We have gone down in yet another ODI series abroad, making for 13 straight losses overseas.
Our 15-man touring squad for the Indian series contained four specialist batsmen, five all-rounders, one keeper, one spinner and three pacers.
What kind of touring team carries five all rounders but not a single reserve keeper?
Let’s take a look at these five all rounders individually.
Hilton Cartwright had no prior ODI record, making his selection absolutely unjustified and it backfired big time.
James Faulkner had a great time when he last visited India. This time he had some decent returns with the ball but is nowhere near the batsman he was when he started.
Glenn Maxwell’s batting average is too low for him to be considered a specialist batsman, while his bowling average is too high to be considered an all rounder. He played some irresponsible shots and got stumped twice when he was required to stay at the crease.
Ashton Agar is another with no prior ODI experience, yet replaced Adam Zampa to compensate for the lost batsman due to Faulkner’s exclusion, and failed with the bat and ball.
Finally, Marcus Stoinis is in the early days of his career, but had a blockbuster start to his career with an impressive 146* in New Zealand, and provided support by picking wickets.
In short, Stoinis was the only deserving all-rounder in the squad.
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The selectors have destroyed our ODI team by injecting a truckload of all rounders when there is need of specialist batsmen to hold innings together. The likes of Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh or domestic chart-topper Cameron White should be playing in the middle order, halting a collapse and building an innings. Instead, we have ‘hitters’ coming in and getting out first ball.
We are not going to win ODIs as long as we persist with the obsession of stacking up all rounders.
I find it amusing that the coach and management have escaped scrutiny. It wouldn’t have been the case back in 1990s or 2000s, yet Darren Lehmann wasn’t even in India for this tour, returning home to prepare for the Ashes.
Why agree for tours when the head coach isn’t serious about travelling with the team to play one of the top three teams? Lehmann should step down with immediate effects and so should the entire selection panel.
Either send the best team or don’t tour, regardless of how close the Ashes is. If scheduling is an issue, we should narrow down the IPL window and pull out players to give them time to prepare for the Ashes.
We need to get to the basics of playing five specialist batsmen, four bowlers, one keeper, and one all rounder. We need to rebuild the team. If Steve Smith is asking for all rounders, he should hand over the reins to David Warner, who captained brilliantly in Sri Lanka.
Mitch Spencer
Roar Rookie
Best Nation at the World Cup. Not at all a disappointment.
Mitch Spencer
Roar Rookie
Your comment beautifully conveys the point. Its money all over the place. If Ashes has priority why leave Smith, Warner and Cummins out there ? Smith and Warner are out two biggest assets for the Ashes. Lehmann should step down after Ashes. David Saker should never have been hired.
Mitch Spencer
Roar Rookie
It worked in World Cup because it was played at home and we had atleast 3 quality bats in the middle order (Smith, Clarke & Watson).
Mitch Spencer
Roar Rookie
I sure believe he had issues other than fitness but he blamed the workload on multiple occasions, Either way South Africa don't play as much international cricket as other top teams. We have opened up a huge window for the IPL as a result we are having much narrower gaps between series. Example would be the T20i series vs South Africa which ended hours before Australia played their first test in India. It was a total disrespect to the viewers who paid to watch top quality cricket and could only see a second string international team get beat down.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Outside of the world cup, nah.
DavSA
Guest
It is difficult to not arrive at the same conclusion Ryan . If you are correct and I see plenty of evidence that you are , then it is an extremely poor strategy . There is enough cross pollination between the 50 over team and the test team for me to surmise that Australia may be developing a losing habit among those players. I am not sure what Pat Howards influence is in possibly restricting players exposure in the interests of high performance ie resting players excessively ? Maybe that needs to be looked at . I am going to use another sport as an example of where I am going with this ... In South Africa the annual Comrades Marathon , a gruelling 94km event is one of the biggest days on our sporting calender and a national institution. Our leading sports scientist Prof Tim Noakes for years criticized elite athletes for training too hard and competing too often . Those coaches that followed his philosophies of active resting did not achieve anything like the results of those that rejected them and drove their charges to almost ridiculous limits. Surely by selecting a 2nd team for this India series as well as the previous SA one the hidden message is that you know you are going to lose so rather preserve those players . This is not the Australian way ....At least not what I have gotten used to over many years of following cricket.
DavSA
Guest
De Villiers has just recently made himself available for ALL forms of cricket again . This is just days after Otis Gibson being made coach. I suspect his non-availability had more do do with the previous coach Domingo as well of course injuries than the IPL. Morkel , De Kock ,Amla and Faf Du Plessis all play IPL and are available and selected for all the Proteas games.
AREH
Roar Guru
You could be forgiven for thinking they don't care; Australia do not care nearly enough about limited-overs cricket, especially T20, hence the continued embarrassment at every WC.
matth
Guest
Re Cummins, I suspect if either of Starc or Hazlewood was fit, Cummins may have been rested. But to lose all three, well just remember what happened in Sri Lanka when from memory we took Tremain, Mennie and I can;t even remember.
AGordon
Guest
excellent comments Matth. It's hard to know the thinking behind some of the selections. I'm assuming the guys making these decisions wanted to minimise the impact on the Test bowlers. In saying that, not sure why Cummins is there - maybe to make it look like we actually care about this series? Maybe they also wanted to try out a few guys, to get some idea about how they'd track in the future. Only Stoinis has helped his cause here. Lyon is not a first, second, or third choice for ODIs for Australia, so why have him tour, as has been suggested? Finally, I vividly recall a number of articles written before the series started, all suggesting Australia was going to get hammered in this series. I'm amused at the responses, now that it has happened. I reckon only diehard supporters, mostly from India, will remember the results of this series in 12 months time. I bet most cricket supporters will remember the Ashes results in 10 years.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
Australia has always been serious about ODI cricket. But again, Australia needs to think about their ODI combination. I agree that the bowling is missing some key players but the batting order isn't that different than what Australia are going to play in the coming years. Losing 10 out of last 12 games overseas (2 games were washed out) is a poor record for an Australian side.
Ouch
Guest
"Are we serious about ODI cricket? The fact the Lehman isn't even there, the 1st choice bowling attack, Cummins aside, isn't there and they are opening with Hilton Cartwright says to me, no. A big fat No. When it matters, ie. World cup or home ODI series, we take it seriously but otherwise no. The bowlers that went to SA aren't even in this ODI squad.
Tanmoy Kar
Guest
Nicely analyzed article Mitch, to be very frank a lots of Indian enthusiasts expecting a 8-0 drubbing of this Australian side!
matth
Guest
We are playing this series for the money and to maintain good relations with India. If we refuse to tour, they would refuse to tour our shores and those tours make us lots of money. The IPL is also here to stay. You can face reality or not but Australia cannot dictate to India and to all the cricketers in the world to reduce the IPL, or dictate to all Australian cricketers to substantially reduce their IPL earnings, and I'm sure India would not be so forthcoming with money making tours if Australia refused to release players for the IPL. So we schedule this tour to maintain all those important relationships and revenue stream, but we try to give ourselves a balance for the Ashes by leaving behind Lehman, Lyon, Starc, Hazlewood to get them fit and read of the Ashes. Lyon, for example, has to re-learn to bowl for Australian conditions, after spending the past 10 months re-modelling himself to bowl effectively in India. The Indian fans value batting over bowling, so we have sent our 'star' batsmen, Warner (big in the IPL), Smith, Finch and Maxwell (has a big profile over there), while resting our star bowlers. So all in all, I think they have handled this tour as best as they can, to maintain the relationship with India (and if you don't think we need to do that then you are kidding yourself) while preparing for the Ashes as best we can. As to your comment on all rounders, well I completely agree and a Cameron White type of player at 5 or 6 would have been a great addition to the team. you could argue that Head and Handscomb fill that role to some extent, however Head is struggling and Handscomb was not actually picked in the team to begin with and has a pretty average limited overs record.
Ben
Roar Rookie
The selectors have a lot to answer. Cartwright should never have opened for the first game. They should have got head or maxwell to open and add handscomb. It seems they don't learn from mistakes and he was picked a second time.
BriainsTrust
Guest
Look at the most recent one day success for Australia the world cup in 2014. They had three alrounders, three fast bowlers, agressive batting wicketkeeper. They can't get the aggresive batting wicketkeeper, they can either go for a poor fill in wicketkeeper that can bat well in Handscombe, Wade who can hit a bit, and there is a question mark over the scoring rate of the other wicketkeeping options. There is no value having 4 specialist bowlers and 4 alrounders and only bowling 5 of them. Spin options they are overplaying , if a wicket is spin friendly the should pick two fast bowlers one spinner and have Maxwell bowl ten overs. If the wicket is flat and they don't think the fast bowlers will get traction or the spinners, Then go for 2 specialist quicks 4 alrounders and bat ultra aggresive.
Rats
Guest
Finally I am glad someone spoke about IPL. I have always thought this whole getting exposure playing in IPL is far far over-rated. In fact in long term, you can see negative affects on the teams because of their players playing in IPL. SA already facing it.. Steyn and DeVilliers missing out important England series and SA losing the series. but who cares ...
Basil
Guest
The ODI team seems age discriminate and is paying for it. An experienced player coming in at 5 is crucial. White, Ferguson, Bailey could all play that role and steady the middle order. Also, we never tour with our best bowling attack.
republican
Guest
.......are we serious about Cricket at all?