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At a time when more players are putting their hand up to be dropped from the team than selected to play, you’d think it would be easy for the selectors to give a few domestic toilers a chance.
Here are my top three should-be Ashes players:
Callum Ferguson
I was never a fan of Callum Ferguson or his wonky batting stance but this is a selection totally bereft of my emotional disposition.
He would happily wear the baggy green with pride and adhere to team policy and captain’s instruction unlike a select few in the current top order.
He would stride to the crease after Chris Rogers has taken the shine off the Duke, after Phil Hughes has guided a Jimmy Anderson Irish swinger down gully’s throat and rotate the strike with Pup as the captain breaks another Test batting record.
Although he didn’t set the world alight in terms of century-making, he averaged a nudge under 40 in 12/13 and I’m a current-form selector. Callum takes Ed Cowan’s spot in the squad.
Stephen O’Keefe
I’m sure I’m not alone in picking O’Keefe as a bowling all-rounder but I’m equally as sure that this selection will garner a fair bit of backlash.
His first class batting average of 30 is nothing to sneeze at but it’s his bowling average of 26.49 that earnes him a plane ticket.
Nathan Lyon is a good Test spin bowler – despite some public opinion suggesting otherwise – but he is comparatively a much poorer bowler than O’Keefe.
Lyon’s overall domestic bowling average is 38.89. O’Keefe is getting better, a fact backed up by his 12/13 Sheffield Sheild average of 22.2.
I believe Lyon’s selection was made just so Australia had a ‘specialist spinner’ but the question needs to be asked: Why pick a ‘specialist spinner’ when we have an all-rounder that is also a better bowler?
Stephen obviously takes Lyon’s spot in the team.
Trent Copeland
In my opinion this guy epitomises Test bowling. Although he won’t knock anyone’s block off (nor will he go around smashing stump cams!) he will bowl line-and-length and frustrate the heck out of opposing batsmen.
He’s not a record breaker by any stretch of the imagination but he will regularly bowl at two-an-over and give Starc, Siddle or Pattinson an opportunity to grab a wicket at the other end.
His first class bowling average sits pretty tidily at a touch over 24 and he’s no stranger to notching up five-wicket hauls.
All of this should warrant selection so it’s a wonder his surprising run-making ability doesn’t get him over the line.
He’s scored a century and two half-centuries in first class cricket and has proven it no fluke with a 12/13 Shield average of 34.72.
The above players aren’t world beaters but, as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.
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