One is a tearaway quick with a handlebar moustache and a history of disappointment; the other a talented limited overs batsman and leader with a penchant for a big hit.
They both entered the Australian Test team through strong performances for the one day side, yet one flourished while the other struggled. The question is, who is the exception, and who is the rule?
John Inverarity made it clear that the ODI side is a breeding ground for budding Test players, saying that, “James Pattinson has worked hard to get back to full fitness and will be looking to regain his best form. His performances will provide a guide to the national selection panel when it selects the team for the Test tour to South Africa in February and March.”
The white ball and red ball games have their own nuances and tactics which would determine this attitude unassured at best.
On one hand, they will point to Mitchell Johnson, simultaneously using their other hand to shield the early run of George Bailey.
Pattinson is on the radar and the touring hopes of James Faulkner and Nathan Coulter-Nile will also rest on their ODI efforts.
On the edges, Shaun Marsh and Xavier Doherty could also push for squad positions on the South African tours with a handful of match-winning performances.
Will they unearth another diamond, or come up rocks?
The key to it all, as it often is in cricket, is to look beyond the numbers which can cripple and constrict even the wisest and most considered of cricketing minds.
It is my belief that white ball form can be used to gauge if a player is worthy of a baggy green, if there is critical analysis of why they are succeeding.
Let’s go back to Johnson and Bailey.
Johnson was once so erratic that he inspired his own tune from the vocal Barmy Army.
We all know how it goes and the reason it stung was because it was true. It may be fast and furious, but if it keeps going to the left and the right, we all know what word best describes that bowling.
On the ODI tour to India, Johnson still had his terrifying pace, but he had also attained a factor even more horrifying for batsmen: accuracy.
Whether this can be credited to his mental state, his work in the gym or another reason didn’t matter. The flaw which had always made Johnson an enigmatic and unreliable Test player had faded considerably.
Now we move to the other hand. The issue, in my eyes, was that what Bailey produced in India was nothing new.
We all knew he could hit a great six, we all knew he could bludgeon a bowling attack, we all knew he could put on a big white ball score but the questions around him were not answered.
Too often in the Ashes series was he caught out early on in the match not using his feet, an issue which could only have been properly analysed through Shield cricket.
Bailey is not assured of his position on the plane to South Africa despite being a part of a whitewashing XI, with coach Darren Lehmann’s statement that “we have to certainly improve our first innings batting” applying to few better than Bailey, who only gathered 64 runs in his five first innings digs.
That being said, few teams favour changing a winning side. Johnson is closer to the rule, but Bailey will still have an opportunity to avoid being the exception.
Twitter: @The_Hoss12
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