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Josh Hazlewood will be Australia’s most important bowler on the likely seaming decks in New Zealand in February. After playing nine Tests in less than six months, he should be rested for the third Test against the West Indies.
His pace colleague Peter Siddle will be similarly important against the Kiwis, on pitches which should favour him. Siddle is suffering from a sore foot which restricted him to just nine overs yesterday, compared to Mitch Marsh’s 17.
There is nothing to gain from pushing either quick to play at the SCG next week and captain Steve Smith yesterday indicated it was possible Australia would change their attack.
Given Australia’s dominance over the listless Windies, that Test shapes as a perfect opportunity to rest Siddle and Hazlewood and offer opportunities to Victorian paceman Scott Boland and left arm spinner Steve O’Keefe.
Getting a good look at those two players would help inform selections for their next two tours – a two-Test series in New Zealand starting on February 12, and then three Tests in Sri Lanka starting in July.
Boland will be a leading contender to make the tour of New Zealand, while O’Keefe is the favourite at this point to be picked alongside Nathan Lyon as Australia’s second specialist spinner in the Test squad for Sri Lanka.
Smith yesterday hinted that O’Keefe was in the mix for the SCG Test. “We go to Sri Lanka later in the year, where there is a good chance we’ll see two spinners playing, or in the touring party,” he told media.
“It’d be good to see a second spinner play and see what he has got to offer. We’ll wait and see what the pitch looks like and if the conditions are going to suit. If they do, there’s a pretty good chance we could see a second spinner playing.”
Having been the dominant spinner in domestic cricket for the past four years, O’Keefe deserves to have another crack at Test cricket. On debut in the UAE against Pakistan last year he bowled tidily, although without great penetration.
It must be noted though that Pakistan’s batting line-up was in the rarest of touch in that series and showed extraordinary skill in their handling of O’Keefe and Lyon. To condemn O’Keefe on this single match would be unwise.
Fortunately, the selectors appear to recognise this and have the left armer as next in line after Lyon. Boland has done less to justify his place in the Test pecking order yet a spate of retirements and injuries has left him on the verge of being picked for his first Test tour.
You get the sense that the selectors, at this stage, see the attacking right armer as a like-for-like back-up for James Pattinson. With strike bowlers Mitchell Starc, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Pat Cummins unavailable through injury, and Mitchell Johnson retiring, Boland was vaulted into Test calculations.
While it seemed unfair Boland was picked in the squad against the Windies ahead of proven performers Jackson Bird and Chadd Sayers, that pair are different bowlers who would play the holding roles currently filled by Hazlewood and Siddle.
As far as strike bowlers go, Boland’s current competition at domestic level was limited. Australia clearly prefer to have at least one such out-and-out wicket taker in their Test attack at all times to add variety alongside the more reliable and subtle skills of bowlers like Hazlewood, Siddle and Lyon.
With Starc and Cummins all but certain to miss the series against the Kiwis, and Coulter-Nile injured again, Boland looks likely to travel to New Zealand as Pattinson’s back up.
Given Pattinson is fresh back from yet another long injury layoff, and is physically fragile, there is every chance Boland could take the field in New Zealand. Surely, then, it would be better to get Boland’s debut nerves out of the way in a low-key Test against the Windies in Sydney rather than in what will be a very tough series in New Zealand.
As boring as the SCG Test shapes to be, it does provide Australia the chance to freshen up key players in Hazlewood and Siddle and test drive rookies Boland and O’Keefe.