James Faulkner’s resounding return to form should earn him a spot in Australia’s ODI squad for next month’s five-match series in India.
The bowling all-rounder is in great nick with the ball in T20s, having taken 33 wickets at 17 in the past six months across the BBL and England’s T20 Blast competition.
With Jason Behrendorff and Josh Hazlewood injured and with Peter Siddle flopping against India, Australia will likely pick two extra quicks to tour India to support pacemen Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Jhye Richardson.
Faulkner not only offers vast ODI experience, but he could also help address two major issues facing the Australian team – a weak tail and a lack of death-bowling options.
The bowling all-rounder was man of the match when Australia won the 2015 World Cup – he took ten wickets at 19 for the tournament – but then was dropped in October 2017 and has not played an ODI since.
It was very harsh treatment from the Australian selectors considering Faulkner was not even out of form – in his last 15 ODIs he had taken 26 wickets at an average of 26.
Since Faulkner was axed Australia have tried a ton of quicks in ODIs, including Richardson, Behrendorff, Siddle, Billy Stanlake, Andrew Tye, Kane Richardson, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Michael Neser.
Of those eight bowlers only Richardson and Coulter-Nile have strongly pressed their claims for a World Cup berth. Faulkner should be given a chance in India to prove he has returned to his peak. It confuses me just how many pundits and fans seem to write off Faulkner at just 28 years old, particularly at a time when Australian cricket is crying out for seasoned international players.
The man nicknamed ‘The Finisher’ may not ever return to the beastly lower-order batsman he was in the early years of his ODI career. Opponents have worked out how to make it much harder for him to launch boundaries. But Faulkner is not some one-dimensional slogger who got lucky for a while.
This is a batsman who has 2566 runs at 31 in first-class cricket, where he has a sedate strike rate of 51 and has played countless mature and sensible knocks for Tasmania. Australia’s batting line-up has lacked balance ever since Faulkner was dropped.
(AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
The vulnerability of their tail seems to have forced the top six to bat with exaggerated caution. This in turn has seen Australia all too often bat out their 50 overs only to finish with a below-par total in the 270 to 290 range. Australia will not win the World Cup making such middling scores. They will need to have a No.8 who is effective with the blade in 50-over cricket.
The obvious options are Faulkner and spin all-rounder Ashton Agar. The latter is yet to get a proper run in ODIs, with his nine matches spread over more than three years. Agar is not a big wicket-taker but was Australia’s most economical bowler in his last series, the five-match ODI series in England last year, and is a handy batsman well suited to batting at No.8 in one-day cricket.
Faulkner, meanwhile, is bowling as well as I have ever seen from him. The best indicator of how nicely Faulkner is tracking is the pronounced late swing he is earning, something he had lost from his game. The left-armer regained this movement in England last year and has maintained a great wrist position ever since. He has also become noticeably less reliant on his back-of-the-hand slower ball. When used sparingly this change-up is a major weapon, but Faulkner started to use it almost as a stock ball in recent years.
The Tasmanian has become a more rounded bowler and is ready to return to ODIs. If he could find form at international level, he would dramatically improve the balance of the Australian ODI team.
My ODI squad for next month’s five-match ODI series in India.
- Aaron Finch (c)
- Travis Head
- Shaun Marsh
- Callum Ferguson
- Peter Handscomb (wk)
- Marcus Stoinis
- Glenn Maxwell
- Ashton Agar
- Mitchell Starc
- Jhye Richardson
- Adam Zampa
Reserves
- James Faulkner
- Pat Cummins
- Usman Khawaja
- Mitch Marsh
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Thanks Ronan - I didnt realise Ferguson's stats were so good. I dont understand why selectors dont pick our side based on actual performance. They seem to invent reasons to ignore stats.
JamesH
Roar Guru
One thing that hasn't been raised in the article is Faulkner's knee problems. Punter was saying during the Strikers-Canes game that one of his knees is basically down to bone-on-bone. He consequently has a limited training regime. It's not an ideal position to be in when you're trying to get back into the ODI side.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Fair enough if you're not sold. I'm just pointing out that his BBL performances this season have generally been very good, and I'm saying that as someone who has watched him quite a bit. He can only compete against the opposition that's in front of him! By the way, the last player he 'finished' against was Nathan Coulter-Nile, who has a very good ODI bowling record. I'd happily have Agar at 8 but he's recovering from a broken finger.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Starc is an extremely weak number 8 batsman in ODIs - he averages 12 with the bat and only once in his long ODI career has he made a score higher than 29. Ideally Starc would be a number 10/11 batsman in ODIs.
bowledover
Roar Rookie
Agree Handscomb looks like the right choice for the odi keeper/batsman
bowledover
Roar Rookie
I dont mind this ... but not sure id bat both stoinis and faulkner.
bowledover
Roar Rookie
You could balance it as follows (but maxi and likely short would have to bowl) 1. Short, 2. Warner/finch/wade if warner, finch look atrocious… 3. Lynn 4. Smarsh/Smith 5. Smith/Smarsh 6. Maxwell 7. Handscomb …. This is assuming Smith is in… otherwise Stoinis could provide your additional bowler. I dont see Maxi ever likely to be opening. Maybe at 4, but not opening. Edited as formatring failed.
bowledover
Roar Rookie
Agree re. Finch needing to open. Not sold on his captaincy as yet though..
bowledover
Roar Rookie
100% agree with Agar re world cup. As to your list: Aaron Finch (c) Travis Head Shaun Marsh Callum Ferguson Peter Handscomb (wk) Marcus Stoinis Glenn Maxwell Ashton Agar Mitchell Starc Jhye Richardson Adam Zampa I think Stoinis needs to bat higher if play him. Agree Handscomb should be keeping. Also agree with the bowling, would include NCN, the Dorff on the bench. I feel the top end lacks power - not convinced about either head or fergusson. I know a lot of people are backing Short and I c can see a case for him over someone like Warner or Finch if either is not performing, but for mine i still believe Lynn at a number 3 or 4 could work. I just dread England, India etc smashing big totals and us not having the power to get it done. I also think Turner might be worthwhile down the order and play a similar role to what he does in BBL.. but acknowledge his domestic 1 day stats arent great
Diamond Jackie
Roar Rookie
The hard thing about “the club” is that membership requirements frequently change. Wade was in the test club and now is denied entry!
Brsstax
Guest
I thought the general belief was play Faulkner against anyone but India. The last thing we need is for him to get carted around by the Indians destroying his confidence and providing the selectors with an excuse to exclude him from the WC squad.
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
Long term habit,hard to give up. Used to write essay for 20 marks in school, in such a way that the introduction would take 2-3 page at least,so the essay used to be about 10 page at least. So normally skip those when i read,because i feel what my teachers used to feel to read those looong introductions. Anyway,next time i won't skip.
Paul D
Roar Guru
yeah, I didn't really research the timing of that. It wouldn't have been related.
Paul D
Roar Guru
yeah, the selectors would really be sticking their neck out to pick Silk
jamesb
Roar Guru
This is a draft world cup squad where there's players fighting for one spot D. Warner A.Finch / D.Short S.Marsh U.Khawaja S.Smith P.Handscomb (wk) G.Maxwell M.Stoinis J.Faulkner/ A.Agar/ NCN J.Richardson P.Cummins M.Starc A.Zampa J.Hazlewood/ J. Behrendorff I reckon the squad will be around those 18 players. But you can only fit 15. Is there any other players? I can't see Carey making it. With Handscomb as 'keeper, it does make it more balanced team. If Finch doesn't make it, then have Maxwell as captain. It was a thought provoking piece from Mitchell Johnsons article yesterday.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Normally I skip introductory lines while reading an article. Can I just say that this ... is not a method I'd advise.
The Bush
Roar Guru
His bowling average is not great, but I don't think that's make or break. His career economy rate is actually really good, especially as he was our "death overs" bowler - if you had a guy keeping it under six bowling most of his overs in the final 15, that's one hell of a player in the modern game. I also don't think Starc is good enough to bat 8 in a side that expects to win a WC - he didn't bat there last world cup and if anything the scores could be bigger than they were at the last world cup... But I do agree that it's a big gamble to bring back a guy that hasn't played for the side in over 18 months and didn't even play any JLT Cup. He's on the way back from injury and we're selecting him based on BBL form... not ideal. Though as Ronan has said over a few responses here; he's really only advocating for him to be given a fresh go in India to see if he can make it back.
Peter
Roar Rookie
I've done a culture review and shooting is the only option alas.
Brian
Guest
Ok well to bat No 8 you need to be a front line bowler. Faulkner didn't play the JLT Cup or a ODI since 2017. There seems no 50 over cricket form that indicates he should be bought back. His bowling average was 31.85 at an economy rate of 5.53 not bad but hardly someone who you bring back when has not played a domestic or international 50 over game for 18 months. I appreciate ordinarily he might be in the mix but given the amount of uncertainty with the current side being a few months from a WC, Starc at No 8 seems one of the few no brainers the ODI team has.
The Bush
Roar Guru
He’s gonna need every run if they smack him around like they’ve done in the past few encounters! Edit: I should add I’m actually a big fan of the guy and would love to see him return and do well. Just not 100% behind it yet, but would love to be wrong.