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Sticking with Shaun Marsh for this Boxing Day Test would have required a reshuffle of a flourishing Australian batting line-up. The selectors deserve great credit for the strong move of dropping him for the sake of team balance.
I thought the worst of the selectors, assuming that they would favour Marsh, who has been somewhat of a golden boy.
Instead, they recognised that, during a major rebuild of the side, stability is paramount.
Opener Joe Burns looked set to be axed after some dwindling returns. Yet the selectors seem to have taken a longer view – both in looking beyond Burns’ recent failures to his prolific start to the summer, and in considering the potential for Australia’s top three to grow together over the next five to six years.
The 26-year-old Burns is six years younger than Marsh, so he offers far greater upside, as well as the possibility of forming a long-term top-order combination with 29-year-olds David Warner and Usman Khawaja.
First drop has been the most troublesome position in the Australian line-up since Ricky Ponting vacated the spot four years ago. Khawaja is the first of a dozen or so players since to have enjoyed generous success in that position, yet it looked as though he may be shunted up to the foreign role of opener to accommodate Marsh.
Instead, the selectors sagely allowed Khawaja to return in his favoured position and were promptly rewarded by both he and Burns.
Granted, the West Indies attack has ranged in performance from pathetic to pedestrian in this series. But both Australians yesterday showed admirable patience and restraint. After Warner gifted his wicket with a needlessly aggressive stroke in just the fifth over of the day, Burns and Khawaja set about building a platform for their side.
Over the next 17 overs, the visitors actually bowled well (for once) but the two rookie batsmen calmly soaked up this pressure. Scoring at just 2.4 runs per over in that period, they appeared happy to bat without ego, slowly playing themselves in and waiting for the Windies’ attack to begin to stray.
It was inevitable that the tourists would not be able to maintain this standard with the ball and when they dropped Khawaja and Burns was perfectly placed to cash in. Having different gears to your batting, like this, is something which all too often is missing in modern Test cricket.
After dawdling for well over an hour, the Aussies swiftly shifted the momentum of the match. The next six overs went for 38 runs and, in the process, Burns and Khawaja seemed to break the resistance of the West Indies.
From that point forward, there was at least one boundary ball offered up in most overs. With their eyes in, exploiting such generosity was simple for the Aussie pair. They both cantered to hundreds.
Rather than bullying the West Indian attack, like Warner tried and failed to do, Khawaja and Burns merely manipulated it. They identified the rare danger periods and reined themselves in, before upping the ante when they spotted a weakness.
This bodes well for Australia’s future. Smashing cavalier hundreds in these circumstances can be wonderfully entertaining, but such innings are extremely difficult to reproduce against quality opponents in more difficult conditions.
Australia’s next series is in New Zealand, where the pitches may well be slower seamers like those on which the Aussies repeatedly have stumbled. Flaying Trent Boult and Tim Southee on such decks is the stuff of dreams, not reality.
Runs in that series will be hard come by, and success with the bat will require a thoughtful, circumspect approach. The intelligent, mature manner in which Khawaja and Burns set about their work yesterday is a blueprint for how the Australians should bat in New Zealand.
The opposition will be far more gifted and spirited, and the conditions more testing, but this was Test match batting from the inexperienced Australians – the kind of cricket which historically has prospered all over the world.