Is Ashton Agar the right choice for Sydney?

Ashton Agar has been named in Australia’s 14-man Test squad, indicating he’s among that rarest of Australian cricketers – someone in whom the national selection panel ‘have a keen interest’. Is it the right call?

He’s taken four Sheffield Shield wickets this summer, admittedly from only one game. Steve O’Keefe has taken four in two games, Jon Holland 11 in two, Mitchell Swepson 16 from five, Fawad Ahmed 16 from four and Adam Zampa 14 from four.

We should take a moment to be grateful for the relative depth of Australia’s spin bowling stocks. Ten years ago the cupboard was so bare that Steve Smith and Cameron White got to play Test cricket because of their bowling, but now there are a couple of legitimate contenders for the second spinner spot.

Zampa’s got a decent-ish one day record, but his first class stats – 97 wickets, 34 games, average 45.92 – aren’t that awesome. He’s only 25 and averages 20.83 with the bat. I feel the selectors have put him in the wait-and-see basket.

Fawad Ahmed was once so highly thought of in official circles that his refugee status was fast-tracked and he made the 2015 Ashes squad. His 185 first-class wickets from 57 games at 31.44 is pretty solid, but the powers that be seem to have gone off him – he was even dropped from Victoria last summer.

A first-class batting average of 9.77 doesn’t help – that’s close to Jim Higgs territory – and at age 35 his chances at higher honours seem to be slipping away. Mind you, he’s a spin bowler, and as Bob Holland, Bert Ironmonger, Jack Iverson and Don Blackie showed us, it’s never too late to start at Test level when you’re a spin bowler.

(AFP, Saeed Khan)

Jon Holland has played two Tests and taken 175 first-class wickets from 54 games at 32.16. His recent first-class form has been sensational – he took 50 wickets last summer – and he averages 15.43 with the bat. He was overlooked for India and Bangladesh in favour of O’Keefe, Swepson and Agar and tends to whinge about it, which probably annoys the selectors.

Mitchell Swepson is only 24 and has taken 57 wickets from 19 games at 33.89 – handy figures, particularly from a Queensland leggie. That would’ve got him a Test cap ten years ago. He averages only 12.38 with the bat.

Then there’s Steve O’Keefe. Few cricketers seem more bewilderingly overlooked at the national level than O’Keefe. At times selectors have preferred Agar, Xavier Doherty and Michael Beer to him. Taking Doherty to India in 2013 seemed especially ridiculous then, as it does now. A lot of fans wondered why for a long time, then two alcohol-related incidents gave the impression that maybe other stuff was going on.

O’Keefe has a brilliant first-class record: 250 wickets from 73 games at 24.63 and a batting average of 28.83, plus 35 Test wickets from nine games at 29.40 is also handy, though the Test batting average drops to 9.55.

The Australian selectors have a weird love-hate relationship with O’Keefe. He helped them beat India in India, then was omitted from the squad just three Tests later for form, which didn’t make sense. He was then flown back into the side for the second Test. You really get the sense there’s stuff going on that we’re not privy to.

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That leaves us with Ashton Agar, who has 125 first-class wickets from 47 games at 38.95 and a batting average of 26.17. From four Tests his batting average goes up to 32.50, and he’s taken nine wickets at 45.55.

I feel Agar got the nod for two reasons. The first is for his batting. With Mitchell Marsh at six, Tim Paine at seven and Jackson Bird at nine, our lower order is looking iffy, and I think our most recent collapse in the fourth Test spooked the selectors.

The second is that Darren Lehmann wants to be proved right. One of his first acts as Australian coach in England in 2013 was to drop Nathan Lyon for Agar, a decision that seemed as dumb then as it does now. Agar responded with a wonderful batting effort that almost took Australia to victory before his bowling was badly found out.

Lehmann wound up looking like a bit of a dill, but if Agar comes back and establishes himself as a Test regular, that decision would be redeemed.

Last summer it felt like Greg Chappell had the dominant voice around the selection table – new players like Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Swepson and Sam Heazlett (remember him?) all felt like very Chappell-style picks in that all were young and four were from Queensland.

It feels this summer that Darren Lehmann has got some of his power back, with Renshaw and Handscomb given the boot, Stanlake and Heazlett being barely heard of and Swepson overlooked while old Lehmann favourites like the Marsh brothers and Agar are back in the side. I could be completely wrong about this, but it’s what it feels like.

(AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

Agar is an okay spinner. His batting is useful, but an average of 26 is not that of an all-rounder. I don’t think he and Mitchell Marsh complement each other in the way, say, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali do.

I think it’s dangerous to pick spinners because of their batting, because judging them becomes tricky. What if they don’t take any wickets but score runs? Personally I would have gone with Holland, who has been in great form, or O’Keefe, who has proven himself at international level and who in Bangladesh seemed to have Smith’s support more than Agar.

I hate the feeling that Australian players seem to be divided into two categories: the special ones, like Agar, and the others, like Holland – and the others always have to do twice as well to get a go.

But I don’t think picking Agar over either Holland or O’Keefe is a major mistake. Agar’s bowling record is okay, and as long as he’s the second spinner, not the main one, I think we’ll be alright.

I think far more long-term damage will be done by persisting with Mitch Marsh at six. I fully acknowledge the magnificence of his innings of 181 in Perth and his incredible fighting knock of 29 off 166 balls in Melbourne, but first-class averages of 31 exist for a reason, and his bowling in the last two Tests has been very underwhelming.

But, anyway, welcome back, Ashton, Best of luck.