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Australia need White to avoid the whitewash

The Melbourne Stars go head to head with crosstown rivals the Melbourne Renegades at Etihad. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Expert
15th November, 2016
16

Turn the clock back a season, and the Australian batsmen David Warner, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, and Adam Voges were accumulating big runs.

Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, Josh Hazlewood, and Nathan Lyon were well and truly among the wickets.

In eight Tests the baggy greens rattled up six big wins over the Windies and Kiwis to the tune of an innings and 212, 177, 208, three wickets, an innings and 52, and seven wickets, with two draws – not a loss in sight.

The draws were at the SCG thanks to a heavily rain-affected Test, the second draw at the WACA after 1183 runs were amassed in the Australian and Kiwi first digs.

No problem with Australian mojo, bang, and clout in that summer.

But in the last five Tests the Australians have been on the wrong end of five heavy defeats with the loss of only one very important cricketer – the retired Mitchell Johnson.

The rest have all been there, but just shadows of their former selves.

In those five Test defeats by 106, 229, 163, 177, and an innings and 80, the Australians have scored 1043 for the loss of 100 wickets. The total of the three Sri Lankan and two South African wins – 2848 for the loss of only 88 wickets.

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Average per wicket – Australia 20.43, opposition 32.36.

Those stats explain the heavy losses, but not the dramatic drop in batting standards compared to last summer.

That explanation comes from the best Australian batsmen in the country’s inability to combat Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath (28 wickets at 12.75), and the South African pacemen Kagiso Rabada (12 at 18.66), Vernon Philander (10 at 16.30) and Kyle Abbott’s nine at 13.11.

So who will go for the pink ball day-night Test against South Africa in Adelaide where the visitors are hell-bent on inflicting Australia’s first home whitewash in 139 years?

The only important Test is the next one, especially to avoid a history-making whitewash.

After meekly going out the back door in the last two Tests, Australia desperately needs a strong-arm batsman who has the basic techniques, and no fear of any bowler.

That’s Cameron White.

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Who gives a continental he’s 33, and hasn’t played the last of his four Tests since 2008? He has cracked 64 and an unbeaten 104 in his two digs for the Vics in Sheffield Shield this season, among his career 20 first-class centuries, and 45 half-centuries.

On the proviso Shaun Marsh’s broken little finger will be right for Thursday week, there’s only one spot left in the middle order when Adam Voges and Callum Ferguson are dropped.

If Moises Henriques could cut the mustard it would be his, but he constantly blows his chances.

Mitchell Marsh had his ears clipped with 12th man duties in Hobart, and with no other all-rounder candidate knocking the door down, give him his last chance in Adelaide to balance the side.

And while the selectors are at it, correct the wrong of playing Joe Mennie in Hobart by picking Jackson Bird for Adelaide.

So the Adelaide team should look like this:

David Warner (vc)
Shaun Marsh
Usman Khawaja
Steve Smith (c)
Cameron White
Mitchell Marsh
Peter Nevill
Mitchell Starc
Nathan Lyon
Josh Hazlewood
Jackson Bird

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