With the Boxing Day Test just four days away, I wonder whether Australian selectors have any real idea as to who should be retained, and what the Australian public, or a bunch of monkeys, can clearly see.
Initially, I made the mistake of getting behind the ‘old boys’ of the team, thinking that form was something that would naturally come with their experience.
However, Punter’s null and void technique on his pads, Brad Haddin throwing away his wicket with terrible and reckless cut-shots, and Micheal Hussey going for a golden duck in Hobart have really made me reconsider my view on a few things.
The only problem is that the national selection panel are too concerned with the corporate side of things and still believe that going with this ‘experience over youth’ approach is the best way forward for cricket in this country.
Things aren’t all bad, of course. Micheal Clarke seems to be warming into the captaincy role quite nicel,y knowing where to position his fielders and when to introduce certain bowlers into the attack at different points in the match.
The emergence of up and coming superstars in the bowling has also been a positive over the past few months to help Australia out of a tight situation when the batting has failed miserably. David Warner is probably the best young batsmen in the country at the moment and nothing will keep him from opening against India on Boxing Day.
The only real questions after that, who comes next, who deserves a debut, and which players should be shown the back door as quickly as possible?
I think these eleven players I am about to name are our best hope of regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy this summer.
Opening batsmen: David Warner and Ed Cowan.
While no explanation is needed for the first pick, Ed Cowan has been left out of this Australian team for far too long, in my opinion, and deserves a chance to show what he can do if given a chance. He has solid technique and from what I’ve seen unlike Hughes who gets lost when rattled, is calm and can get going quite quickly to help get the innings off to a good start.
Top order: Shane Watson, Micheal Clarke (captain).
Shane Watson is the best all-rounder currently in the country and has been for some time. While he has being injured, Australia will be hoping that he can recover in time and take his place back in the team.
Micheal Clarke is someone I’ve always had a soft spot for and has my full support as the current captain of the team. He runs have been a little inconsistent this summer, however I think we still haven’t seen the best from him as of yet and a ‘captain’s knock’ or two will hopefully be coming up.
Middle order: David Hussey, Usman Khawaja and Matthew Wade.
While there has been much criticism for Australia’s bad starts to innings, the middle order hasn’t proved their worth any better so far this season, consistently falling for cheap wickets or forming a promising partnership only to be followed by a batting collapse. Hussey is been selected here on his last legs.
I do see the value in blooding a player like Christian, however, Hussey is that kind of player who (excluding his golden quack) has the skills to steady and innings and if he gets going, rack up a big score, something that neither Ponting nor Haddin seem to possess anymore. He can also be injected into the bowling attack when Clarke is looking to find a weakness in a batsmen’s game.
Khawaja has been selected further down the order in my team as selecting him at three or four seems to be putting too much pressure on him to make runs, and it sees him revert to a very defensive style game, instead of trying to pick up runs at every opportunity go after the bowling attack. He hasn’t done a lot wrong, but he does need to get that one big score sooner or later to get rid of some of the criticism been thrown his way by the Australian media.
Matthew Wade is another fine young player who really deserves a shot at international level. Brad Haddin has done nothing to prove to me that he should retain his spot; his best is long behind him. Wade is notable for having a very good batting technique to match that of his wicket-keeping, and with Tim Paine still injured, I think his time has come.
Bowling attack: Peter Siddle, Ryan Harris, James Pattinson and Nathan Lyon.
I’m not really going to delve too deep into the selection choices here. We all know about James Pattinson and how impressive he was against New Zealand, twice he absolutely tore through the Black Caps top order with ridiculous ease. Peter Siddle has also been solid this summer and deserves to keep his spot for the time being.
As the lone spin bowler in the side, Nathan Lyon is very good at coming in at the end of an innings and seems to have a knack for cleaning up the tail-end batters by causing them to play into his spin balls. The only change I have made is one which I think most people would have called for, with Ryan Harris seemingly recovered from injury coming in for Mitchell Starc. Dan Christian is carrying the water in my team for the time being and will get his chance soon enough.
In the perfect world where CA are an actual competent organisation who understand the greater good of the game over the corporate baboons and marketers who are just trying to squeeze every dollar they can, this is the team (with the exception of Hussey walking the tightrope) that can help rebuild Australian cricket, in my view.
It doesn’t have to be a constant chop and change by dropping players at the first instance of failure as blooding younger guys into the team takes time. Usman Khawaja is a perfect example of this.
However, I would rather fail in the short-term trying this avenue then constantly sticking with guys who are obviously out of form, passed their prime and simply not good enough anymore to be playing at international level.
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