Joe Burns, Kurtis Patterson and Travis Head may have shone in Tests this summer, but their Ashes prospects will be heavily influenced by their performances in the Sheffield Shield, which re-starts tomorrow.
Usman Khawaja is the only member of Australia’s top seven who won’t feature in the Shield tomorrow as NSW take on Western Australia in Bankstown, Victoria play Queensland at the Junction Oval and SA tackle Tasmania in Adelaide.
Fellow Test batsmen Burns, Patterson, Head, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne and keeper Tim Paine will face the English Dukes ball, which will be used in this half of the Shield season.
Australia’s Test batsmen have struggled badly against the Dukes on recent tours of England so the selectors will surely pay close attention to how those six players handle the extra swing and seam offered by that ball.
Meanwhile, Ashes pace contenders Chris Tremain, Jackson Bird, Chadd Sayers and Michael Neser will have the chance to display their mastery with that bowler-friendly ball.
Australia’s Test batting line-up has been in a state of flux since the bans handed to star run makers Steve Smith and David Warner 11 months ago. It seemed as if finally there was a relative sense of order in Australia’s batting stocks by the end of the international summer, with Head, Patterson and Burns having performed admirably.
Combine that trio with the returning pair of Smith and Warner, and experienced first drop Khawaja and you have your Ashes top six. It won’t be that simple though. The Australian selectors have been shown time and again to have short memories.
So often in recent years, they have been swayed more heavily by recent performances than by longer-term form.
Which is why, as silly as it may seem, all of Head, Patterson and Burns are in danger of missing the Ashes if they don’t shine over the remainder of the Shield season. Even if they play well, they still could be leapfrogged by batsmen who catch the eye of the selectors with even one massive innings.
Head deserves to play in the Ashes after making a very good start to his Test career, with 663 runs at 51 in his first eight Tests. The 25-year-old may well benefit from falling out of Australia’s limited overs setup, which means he will get to play an extra four or five Shield matches in the next six weeks instead of touring India and the UAE.
(AP Photo/James Elsby)
Burns, meanwhile, has the chance to build on the momentum he created in his return to Test cricket against Sri Lanka. The 29-year-old opener, who made 180 in the second Test against Sri Lanka, has a sensational record against the Dukes ball in the Shield, having piled up 635 runs at 53.
Patterson, too, has had no problems against the Dukes ball, with 698 runs at 47 against it in the Shield and should be riding high due to his extraordinary recent form. In Patterson’s past five red ball matches he has churned out 598 runs at an average of 199, including four unbeaten centuries.
Then there’s the 24-year-old Labuschagne who has had a very poor start to his Test career, averaging 26 with the bat from five matches. By the end of the Sri Lankan series his Ashes prospects looked very dim but, as I mentioned above, the short memories of the Australia selectors could work in his favour if he dominates in the Shield.
From outside the batting line-up that played against Sri Lanka, the batsman most likely to force his way into Ashes calculations is Matt Renshaw. The 22-year-old opener had a shocking first half of the Shield season but he loves playing against the Dukes, having hammered 1,161 runs at 61, including an extraordinary six tons, from his 12 first-class matches involving that ball.
Renshaw looks naturally suited to playing Test cricket in England and was brilliant in his debut county cricket season last year. But he, Burns, Warner and Harris are all battling for just two spots in the Ashes.
That pecking order could become much clearer over the next six weeks as the second half of the Shield season is imbued with far greater importance than usual in regards to national selection.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Hey Tom...how are you going with your reply? Marcus keeps making it harder for you, doesn't he?
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Renshaw is 22yo.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
“Team Poison”? Seriously, where do people get this stuff from. Since the ban, he’s hung out and trained with plenty of those same players. As the end of the ban has approached, those same team mates have made it clear how much they are looking forward to his return, not just Smith’s, but both of them. This “team poison” thing is a complete myth. Warner will be welcomed back into the Australian team with open arms. Regardless of what’s happened over the last 12 months, he’s still Australia’s second best test batsman, our best ODI batsman and one of our best couple of T20 batsmen.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
He has kept in plenty of Shield games, especially when Whiteman first broke his finger. He has always been a keeper and when they first came on the scene it was always between Bancroft and Whiteman for the keeping position when they lost patience with Tom Triffitt. (I still think Whiteman is the better batsman.) He won’t be a test keeping option but he allows them to take another batsman. When we talk about a secondary option it is to defray the workload if there are minor games…but we barely have them any more. Plane flights (and reduced itineraries) obviate the need for 2 keepers on a tour. Wade was outscored by Bancroft and Nevill. 77 is not compelling enough.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Ah yes...just playing with Tom's silliness. His reply doesn't seem to have been published...
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Patterson has to be in. He forced them to pick him on the back of scoring lots of runs, including a string of hundreds, then got a hundred in just his second test innings and looked assured while doing it. Now he’s come out and scored a hundred in his first Shield match back. Surely on the back of all that you can’t drop the guy after two tests. He has to be a pick and stick situation. Especially since he’s been having success and is the genuine batsman, with good technique, that we have been wanting in our middle order. The only mark against him has been around the concentration and the ability to kick on when he’s got to 50. And this summer he’s well and truly turned that around.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
The Sri Lankan bowlers certainly got a lot of swing with the new ball in Australia. The Aussie batsmen were able to get on top of them once the ball got a bit old though. I think it is good in helping to show that just because the Aussies did really well and demolished Sri Lanka, you can’t just say that’s just because Sri Lanka are completely hopeless so don’t pay much attention to any of the Aussie performances from those matches.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I don’t think Bancroft would really be considered a secondary keeping option. Has he ever even kept in a first class game? He certainly does in T20’s, but in first class cricket he’s pretty much always just played as a batsman. Keeping for long test innings is a completely different story. But that being said, if the selectors think of him in that way, that could be another barrier for Wade. Wade’s best option of making the squad is being considered as a possible double backup, backing up the keeper and the middle order batsmen. If Bancroft keeps up his form and makes it, and the selectors are happy that his keeping is enough to make him the backup keeper, then he probably rules out just about any chance for Wade in the squad!
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Renshaw’s upside is that when he’s in form he seems to really cash in and make piles of runs. His downside is he has had way too many times where he’s had seriously extended periods of seriously poor form in between that. But he’s still young, so hopefully he can address that and be able to find the good form more often. If he does, he will have a good chance of being a quality test batsman. Give him a few years to work things out and he could be really good. Warner probably only has 4-5 years, left at test level. At that time Renshaw will be 26-27 and hopefully have worked out his issues that lead to his extended runs of poor form, and can then go on to have an awesome test career. A bit Matt Hayden-like. Picked young, had issues, out for several years, comes back and does really well.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
There is something about Renshaw that certainly gets people excited. Probably that, when he has managed to find form, he’s tended to make the most of it, and pile on lots of hundreds. But the problem is he intersperses that with really long runs of incredibly poor form. He needs to work on that. But still, can’t judge two players on a single innings each. Even in the same game. Also, despite it being on the same pitch, the conditions do change throughout the match, they are facing different bowlers, etc. So there really isn’t any situation where you can 100% say conditions were exactly the same for each, one did better than the other, therefore that shows who the better batsman is. Hence why we tend to judge those things more over time, rather than from a single innings.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Wow, Patterson is in insane form at the moment - he's just 17 runs shy of what would be his 5th ton in his last 7 innings!
Baggy_Green
Roar Pro
If Smith and Warner are back , Harris Burns Patterson and Head should be the other 4 batsmen Unfortunately Khawaja misses out but thats the correct decision imo currently
Nudge
Roar Rookie
Very positive round of shield cricket I would have thought in terms of retaining the ashes. Would have been good for a few more to have gone onto a 100, but all but 2 in consideration past 50, Renshaw and Pucovski who both got starts but didn’t go on. Burns, Harris, Labuschagne, Head, Wade and Patterson (not out) all passing 50, and the dark horse for selection Bancroft carrying his bat for an amazing century. Sangha not out at the crease at the moment which is one for the future. Great signs. Let’s hooe this continues on for the next 3 and a half shield rounds
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Tommy! Whoops! They are playing in the same game in the same conditions. Matty Renshaw went OK. How do reckon Marcus went? 3 times as bad...or not?
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Catching is a part of fielding, Blake.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Stunning comeback innings from Bancroft - 134no and even more impressively he has batted for 124 overs and counting, underscoring the rare patience and mental toughness he boasts.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
No...but his last 2 innings since coming back from his mangled finger have been 61 and 66...not too shabby. Bancroft continues to step up. He will definitely tour for the Ashes, the best secondary keeping option. Have you noticed that between WA and Tassie this weekend, there are 8 keepers playing?
matth
Roar Guru
Yes he’s done very well today. It will be interesting to see whether he puts himself in contention
Nudge
Roar Rookie
Don, I agree that plenty of players are in the frame for the first test, but Whiteman, absolutely is not, and Paris is 100 to 1
Doctor Rotcod
Roar Rookie
Bancroft on the other hand has 73 n.o. and holding a young side together