Big Bash star batsman, Brad Hodge, has been brought in to the Australian T20 squad set to replace Moises Henriques.
The Aussie veteran has received the call up as Moises Henriques packs his bags to join the Test squad in South Africa.
Hodge’s record in all forms of the game is outstanding to say the least. However this presents the question, why now at the age of 39, is he back in Aussie colours again?
Of course, without a doubt, he is one of the top T20 batsmen in the world and you would be hard pressed to find any cricket fan that would disagree.
But since when do the Australian selectors take any note of Brad Hodge’s cricketing success?
Not so long ago, instigated by the retirement of some of the best Australian cricketers ever to take the field, the Australian cricket team was struggling.
Hampered by inexperience and having to suffer through a “rebuild”, the balance between exciting new talent and seasoned professional was not achieved for some time with the latter lacking severely.
Clearly, the decision was made to go with talented youth that would eventually rise to the top of international cricket, while sacrificing immediate success.
The plan has worked as intended; Australia have had an amazing summer. But the true test against South Africa is still to come.
So why at a time when there is a huge number of exciting young Australian T20 cricketers ready to take the world by storm, are they now selecting Brad Hodge?
He was the perfect candidate for so long and ignored – why the change of strategy?
Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t agree more with the selection of this great cricketer.
The underlying issue here is what on earth was going on with Australian cricket post Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey, Adam Gilchrist and co?
Throw in Mickey Arthur, the homework debacle, the frequent player rotation policy and the removal of Simon Katich and it certainly was a mess!
Enter Darren Lehmann and it all seems to be back on track with minimal fuss, with Boof deserving all the credit that comes his way.
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