The Australian selectors were justified in dropping Glenn Maxwell from the ODI squad, but it was an odd choice to replace him with a cricketer who is not fully fit in Chris Lynn.
The decision to axe Maxwell from the squad to play England this month was framed by many media outlets as a shock. Yet it seemed like an obvious choice considering he has averaged just 20 with the bat in his past 21 matches, stretching back almost two years.
At his best, Maxwell is one of the most valuable ODI players in the world – a ballistic ball striker, dynamic fieldsman and handy bowler. He has a truly rare ability to obliterate quality bowlers, owning the second highest strike rate in ODI history.
This made him the perfect ‘icing on the cake’ middle order batsman in 2014 and 2015 when Australia’s top four was consistently firing. But over the past two years Australia’s batting has been less reliable and Maxwell, often batting at five, has regularly come to the crease with his team in poor shape.
The 29-year-old is not well suited to rebuilding an innings, although that doesn’t excuse his low output during that period. In moving to number three and piling up runs in the Sheffield Shield, Maxwell has shown that he is a versatile first-class batsman. He was unable to show the same development in ODIs and it has cost him his spot.
His cause also hasn’t been helped by captain Steve Smith’s bizarre reluctance to use him with the ball. When Smith took over as ODI captain two-and-a-half years ago, Maxwell was fresh from a dominant World Cup campaign in which he was named in the Team of the Tournament and operated as Australia’s main spinner.
Maxwell had developed into a solid ODI spinner, taking 29 wickets at an average of 26 between September 2014 and September 2015. But under Smith the off spinner has been barely used – in the past two years he has bowled only 1.6 overs per match, on average, and has not bowled at all in 12 of his last 16 matches.
Maxwell’s decline with the bat closely coincides with this massively reduced role with the ball. That’s still no excuse, though – he is talented enough to play as a specialist batsman but needs to find greater consistency.
However, in replacing Maxwell with Lynn the selectors have made an odd choice.
(AAP Image/Dan Peled)
Lynn’s generous talent with the bat across all formats is clear. Just as obvious is his physical frailty, with Lynn having missed huge chunks of cricket due to injury since making his domestic debut seven years ago as a 19-year-old. Quite incredibly, it is more than four years since Lynn last played a domestic 50-over match.
He did not play in either the Shield of the domestic One Day Cup this summer before making his comeback from a persistent shoulder injury just eight days ago in the Big Bash League. While Lynn made an impact with the bat in his last BBL game, cracking 63 not out, he has looked ginger in the field, clearly still hampered by his shoulder and unable to throw properly.
Given there is nothing but pride riding on the five-match series against England it seems to make little sense to be rushing Lynn back into a longer format.
The controversy around the axing of Maxwell also distracted from the elevation to the ODI squad of Western Australia quicks Jhye Richardson and Andrew Tye.
At just 21 years old, Richardson is one of the most exciting young talents in the country, an accurate and crafty paceman capable of bowling at 145km/h. He was the equal leading wicket-taker in the recent domestic One Day Cup with 13 wickets at 27 from seven matches.
Tye also shone in that competition, with nine wickets at 17, and has an incredible List A record of 50 wickets at 21 from just 24 matches. The 31-year-old has made his name as a T20 bowler thanks to his befuddling array of variations. Tye has laboured in his seven T20Is for Australia, however, going at close to 10 runs per over while collecting six wickets at 38.
Both Tye and Richardson will be making their ODI debuts if they play against England. Their ascension to the ODI squad was helped by injuries to quality pacemen Jason Behrendorff and Nathan Coulter-Nile, the loss of form of James Faulkner, and the recent retirement from ODIs of John Hastings.
Australia ODI Squad
Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Patrick Cummins, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.
Australia’s Best XI
1. Aaron Finch
2. David Warner (vc)
3. Steve Smith (c)
4. Travis Head
5. Mitchell Marsh
6. Marcus Stoinis
7. Tim Paine
8. Mitchell Starc
9. Pat Cummins
10. Adam Zampa
11. Josh Hazlewood
Brian
Guest
Aussie selectors and Smith CGAGF.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Nice analysis.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Well at least he's in good form off the field.
13th Man
Guest
No I don't think he said should've been dropped, he's been completely mishandled by CA and he is one of the best talents in the country. Yes he has struggled in recent odis but we haven't played any one day cricket for quite a while, his most recent shield cricket form is excellent and I feel a team with Maxi is always better than a team without him. I wouldn't have picked Lynn as he's only just coming off an injury. Also why does our number 1 spinner Lyon never get a look in in the shorter formats.
Bretto
Guest
Why would you need both Marsh and Stoinis in the same team - there are 4 pure bowlers, 2 all-rounders (Marsh, Stoinis), and 2 batsmen who bowl handy overs (Finch, Head). Surely you can drop one of the all rounders for a pure batsman. Unless you are suggesting both Marsh and Stoinis are good enough to be picked as batsmen? Would you rather have Marsh coming in at 5, or Maxwell coming in at 5? And do we really need Cummins, Starc, Hazelwood to be playing meaningless ODI games.
Bretto
Guest
I figured Maxwell must have slept with someone's wife. Seems he also slept with their Mum, Auntie, the canteen lady, hairdresser, .....
Bretto
Guest
Smith will become hunted if his batting falls apart. Poor captain across a number of areas, not least the most important one of all - man management.
Ozibatla
Guest
Getting dropped is part of the game. Getting sh*t canned in the public eye should not be. Smith is showing all the hallmarks of becoming too big for his own boots. The way he carries himself on and off the field leaves alot to be desired.
Roshan
Guest
This will be the making of maxi. It is a challange for maxi given by lehman and selectors so that he can improve. They r obivously seeing him as a destroyer bit his inconsistency is what they r looking for. Comon maxi
Gordon Smith
Guest
Had Cook dropped on 66 in the last test.
Rats
Guest
Looks like the bias towards Maxwell is not just in the Australian cricket team management, but also among writers and media. It's clear. Some hate him. For me it's simple, Australian team management didn't handle Maxwell properly. Smith or Lehman could have just put their arms around Maxwell's shoulder and told "look mate. You are going to be playing every match. Don't worry about your selection. Just go there and enjoy".. because the whole world knows what this man is capable of...including Australia team management.. Australia may still win many many ODIs without Maxwell.. his replacement may become man of the series in every series for the next one year. But it still doesn't mean the way Maxwell was treated is right.
danno
Guest
Smith was alluding to Maxwell being unprofessional, no chance of selection. S Marsh unlucky, excellent white ball player.
Pedro the Maroon
Guest
I think it odd that they pick Lynn when the better credentialled Burns is still sitting in the Qld side smacking runs in all forms of the game. Apart from being the form bat outside the test side (and better than a few in the test side) Burns is a gun in the field.
Steele
Guest
Then Paine must be a tremendous fella, as he was plucked from obscurity!
dave
Guest
Selections would be so much clearer if we had a stat rating good blokeiness.It could be formed on wether they are full of themselves, what type of jokes they tell and their beer drinking in the dressing room(not good for Micheal Clarke). It would make life so much easier if the selectors could say look we know this guy doesn't have as much runs as the other but his top bloke rating is outstanding.
Steele
Guest
Well said Anon, he tends to get selected in tough conditions. Hasn’t had a fair go at test level, in that he plays the hardest of tours. And no respect given to his outstanding form in the ODI World Cup and dominant shield season. He isn’t liked it’s that simple. The selectors come up with all sorts of narratives to justify themselves.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I think Smith is more interested in his economy rate. He's a pretty decent bowler, sure he's not front line but he's good enough to get test players out. Not sure Maxi is. I said the same thing about Lynn yesterday, fielding is a huge concern for me with him. They will have to hide him at short fine leg/third man most of the time, you would think. I am a big fan of Maxwell, but he is really inconsistent and Lynn is a better batsman. Maxwell would not be bowling anyway in a side run by Smith so really it comes down to batting, and you'd have to say Lynn is the superior batsman. You talk about risking wickets too - Lynn is absolutely fearless, and that's not just my assessment, that was the assessment of Ricky Ponting the other night during commentary. He will always look to score runs.
Brissie Boy
Guest
Lynn's selection has to be one of the most puzzling in recent memory and I say this as a Queenslander and a massive Lynnsanity fan. The bloke doesn't have a state contract, has just come back from a long injury lay-off, can barely field, has a mediocre domestic one-day record (albeit not having played in four years) and admits himself he's not ready to come back to the national set-up just yet. All this selection does is destabilize the Heat's BBL campaign This was just last week. https://www.cricket.com.au/news/australia-odi-chris-lynn-return-gabba-big-bash-bbl07-brisbane-heat/2017-12-28?mode=wv “I still can’t throw with my dominant hand and still believe to play for Australia you’ve got to be 100 per cent fit,” he said. “I’d love to be out there, but I’ve still got a way to go”. For once, Shaun Marsh, a bloke who is the leading domestic one-day run-scorer and has a decent record for Australia, deserves to be stiff to miss out on an Australian squad.
anon
Roar Pro
Mitch Marsh only bowls 6-8 overs in a day and averages nearly 40 with the ball. Offers nothing with the ball. I'd rather have Maxwell or Smith rolling their arms over for 5-6 overs. Lynn is unfit to be playing cricket. Can't field properly in a 20 over game how is he going to go out there for 50 overs. How's he going to bat 35 overs if needed. He can't. Mitch Marsh bats at 6 in Tests with no effective time limit, yet before this recent recall only averaged 21 over significant sample size. Maxwell comes in at 6 with the goal of scoring as quickly as possible. He's prepared to risk his wicket because that's what's best for the team in the latter overs. Yet Maxwell in ODIs still averages more than Marsh in Tests.
anon
Roar Pro
He was the star of the 2015 World Cup which was on home soil. He's been in great form on home soil all summer. Most of his recent one dayers have been played overseas where a lot of his teammates have struggled. Surely the fact the upcoming ODI series is on home soil, given his track record of producing in big games on home soil, given he's in unbelievable form on Australian soil, surely this would get him the nod over Chris Lynn who is a liability in the field, never produced in one day cricket, and one pull shot away from a shoulder reconstruction.