The Australian selection panel of Rod Marsh, Mark Waugh, Darren Lehmann, and Trevor Hohns should take particular notice of how their cricket cousins across the ditch named their World T20 squad.
The Kiwis picked three spinners – offie Nathan McCullum, the older brother of recently retired Kiwi captain Brendon, left-armer Mitchell Santner, and Indian-born leggie Ish Sodhi.
That showed enormous courage, and even greater conviction when the trio were not only named in the playing XI at Nagpur against host nation India – one of the tournament favourites – but the world-class pace combination of Tim Southree and Trent Boult were left out.
Fair enough with McCullum (35) who had played 61 T20s, but both Santner and Sodhi are 23 and had played just five T20 internationals apiece.
Turns out, the Kiwi selectors knew what they were doing.
New Zealand batted first with a low 126, but McCullum, Santner, and Sodhi cleaned India out for just 79, the Indians’ lowest-ever home T20 total.
Santner took 4-11 off four and was named man of the match, Sodhi claimed 3-18 off four, and McCullum 2-15 off three.
Their combined total was 9-44 off 11, and what’s more the first nine.
The Kiwi selectors have shrewdly selected horses for courses.
And what have the Australian selectors done?
Just two spinners, Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa, with nine international T20s between them – please don’t class Glenn Maxwell as one.
But there are a truckload of quicks – Josh Hazlewood, John Hastings, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Andrew Tye, Shane Watson, James Faulkner, and Mitchell Marsh – on wickets tailor-made for spinners.
Using the Kiwi method, injury-prone Coulter-Nile and inaccurate Tye could have been left at home, replaced by Australia’s best spinner, the offie Nathan Lyon, and another really promising leggie in Cameron Boyce.
Now that would make it interesting, starting with Australia’s opening game against the Kiwis at Dharamsala tomorrow.
How about playing Lyon, Zampa, and Agar – the equivalent of McCullum, Sodhi, and Santner.
If David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith, Shane Watson, Mitchell Marsh, Maxwell, Faulkner, and Peter Nevill, with Usman Khawaja in the mix, can’t get enough runs, Australia doesn’t deserve to win.
That would leave a pace attack of Hazlewood, Faulkner, Watson, and Marsh to link with spinners Lyon, Zampa, and Agar, with Boyce in the wings.
The likely batting order would be:
Warner
Watson
Smith
Maxwell
Marsh
Faulkner
Nevill
Agar
Zampa
Hazlewood
Lyon
It would be Maxwell’s first and last chance. Another failure and Finch to open with Watson and Warner drop down the list.
That team could make a big noise in the tournament, only trouble being Lyon isn’t there.
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