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In the wake of the capitulation of the Australian Test team in India over the last two months, the national selection panel will have no choice but to drop several players from the squad for the Ashes.
I wrote an article on December 14, 2011 entitled “Australian cricket needs to bloody the axe” in the wake of our loss to New Zealand on home soil. I predicted Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey wouldn’t make it to the next Ashes and now the selectors find themselves between a rock and a hard place.
Of the 17 players selected to tour India, seven of them will be watching the Ashes from their couches in Australia.
David Warner, Shane Watson, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell and Xavier Doherty should all be dropped.
Warner, to teach him a lesson. As an opener he needs to learn patience and circumspection and how to build an innings. He has a future as a Test player but for now he will do his learning in the Sheffield Shield (he’s only played 30 first class matches in his career, 19 of them Tests).
Watson, well I wrote an entire article on his shortcomings, two years averaging 24.1 is simply not good enough as a batsman.
Maxwell was never Test class and his selection disgraced the baggy green.
Henriques might one day be the all-rounder Australia so desire, but he’s not there yet. One first class century in his entire career shows he isn’t ready. Make him play county and Shield cricket for a few years.
Johnson has done his dash. He is no longer as threatening as he was and there are simply better bowlers around.
Starc is dropped for further development, there are better bowlers for the Ashes and he will have a long international career if he can stay fit, but for now let him recover from surgery and play some more first class cricket.
Maxwell and Doherty were never Test class and should never be seen again.
So who does make the plane? I would select a 16-man squad consisting of Ed Cowan, Chris Rogers, Phil Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Michael Clarke, Steven Smith, Alex Doolan, Matt Wade, Brad Haddin, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Jackson Bird, Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe
Cowan and Hughes both appeared to learn during the Indian series, something the other batsmen did not. They are both something of a gamble to select but have earned some faith.
Rogers is someone I would not normally select. At 36 I would normally ignore him as too old, but these are desperate times and his form is very good – he has averaged 43 over the last two and a half years at first class level.
Khawaja gets a gig based on the fact his reputation was not tarnished by the Indian series and that his last two county stints in England have yielded averages of 39.9 and 48.8.
Smith has matured and takes the last batting spot after Clarke, while Doolan gets the backup spot ahead of David Hussey, George Bailey and Shaun Marsh, who have all had poor seasons, and Joe Burns, who will get the experience of playing county cricket for the first time this year.
Haddin impressed in India, and like Rogers is in good form, so gets the backup spot behind Wade. Wade’s keeping was not as poor as many made out in India and it is a difficult place to keep – even Dhoni looked ordinary. Even so, Haddin might even get the nod for the Ashes just for leadership reasons as an on-field vice-captain.
Harris and Hilfenhaus get recalled for the Ashes and Bird re-joins the side, all three will do very well in English conditions. They join Siddle and Pattinson, who were standouts for Australia in trying Indian conditions.
O’Keefe gets a deserved call up as the second spin option behind Lyon, who was also wrongly maligned for his work this summer.
What do you think Roarers? Would you bloody the axe?
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