Khawaja shouldn't have been Shaun from the Test side

Shaun Marsh, since day one, has had an easy ride with the aussie selectors full stop. No doubt about it. I've heard that his old man ís a 'good man, a great guy' etc etc. and I've been wondering for a couple years now whether some of those selectors have maybe shared a few too many wines with Geoff over the years and have got a little close.. The way Í see it, Shaun has been given EVERY opportunity possible, because of who his old man is. I always hear the commentators saying how talented he is, and he's a class act.. well, I'm just trying to think of a decent innings I've seen him play (as a cricket nut, I watch all internationals in Australia) hmm.. I remember a dour 83 he made off about 110 balls opening in a one-dayer in Adelaide..That's about it!! I know he made 141 on debut and 99 in a T20...but I've never really seen it for my own eyes. I've 'heard'of a lot of other good innings' by other batters too..Nothing against the man, if he works out, well, good luck to him. I can see in the few 3's and 11's that he's made recently that he has a bit of elegance about him.. but I find it funny how a player gets the chance to 'find form' for Australia! Other players, they're told to go back to state cricket and find form, son. One thing the selectors have muffed all summer is selecting players on shield form for one-day cricket or vice-versa. I mean, selecting Shaun for Boxing day after a 99 not out in T20...!!!! Laughable. And how Mr. Variety or whatever his name is told Ferguson he wasn't selected in the one-day squad because he 'needs to find form' in the shield..when he's averaging 70 in 50 over cricket.. Come on, fair dinkum..50 over cricket is a differnt game to the longer form. It's silly how selectors can't recognise this.

Opinions are opinions mate, call it stupid if you want but if Khawaja got runs when he had a chance, it would've forced the selectors hand. He missed out, they made a change and now it's up to him to perform nd force his way back. Better players than Khawaja have been dropped. He'll be back.

Do I really need to post the list of people with worse averages and no centuries in their first six tests for you to comprehend how stupid that statement of yours is?

Of course it was a big opportunity. Some people only get one test. When you come into the test side, every innings is a chance to show you belong there. Had Khawaja put runs on the board prior to the MCG test, he may have forced the selectors hand. But he didnt.

I cannot agree that 4 and a half (declared on) innings (3 matches) then 5 innings (3 matches) constitutes "a big opportunity". Also 21 and 14 in the shield game, but 100 in the Ryobi Cup. Not great to be sure but not a complete failure of a week either. One week down, three more to go.

The problem with Usman Khawaja is that he needs to score runs. I'm a big fan, but the fact is he had a big opportunity to cement a place in the side, and he didn't. Know that he is out of the side, he needs to posy scores to force his way back in. A double failure against Tasmania won't help. Simply put, Usman Khawaja is now at a point where he needs to turn talent into runs.

I think Khawaja - a more consistent and higher run-scorer, younger and less injury prone - has demonstrated in three first-class seasons that he should be selected in Australia's top six and persevered with. But, hey, as mentioned by several people, these don't seem to be the factors considered when Khawaja's name comes up at the selection table.

UK was the incumbent. He played the previous 2 tests before Marsh's debut and then played in that test. At the end of that test, Marsh had scored more runs in his single test innings than UK had scored in his 3 tests. Dropping UK rather than Marsh was understandable.

Once again selectors have blown it.

But UK had a better record in FC cricket without question leading up to that and still does...

Agree, coming from the decade where you had to average 50 and bang the house down with massive scores for 3 seasons, it will take some getting use to having players selected on half a season. Even Dan Christian got in on that criteria. And if we are using that then Cooper would come into the fold as well and he has ODI experience already. On Bailey, alot of the Tassie supporters are saying the Hobart wicket makes it harder to average more. Whilst true how much should we be adding to his score to make it an even playing field? He usually averages aroun d 40 each season, last year was his worst in sometime at 30. However half your matches are played on other wickets, so you have to wonder what he is doing in those matches.

By my estimation both players have between 8 and 10 innings (4 Shield games and 2 Ryobi Cup games) and need 500 runs to secure the spot - the "bat-off" aspect is awesome. How can anyone argue with "we'll take the guy that performs better over the next 6 games? Marsh is indeed winning round one (and round two is WA v NSW which makes it even better). Khawaja has posted 100, 21, 14. Marsh has posted 79. I still honestly think that it's too early for Forrest and Quiney (one good season does not make you ready for test cricket). I have never really looked at Bailey but it is obvious the selectors are with him captaining the T20 side. For mine he's not showing enough, never getting his average over 50 in the shield. But since it is obvious the selectors are looking at him, he's thrown his hat in the ring too with 94 and 117.

Khawaja isn't doing much to get rid of the can't convert his starts tag. Obviously he has done it in the past but in his first match back since being dropped he got starts and got out. He really needs a 100 to get himself back in the frame. Marsh takes this round, got lucky but when he got in he looked good. Still don't have any young batsmen really standing out. Lynn got a start in his first dig but failed in the second. Burns has a start in the 2nd innings, 1st not so. Smith made runs in the first but none in the second. Bailey 100 is looking good while Quiney form is pretty good if we are considering Forrest then no reason why he can't be considered.

Yep, Mickey A's comments and recent tweets are not doing much to prevent perception of bias. Surely selectors should avoid not only bias but also perception of bias.

Well, this was not the first time in the past month (if not week) that Arthur has been full of praise for Marsh. As an unbiased selector, I look forward to hearing from Arthur about his phone call to Khawaja and some encouraging comments about that player's batting.

If Cowan has a poor WI tour then Khawaja-Warner could well be the openers next summer.

I'm not sure what is so wrong about those comments? He's basically said that if Marsh gets lots of runs in the Shield then he can make the WIndies tour. Isn't that how players should get a Test spot? Was he asked about Khawaja or just about Marsh and Forrest? If he wasn't asked about Khawaja then why would he mention him to reporters? It's not as Uzzies scores of 21 and 14 in the current shield match ares going to create much media attention. As for his age, Marsh is 28. He's not a kid but in cricket terms, especially for a batsman, he has plenty of time left. A 28 y/o batsman has potentially up to about 10 years left in their career. He's young enough. As evidenced by plenty of my comments both on this article and plenty of others on the same topic I would prefer to see Khawaja in instead of Marsh, but let's keep the criticisims at least partially grounded in reality

Can I post: Because three red-necks (two sandgropers and a banana-bender) and a Saffa are scared to pick a Pakistani-born Australian Muslim who also happens to be a qualified pilot. Or is that too inappropriate and will get moderated?

Marsh had been in decent FC form for the previous couple of years and had showed that he could handle international cricket well enoughvia the ODIs. Also, a number of other players were injured (Katich) or just plain crap (Smith). So his selection was not unreasonable by any means. He then only got a start because Ponting wanted to return home for the bub. He did pretty well in that start so dropping UK rather than him on Ponting's return also seemed reasonable. Let's face it, after those first 2 tests, the selectors looked like geniuses.