
In the limited over games, he’s regularly batting in the top four or five, and likewise for Victoria in all forms of the game. A Test resurrection as a specialist No.6 would be well within his talent and capability, and his safe hands wouldn’t look out of place in the slip cordon either.
If there’s going to be a Brisbane bolter for the Australian side, it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s White.
I would normally cringe at the thought or the suggestion that someone should earn a Test spot based on performances in the one-day ranks, but in this case, where there still isn’t really a standout replacement for Marcus North – yet – limited-over form will have to come into consideration.
It seems inconceivable that an obvious future Test player like Khawaja could be overlooked in these circumstances, and I hope he proves me wrong in the next month through a sheer weight of runs, but remember, stranger things have happened with these Australian selectors.