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Darren Lehmann and the Australian selection panel seem to have it in their heads that the best attack to bowl out any team, in any format and in any conditions, is three blokes that can bowl over 150kms per hour and one tidy off spinner.
They also seem to think that just because a guy is the best one day bowler in the world, he will walk into a Test team and be a great Test bowler. Is this flawed logic?
Mitchell Starc took a few wickets during the recent Ashes series, in fact, he took more than any of his team mates with 18, but his average was 30.5 and his economy rate was the worst of all the quick bowlers in the series at 3.85 runs per over.
Having watched him bowl a few times during the series, he never really built any pressure and when he did get wickets, it was normally against the run of the game, and he then proceeded to offer up juicy boundary balls to the incoming batsmen, or wide balls that were easily left to go by to the ‘keeper.
Meanwhile, Josh Hazlewood managed a much more respectable average of 25.75, despite looking tired and worn out by the fourth Test. During the first three Tests, he looked like a proper Test bowler, despite not being as economical as he has been in previous Test series.
So let’s have a look at their respective bowling averages for each different format.
Hazlewood Tests First Class ODI List A
Bowling average 21.75 24.33 23.42 28.86
Starc Tests First Class ODI List A
Bowling average 31.80 29.27 19.38 20.37
With so many quality quicks going around in Australia, is there not an argument for allowing these young guys to specialise and saving Hazlewood for Tests and Starc for ODIs and T20s?
Let’s have a look at some of the other guys in contention for bowling spots in the Test and ODI teams.
James Pattinson is not an ODI bowler, as his performance in the fourth ODI versus England clearly showed. His stats don’t lie either:
Pattinson Tests First Class ODI List A
Bowling average 27.07 24.85 45.4 31.03
Compare that to a guy like Nathan Coulter-Nile, who is more of a short form bowler:
Coulter-Nile Tests First Class ODI List A
Bowling average N/A 28.97 26.50 23.04
So why not keep Coulter- Nile as a limited overs specialist and Pattinson as a Test match bowler?
The selectors seem to have decided that Nathan Lyon should be kept for the Test team, so why are they reluctant to do that with the fast bowlers, who have such a higher workload?
In the past, Australia has had some very good short form bowlers who never really got a look in for the Test team, save one or two Tests. Nathan Bracken and Clint McKay spring to mind immediately. That seemed to work, so why change that?
James Faulkner has been labelled a short form cricketer, however many pundits are calling for him to be included in the squad for the upcoming Test series in Bangladesh. I would resist those calls and keep him doing what he is doing in the one dayers and T20s. He may boast a very respectable first class bowling average of 23.75, but he has barely played a first class game in Australia in the past two years due to his commitments with the ODI and Twenty20teams.
With so many other compelling options for the Test team, he is too much an unknown entity. His batting is not strong enough to warrant a number 6 spot and any thoughts of Pete Nevill moving up to six to have a bowling all rounder at 7 are premature. Nevill is yet to make his mark as a Test batsman.
There will always be some bowlers who are capable of excelling in both short form and Test cricket, although not necessarily in all conditions. Mitchell Johnson is a great ODI bowler, and a great Test bowler in Australian and South African conditions, but that doesn’t mean he should be an automatic pick for Tests in England or India does it?
So in the future, let’s pick horses for courses. In ODIs, we could pick Starc, Faulkner, Cummins, Coulter Nile and Agar, with Gurinder Sandhu competing for a spot if he continues his good short format form. For Tests we could pick Pattinson, Hazlewood and Lyon. And we should also consider some slower, swing bowlers for English conditions. The likes of Jackson Bird (if he recovers form) and Chadd Sayers could be very handy in the next Ashes series in England and Coulter-Nile could turn out to be a Test bowler if given a chance in the right conditions.
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