Why isn’t Steve O’Keefe being selected for Australia? Here are the facts. No opinion. Just Steve O’Keefe’s numbers compared to his competition.
Steve O’Keefe is 28. In 28 first-class games he has 78 wickets at 27. He can also bat, averaging 30.
Xavier Doherty, like O’Keefe a left-arm orthdox spinner, has played 52 first-class matches for 122 wickets at 44.
Nathan Lyon, in 37 first-class matches, has 103 wickets at 40. Granted, more than half of Lyon’s matches have been Tests.
Glen Maxwell, in 15 games has 27 wickets at 33, with 900 plus runs at 42.
Steve O’Keefe has also been the leading spinner in the Sheffield Shield, picking up 17 wickets at 26.
By way of comparison, the Shield statistics from this year:
Michael Beer – 4 games, 8 wickets at 46.
Nathan Lyon – 5 games, 7 wickets at 71.
Xavier Doherty – 4 games, 2 wickets at 80.
Glenn Maxwell – 3 games, 7 wickets at 25.
With the Australian spinners leaking runs in India at the moment, it should also be noted that Steve O’Keefe has a better economy rate than all of the above, and the second best strike rate.
While Glenn Maxwell has a better strike rate, he has only played three Shield games so comes off a low base:
Steve O’Keefe – 2.2/72.
Michael Beer – 3.06/90.
Nathan Lyon – 3.78/113.
Xavier Doherty – 3.01/159.
Glenn Maxwell – 2.90/52.
I included Michael Beer in this comparison as there were reports he was in contention for an Indian call up prior to being injured.
Aside from the emergence of Agar, there weren’t really any other spinners in serious contention for the Indian tour.
Which brings us to the question, given how thin Australia’s spin stocks are, why is Steve O’Keefe not in the Test squad?
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