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If Shaun and Mitch Marsh play for Australia against India in Pune tomorrow, there’s no point in them buying lotto tickets. Their cup of luck would have runneth over.
The national selectors can’t be serious.
Don’t forget Australia lost 3-0 against Sri Lanka away last year by 106 runs, 229, and 163 – a trio of hammerings. Two heavy defeats followed at home against South Africa by 177 and an innings, and 80.
Five successive floggings.
Then the selectors showed some balls by debuting batsmen Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb and Nic Maddinson, while bringing back ever-reliable paceman Jackson Bird.
That kick-started four successive wins.
The baggy greens beat South Africa by seven wickets and crushed Pakistan by 39 runs, an innings and 80, and by 220 runs.
Even though Maddinson didn’t work out, the rest certainly did, and if the team ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
So the first Test line-up at Pune should be David Warner (vc), Renshaw, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (c), Handscomb, Mitchell Marsh, Matt Wade, Mitchell Starc, Steve O’Keefe, Josh Hazlewood, and Nathan Lyon.
Sure, Pune will be a different track to Adelaide, the Gabba, MCG, and SCG, but selector loyalty is a priceless asset.
Australian coach-selector Darren Lehmann let the cat out of the bag by suggesting Renshaw and Khawaja are a close call for the opening berth, with Shaun Marsh locked into three.
Bollocks.
For starters, Lehmann shouldn’t have said anything publicly. Secondly, Lehmann has always been a loyalty man, so why the dramatic change?
Renshaw played in all four victorious sides, averaging 63, with his last Test dig a career-high 184. He must be Warner’s opening partner.
Khawaja has been number three in those four Tests, averaging 68, with a top score of 145 – he stays at three.
Skipper Smith is an automatic four as the world’s top-ranked Test batsman, with a career average of 60.15, and Handscomb an automatic five, averaging a whopping 99.85.
Those are the obvious loyalty selections, then a fingers-crossed pick for the sixth batting berth, normally reserved for an all-rounder.
Mitchell Marsh will be there by default.
Hilton Cartwright was on duty at the SCG last time out, but missed selection for India, as did Marcus Stoinis, and more’s the pity.
Pundits keep calling for Glenn Maxwell but, as usual, he’s done nothing to make the selectors sit up and take notice, and his offies would be cannon fodder for the likes of Virat Kohli and his band of brilliant stroke-makers.
That leaves Mitchell Marsh standing alone.
With Marsh on deck, Jackson Bird will become a casualty. There is another option: leave Mitchell out, play Shaun at six, and keep Bird by leaving out a spinner.
But there’s no room for both the Marsh brothers, with keeper Matt Wade at seven.
The only other contentious selections are between two of the four spinners, with loyalty demanding O’Keefe and Lyon first up ahead of the highly talented young leggie Mitchell Swepson, and left-arm orthodox Ashton Agar, who is the best bat of the quartet.
World-class new-ball bowlers Starc and Hazlewood complete the line-up on the toughest tour for Australian cricket.