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George Bailey. Our new hope. Our in-form batsman. He has scored close to 500 runs at 118 in the recent Indian ODI series.
Yet, there are still those calling for his non-selection when Cook and his merry men come calling.
Most notably, Ian Chappell and Shane Warne have argued that he should not be selected. Both Chappell and Warne I hold in the highest regard as two of the most articulate thinkers the game has.
But I can’t agree with them on this one. It’s the old mentality, one that is holding us back.
Averages can be misleading in cricket, as can stats.
Fawad Ahmed took 6-fer against WA in their recent Shield encounter, and his name was thrown up again to surpass Nathan Lyon, even if on a wearing wicket in the second innings, Ahmed went wicket-less trying to spin the Bushrangers to victory.
A closer look at that scorecard will reveal that he nicked out four tail enders in the first dig.
The people that are supporting the Victorian look past the fact that Lyon is our best spinner and he was NSW’s best bowler in the Ryobi Cup, bowling tidily even inside the small encompasses of North Sydney Oval.
That brings us to Bailey.
In the past, we have seen Australian cricket blessed with batting depth.
There were several men that averaged 50 in Shield cricket who couldn’t crack our Test side.
Now we see players averaging 30-35 at best.
I keep seeing critics lamenting the fact that Bailey averages 38 in Shield cricket, and only 18 last year.
Yes, granted last season wasn’t his best, but remember he was jumping from captaining Australia in T20s then back to Shield cricket for a couple of fixtures, then joining the Australian ODI side then back to Shield.
He then captained Hobart in the BBL then finished the season back with the Shield side.
It is hard to get any continuity in your game with a schedule like that.
Chapelli has said that Bailey is also restricted cover driving and against the short ball, two keys for long form cricket, and others point to him slogging spinners to get his runs in India, is a different case than trying to do the same against Graeme Swann.
But this unearths our greatest problem.
That sort of critic is well and good back when Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Darren Lehmann and Steve Waugh were occupying the middle order.
Then you would take that advice on board and tell George thanks but no thanks.
But we don’t have that luxury anymore. We don’t have guys plundering Shield runs. There’s the odd century here and there, but gone are the 1000 runs in a season days.
It’s time to revaluate.
The fact of the matter is, you’ve got to slightly ignore overall averages now these days.
In batting because wickets are spicier and format hopping messes with their heads and bowling averages too for the same reasons.
James Faulkner averages 22 in Shield cricket with the ball, but he’s no Glenn McGrath by any stretch of the imagination.
Same goes for test hopefuls Usman Khawaja and Alex Doolan.
Guys immediately point to their respective Shield averages of 40 and 39 respectively. A closer inspection will reveal a different story.
Doolan just polished off a match winning hundred in the Shield against NSW on a slow and low wicket, while his last 12 first-class matches have produced an impressive 1064 runs at 56. He also made 161* for Australia A last summer against the touring South Africans, made against Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander no less.
Ripe for picking.
The same goes for Khawaja. People look at his last Ashes series, where he scored 114 runs at 19 in three Tests.
Not great, yes. But in the recent Ryobi Cup, he scored 426 runs at 71.
Again, ripe for picking.
And anyone who has seen Usman play knows he can seriously bat. He has everything – time, grace, all the shots, he’s just got to plunder more and more runs.
So essentially Bailey’s form in India is too good to knock back.
Yes last season and the recent use of a white ball isn’t ideal, but is there another white knight out there who deserves a spot ahead of him? No.
Bailey is in the form of his life, so give him the chance. A wise head, an articulate cricket brain, a leader, and a darn good bat.
It’s time for our mentality to change; we’ve got to take what we’ve got, without taking one glancing look at the stats and writing our future off.
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