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At the start of this summer, Australia’s Test team faced a major rebuild and most cricket followers agreed patience would be crucial. Yet, somehow, just months later there’s a push to drop young opener Joe Burns who is averaging 42 in Tests this season.
It’s a habit of many cricket followers that we agitate for change in the teams we follow. Even if the side is on a roll, we still speculate over whether player x or y should be jettisoned because of a form slump.
I’m as guilty of it.
When you write up to 100 opinion pieces on cricket per year, as I do for The Roar, you are bound to make some poor or hasty calls. Just weeks ago I suggested Mitch Marsh should be on the cusp of being dumped as Australia’s all-rounder because of his continued lack of impact with the blade.
In hindsight, it was borne of impatience. I betrayed my own instincts, which had prompted me to argue repeatedly in the previous 12 months that Marsh was capable of averaging 35-plus with the bat at number six and should be afforded a generous run in the side to develop.
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» Scorecard: New Zealand vs Australia first Test
Right now, Australia’s batting line-up is formidable, with two superstar strokemakers in Steve Smith and David Warner, and two rampantly in-form batsmen in Adam Voges and Usman Khawaja.
While the side continues to churn out big totals they can afford to keep playing Marsh in the hope the sparkling first-class form he showed outside of Tests the past two years will eventually translate to the highest level.
Marsh’s penetrative seamers add a new dimension to the Australian bowling unit, meaning that – even without the two other Mitchells or James Pattinson – the attack remained potent at Wellington. Marsh arguably outperformed frontliners Jackson Bird, Tim Southee and Doug Bracewell, and has been bowling with the skill of a specialist quick for nine months now in Tests.
In his past ten Tests, Marsh has snared 23 wickets at an average of 25, at the extraordinary strike rate of 41. What makes that return even more impressive is that he isn’t often used to clean up the tail, so there are few cheap wickets among that haul.
Repeatedly he has made key breakthroughs for Australia, as he did in the second innings at Wellington when he trapped LBW both Brendon McCullum and Corey Anderson in quick succession, ending any hope of a Kiwi revival.
Australia’s next Test series is a three-match contest in Sri Lanka and on dry, slow pitches they likely will look to play two frontline spinners. Australia can do so with confidence because they still will have three world-class pace options due to the presence of Marsh.
Hopefully, at that point, Burns will still be in the XI alongside Marsh. Only three innings have passed since Burns batted for more than five hours in making an impressively patient 128 in the Boxing Day Test. Yet the mainstream media are claiming Burns is under pressure to retain his spot, and commenters on The Roar are criticising him.
So nonsensical has the debate become at times in the past week that I’ve repeatedly seen Australian fans suggesting Burns should be replaced by NSW veteran Ed Cowan. I am absolutely flummoxed by the idea of dropping a 26-year-old opener for a 33-year-old who averaged 32 across his 18 career Tests.
If there was a specialist opener dominating the Sheffield Shield then debate over Burns’ position would at least be somewhat understandable. But there is not. A rebuilding Australian team would be mad to prematurely jettison Burns for a tried-and-failed old stager like Cowan or a soon-to-be 33-year-old non-specialist opener like Shaun Marsh.
Burns won his spot back in the Test team by edging out gifted 23-year-old Western Australia opener Cameron Bancroft. While Bancroft remains a fantastic prospect, his Shield campaign was poor until scoring 144 against NSW yesterday. His Shield season average of 44 is almost identical to Burns’ average in Tests over the same period.
Replacing Burns with Bancroft would be change for change’s sake. Leave Burns and Mitch Marsh right where they are, and give this inexperienced but in-form Australian team a chance to flourish together.