When national selectors Rod Marsh, Mark Waugh, Darren Lehmann, and Trevor Hohns sat down to name to first ODI side of the summer, there was little to do.
The Australians had just whitewashed Pakistan in the three-match ODI series in the UAE, with Michael Clarke missing thanks to another hamstring injury.
So what did the selectors do for the first ODI against South Africa at the WACA? Reinstate a seemingly fit Clarke and drop Steve Smith, who was the man of the series in the UAE, averaging 63.33 with the bat.
From man of the series a month ago to see ya? Inexcusable.
Smith would have been left out of the second ODI, also at the WACA, after Australia won the first by 32 runs. But the fickle finger of fate stepped in when Clarke broke down again, allowing the selectors to regain some face by reinstating Smith.
From that point until today Smith has constantly reminded the selectors of their original folly by scoring 1657 runs at 97.47 in Tests and ODIs, to be the best Australian batsman of the summer. And from obscurity to captaining his country with distinction in three Tests and one ODI, as Clarke continued to break down.
On Tuesday the selectors named 16 players to tour the West Indies for two Tests in June, and 17 for the five-Test Ashes series in July-August.
They picked 30-year-old paceman Peter Siddle, as honest as the day is long, ahead of two genuine younger and better strike bowlers in 21-year-old Pat Cummins, and 24-year-old James Faulkner, fresh from earning the man of the match award in the World Cup final.
Don’t tell me ODIs are any different when it comes to selections. Runs and wickets are the only currency in any format. Apart from that, Cummins and Faulkner are far better batsmen and fielders than Siddle, so why the selection, especially with the future in mind?
The selectors were very busy yesterday, also naming an Australian A squad to do a four-day and one-day series battle against India in India in July.
Glenn Maxwell was left out of the Windies-England Test tours, but was named in the four-day Australia A squad, yet not the one-day squad.
Excuse me, wasn’t Maxwell an integral part of winning the World Cup, and now he can’t get a guernsey in an Australia A one-day squad?
The selectors sure are hard to fathom, but they do deserve some credit.
Not wanting to make another Steve Smith howler, they recognised the two most outstanding performances in the Sheffield Shield by ignoring age and selecting the best batsman in 35-year-old Western Australian captain Adam Voges, and the best-performed bowler in 33-year-old Pakistan-born leggie Fawad Ahmed, despite the fact neither has played a Test.
Voges cracked 1358 runs at 104.46, the fourth highest season aggregate in the history of the Sheffield Shield.
Simon Katich for NSW in the 2007-08 season, tops the list with 1506 runs at 94.12, followed by Michael Bevan (NSW) with 1464 in the 2004-05 season, averaging 97.60, and Victorian Matthew Elliot in the 2003-04 season with 1381 at 81.23.
Ahmed’s 48 Shield wickets in 11 games cost 24.85, with an excellent economy rate of 3.32 per over.
Let’s face facts: there’s no point in selecting Voges and Ahmed, despite earning recognition, if they weren’t going to play in any of the seven Tests. So don’t be surprised if Voges replaces Shane Watson in the middle order at some stage, and Ahmed does the same with offie Nathan Lyon.
Offies are a dime a dozen in England, but England batsmen have always had trouble with leggies, who are so rare in county cricket.
Time will tell.
Australia Test squad
Michael Clarke (c), Steve Smith (vc), David Warner, Chris Rogers, Shane Watson, Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Brad Haddin, Peter Nevill, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon and Fawad Ahmed.
Ryan Harris will be the 17th man for the Ashes series after the birth of his first child.
Australia A four-day squad
Usman Khawaja (c), Matthew Wade (vc), Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Andrew Fekete, Peter Hanscomb, Travis Head, Nick Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Steve O’Keefe, Gurinder Sandhu, and Marcus Stoinis.
The Australia A one-day squad
Khawaja (c), Wade (vc), Sean Abbott, Agar, Cameron Boyce, Burns, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Cummins, Callum Ferguson, Handscomb, Head, Chris Lynn, Sandhu, and Adam Zampa.
By the way, how many of the 441 Australians who have worn the coveted baggy green cap have had the first name Mitchell? Just three, and they are all heading for the Windies and England – Mitchell Johnson, cap number 398, Mitchell Starc 425, and Mitchell Marsh 438.
Birdy
Guest
Aussies remind me of Goldfish with their 30 second memory. I think it was 18 months ago when these boards were filled with doom and gloom about Sheffield Shield. Why didn't you produce batsmen as good as Ian Bell? How were you going to win the Ashes back with a dysfunctional domestic cricket scene? Reading the comments here is like listening in on my 14 year old daughters 'conversations' with her friends.
Andy
Guest
Fair enough Don, I was expecting that. It was a pretty decent swap- Agar for Stoinis. We had too many spinners on our books and you had too many batsmen. Although I would prefer Stoinis in my top 6 to Marcus Harris or Cameron Bancroft any day. Stoinis is quite a handy bowler just to add to his great batting potential. (I would also prefer Agar on our books to John Holland, but there you go)
Don Freo
Guest
Be fair...if you are going to claim Agar from Melbourne, Stoinis is ours. At least Marcus actually played for WA. Stoinis is a lot better than we have seen from him so far...and we saw a heck of a lot from him this year. He has the ability to do a Steve Smith.
Andy
Guest
I reckon Lynn and Ferguson are both very unlucky to have missed the A squad for the 4 day matches, with Travis Head being very lucky to have made the squad given the average season he had. Sandhu was also lucky to make the 4 day squad as his shield season was mediocre at best. I would have preferred to have seen Coulter-Nile in the team. Apart from those selections, the squads look good and seem to have been picked on form, with the younger up and coming players being picked in the A squads. Hope to see the young Vic boys Handscomb and Stoinis do well in the A squad, and Agar who is originally from Melbourne.
matth
Guest
Maxwell does average around 40 in first class cricket, which is not too shabby when you add his bowling and fielding ability
Don Freo
Guest
Ha! Ha!
matth
Guest
Please pass on my condolences to the Hussey family
matth
Guest
I'm going to go with Bert Ironmonger. I think he was around 40 on debut. And even if not I just love his name. Bert .... Ironmonger. Apparently he was such a good bat that once his wife called the dressing room to be told that Bert had just gone out to bat. She said she would hold as he would be back in a minute.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Haha are you serious? You suggest similarity. Hussey never "exploded". He was great, got selected and performed great. I.e. he continued his FC form into the test arena. If Marsh does that he will still be inadequate. I am putting down a "real talent" for the decade of poor performances. A player doesn't "explode" at 30. For the record, whilst I had objected to his selection in the past, last summer was the first time he was selected in form and performed well enough over a series to warrant being retained.
Don Freo
Guest
"He is about to explode, a la Mike Hussey." No one has suggested anything about statistical similarity. You are almost manic about putting down a real talent who has had a very successful Test and Shield season. Why?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
That maybe so, but that doesn't change the point that our esteemed (ha ha) writer David Lord claimed that Peter Siddle's figures were only good because he bowled to poor batsmen, and I showed that it's about on par with any modern Shield season.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Clarke will play more Shield cricket now he's retired from ODI's I expect. Although, probably not next season. Usually the tests only clash with a couple of Shield matches and then the BBL, and only ODI's clash with the second-half of the Shield season, however, next season there is a February tour to New Zealand.
Don Freo
Guest
Chuck Fleetwood-Smith might have been 40. One of those spinners from yesteryear.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I'm a fan of Cummins and was hoping he wouldn't get selected for the World Cup squad so he could play Shield cricket. Obviously the selectors decided that a summer playing limited overs cricket only followed by easing back into first class cricket on the Australia A tour was the thing to do. They know that he's likely to be one of our top fast bowlers for years to come, and want to really ease him in carefully, just slowly building up his workload until he's definitely ready for test cricket.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
They have clearly picked the squad purely with the thought of having the best team to win the Ashes series. They've got the Australia A team to send the youngsters away in, and they can start rejuvenating the team in other series, but not the Ashes. Voges should be picked at #5 ahead of Shaun Marsh and will hopefully have a good series and maybe a good couple of years. By the way, Chris Rogers didn't get his first baggy green for the last ashes series in England. He'd played one test previously at the WACA many years ago meaning that if Voges gets picked he'll be well and truly the oldest debutant I'm pretty sure.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
As someone else mentioned, since he's in the main Australian ODI squad, he actually shouldn't be in the Australia A one day squad. The Australia A team is for players on the fringe with the possibility of working their way in. So someone who is in the Australian One Day team, but not test team could be in the Australia A 4-day squad, but shouldn't be in the one day squad.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Rob, what that means is that in a single season he averaged 46. That's great and you would hope he is on an upward trend. But we are looking at a short period, that is essentially helped by 3 good scores. Jason Gillespie has a test 200, Mitchell Johnson has a test 100, Glen McGrath scored 61* in one game. Isolated instances will inflate an average when looking at a single period. But without continuing that over time, can you say that it's not just an anomaly? Obviously we can't say it's definitely an anomaly either. I'm not saying that. But what I object to is you and the Sandgroper fan boy Don essentially saying ignore the majority of his career, look at this isolated period and judge him solely on that. Much like your comments about Watson. He averaged 29 against India. S Marsh averaged 2.9 last time India toured so I wouldn't right him off. But then you look at the fact he scored 2 half centuries in the last 2 games. So the first 2 games are what drags his average down. So my point is if you want to select an isolated period, there may be a different isolated period to look at which would change the result, so we need to look broader. He had been in a lean trot leading up to those last 2 tests. Is that the anomaly, or is the last 2 test the anomaly? Well his career FC average is 43 and his test average is 35.74 and he has passed 50 in 28 of his 105 innings, so just under 1 in 3. So that says that the lean periods are probably more of an anomaly and his 167 runs in the last 2 tests is probably around on par with his career returns. I find it humorous that Don accuses me of "You just make things up to suit a previously existing prejudice" when I merely quoted stats of Marsh as a whole without picking out isolated periods.
QuitWhinging
Guest
in more tests, that's how the argument is flawed. He had 2 extra innings to do so
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Didn't Mike Hussey have 10,000 First Class runs and an average of around 50 when selected? Not an average in the 30's and years of wasted talent? Hardly similar.
Don Freo
Guest
I think Joe would struggle to get a place in some Shield sides.