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It is becoming increasingly clear that people are getting tired of seeing the Australian batting order resemble the village bicycle.
I’ve been one of those harping on like Joanna Newsome about the ‘pick and stick’ principle Australia should apply for the foreseeable future.
But there is a simple and important question when picking a player in a Test cricket side for development purposes: how sure are you this player is going to benefit from your trust and repay your faith?
Such a simple question comes with a simple and unfortunate answer: you can’t be sure.
This is one of those questions that can only be answered with the benefit of hindsight.
The question then becomes, as posed by Ryan O’Connell, how far the fans’ and selectors’ tolerance for failure should stretch?
If a batsman or bowler simply isn’t repaying your faith after 10, 15, 25 Tests, how much longer can you persevere with the chap before giving it away as a lost cause?
When does a development project turn into a discard?
The best we can do, realisitically, is pick players that, to the best of our knowledge and with all the evidence available, will be the best in one, two or five years’ time.
Usman Khawaja and Phil Hughes have both earned their right three times over to be selected in the Australian squad due to intimidating first-class figures.
Another contentious figure is Ed Cowan, who looks to be out of favour with the current coaching establishment.
Cowan was selected on the back of a mountain of Shield runs, and was dropped one Test after being Australia’s second best batsman by aggregate and fourth by average in the Test series in India.
These three players, all of them contentious figures at the selection table, are the ones who have stood out from the crowd in Shield cricket in recent times.
But are any of them going to make the cut as Test cricketers down the track? Or should we give up on them entirely?
Usman Khawaja was recently given three Ashes Tests to push his claims for a spot. Aside from a fighting 50 at Lord’s, he didn’t acquit himself nearly as well as he would have liked.
Hughes was given a healthy-ish run; three Tests against Sri Lanka (for which he can thank Rob ‘Magnificent 9’ Quiney), four against India and two against England.
He was thoroughly sorted out in India, but just as Khawaja was about to earn his call-up, the perennial Test bridesmaid forgot to check his diary and consequently missed both a homework date and the Mohali Test.
Hughes fought admirably with the willow in hand for the last two games in India, and did so again in the first Ashes Test, with that memorable partnership with Ashton Agar.
Three bad innings later and he found himself on the outer once more.
Cowan was given 18 Tests in a row to make his case, and he did make a case of some sort.
He scored one ton against a very good South African attack, and tried hard in India, facing a Cowan-esque number of balls in the process.
He also had a string of low scores to accompany this and his past deeds clearly weren’t enough to earn more than one Ashes Test worth of credit.
Are these the best players in our Shield comp, most likely to make the step up into the Test arena? Past experience would tell us yes.
So who really deserves to go on the scrapheap and who deserves to stay in contention?
Cowan’s definitely the grittiest of these three gentlemen, and offers the most to the team in leadership and unflappability.
He’s also the oldest, which counts against him in the development stakes.
Or does Hughes, the guy with so much aptitude for scoring century after century at lower levels, simply need to make that elusive step up, wart-ridden technique at all?
Then we come to Khawaja, the most elegant bladesman of the trio. He has all the shots, but also an irritating tendency of being dismissed for a low score playing the best looking block you’re likely to see this side of Mark Waugh’s retirement.
It’s an impossible thing to answer. Even after 18 Tests to Ed, 26 games to Phil and a mere nine to Usman, I’m none the wiser as to who’s a discard and who’s a trump card.
Hindsight will reveal the answer, of course, but there’s simply no way of knowing who the ‘right’ guy for the job is, right now.
Follow Paddy on Twitter @PatrickEffeney
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