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Australian all-rounder Hilton Cartwright yesterday enjoyed the best possible introduction to Test cricket, sending his first ball faced to the cover boundary.
This sense of ease soon evaporated as the debutant was challenged by some fine spin bowling and, later, the broad blades of Azhar Ali and Younis Khan.
In an era of instant gratification, many humans have misplaced their patience. We don’t like to wait for answers. And so it seems, more than ever, we seek to rush to judgment. So it was yesterday, as the predictions on Cartwright’s Test prospects started to sprout online. No sooner had he gone through a rough patch against Pakistan’s star spinner Yasir Shah than Cartwright was already being written off by some as a prospect for the upcoming tour of India.
The 24-year-old was still at the crease, undefeated in his debut innings, yet talk had turned to dumping him after this Test. Later, as he laboured through a nervy four-over spell of medium pace, Cartwright was being written off as a rank part-time bowler. Some Australian fans even suggested, in all seriousness, that he was a worse option with the ball than wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, who bowls in Australia’s net sessions.
But it wasn’t just random punters who were dumping on Cartwright. Channel Nine commentators Ian Chappell and Shane Warne both implied Cartwright was an ordinary, part-time bowler and that he didn’t deserve to have the ball when he came on in the 21st over.
Now, Cartwright’s spell was far from his best. He looked anxious. He was not bending his back or completing his follow through – merely ‘putting’ the ball there rather than really hitting the pitch. Numerous times I’ve seen him bowl quicker and better in domestic cricket. Anyone who made a firm judgment on his ability yesterday may well be surprised if he manages to loosen up today and operate at his peak.
Expectations should not be high, though. Cartwright is not an all-rounder in the mould of Ben Stokes or Ravi Ashwin, a cricketer capable of hitting a hundred or taking a five-for in any given Test. These days the definition of a batting all-rounder has widened. It includes genuine top six batsmen who also happen to bowl regularly for their team.
Cartwright is such a player. He has commanded a position in the Western Australia Sheffield Shield team based solely on his batting. His medium pacers are a bonus. Even at its best, Cartwright’s bowling doesn’t catch the eye.
When he gets it right with the ball he is similar in style to Shane Watson in the later stages of his Test career. By that point, Watson was operating at a gentle pace in the high 120kmh to low 130kmh range and concentrating on a stump-to-stump line.
Australia certainly won’t be relying on Cartwright to have a major impact with the ball. His role will be to get through 10-15 overs a day for as few runs as possible, allowing the quicks to rest and not allowing the pressure they created to dissipate entirely. He is capable of executing such a task if given time to settle at Test level.
First and foremost, however, Cartwright needs to make runs. Australia have a huge issue at number six. It is almost three years now since the last time a six scored a Test ton for Australia. Although he is technically an all-rounder, Cartwright won’t be given anything like the patience his WA teammate Mitch Marsh received.
From August 2015 to November 2016, the Australian selectors persisted with Marsh for 13 consecutive Tests despite him averaging just 17 with the bat in that stint. They did so because his incisive bowling greatly enhanced the Australian attack. The selectors were seduced by the idea that he may click as a batsman and then they’d have a hugely valuable all-rounder.
Cartwright, meanwhile, will live or die by his batting. If he struggles with the blade his medium pace won’t save him.
Cartwright absolutely has the talent, technique and temperament to grown into a successful number six in Tests. Whether he can hold his own in Australia’s next series in India is an entirely different proposition. Even elite batsmen like Steve Smith and David Warner could struggle to flourish on dry Indian pitches against the home side’s marauding spinners.
Cartwright looked good early on yesterday against Yasir. To his first ball from the leggie, the debutante moved quickly back in his crease and punched it to the fieldsman at cover. The next delivery was fuller and he stretched well forward and dead batted it with his blade in front of his pad, an important defensive technique to adapt on Asian pitches.
Soon after, Cartwright displayed great confidence in dancing down the pitch and driving Yasir to mid-off for a single. He looked self-assured, compact and well organised as he moved to 19 from 38 balls.
Then he hit a rough patch. Cartwright managed to score just one run from his next 21 balls and, as the pressure mounted, he looked increasingly skittish.
First he charged Yasir, was beaten in the flight and offered a reprieve by wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed, who missed the stumping. Next, he aimed a loose off drive at a loopy delivery from part-time leg spinner Azhar Ali, only for Younis Khan to turf the sharpish chance at slip.
In the space of ten minutes Cartwright had gone from commanding to calamitous. By the time he was bowled for 37 by a lovely off cutter from Imran Khan, Cartwright had completed an innings of two contrasting halves. The latter half was ruined by nerves getting the better of him.
Earlier though, he had looked like a Test batsman. He picked length early, defended solidly on front and back foot, handled Wahab Riaz’s short balls with ease, and played each delivery right beneath his eyes. That is what sticks with me, more than the anxious second half of his innings or his stiff spell with the ball.
Cartwright showed enough to suggest that he is worth being persisted with. But that is complicated by the fact Australia’s next series is in India, and Shaun Marsh is waiting in the wings.