Chadd Sayers never looked likely to make his Test debut this home summer, despite spending time in Australia’s Ashes squad, but has a much better opportunity on the four-Test tour of South Africa.
While Sayers was in the squad for the first two Ashes matches, he remained behind back-up quick Jackson Bird in the pecking order, with Bird released for the second Test so he could stay match-fit in the Sheffield Shield.
The Aussies were always going to favour express quicks, believing they could rattle England’s batsmen, and if a steady option was needed then Bird was the man.
Now, however, Bird is out of the picture due to injury and Australia look set to encounter some green South African pitches, which will suit precision over pace. Sayers is suddenly a genuine chance of earning a baggy green.
Sayers is likely viewed as the understudy for Josh Hazlewood, the most accurate and miserly of Australia’s incumbent Test quicks. Young tearaway Jhye Richardson, meanwhile, would be the dynamic option should one of the express pair of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins get injured.
Jhye Richardson. (AAP Image/Darren England)
Given the series will be quite long, there is every chance one of Hazlewood, Starc or Cummins could get injured. Starc and Hazlewood started the Australian summer returning from injury, while Cummins has been famously fragile across his seven years as a professional cricketer.
Sayers and Richardson are not just making up the numbers on this tour, they could easily find themselves on the field. The intensity and importance of this series may well lead the selectors to favour the experienced Sayers over the rookie Richardson if a replacement is required.
While Richardson has just 22 wickets to his name in first-class cricket, Sayers owns 246 victims at that level. Although he is having a middling domestic campaign, with 17 wickets at 33, no one has taken more wickets than Sayers across the past five Shield seasons.
In an era when many Australian cricketers have earned Test caps based on potential, or short bursts of form, Sayers has been forced to graft long and hard for recognition. Not just from the Australian selectors either – Sayers had to record four consecutive top-three finishes in the Bradman Medal, awarded to the best player in Adelaide grade cricket, before South Australia finally handed him a Shield debut, at age 23.
He was 25 years old by the time he started getting a regular game for SA, in the 2012-13 season. Sayers was the leading wicket-taker in the Shield that summer, with 48 wickets at 18, a performance which earned him four caps for Australia A in mid-2013.
He was selected again for Australia A during their winter matches in 2014 and 2016, taking 28 wickets at 25 across three separate stints.
[latest_videos_strip category=”cricket” name=”Cricket”]
In early 2016, Sayers looked set to finally make the leap to international cricket when he was picked in Australia’s Test squad for the two-Test tour of New Zealand, where conditions suit accurate medium pacers.
With Starc unavailable, and squad members James Pattinson and Peter Siddle battling injuries, Sayers appeared likely to play in the first Test alongside Hazlewood and Bird. Instead, Siddle managed to recover in time to play at Wellington and then Pattinson returned for the second Test, leaving Sayers on the sidelines.
Just like in New Zealand, the pitches in South Africa should be perfect for Sayers. South Africa served up two very green decks out of three Tests against India last month and will fancy they can beat Australia in such conditions, having routed them on a green seamer in Hobart just over a year ago.
Sayers is tailor-made for juicy pitches given his similarity in style to Proteas paceman Vernon Philander, who has an extraordinary record at home.
Just like Philander, Sayers operates at a gentle pace in the 125-130kmh bracket and has the rare ability to land delivery after delivery on a testing length on or just outside off-stump. Both men can move the ball through the air and off the seam in a manner which exposes deficiencies in batting techniques.
Yet Sayers is not a green-track bully – no such bowler could thrive playing in the Shield for South Australia, whose pitch at Adelaide has often been flat over the course of his career. He has earned the right to be Australia’s first-choice back-up quick, with Richardson better left as a last resort.
Richardson has the ability to become a fine international bowler, but he remains green in first-class cricket. Debuting away from home against the likes of AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and Quentin de Kock is an enormous task for any bowler, let alone a 21-year-old.
Australia should leave Richardson to gain valuable experience in the nets on this tour and give Sayers any Test opportunity that arises.
Fergus
Roar Rookie
I think your overestimating the value of pace (much like the selectors). England repeatably field four plodders and they do alright at home (albeit in favourable conditions) and out bowled the Australians at the MCG on one of the biggest roads you'll ever see. Pace is important to some regards but it is almost always trumped by accuracy and the ability of a bowler to deviate the bowl horizontally or vertically in my opinion. Mitchell Johnson is a great example of that, when he was accurate and moving the bowl through the air he was almost unplayable, when he was inaccurate he was rubbish hence the Poms chant (he bowls left, he bowls right...). That being said i do find it unlikely that the selectors will field two plodders, as it's actually impossible with the team they have as Hazlewood is now bowling 140+ regularly. Also it's likely there will be at least one green seamer which (if the selectors ever bothered to look at history and statistics) would make it tempting to play both Sayers and Starc as both can destroy a batting lineup on such wickets where as i can never recall, Starc, Cummins or Lyon doing so on such pitches (though i could be wrong, and to contradict myself starc did destroy SA with a pink bowl on a green pitch but they're using red balls so...)
Fergus
Roar Rookie
Not sure i follow your logic there. Peter Siddle got Kevin pietersen out IIRC 8 or 9 times and the selectors didn't stack the team with medium pace bowlers. You have to get 10 batsmen out not 1. If anything, what i think your trying to say implies the selectors should pick Sayers as they already have plenty of bowlers capable of troubling batsmen who struggle against fast bowling but not any capable of troubling batsmen who struggle with medium pace.
Bob Sims
Guest
Difficult when Zampa isn't even in the squad
Tanmoy Kar
Guest
Watching South African succumbing against the wrist-spinners Kuldeep and Chahal, I would suggest to play Adam Zampa in place of Nathan Lyon. Indians made a mistake by not playing at least one wrist-spinner in the Test Series.
Tanmoy Kar
Guest
Yes, Chadd Sayers would be dangerous in seaming South African pitches. Looking back at the performance of South Africa against India in both Test and ODI Series, one can assume that Australia will beat the South Africa comfortably, the result could be 3-1.
Mj
Guest
Glenn McGrath would have to have waiting as long as Sayers with the current selectors. Both only fast-medium pace. Sayers will suit the conditions, has done the hard yards and proved himself.
marfu
Guest
Chris Kettlewell - Yes Sayers must be thanking his lucky stars in hindsight that he was the bridesmaid again and did not have to toil away on that MCG deck.
Don Freo
Guest
CA only named 10. The missing players would include the Captain, Ashton Turner, Bevilaqua, Bosisto, Klinger and maybe David. I think Sport FM said they were taking a squad of 14. I was hoping for Sam Whiteman to go as a batsman. He is missing from the 14 out so it's actually 15 out.
Saurebh Gandle
Roar Guru
Heard a lot of him .Now waiting for him to play.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Says who? On the bowling side, Cummins made his debut over there and won man of the match. On the batting side, Phil Hughes made his debut over there, got 70 in the second innings of his first test and a hundred in each innings of his second. I don't see that there's any reason to consider it a worse place to make a debut than any other. Especially as a bowler. I reckon the worst option to have made a debut would have been to be called in as replacement for Starc at the recent MCG test. Bird got the call there. Playing in more bowler friendly conditions would actually be a nicer way to start than probably any home pitches would offer.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Last test is Johannesburg. The first 3 are Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
The last time we picked a fast bowler to debut for Australia in South Africa despite less than a handful of first class matches he to a bag of wickets and finished with the man of the match award. Of course I'm talking about Pat Cummins. He's may be young and not played a lot so far, but he's done well in everything he's been thrown into. There's no reason to think he wouldn't do well if he got a game in South Africa.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
South Africa's batsmen have shown to be just as vulnerable to fast bowling on green pitches as any visiting teams. Often overlooked is the fact that the conditions that saw the notorious all out for 47 for Australia saw South Africa's last 8 wickets fall for a similar number in their first innings to be all out for 90-odd. On the green pitch that saw them bowl out India for 135, India had bowled them out for 130 in the same conditions, just gave up enough of a first innings lead for South Africa to scrape home. I think if conditions in South Africa start doing heaps we'll just see lots of wickets fall no matter who's batting.
Maxwell Charlesworth
Roar Rookie
Not every kid is Glenn McGrath though
Doctor Rotcod
Guest
A complete and awesome Shield side is unavailable Jake Carder, Hilton Cartwright, Liam Guthrie, Matthew Hanna, Clint Hinchliffe, Andrew Holder, Josh Inglis, Simon Mackin, Josh Philippe, Jonathan Wells is the team to take their place. You've mentioned Hinchcliffe before, Phillippe made a century against the foe. Holder captains his grade side.What about Bevilaqua ? Or David? He made 121* last weekend. Tasmania will be a good test.
Don Freo
Guest
And still we keep winning.
Doctor Rotcod
Guest
Leave him at home please! WA has 14 players unavailable for their Shield game against Tasmania. Kelly has just been ruled out. Eight players on international duty and Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, Joel Paris, Cameron Green and David Moody all injured
Doctor Rotcod
Guest
Send Richardson back after the first test.WA could use another 145km/hr bowler in their Shield games in case Behrendorff or NCN don't recover in time
Kris
Guest
Bamrah has done so well against Amla and he bowls 140km+, I think that will tilt the selectors to Richardson in the event a vacancy comes up.
Kris
Guest
Took 100 of his 170 wickets against England and never toured South Africa, played only once on the Subcontinent?