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Forget Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft, it is Matt Renshaw who remains Australia’s best long-term Test opening prospect.
Australia’s opening combination has been in a state of flux for the past 18 months. In that time Australia incredibly have fielded seven different opening pairs in the space of only 14 Tests – Renshaw and Joe Burns, followed by Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja, Finch and Harris, Khawaja and Harris, Burns and Harris, Warner and Bancroft, and Warner and Harris.
With Warner, Bancroft and Harris all having failed miserably in the Ashes, Australia’s opening problem has deepened.
Harris has been given a good run in the Test team over the past year but averages only 24 after nine Tests.
Bancroft, meanwhile, has a flawed technique and an average of 26 after ten Tests. Unless either of those batsmen tear the Shield to shreds next month then they should not be in contention for the first Test against Pakistan.
Burns surely must be ahead of them in the queue if he starts the Shield season strongly. Perhaps no other Aussie batsmen in the past decade has been as harshly treated by the Test selectors as Burns, who averages 40 with the bat and has four tons from 16 Tests.
I was saying Boo-urns: Joe Burns. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Renshaw, along with Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head, represents the future of this Australian Test batting line-up.
Labuschagne has cemented his Test spot and Head deserves an immediate recall after his harsh axing in the Ashes. But Renshaw has a lot of work to do to get back in the baggy green.
Two-and-a-half years ago the left hander was arguably the most promising young Test batsman in the world. Nine innings into his Test career he was averaging a tick under 60 and had just made an excellent start to his first Test series in India with scores of 68, 31 and 60 in very difficult batting conditions against an elite attack.
The ease with which he had handled spin and pace in Pune and Bangalore was extraordinary for a 20-year-old, particularly given how many veteran Aussie batsmen had floundered in India again and again.
Renshaw had never played in Asia before that, which made his success all the more notable. Then last year he went to the other country where Aussie batsmen routinely have failed over the past decade and was an immediate success.
Playing in Division One of English county cricket Renshaw cracked 513 runs at 51 for Somerset, including three tons from six matches. Most of those runs were made at the start of the county season when the weather is cool and moist and the pitches are damp and bowler-friendly.
At the start of the last Australian summer then, with Warner still banned, Renshaw seemed a huge chance to be recalled for the home Tests against India. Then he proceeded to have a shocking Shield season, averaging 21 across nine matches.
Yet I still feel as if Renshaw is just one or two big knocks away from rediscovering his touch. Three years ago he looked to me to be a lock to play 100 Tests. My opinion hasn’t changed. This kind of hardship early in a cricketer’s career often steels them.
Australian batting legends like Steve Smith, Ricky Ponting, Matt Hayden, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn each were dropped early in their Test careers and rebounded with vigour.
Each of them was as old or older than Renshaw (23) is now by the time they nailed down their Test spot.
Ponting was 23 years old by the time he became a Test regular, Smith was 24, Hayden and Langer were 28, and Martyn was 29.
Renshaw still has potentially another dozen years left as a first-class batsman. His patience, willingness to graft, and comfort against both pace and spin make him comfortably Australia’s best long-term opening prospect.
It won’t surprise me to see Renshaw begin to dominate domestic cricket once again very soon.