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Jon Holland’s Test career hangs by a thread after he was outbowled by part-time spinner Marnus Labuschagne as Pakistan piled up 482 yesterday in the first Test in Dubai.
Openers Usman Khawaja (17*) and Aaron Finch (13*) guided Australia to 0-30 at stumps after Pakistan forced the tourists to toil in the field for a massive 164 overs.
Quicks Peter Siddle (3-50) and Mitchell Starc (1-90), and off spinner Nathan (2-114) all bowled solidly, but Holland was very poor, taking 1-126 from 29 overs.
While Australia’s other three specialist bowlers collectively went at a miserly 2.23 runs per over, Holland leaked runs, finishing with an awful economy rate of 4.34rpo on a slow pitch not conducive to free scoring. The Victorian’s true embarrassment, however, came when he was outdone by part-time leggie Labuschagne.
The 24-year-old batsman rarely bowls for Queensland and has taken just 13 wickets at an average of 56 in his first-class career.
Yet Labuschagne still posed sterner questions to the Pakistani batsman than Holland, who was played with ease.
The debutant bowled with fizzing overspin and surprising accuracy as he took 1-29 from eight overs. It was Labuschagne who finally broke a 150-run stand between Asad Shafiq (80) and Haris Sohail (110), both of whom batted with fine patience to wear down the Australian attack.
Marnus Labuschagne of Australia (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
With a tossed-up leg break, Labuschagne drew Shafiq into prodding at the ball and nicking it to wicketkeeper Tim Paine. He should have had a second wicket soon after, with a very similar delivery, but Aaron Finch at first slip dropped a straightforward edge from Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed.
Meanwhile, Holland posed next to no threat to the home batsmen. What’s worse is he couldn’t even hold up an end and create pressure his fellow bowlers could capitalise on.
While Starc, Siddle and Lyon combined to send down 34 maidens in this innings, Holland managed just one. All too often he overpitched, allowing the Pakistan batsman to drive him confidently.
It was the same story for the left armer in his debut Test series in Sri Lanka two years ago.
In the two Tests he played in that series the Sri Lankan spinners ran amok on helpful surfaces and Lyon took 11 wickets. Holland, meanwhile, was very inconsistent and ended with series figures of five wickets at 55.
Jon Holland of Australia takes his hat from the umpire (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
He did not look up to Test standard in Sri Lanka and, as a result, he had to watch from afar as Lyon, Steve O’Keefe, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson toured Asia ahead of him last year.
Holland responded well to his disappointing effort in Sri Lanka by returning to domestic cricket and taking 77 wickets at 21 in first-class cricket between that tour and this current Test.
His nine-wicket haul for Australia A against India A a month ago earned him a recall to the Test squad and he then got a berth in the starting XI by taking six wickets in Australia’s only warm-up game in Dubai.
But all of that success at lower levels won’t mean much if Holland again flounders in Pakistan’s second innings, assuming that they do bat twice. The selectors have shown repeatedly in recent years that they make swift calls on players and are particularly harsh on bowlers, who are typically given less time to prove they belong at Test level.
Putting further pressure on Holland is the presence in this Australian squad of Agar, who was very impressive in Australia’s previous series in Asia. In those two Tests in Bangladesh, Agar bowled with good accuracy to take seven wickets at 23, and also chimed in with some crucial lower-order runs.
In light of that Agar was actually unlucky not to play in this first Test in Dubai. Aside from his far superior batting, the key advantage Agar has over Holland is his frugality. While Holland has gone at 3.6 runs per over across his Test career – a very high figure for a finger spinner – Agar has been comparatively economical at 2.8 runs per over.
Across his four Tests, 21 per cent of Agar’s overs have been maidens, compared to just 12 per cent to date for Holland.
On pitches as flat as those in the UAE, it is crucial for bowlers to be able to produce maidens, ratchet up the pressure on the batsmen and induce loose strokes. Having even one bowler who regularly releases this pressure greatly reduces the effectiveness of the whole attack.
That was just what Holland did in Pakistan’s first innings.
Having racked up 482, the home team are in a dominant position and will know that this scoreboard pressure will weigh heavily on the Australian batsmen today.