Australia have arrived in South Africa with their weakest-ever ODI pace line-up. On Tuesday they kick off their tour with a quartet of pace bowlers who are not even among the ten best 50-over quicks in the country.
Ten wickets at an average of 49. That was the combined haul of Joe Mennie, Daniel Worrall and Chris Tremain in last summer’s domestic One Day Cup.
53 wickets at 37. That is the combined career return of Mennie, Worrall and Tremain in 50-over cricket. These are the men who have come into Australia’s ODI squad to replace Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and James Faulkner over the next three weeks.
They will combine with fellow paceman Scott Boland, who has looked way out of his depth so far in his ODI career, averaging 57 after ten matches.
I don’t mean to denigrate this quartet of fresh Australian pacemen. But the reality is none of Worrall, Mennie, Tremain or Boland have demanded ODI selection. In fact I would argue that none of them are even among the top ten 50-over paceman in Australia.
In my estimations they are behind Starc, Hazlewood, Faulkner, John Hastings, Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, Joel Paris, James Pattinson, Sean Abbott and Gurinder Sandhu. That’s 11 better bowlers.
Worrall, Mennie, Tremain and Boland are essentially the last men standing given the glut of injuries to Australian quicks and the resting of Starc and Hazlewood ahead of a busy home summer.
Of the new pacemen, Tremain is easily the best white ball prospect. He is hugely inexperienced though, having played only four domestic one dayers in his career.
The 193-cm right armer from Victoria grabbed the attention of the selectors while playing for Australia A in the recent winter carnival against India A, South Africa A and Australia’s National Performance Squad.
First he claimed 7-102 in Australia A’s opening four-day match against South Africa A, including a five-wicket haul in the first innings. Then he started the 50-over quadrangular series with consecutive five-fors against India A and the NPS.
He finished that series as comfortably the leading wicket taker from any side, with 13 at an average of 15.
It was an amazing return for a bowler who had just two wickets at 83 in his entire 50-over career prior to that series. Tremain proved effective with both the new and old ball. In the opening ten overs he gained consistent outswing and sharp lift.
In the later overs he showed clever changes of pace, including a James Faulkner-style back-of-the-hand slower ball.
Tremain also has a helpful quirk which sees him always cover the ball with his non-bowling hand as he approaches the crease. Given batsman love to get a good look at the ball in a bowler’s run-up this can only make him more difficult to pick up.
Tremain did not play in last summer’s domestic One-Day Cup. In fact, he couldn’t even squeeze into Victoria’s squad for that tournament, stuck behind the likes of Hastings, Pattinson, Boland, Peter Siddle and Clint McKay.
Tremain, did, however have a breakout season in the Sheffield Shield. The 25-year-old snared 36 wickets at 21, with a blistering strike rate of 38.
He looks more likely than Worrall, Mennie or Boland to have an impact in South Africa, with Australia to play their first match against Ireland on Tuesday, followed by five games against the hosts. Worrall is almost as green as Tremain with the white ball.
The 25-year-old has played only seven domestic one dayers for South Australia, for a return of seven wickets at 40.
Worrall has a nice yorker, which could be handy in the later overs. Otherwise, the most notable thing about him is his bizarre run up, which sees him start his approach from an extremely wide angle. Worrall and Mennie both seem to have earned selection largely off the back of fine Sheffield Shield campaigns last summer.
That Redbacks pair were the two leading wicket takers in the Shield, Mennie taking 51 wickets at 21, and Worrall collecting 44 at 26. But both of them struggled badly in the domestic one dayers, Mennie averaging 51 and Worrall 47.
So of Australia’s three new ODI pacemen, two are fresh from shocking domestic white ball campaigns and the other couldn’t even make his State’s 50-over squad. That doesn’t exactlyinstilmuch confidence now, does it?
Don Freo
Guest
Did you disagree with that assessment of the pre-Sri Lanka attack? You'd struggle to nominate one better. Remember, if every bowler was fit and available, and you made an algebraic calculation of the "best available" attack, this current attack would rank below 500 on the list. But...they'll do ok. I love the fact that our Aussie selectors look at everyone.
Don Freo
Guest
I think Mennie topped it with almost (or over) 50 wickets.
Don Freo
Guest
I think Annoyedofit (should be AnnoyedWITHit) is referring to Mr Kanhai or Mr Connolly.
Don Freo
Guest
Tim just has to stop looking for meaning in games of cricket. It's a sport. Look for entertainment, Tim.
Don Freo
Guest
Like Behrendorff and Paris? They're both fit and bowling well. Playing this Sunday.
Don Freo
Guest
Vish...surely you'd have Nair play more than one game for NSW before you put him in the Aussie side. ...or is one game in a blue cap qualification enough?
Rellum
Roar Guru
I don't know how a state player is ever supposed impress limited overs cricket when they only play fro a few weeks about a year ago in a tournament CA itself sees as not a serius tournament, so with that I am happy to use shield cricket as a guide to someones form. these guys have played a few one dayers for Aus A recently with some average results, not terrible, so I can see the issue with them playing but with our injuries and, lets be honest, pathetic player management setup we are looking deep down the bowler list. I also think we should look at shield form as a guide as it is supposed to be the premiere comp in the country and we should be looking for wicket takers even for one day cricket. Guys that tie up an end with not win us World Cups.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Faulkner has basically been worked out at international level by most of the top sides who've played Australia a fair bit. He gets smashed any time he plays India, and probably wouldn't do much better against England or SA. He needs to go back to the drawing board and find ways to be less predictable. Sandhu had a terrible everything season. Not just Shield, he wasn't great in the Matador Cup and was a complete liability for the Thunder in the BBL. I'm worried that Pattinson may struggle to ever be back to his best for any extended period of time, though I think Cummins could still come through the injuries and come good. We'll see.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Agree with Tom. We are talking guys who've succeeded in Shield cricket but really struggled in short form cricket. I don't think Ronan is saying that the selection is wrong and others should have been selected ahead of them either as much commenting that they've managed to find themselves in the team through so many people in front of them in the pecking order being unavailable.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
If a player has a decent First Class record, but a terrible 50-over and 20-over record, should they get picked for ODI's based on their First Class form any more than a player who's performed well in 50-over and 20-over cricket but struggled at first class level probably shouldn't be picked for a test match. However, the selectors often seem to look at these sorts of ODI series as ways to blood some young players, and get them some international experience even if those young players are really not suited to ODI's but are more possible test cricketers. Not sure that's a right strategy, it gets them some international experience, but the experience can be one of feeling completely out of their depth and actually be detrimental. That being said, with so many bowling injuries, they need to try and find ways to build some more fast bowling depth there. Can't just completely rely on Mitchell Starc to rip teams apart every time. He can't be expected to bowl with World Cup type form all the time and remain completely injury free. So we need some other bowlers to step up. We do have amazing depth in fast bowling when everyone is fit, but a ridiculous number of bowlers struggling with injury. I'm sure that much of what CA has brought in to try and reduce injuries is actually counter productive and causes more injuries.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
True, if he played for WA he'd definitely be in the squad!
Tom from Perth
Guest
It's red ball form though, not white ball. That is most peoples' concern here.
Bakkies
Guest
Muller actually got 5 for the game which is more than Boland has achieved in four ODIs
Jacko
Guest
Haha well its better than the article about being the best bowling attack BAR NONE he wrote before the SriLanka tour. Can only go up from the WORST
Broken=hearted Toy
Guest
He's injured. Picked up an injury playing for the Performance squad during the recent A series.
VivGilchrist
Guest
...and he plays for NSW
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Boland is ordinary full stop! Makes Warnie's mate Mueller look like a Superstar
dan ced
Guest
Mennie has had two dominant seasons in shield, Worrall one, both looked to be in form for Aus A, Tremain fits that bill too (I saw him live on day one of the shield final and he looked 3 times better than Spotty Boland). I've been irritated that Mennie hasn't been selected until now, Boland is garbage, Pattinson and Cummins will never bowl their best again, Coulter-Nile is aggressive but often ineffective. Behrendorff wasn't back from injury in time for this series or he would figure, Paris they will be careful with because of his age and injuries. Faulkner has the mongrel, but not quite the stats to play ahead of the 3 debutants. Richo would've been close but didn't get the wickets the other three did for Aus A. Sandhu had a poor shield season, Abbott is basically Watto light, not as good with bat or ball (same with Marcus Stoinis, and Henriques, btw)
craig swanson
Guest
Paul D. Good bowlers.. all of them. But you can not pick guys who are not available. My take on the selection of Joe Mennie, Chris Tremain and Dan Worrall is, apart from the fact that they are walking around and not laid up in traction, form.. pure and simple. All three had strong Shield seasons with the latter two topping the bowling wicket tally. Those two also put in strong performances for the OZ A side this month. If we do not pick players on form then what is the point? Boof said these blokes deserve an ODI cap. Good enough for me.
craig swanson
Guest
I thought Boland was ordinary in the T20 WC as well. Does not look an international class player to me.