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Picking a team to win in India

19th December, 2016
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Steve O'Keefe has been dropped. (AFP/ Marwan Naamani)
Roar Guru
19th December, 2016
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1151 Reads

In February and March the Australian Test team will be touring India for a four-match series.

Regardless who we pick in the squad we will be up against it to win a Test let alone the series in India.

India are currently taking apart the England team, leading 3-0 in a best-of-five series.

Before we get to the potential selections there are two things I find slightly strange in the lead up to this series. The first being that in the two rounds of Sheffield Shield in early February we are using the Duke ball.

This is to prepare our Shield players to win away against England (in 2019). It just seems strange timing. The second and even more odd occurrence is that we play no warm up matches in India.

Every touring team that comes to Australia plays at least one if not two warm up games to acclimatise to our bouncier wickets. Dave Warner, Steve Smith and co will play in New Zealand in ODIs and newcomers like Matt Renshaw and Peter Handscomb will be playing at Gabba and MCG in early Feb before heading off to India. Until this changes we’re not actually serious about winning in India.

But back to who should be on the plane to India. Let’s assume a 15-man squad with seven batsmen, a keeper, four quicks, and three spinners.

I’m going to squash the idea of a seam bowling allrounder because we don’t have one worthy of playing in Australian conditions so what makes us think whoever we take to India isn’t going to be a liability with the bat and get smashed to all parts with the ball. Mitch Marsh and Moises Henriques are not options for our Test team.

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Here is who we should consider for the India Test series.

Batsmen
Smith, Warner and Usman Khawaja are a lock. Short of disaster in the next two games you would have to think Handscomb and Renshaw have locked themselves into the squad as well. Short of miracle in the next two Tests (assuming he plays them both) I think Nic Maddinson is no chance.

So we have five batsmen, who are the two others to be considered for the squad? I think it comes down to Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head.

I would go with S Marsh because his record in Sri Lanka (approx 400 runs @ 80 with two centuries and one fifty) is good and then I’d probably go for Maxwell in front of Head. If we only took two spinners and not three then maybe Head goes as an extra batsmen for the experience.

He is in form at the moment but his overall record with an average of 34 isn’t exactly brilliant. Maxwell to bat at six for the series and provide an extra spin option.

Keeper
Matthew Wade cannot tour India. He is a poor keeper and his substandard glove work will cost us any chance of being competitive let alone winning. At this stage there are only two options I can see. Recall Pete Nevill with a stronger batting line-up in front of him or opt for the experience of Chris Hartley until we’ve settled on our long term keeper.

I would be happy for either option, but would probably just lean towards Hartley at this stage.

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Spinners
Nathan Lyon and Stephen O’Keeffe will both tour and unless Lyon has an upswing in form I would probably opt for O’Keeffe as our first choice spinner. If I was to take a third spinner I would be looking for a young leggie.

Adam Zampa has impressed in the short form but his record of 60 wickets at an average of 50 is poor. His strike rate of a wicket every 74 balls also doesn’t stack up. The same goes for Cameron Boyce who has 94 wickets at an average of 49. His strike rate is a lot better than Zampa’s at 49 but in his only two shield appearances this season he took a combined two for 160.

I would opt for young Mitchell Swepson who in his 14 games has 41 wickets at an average of 32 an economy rate of four and a strike rate of a wicket every 48 balls. If he plays well in the Shield games in February and then is bowling well in the nets in India I would consider giving him a game.

If not then the tour will be good experience for him. The only other option is Ashton Agar but I wouldn’t take him ahead of O’Keefe who is a far superior bowler and also has a better batting record.

Talk of Agar being an allrounder are premature as his first class numbers (26 with bat and 40 with the ball) are just not up to scratch.

Quicks
Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird and Chadd Sayers. We will need to get it reversing and also need to consider whether playing three quicks plus a spinner and Maxwell is a better option than two quicks and two spinners.

If our spinners are not firing it may well be a better option. The only time we won a series in India recently (2004) we played three quicks in every game (Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz) and then took a total of 45 wickets with 25 being taken by Shane Warne, Nathan Hauritz and Michael Clarke).

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Final squad
Smith, Warner, Renshaw, Khawaja, Handscomb, S Marsh, Maxwell, Hartley, Lyon, O’Keefe, Swepson, Starc, Hazlewood, Bird, Sayers.

Over to you for your selection thoughts Roarers!

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