Simon Katich was – and deserves the opportunity to continue to be – one of those unobtrusive types of Test openers, who doesn’t catch the eye by thrashing the bowling to all parts, but always seems to be there or thereabouts.
You have to wonder if that isn’t an extremely good quality to have in an opener, making it worth seeing whether he still has that ability before making the decision that his Test career is over (if indeed that is what not getting a Cricket Australia contract means).
A lot of people have been saying how good his returns have been over the past three years. I thought it was worthwhile seeing whether that was right. So let’s start with the Indian tour at the start of 2008/9.
Since then, he played 30 Tests, missing only the last three Ashes Tests and one other.
He batted in 56 innings, three of them not-out. One of those not-outs was the unusual feat of carrying his bat through the innings (131 v NZ in 2008). That was his highest score in that period, out of a total of six hundreds.
What stands out from his figures is the consistency. There were only three of those 30 games in which he failed to get to 20 in either innings of the game, one more in which he failed to get at least a 30, two more where he didn’t get a 40 and four more where he didn’t get a 50, making a total of 10 games where he “failed” to get to 50 (and noting that those 10 games include three of the four games where he only had one hit).
To be fair, it has to be admitted that four of those 10 fifty-less games came in his last 5 games, and three of his seven single-figure scores came in his last four games, so you might argue there was some degree of tailing-off going on.
However, it’s an open question whether he actually “failed” in all those 10 games without a 50.
Hitting a 50 is commonly regarded as something of a pass mark. Why? What’s the real difference between Katich’s even 50 in the first innings of the last Brisbane Ashes test and his 43 in the Adelaide second innings (his last Test innings to date)?
A handful of runs certainly, but not much beyond that. Both were under pressure of different sorts – one was the first innings of the series, after England had posted a moderate score, when a good score could set Australia off on the right foot to win the game and for the whole series.
The second was after a massive and demoralising England innings, where any faint hopes of survival required someone to just stay in.
In both, he batted for a session or more, and saw off the new ball and opening bowling spells.
As an opener, that’s doing the fundamentals of the job – I think you can argue that if an opener does those things, he’s done a good job, almost regardless of how many he’s scored himself.
I’d suggest that for an opener getting to 30 is a more realistic rule of thumb pass mark. At that point, most of the time you’ll be through the first hour, having batted for around 20 overs, the ball won’t be brand-new and one or both of the opening bowlers will be out of the attack.
If you accept that, Katich starts to look very, very consistent indeed. He achieves at least a 30-run “pass” two innings out of three (discounting two short not out innings), and in at least one innings in 26 of his 30 games played (including in his last four).
Even if you choose to set the pass bar at 50, he still manages a very competitive 23 out of 54 innings (again leaving out the short not-outs) and a very, very good 20 matches out of 30.
All of that boils down to saying that with Katich opening, you could reasonably hope that he’d give you at least a start in one innings of pretty much every game and get you a 50 in better than two games out of three.
Let’s see what performances he and others put on the board in Shield cricket before finalising the Test team – but his record to date must demand that he’s at least in the reckoning.
Slim
Guest
Katich is right about Cricket Australia and the selectors - we keep turning over parts of our team with no apparent logic ( just look at spinner selectiins) - we drop top quality players like S Clark and now dump one of a very good opening pair. Cricket Australia needs a revamp from top to bottom - they have become soft and undisciplined and show the good players no respect. Katich gets a 4 min call to tell him he is discarded and Hill ditch can't give a good reason because he doesn't have one. Let's pick our teams on form and proven performance - I've had enough of potential - it does not win you anything.
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Saw Kat's press conference on ABC.news24 yesterday. Good on him! As Jim maxwell said, it shouldn't be about the ASHES 2013, shouldn't it be about the Sri Lanka/SAF/IND series coming up between now and February??? Particularly as the KatWat opening duo is one of the best parts of the Oz XI at present. Age-wise, yes, Ponting/M. Hussey could both equally be headed for pasture, and arguably more so based on recent performances in the eyes of some fans. I look forward to Katich having a terrific summer for NSW in the Shield/Ryobi Cup. Onya Kat!
Aware
Guest
Don't have contracted players at all. Just pick teams on merit and form. That way, everyone in the shield is a candidate at any time. As far as I can see, the contracts are only there to control players. Obviously, Katich won't be controlled and good for him in speaking his mind about the monkeys in charge.
cowcorner
Roar Pro
Another shocker by A Hillditch whose form as Chairman of Selectors is similar to his batting against Botham bouncers. I wonder if G Chappell will replace him as Chairman and if his selections will be any better? I'm not sure we even need such a long list of contracted players. Maybe it would be better to only contract test certainties and make everyone else compete for selection in the way that has stood the test of time --by scoring runs and taking wickets. Katich has regularly done that and I hope he does it again and is back in the test team .
JohnB
Guest
Us non-NSW people could also say he can now safely go back to WA and score those runs there if he no longer needs to be in NSW to try to get test selection (and maybe even the "c")! Personally, I think he'd like it better in Qld though. Consider it a swap for Mitchell Johnson - one you'd take that most days of the week! Jokes aside, I should also have included in the figures 3 tests v the WI in 2008, as that would then have covered his whole career after his second coming to the test side (and his whole test career as an opener). He had 2 very good games there (2 tons and a 36 in the 3 innings) after a bad first test (12 and 1). It's a mark of his overall performance that adding in the figures from a good series like this into the figures I've talked about above only slightly increases his average across the period and is no better than his usual rate of getting "pass" games and 50+ scores.
Wagga Magpie
Guest
I'm glad he got dropped. This way he can return to Sheffield Shield, score 1500 runs @ 90.7 and give Hilditch a quick passage to Centrelink. If Katich has to be that guy then so be it - he'd be happy to take that bullet for the sake of Aussie cricket.
sheek
Guest
JohnB, There are many of us who believe that Katich should have the (c) beside his name in the test side. I would think Cricket Australia, because of politics & a lack of forethought, have missed a great opportunity.....
Terry Kidd
Guest
Here, here John. Katich is not only a very consistent opener, he is also the epitomy of senior player that new comers to the test squad should look to as a shining example of professionalism and sheer hard work. The bloke should actually be captaining Australia, not being dropped from the contract list. I hope he shoves it up Hildich's arse by scoring an absolute mountain of runs for NSW and demonstrates thru sheer class and leadership that the selectors have absolutely no idea.