Wade isn't the answer – Hartley is

Tim Paine's form in BBL has been sensational. Would love to see him back in the test team. He has a test average of 36 from 4 tests and is still only 32. People forget he was next in line to replace Brad Haddin until he suffered a finger injury.

Paine's BBL form has been superb the first two matches; I wouldn't mind seeing him as the limited-overs Aus keeper, even though Wade is somewhat deserving of a place in those teams. Hartley right now is the perfect short-term solution and he has deserved it for a long time, but I'm not sure there is any point now given his age, and the lack of success Australia seems to have picking players 30 or older. Unfortunately I think he will just go down as one of the most unlucky, born in the wrong era.

True Ronan, but its a balancing act. Potential and long term vs experience and short term. To favour one over the other at all times is problematic. So as a horses for courses approach, Wade was brought in to a) Shore up a middle order that had no experience (with a debutant no.5 and no. 6), and b) for his leadership. On those two metrics, plus the overwhelmingly important one of being able to keep wicket well, which sadly seems to have been forgotten by the selectors, Hartley is, in a lot of people's opinions, a better choice. The weirdest thing is, in the round of Shield games between the Hobart shellacking and the Adelaide test, where positive performances by Renshaw and Handscombe got them picked, Whiteman hit a century and a half century...if you wanted youth, you had the performance reqd to make that choice fit. Oh, and I'm fairly certain that Wade avg'd a lot more than 27 in the 15/16 Shield season. He hit a lot of runs in late 2015, and not much in 2016, but his avg was high overall due to an excellent start to the season. He hasn't hit any runs this year though - the avg of 28 for this season is right.

"Giving guys games on potential is part of what led to some of the current woes." I don't agree at all. Australia offered very few opportunities to young players over the past 5 years, constantly picking new players who were pushing 30 or already in their 30s like Voges, Rogers, Bailey, Doolan, Quiney, Cowan, Ferguson etc. Such short sighted selections of old players, designed to look only at the next Test series, often left Australia with an unstable team. Right now Australia are in a rebuilding phase, at such a time there is little sense in picking a debutant like Hartley who would be pushing 35yo and at the very end of his cricketing days.

I could not care less about age. This is test cricket, pick the team with the best chance of winning (although that is maybe 2% in India). Giving guys games on potential is part of what ahd led to some of the current woes. For ODIs and T20Is where there are specific tournaments to build for its a little different, but the current Test series is always the most important when there is one - and the next one is the most important when there is not.

Sorry Ronan, I wasn't clear. Harts to get the Indian tour and then a Thanks For Coming tee shirt.

Kept really badly in BBL last night. It's a bit cruel of the author to pick out a Nevill missed stumping off Hogg. In the Shield game in Perth, Hartley missed a stumping and a catch. Every keeper makes errors. What we don't want is a keeper like Wade who makes too many errors. Wade would sit 4th behind Whiteman, Carey and Doran in pure batting abilty but ìn actual performance this season, he sits last. Hartley, Whiteman, Nevill and Carey have all played excellent innings this season.

Hartley definitely is not the answer - I see no sense in picking a wicketkeeper who is a few months off turning 35 years old, as good a player as he has been. Australia have started investing in youth and they need to stick with that. If they were to pick a keeper other than Wade or Nevill it should be young Whiteman.

Harts would be my pick for the Indian tour. Mostly because he's about to retire and so it won't scar his career like it could a young keeper. Not that I expect too many balls off our slows to get through to the keeper...

I want to see Victoria persist with young Sam Harper. I think he made a fifty on debut recently. While with SA, Alex Carey has done okay with the bat.

I guess it (the dearth) might be a symptom of junior talent identification and the coaching setup through the grades. Kids are identified with bat or ball and the channeling of energies is along those lines. Jake Doran is the latest keeping/batsman off this production line. If the kid can't bat he doesn't get a guernsey in the junior rep stuff even if he keeps like .

Victoria? Their incumbent is not up to Shield standard, despite being the test incumbent. Then again, since his finger injuries Paine has not been the same keeper as earlier. I rate him 5th of the six first choice keepers, with only Wade behind him. South Australia dropped Ludeman, who I think has s some promise. So, Tas and SA might do a straight swap next season. We have a dearth of keeping talent right now. Even Hartley, the best of the them, is a fairly average wicket-keeper. Whiteman looks good, but is rarely tested keeping up to the stumps to good spin on tracks that challenge him.

I still the unthinkable on the cards- Paine to move states for a shield start next season? Where would he go?

Agree Mike. However he isn't even in the current tassie shield side at the moment because they want to give the spot to an inferior player- jake doran due to his age. He has become a great white ball cricketer for tassie over the last few years and I can't understand why he isn't in the shield. It's a long shot to see him in Aus colours again sadly but I think the only way is if he plays in the t20is v Sri Lanka as we have to field our second xi as our best xi will be in India. Hopefully he performs well there and keeps his spot in the twenty 20 squad, works his way into the odi squad and from there into the test squad. It's a long shot but I can only hope

I thought that Tim Paine had been injured as not one so called expert had mentioned him as a chance to take the wicket keepers place in the team, then along came the big bash & there was Tim Paine, making runs & keeping really well, must be time for him to return to the test side.