Australia’s capitulation with the bat in both innings at Johannesburg has raised the spectre of doom over the coming 12 months, especially in the batting make-up for the Test team.
With its best performing batsmen on the sideline and the continuing questions over the viability of those who remain, what options will the selectors look at to boost the top six leading up to next year’s Ashes series in England?
Matt Renshaw and Joe Burns are the best two credentialled candidates to remain at the top of the order, having led Queensland to their Sheffield Shield triumph from that position. Usman Khawaja remains an enigma, unable to score away from home and yet continues to be prolific on home soil.
Both Shaun and Mitch Marsh have reverted to type, following some promising form with a sequence of low scores again, while Peter Handscomb followed his long-term 12th man duties by chopping on twice in his return Test.
Given that Tim Paine was the only batsman to average over 40 on the South African trip, it makes for some interesting deliberations on the batting line-up prior to Australia’s next Test match engagements.
Let’s hope that the selectors will at least ignore the usual calls for the elevation of batsmen to the Test team who have done well in the white ball game.
Runs scored on flat decks, on grounds with shrinking boundaries, against bowlers who are not allowed by the rules of the game to bowl down leg side, wide of off stump or too high above the shoulders are not an indication as to how those batsmen will perform in a Test match atmosphere.
Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis may have been quite successful in recent times in both ODIs and T20 cricket with the bat, but you cannot judge that form as a possible selection tool to face Test bowlers on Test wickets under Test match conditions.
The juggling act between experience and youth is another delicate phase the selection panel will need to work through. If changes are to be made, and Paine is to remain as skipper, he will need some support when it comes to seniority in the team.
Conceivably the selectors could choose to remain with the top six they put on the paddock in Johannesburg and insist they are the best available for the job. It may pay off, but I’m sure the general feeling is that a new sheet needs to be drawn up.
Taking the Sheffield Shield averages and aggregates from the just-completed season, there are four candidates who could be considered for an opportunity.
Glenn Maxwell (707 runs at 50.50) is the immediate respondent, having flown to South Africa as batting cover for the team. His 278 against New South Wales after missing selection for the first Test last summer was a perfect riposte, and his batting appears to have matured in recent times.
(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
The two senior pros who may come to attention are Victorian Cameron White (574 runs at 52.18) and South Australian Callum Ferguson (780 runs at 48.75). Both scored a century and five half-centuries and have plenty of leadership experience.
White only recently forced his way back into the ODI team, though with little success, while Ferguson was one of the many chop-and-change selections of 2016, playing his one and only Test in the previous South Africa debacle in Hobart on their last Australian tour.
White is 35 years old, Ferguson is 33. The recent history of success of elder statesmen Chris Rogers and Adam Voges is a pointer that they should both at least be considered in the final make-up of the Test batting line-up, if only as an emergency measure.
The young buck waiting his chance is still Travis Head (738 runs at 46.12). He has played 34 ODIs and ten T20’s for Australia and proven he can play at that level and also handle the responsibility it requires.
At 24 years of age and with this experience behind him, the current impasse could be the perfect time to get him into the Test line-up and start showcasing his wares.
If nothing else, the loss of three of Australia’s top order has left some holes in the national team that many may not have thought would open up for years.
The resulting vacuum should at least give all first class batsmen a hope of perhaps gaining, or regaining, a Test cap in the next few months if they perform well enough.
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
Apparently, as far as Maxwell is concerned, many people believe that one swallow does make a summer. Sustained success needs to be the benchmark for earning a spot in the test team!
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
If nothing includes being names Sheffield Shield Cricketer of the Year in 2015/16 then yeh - apart from this year Head has done nothing. Oh yeh, and he has done OK in the national ODI and T20 Teams but hey - he is South Australian so effectively he has done nothing!
KenoathCarnt
Guest
Renshaw Burns Doran Ferguson Hughes Maxwell Paine Cummins Rogers Starc/Hazelwood Lyon
JamesH
Roar Guru
Spot on (although did you mean Shaun Marsh did the least of all, not Mitch?). I think that's why everyone got excited about Renshaw's prospects - he's an old fashioned, attritional cricketer, wh is still capable of playing some textbook attacking shots. We really could have done with a Dean Elgar on this tour.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Ignoring his solitary innings (53) in 2014/15, Finch has only once averaged over 36 with the bat in a Shield season (2016/17). It's hard to justify his selection based on that formline. Conversely, Ferguson has only once averaged less than 48 in the last five seasons. That was also in 2016/17, which happened to be the season he was ingloriously dumped from the test side.
Andre Leslie
Roar Guru
It is interesting to see that Maxwell didn't get a run here in this final Test, right? He was flown across to SA and still sat on the sidelines. Obviously Handscomb did the time there in South Africa ... being part of the tour as a reserve, so a case can also be made for him having first go. I really think that the time to pick Maxwell is now though... otherwise, he is going to become one of those stars that we just waste. He knows his technique better than Handscomb at the moment, and can change gears in the way that he bats... which is a great asset for a top order batsman. Like some other readers here though... I also think Maxwell is out of favour with the side's top decision makers. Let's hope that changes with the change of leadership.
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Maybe Khawaja should open and Renshaw move to 3? He's opened twice for 145 and 79*. The Maxi Taxi will surely be back.
Bakkies
Guest
The selectors went for an extra seam bowler for the flat wickets after Handscomb was dropped.
Adam
Guest
Marshall that's it you look at every bloke on that list Finch is better then all of them in odi and t20s not 1 person on your list is consistent in any format let alone to be considered for tests maybe maxwell in first class for Victoria no consistently in any other format for any team.
George
Guest
Nup, Khawaja is the most talented. Renshaw Burns Khawaja S Marsh (just about) Ferguson Maxwell
Adam
Guest
Mate the last couple years heads done nothing before this season finch averaged 45 + over 4,5 years with Surrey,Yorkshire,Australia A and Victoria.
Marshall
Guest
Maxwell - with no Smith/Warner he is arguably are most talented batsman. HAS to be in the team. Head - too patchy in first class and even ODI to be considered. Finich - Not a Test Technique Stoinis - Ditto. - if you want a different all rounder look at Jack Wildermuth Pattinson - Would have loved him to have had a big year but he was OK not amazing Doran - Looks like he could be a good prospect Ashton Turner - Talented Cricketer can hopefully continue his batting form Alex Carey - Natural Successor to Paine in a few years
Bill Peters
Roar Guru
I think this is very close to the mark Adrian. Very close.
Paul
Roar Guru
It's difficult to know how much to take from the SA series, given the tour was ruined by the time Australia's second innings started in the Third Test. If you ignore the last 3 innings, Australia had some good sessions in matches that were dominated by bowlers. They won the First Test and Marsh made 96. He then spent to rest of the tour, along with most of his mates, forgetting where his off stump was. Bancroft had a steady series, Warner and Smith were well below par, Kahwaja looked really good and really bad on occasion, which only leave Mitch Marsh who probably did the least of all, again because he had no idea where off stump is. The batting across Australia has to get away from the short game philosophy of having bat on ball, fast run rates, etc and go back to basics. Leaving the ball is okay in 4 and 5 day cricket, taking hours to score is not a bad thing, and batting for the team is paramount. The players who get these basics right are most likely to have long term success in the Australian side, but if they don't, we'll be having quite a spell as the 4th or 5th ranked team in the world.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Only difference is Head actually has had the one good season and the others have not. Head is also only 24 (i.e. only two years older than Renshaw), so there is a lot of upside there. He has also shown he can handle the pressure of international cricket. His early returns were low because he was rushed into the state side at a very young age (a bit like young Luke Doran in Tasmania). He was also given the pressure of captaincy at 22. This means he also might be able to provide some support to Tim Paine. My ideal here would be to replace Handscomb and S Marsh with Maxwell and Head. If that is considered too inexperienced, then Ferguson should be given a better shot than last time.
Adam
Guest
Mate you just said bla bla bla about finch and stoinis but head is the exact same as them one good year doesn't make up for the 2,3 crap seasons he had.
AdrianK
Guest
Maxwell did well enough in India, and the early rounds of the Sheffield Shield to retain his spot for the recent Ashes. There must have been a non-form-related reason the selectors looked elsewhere. It would be interesting to know. Smith’s comments about him batting like a millionaire at training hint at this as well. Maybe Smith was to Maxwell, as Clarke was to Katich...