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It's time for a new Test opener

Roar Rookie
10th December, 2018
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Roar Rookie
10th December, 2018
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Australia once again find themselves in a situation where they are searching for a new opening batsmen following the failures of white ball specialist Aaron Finch.

Since the suspension of openers Dave Warner and Cam Bancroft, Australia have experimented with Matt Renshaw, Joe Burns, Finch and Usman Khawaja against the new ball.

Despite the calibre of these players, none of them have been able to hold their spots. With the exception of Khawaja, who has moved to his more favoured position at number 3, the chopping and changing from the selectors indicates the shortage of quality openers available to them.

They originally thought Finch was the best option following some decent starts in the UAE, however it is unlikely that form can be replicated in Australia, with the new ball moving significantly more and more bounce in the wickets.

Even his own state opts to bat him in the middle order rather than opening because they understand his weaknesses against the moving red ball.

Aaron Finch

Aaron Finch opens for Australia in the first Test against India. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz – CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images)

Ricky Ponting recently questioned Finch’ s position at the top, saying after he got out in the first innings “the shot we saw today is not what a good Test match opener would do”.

This statement by the former Test skipper questions: what makes a good Test match opener?

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Looking at some of the best Test openers at all time including Graeme Smith, Matthew Hayden, Virender Sehwag, Justin Langer and Alastair Cook. All these batsmen are able to pick the length of a delivery know when to block, punch and drive and can rotate the strike without taking risks.

Finch’s lack of experience opening was evident through his decision to drive a delivery clearly not full enough, if it were Graeme Smith or Virender Sehwag they’d pick the length of the ball and instead of driving it they would punch it, and not try to smoke it through the covers as if it was a limited over game.

Also, these elite batsmen mentioned above were able to keep pressure on the bowlers by rotating the strike.

This applied pressure gives the bowlers the impression that what they are doing is not working, making them more likely to change what they are doing and bowl and bad ball which gifts the batsmen 4 runs.

Although Finch scores at a good clip in shorter forms, many of his runs are from risky shots, giving the bowler confidence that a wicket could come soon of the back of a miscued dangerous shot.

The batsmen at the top level are able to score the runs from risk-free shots, which ultimately keeps them in for longer periods translating into more runs.

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For the next Test, Justin Langer and co. need to decide who is the right man to open the batting for Australia.

Marcus Harris deserves another shot of the back of his brilliant performances overtime in shield cricket. Finch is the real head scratcher though, do the selectors move him down the order to hide him from the new ball?

Or should he be out of the team altogether? Australia must find ways to improve their obviously struggling top 6.

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Joe Burns could be the one to regain his opening position averaging a modest 35.2 in his 10 innings in Shield cricket so far.

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