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Try naming the odd one out of the following players: Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Chadd Sayers, Jackson Bird, Josh Hazlewood, and Peter Siddle.
Many will have correctly selected Chadd Sayers, for the reason that he is the only one out of this group never to play any form of cricket for Australia.
But a more obscure distinction between Sayers and the rest is that Sayers is the only one whose first-class bowling average is under 25 – in fact, it’s an impressive 23.31.
Even more impressive is that Sayers has actually been improving in recent years. In last season’s Sheffield Shield he was named Player of the Year, claiming 12 more wickets than the next best bowler, including a 7-84 in the final against Victoria. His bowling average that season was just 19.
Despite this, Sayers hasn’t played for his nation, and now at 30 years old and battling for selection against many youngsters, he may never be capped.
The tragedy is this is mainly down to poor luck, rather than any faults on Sayers’ end.
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Take England’s Chris Rushworth, who is a similar bowler to Sayers, excelling due to his accuracy and control rather than his pace, with a bowling average of 24.39.
Similarly, Rushworth has not been selected by his country, but this can be attributed to him playing on a home ground favourable to swing bowling, and also the fact that he plays in division two of the County Championship, and therefore faces weaker opposition.
Yet no such argument can be made for Sayers, whose home ground is the Adelaide Oval, which is arguably the most batsman-friendly pitch in Australia. What’s more, Australia’s domestic competitions ensure the talent is much more condensed, with six teams as opposed to the 16 in England.
So there are no grounds for suggesting that Sayers’ statistics are inflated.
His Test ambitions may also have been hindered by his age. Sayers was 23 when he made his first-class debut in 2011, while later that year a 21-year-old Mitchell Starc played his first Test.
Sayers has also had the misfortune of coming in during an era where Australia is spoilt for choice with pace bowlers.
Yet one of the main reasons for Sayers not being selected is the long-held belief of the Australian selectors that a bowler has to be of a certain pace to succeed at Test level.
How this belief was formed is hard to say, but there is plenty to suggest it has no foundation.
Take Vernon Philander, who bowls at a similar pace, often operating in the high 120s.
This is slow for an international speedster, particularly one from Australia or South Africa, where the pitches offer plenty of speed and bounce. Yet Philander currently has 171 Test wickets at an average of just 22.45.
Locally, Stuart Clark actually sacrificed pace for accuracy, and as a result ended with 94 Test wickets at an average of 23.86.
There is also a hidden benefit to bowling at this pace, which is that injuries can be far less common. This is particularly relevant with Australia’s current crop.
For these various reasons, Sayers has been denied the possibility of a Test career akin to Philander’s, and can at best probably hope for a short but impressive one like Clark’s.
However, even this is looking increasingly unlikely, and Australia may see one of their most talented bowlers of his generation retire without a single international appearance.
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