With Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood unavailable for next week’s ODI series against Pakistan, Australia’s pace pecking order is being muddied by impressive displays from Pat Cummins and Jhye Richardson.
While Starc, if fit, is a certainty to be in Australia’s World Cup XI, the position of Hazlewood is becoming less certain due to Cummins’ hot form and the brilliant death bowling of Richardson.
Just 12 months ago Hazlewood was the world’s number two ranked ODI bowler and arguably the first player picked in Australia’s attack. But he has missed Australia’s past two ODI series and will also be absent from the five-match contest in the UAE which starts next Friday, giving Richardson and Cummins more opportunities to overtake him.
Hazlewood is a wonderful ODI bowler, having taken 72 wickets at 25 in his career at the sensational economy rate of 4.73 runs per over. Yet Cummins and Richardson both possess skills which Hazlewood doesn’t – attributes which could sway the selectors.
The duo’s superior batting ability may well appeal given Australia do not have a bowling all-rounder in their side. They will surely be wary of fielding too long a tail, especially when teams like tournament favourites England bat so deep.
They may well have lost the fifth ODI and the series in India if not for the batting efforts of that pair.
At 7-229 with just 4.1 overs left and India bowling well, Australia looked in danger of making less than 250. Instead, Cummins and Richardson combined for 44 from 29 balls, boosting Australia to an above-par total of 9-272.
Richardson, who has three half-centuries from 16 career innings in first-class cricket, was impressive with the blade in that match and is rated highly enough by Australia to bat ahead of Cummins. The selectors may feel that a tail of Starc, Richardson and Cummins can help offset the lack of a bowling all-rounder.
Of course, this debate about batting ability is only relevant because of just how well Cummins and Richardson have bowled.
(AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
Cummins may be a bonafide Test star but he entered this series in India in very poor ODI form, having averaged 45 with the ball from his previous 20 matches. The 25-year-old promptly banished any concerns about his form by dominating India. Cummins was phenomenal, taking 14 wickets at 15 to comfortably outbowl the world’s number one ODI quick, Jasprit Bumrah (7 wickets at 35), on his own soil.
This was not a total shock given the enormous talent Cummins possesses. What was surprising, though, was the manner in which 22-year-old Richardson excelled against the formidable and vastly experienced Indian batting line-up.
Richardson has been remarkably effective at the death in his short ODI career and is getting better with each match.
The young West Australian copped some rough treatment in his debut ODI series in England in June last year. He then spent the next seven months out of the ODI team, during which he appears to have honed his ability to counter the aggression of elite international batsmen.
Since he returned to the Australian team in January, Richardson has been outstanding. In six matches against ODI powerhouses India, Richardson has returned the amazing figures of 14 wickets at 20. What has really stood out has been the way he has choked the Indian run-rate whether in the Powerplay, in the middle overs or at the death. Across those six matches, Richardson’s economy rate was fantastic at 4.84 runs per over.
His versatility is quite remarkable for such a young cricketer. With the new ball, Richardson is a traditional swing bowler, adopting full lengths and seeking to undo the batsmen with movement.
In the middle overs, he shortens his length and uses his fine accuracy to keep things tight. Then, in the death overs, he unfurls his full bag of tricks, mixing out-swingers with cutters, bouncers, yorkers and slower balls to keep the batsmen guessing.
As good an ODI bowler as Hazlewood is, he is not known for his variations and has never been an elite death bowler. In fact, Australia often have opted for him to bowl his full ten overs inside the first 40 overs.
This is probably due, in part, to the fact Hazlewood hasn’t played much T20 cricket, which demands pacemen expand their repertoire. It is three years since Hazlewood last played a 20-over match.
Of course, a lot can change over the course of the upcoming series against Pakistan. As much can be learnt from the series in India, during which the likes of Richardson, Usman Khawaja, and Ashton Turner went from being fringe candidates to make Australia’s World Cup squad to now vying to be in their starting XI.
Tahlil
Roar Rookie
Actually i was shocked when some of the greats of the game didn’t include Hazlewood in their world cup XI and rather preferred Richardson. Although a lot will depend on the upcoming series in UAE. With all said, don’t u think it would be hard to replace Hazlewood given the talent he possesses? Also u don’t necessarily need to bowl out Hazy before 40 overs. He might not be as good as cummo and Starcy at the death, but he is not that bad either. He bowled in the death vs SA last year and did pretty well too. Now talking about the “variations”. Richardson could still go for runs with his variations which actually happened in the recently concluded series, whereas hazlewood is still hard to play against . And out of the two, Richardson would be the easy picking for the batsmen. Going into a world cup, experience matters a lot which hazy has and Richie doesn’t. Also ur talking about a player who has an excellent economy of 4.73, with a bowling avg of 25 in today’s age and still u want him to be replaced ????
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
But Ronan while a good stand by a number 8/9 might be decisive once in a while, it might not be as telling as having the best possible bowling combo over a number of games. The bowling will be crucial every game while the lower order batting may not come into it some games and will probably fail to fire more often than it makes a difference (by the very nature of lower order batting). So, sure, if there isn’t much difference in the bowling maybe pick the guy who can bat a bit. But don’t pick, say, Coulter- Nile over Hazlewood for that reason.
Josh H
Roar Rookie
If there's one thing we can take from the ODIs against India it's that we have phenomenal bowling depth. Obviously the big 4 we play in Tests (Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins, Lyon) are all international quality and would walk into most other teams, but with the improvement of Zampa, in addition to the form of Richardson, Behrendorff and even NCN, really only Cummins is a certainty to start. Add to that the fact that Faulkner, Agar and Neser - all strong ODI players in their own right - haven't even played once this summer, it's fair to say that at least 9 or 10 bowlers we have could do the job
Trebla
Guest
If Hanscombe keeps play the four of them with one spinner.
Saurebh Gandle
Roar Guru
Not to forget Hazelwood did pretty well in Champions Trophy in 2017 picking up six wickets against NZ. Jhye is still raw. Hazelwood provides control. Just Indians didn't play him well don't mean others will follow the suite. I would replace him for Starc but not for Hazelwood.
El Loco
Roar Rookie
Rightly or wrongly, "McCullum b.Starc 0" is Starc's ticket to the World Cup.
The Bush
Roar Guru
I’m not a huge fan of assessing form across formats Ronan, but you’re not entirely wrong.
anon
Roar Pro
Clearly Carey.
Doctor Rotcod
Roar Rookie
And who misses out for Wade? 134 against a decent WA bowling attack and took two wickets
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Saurebh I see a lot of comments from fans talking about "English conditions" as being seam and swing friendly but that doesn't extend to ODIs. England has had the biggest roads in world cricket in ODIs over the past four years. If such conditions continue in the World Cup then it will be very high scoring which will make it important for quicks to have variations to avoid just being lined up by hitters.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Cheers Jules, the first hitout that Hazlewood and Starc will get will be in a couple of practice matches against NZ in Brisbane in May.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
But how rusty will Smith and Warner be after playing 12 or 13 IPL matches against the best white ball bowlers in the world? Starc and Hazlewood will definitely be rusty, Smith and Warner not so much.
Dockerman
Roar Rookie
Hazlewood has had his injury concerns, so on the basis that Richardson is performing well in the ODI side, why not just leave Hazlewood to get 100% fit and firing for the upcoming Ashes series. We wouldn’t want him to get RE-injured in the World Cup and miss the Ashes.
Saurebh Gandle
Roar Guru
It's not a man to man comparison, but a player should do the job assigned to him. You don't pick best players in 11 but best 11 as per condition. Clarke admitted error in choosing Starc, Johnson in playing 11 for Ashes 15 instead of Peter Siddle who was perfect for English situation. Though Hazelwood didn't have a great tour of the UK in 2015, his Mcgrath like mold gives him edge in a condition which aid swing and seam. I agree Jhye Richardson is future but for WC, Ashes replacement for Hazelwood? I don't think so.
U
Roar Rookie
But he hasn’t been doing that very often in the last year or so
U
Roar Rookie
Hazlewood has been poor for a long period of time. Trying to bowl too fast is affecting his consistency and wicket taking ability
U
Roar Rookie
Hazlewood has been generally pretty poor over the last 12 months or so. Starc as well. Cummins has really overtaken them both comfortably as the best pace bowler and leader of the attack. At least he’s the most consistent by far. Certainly Jhye’s emergence is putting good pressure on the older 2 pacers. It allows guys like Tremain, Dorff, Neser, Joel Paris etc to come into contention
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
If someone would tell me to drop Hoff, I would have probably recommend him to contact psychologist immediately. Now, it's amazing how time changes so fast. I think it going to be hard to squeeze Hoff in that trio. Does starc have any match to prove his form? If he is in form, then Cummins & Starc is first 2 pacer. For last slot, it's between JBDorff & JR. JR has been very impressive so far, but I think I would pick Dorff over JR. Harsh, but has only 3 place.
anon
Roar Pro
Cummins and Richardson as of this minute are in the World Cup squad. Someone has to miss out, I don't see why it matters whether it's Richardson or Hazlewood.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
"It’s not so much a case of number 8 saving the day when the top order fails, but having more quality there can make the difference between a mediocre score and a good score." Exactly Chris and we saw that the other night when Jhye and Cummins contributed 44 from 29 balls and took Australia from a below par to an above par total. When your number 8/9 can do that - like England's do regularly, like Faulkner used to and like Agar has also - it makes a huge difference. The problem is that Australia's 8/9 have very rarely contributed in that manner in the past two years, Australia's tail has consistently folded very quickly which then affects how aggressive the top 7 can be.