Tim Paine has done a first-class job after being thrown into the Test captaincy following the “Sandpapergate” chaos of Cape Town last March.
Sure, he has a world-class attack of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Nathan Lyon to call on, but his batting order is so brittle that the skipper at seven is one of the most reliable.
Which begs the question; why has brittle Peter Handscomb been dropped for brittle Mitchell Marsh immediately after Australia’s won its first Test since Paine took over?
Paine said – “Mitchell’s bowling is the difference”.
Really?
Marsh’s four Sheffield Shield appearances for Western Australia this season have produced just six wickets for 373 at the very forgettable average of 62.17.
If Shield cricketers can cart Marsh’s half-track rubbish all over the park, what will Virat Kohli, and Cheteshwar Pujara do?
Handscomb is also by far the better fieldsman of the two, and a very competent standby with the gloves if Paine’s dickey fingers play up.
That leaves the batting comparison.
Handscomb has failed in the first two Tests against India with 34, 14, 7, and 13 to average just 17, while Marsh has scored 264 Shield runs for the West at 37.71 – not brilliant, but better.
To paint a truer picture; there’s a 151 in there for Marsh. If you take that out of the equation, he’s averaged only 18.83.
So skipper, don’t give with the double talk to the faithful that dumping Handscomb for Marsh will benefit the side.
And especially in your explanation of Handscomb’s immediate future.
“Pete knows there’s things we’d like him to work on and improve and he’s going to be around the group this week, and going to Sydney (for the fourth, and final Test), a place where it normally spins.
“I think Pete will come back into the fold pretty quickly because he’s renowned as probably our best player of spin”.
There’s no doubting what Tim Paine is predicting – Peter Handscomb will be in the XI at the SCG next week.
That’s also predicting Handscomb’s technical problems will be solved playing drink-waiter in Melbourne, but what if Mitchell Marsh fires at the MCG against the odds?
Will Shaun Marsh join the revolving door selection process, and be punted?
But what if he fires? Will Aaron Finch be next in line with Usman Khawaja to open with Marcus Harris?
The next five days will be full of interest and intrigue, with the added banter between Virat Kohli and Tim Paine thrown in for the icing on the cake.
It seems franchise cricket has forgotten about the great battle between bat and ball. In fact, this season in the IPL there is no battle at all.
The mammoth rise of Jake Fraser-McGurk - his enormous potential and the destructive shot-making that he possesses makes him a very tempting option.
Marcus Stoinis produced his first IPL century and it was a beauty. He went 6, 4, 4, 4 to finish off the Lucknow Super…
Test great Steve Smith is to play for Washington Freedom in the second season of Major League Cricket as the Australian influence in the…
Nathan Lyon has revealed his disappointment that Australia's cricket chiefs have prevented him from playing his first full season of county cricket in England…
Some of you may have watched the recent Fox Sports Series 'A Brief History of Australian Cricket: the Eighties'. If not, I’d definitely recommend…
