Mitchell Marsh‘s blistering form in the ODI series in Zimbabwe and Stephen O’Keefe’s consistent domestic first-class form has seen both rewarded with berths in the 15-man Test squad to play Pakistan in the UAE next month.
Skipper Michael Clarke has been included in the squad pending him proving he is over the hamstring complaint that cut short his participation in Zimbabwe.
22-year-old Marsh has been on the selectors’ radar for quite some time but a combination of injury and off-field misdemeanours have until now stunted his development.
The all-rounder made his debut for Australia in a T20 against South Africa in October 2011, four days before his 20th birthday having already become WA’s youngest debutant in more than 70 years as a 17-year-old.
Stress fractures in his back severely limited his bowling in the past two years while alcohol-related incidents over the same period saw him separately lose his scholarship at CA’s Centre of Excellence and serve a suspension for WA.
Over the past three weeks in Zimbabwe he clearly showed why the selectors have been so enamoured with him.
An 83-ball innings of 89 against Zimbabwe was followed by a staggering 51-ball knock of 86 against South Africa, during which he became the first batsman in international cricket to club Dale Steyn for three consecutive sixes.
Marsh is also handy with the ball, possessing the ability to nudge the 140km/h barrier.
His 38 first-class matches to date have produced 56 wickets at 26.9.
O’Keefe is at shorter odds, however, to make his Test debut. The 29-year-old’s name has long been bandied around by cricket fans who believe he has been hard done by.
In recent times the selectors have awarded debuts to three other left-arm orthodox bowlers – Ashton Agar, Michael Beer and Xavier Doherty – all of whom have inferior first-class records to O’Keefe.
Last season he topped the Sheffield Shield wicket-takers list with 41 scalps at 20.4 to take his career record to 128 wickets at 24.7.
He is also a capable lower-order batsman with six-half centuries and a first-class average of 27.8.
Able to extract considerable turn and possessing a keen mastery of flight he will provide the perfect counterbalance to Nathan Lyon’s offies.
The pitches in the UAE will certainly have the selectors angling towards two slow men.
O’Keefe’s competition for a spot will come from Glenn Maxwell.
Four years O’Keefe’s junior he has already played two Tests – on the tour of India in 2012-13 – and has notched up 50 international short form appearances.
There is no doubting that O’Keefe is the superior bowler, and being a left-armer he should be the first cab off the rank to support Lyon.
The fascination in the batting line-up is twofold.
Firstly, there is Clarke’s fitness. He is by no means a guaranteed starter.
If he is ruled out it may well be that the incumbent number three Alex Doolan and the once again recycled Phil Hughes both get to play.
However, if Clarke is ready to go, only one of that pair will play with David Warner and Chris Rogers to open and Shane Watson and Steve Smith to bat at four and six.
Doolan was unable to nail down the number three spot in South Africa where his debut series produced 186 runs at 31.0 across the three Tests.
His 89 in the second innings of his maiden Test showed he has the goods to succeed at the highest level especially given the quality of the attack – Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel.
For Hughes, time is surely running out to finally secure a long term spot in the Test line-up.
He has been in and out of the side numerous times in his 26-Test career.
It started in a blaze of glory when in his second match he peeled off twin hundreds at Durban to become the youngest player in history to achieve the feat.
However, after 26 Tests his average is a mere 32.6.
Spin has proved to be an Achilles heel and not surprisingly the selectors have chosen to send him to the Emirates ahead of the rest of the squad to work in the nets with Cricket Australia spin consultant Muttiah Muralitharan.
On the bowling front the selectors continue to be hamstrung with Ryan Harris and James Pattinson still recovering from injury and Pat Cummins being chosen for the T20 encounters as he continues his path back to Test ranks.
Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc have been named as the three specialist quicks with Watson and Marsh available as back-up.
The two-Test series looms as an important one for the Aussies.
The opponent is an enigmatic one with very much a Jekyll and Hyde-like personality.
While Pakistan may currently sit sixth in the world rankings it possesses the latent ability to knock off the second-ranked Australians should the collective mindset be on-song.
For Australia, a win and a successful home series against India this summer may see it return to world number one – it presently sits at number two, with 123 points, behind South Africa’s 124.
TheCunningLinguistic
Roar Rookie
I agree with Chris. SOK deserves his chance, he has been the most consistent bowler (not just spin bowler) in Australia for some time. I would love to see him in tandem with Lyon. I'm not sure that Doolan is that much better than Hughes at facing spin- personally, I'd leave them both out for this series. Watto & Marsh in, though I guess that greatly depends on injury status. Maybe Maxie ahead of Doolan & Hughes? Let's get Hughes back in after this series, so he can get his head in the right space, before being subjected to prodigious turn on these dust bowls!
jammel
Guest
I reckon we will be looking at the following XI: Warner Rogers Doolan Clarke Smith Watson Haddin Johnson O'Keefe Siddle Lyon. Personally, I'd bracket Starc/O'Keefe depending on conditions. I don't think the selectors should feel reluctant to play three quicks if that's what they think the conditions demand. It'll be great to see O'Keefe and Lyon bowling in the same match though, head to head! More broadly, on the Mitchell Marsh and Maxwell inclusions, I really hope the selectors don't play them - and certainly not both of them! Maxwell perhaps at six if Doolan fails a few times or if Watson's injured. But I don't think Mitchell Marsh should be included - if there's a feeling that three seamers/quicks are needed, then let's play three seamers/quicks who are specialists. I do have a concern though that the selectors might try and go the "all rounder" option and squeeze in both Marsh and Maxwell in addition to Watson. I sincerely hope not, as with Johnson and Watson (and Smith) in the XI already, we could have 5 "all rounders"…. Good thing Faulkner isn't in the squad too :)
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
It's hardly political correctness, is it? What a weird use of that term.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I'm not necessarily sold on the idea that Maxwell is a very good player of spin. He had one innings in England where he clobbered the guy around that they are possibly going to be facing here, but I highly doubt that was in similar conditions to here. I've seen Phil Hughes smash spinners around the place too - in Australian conditions, the conditions that sees so many top spinners from overseas come here and really struggle. I think the conditions are the big thing. I'd probably back Hughes to do well against these Paki spinners in Australia, but playing them in really tough, spinning conditions that are so completely foreign to anything ever found in Australia is the big difference. The Aussies go overseas and we see so many batsmen looking all at sea against spin, but those teams bring their spinners to Australia and they get hammered all over the park. I don't know that there's a lot of evidence of Maxwell scoring lots of runs against top spinners in really tough spinning conditions to necessarily back the statement that he's a very good player of spin.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
If they are truly sending him on ahead to do some work on those pitches with Murali, then it could actually be a very smart move, knowing that there is one big area he really needs to work on and that's a great way to do it and while he's probably more there for experience in having a chance to really work on playing against spin in spinning conditions, in any other conditions his performances have put him well ahead of all the other batsmen in the country, so it's reasonable that he's considered next cab off the rank, but that the selectors need him to seriously improve in this one area, so they are doing something to try and make that happen. I'd suggest that in that case he'd be considered the person to be brought in if required in this series only if they see that the work with Murali in the nets has been really positive and he's been able to work out a definite method to combat quality spin in tough, spinning conditions. If he can't show that then they likely won't pick him, and neither should they. But it's not a bad way of trying to work on his batting against spin in spinning conditions. The only question is, why they haven't sent a bunch of other batsmen there with him as there are plenty of others looking all at sea in spinning conditions at the moment!
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
That and the fact that over the same period there is barely any other Aussie spinners averaging under 40 in the Sheffield Shield, yet he consistently averages in the 20's. It's not like his record is slightly better than others around, it blows them away, yet despite that he's been consistently overlooked. Below is a list of all the spinners I could come up with who've been picked for Australia over the last number of years basically since O'Keefe has been around, playing well for NSW year-in, year-out and compare them by their Sheffield Shield records: O'Keefe 37 Matches 116 wickets at 24.95 Lyon 16 Matches 37 wickets at 47.64 Beer 23 Matches 57 wickets at 37.42 Doherty 58 Matches 143 wickets at 40.72 Maxwell 20 Matches 30 wickets at 36.10 Agar 15 Matches 40 wickets at 43.17 McGain 26 Matches 86 wickets at 34.58 S Smith 32 Matches 39 wickets at 50.61 (he was picked as a spinner first time around) Krejza 43 matches 81 wickets at 49.01 I know statistics aren't everything, but they do mean a lot, and when someone is that far ahead of everyone else in his stats there has to be something in it. It's like you have one batsman averaging 60+ every season but continually ignored for a string of batsmen averaging 35.
eryan
Guest
I think they could go two specialist quicks plus watson and marsh as back ups then have okeefe and lyon as spin twins Rogers Warner Clarke Smith Watson Haddin Marsh O'Keefe Johnson Siddle Lyon
jameswm
Roar Guru
"bowl" you mean
Gr8rWeStr
Guest
Still trying to perpetuate the 'myth' that O'Keefe is a SCG specialist, even though the SCG isn't the spinners paradise, dust bowl, it once was. O'Keefe's SCG bowling average, 25.64, is marginally worse than his first class career average, 24.72. He has significantly better records at Adelaide Oval, 18.12, Allan Border Field, 17.91, and Blacktown, 14.58.
Pb7
Guest
The team needs Watson in the top 3 and Alex Dolan is an average player with an average record nothing else so my XI for the turning wickets Rogers Warner Watson Clarke/Hughes (depending on clarkes hamstring) Smith Maxwell Haddin Okeefe Johnson Starc Lyon Thoughts? -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Tom from Perth
Roar Rookie
Looks like Tom from Macksville is reborn with a new name.
Moose
Guest
Glenn, I'd love to see MM in the team - if only because looking ahead to the ashes MM's leg cutters could be a massive help in England.
Showbags
Guest
Looking at the team Pakistan played in their last test they have a top order of all right handed batsmen. This means that SOK has to play as Lyon is not as effective again right handers. My team: Warner Rogers Doolan (don't rate him but can't pick Hughes against Ajmal and Maxwell is just not good enough) Clarke Smith Watson Haddin Johnson O'Keefe Siddle Lyon
Carcass
Guest
Interestingly that we are even playing Pakistan, this nation that houses terrorists, and corrupt cricketers. And we didn't go to apartheid South Africa for 20 years. Political correctness gone utterly insane.
shiv
Guest
and sok is going to be a very good spinner but why aus selecters don't pick him in odi and t20 because the next t20 wc is in india and we know the indian condition ! may be they put boyce there because of next t20 wc ?
Rellum
Roar Guru
There is also a story of him retiring from Test cricket after this series. Believe it at your peril I say.
Shouts Chen
Guest
Saeed Ajmal might be suspended for the Australian test match for an illegal delivery.
cav
Guest
Anyone but Starc
Tom from Perth
Roar Rookie
I'd like to think that PR is not a relevant consideration for the selectors. But based on what's happened in the past, who knows what goes on behind closed doors.
Tom from Perth
Roar Rookie
Wow, that's big news if it's true.