Axed Test batsman Usman Khawaja has sent a resounding message to the Australian selectors with two centuries for Queensland.
Meanwhile, pace prodigy Jhye Richardson is hitting his stride after a long injury layoff.
Usman Khawaja is on a mission
Fresh from being dropped from the national team, Khawaja has made a stunning return to domestic cricket.
After making 138 in his first game back for Queensland after the Ashes tour, Khawaja yesterday glided to 112 against Victoria in St Kilda before the home side won in a canter thanks to 188 not out by Aaron Finch.
That continues Khawaja’s incredible year in one-day cricket, having piled on 1335 runs at 56 after having a breakout season in ODIs.
Over the past decade, no other batsman has dominated Australia’s domestic 50-over cricket to the same extent, as Khawaja has churned out 2496 runs at 58, including nine tons from just 44 matches.
While running amok in the Marsh Cup may not help Khawaja regain his Test spot, it certainly won’t hurt. The Australian selectors have long been swayed by one-day form when considering red-ball selections. If Khawaja backs this up with runs in the Sheffield Shield, which kicks off next Thursday, he deserves to be in Australia’s starting XI for the first Test against Pakistan.
What has complicated matters is the strong claim staked for the Test No.3 spot by youngster Marnus Labuschagne. The Queenslander comfortably outbatted Khawaja in England and may be wanted at first drop.
Khawaja has long been an opener in List A cricket but has had limited opportunities in that role at first-class and Test level. As the Bulls’ captain, he may pull rank next week and open in the Shield, forcing one of the two regular openers – Joe Burns and Matt Renshaw – to slide down the order.
Cricket Australia is known to exert influence over the make-up of state line-ups. So if Khawaja does open in the Shield, that may well be a sign he is being considered as a partner for David Warner in the first Test. In the meantime, Khawaja needs to keep hoarding runs in the Marsh Cup to ensure he is picked for Australia’s next one-day series against India in January.
(Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Jhye Richardson is almost back to his best
In his first game back from a serious shoulder injury that probably denied him debuts in the World Cup and the Ashes, Richardson lost the plot.
On a flat WACA deck, Richardson tried to blast through a star-studded Victorian batting line-up with nothing more than pace. As he appeared to strive for extra speed, he lost his trademark accuracy and neglected his effective changeups.
In other words, Richardson became hittable.
He promptly bled 64 runs from his five overs, the worst outing of his young List A career. At one point he lost his cool with Australian teammate Glenn Maxwell, after the Victorian hammered him for a sequence of boundaries.
This was not the Richardson that Western Australia fans had come to know and admire. He is not a hothead and long ago recognised that precision should not be sacrificed for raw pace.
While his skiddy speed is definitely an asset, it is his accuracy, swing, changeups and calm temperament that have made him an elite prospect.
To Richardson’s credit, he quickly regained his composure, bowling brilliantly in his second match. The 23-year-old operated with suffocating accuracy, offering the Tasmanian batsmen almost nothing to hit as he grabbed 3-23 from ten overs.
Then, two days ago, he was once more WA’s best bowler against New South Wales, collecting 2-36 to continue his return to form.
Richardson has the ability and temperament to be a key bowler in all three formats over the next decade. He has been outstanding in his brief ODI career, with 24 wickets at 26, and was hugely impressive in his two Tests last summer.
It will be fascinating to see if he can maintain this upward curve into the Sheffield Shield.
Australia already have a logjam of quicks competing for a spot in the starting XI for next month’s first Test against Pakistan. While Pat Cummins is a lock, there could be four bowlers vying for the other two pace positions: Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Richardson.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
Spot on , At least they got a few playing over there pre series and I do think the Australia A and pre match opening internal game did help actually not to mention the world cup lead in . We had some options . They need to select more honestly on english performance in England which admittedly means decision making not impulsively but after three matches it becomes more evident. In some respects they selected impulsively dropping bancroft and bringing harris in too early which then meant we had to give him two to three games as well to be fair but he was poor in england pre series as well against quality opposition. I think the bowlers were generally superb give or take a few spells and some bad luck and hated them backing up to open with bowling within 3 days in the fifth test despite some saying it diddnt matter they looked tired in the late session leaking that extra 50 to 70 runs quite vital Warner placed us in a predicament 18 months ago with Paine having to come in which is not his fault but as Ive overstated I don’t think he captained well at all but I like him as bloke and overall is batting didn’t help the cause either until late on in the series a a tad but he is probably best with gloves . he’s no spring chicken either and not ideal not using this summer to give carey or wade a go despite their keeping credentials being a bit wonkier , its not a bad time to blood someone like carey this summer but it won’t happen . Just leaves us in predicaments next summer against India and beyond not much time for them to get test experience in next 18 months. We need to clone chris rogers and bring him back to start in england he got the job done with solid county experience. No surprises to me how labs did so well after a county summer. Both demonstrate the ability to leave a new ball when its moving about. Its not that complicated
JamesH
Roar Guru
Yeah there were some head-scratchers in there for sure. We were our own worst enemy at times. We so rarely seem to go to England with a settled batting lineup. In 2009 Hughes was replaced by Watson at the top, in 2013 we were a shambles, in 2015 they didn't know what to do with the Marsh brothers and in 2019 our top order was just plain broken.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
Utter madness starting them both in the 5th test. We would have been better opening with Bancroft/Khawaja or even Labs/Khawaja and padding down the middle order with Head or Carey. Called it all out as several of us did pre the match selection being made but nope they just wouldn’t bin Warner for love or money which is unbelievable to me given his form and what he did 18 months ago to the side. They were our only options with the squad on hand. Still dirty on paine sending us in to bowl first too. The whole shambles with selection in 5th and lyons potential finger cut bowling 4 overs in the first and not including starc or pattinson may have cost us the series win. Anyway bought the urn home. Most certainly should have won 3 1 though or even 4 nil in the ashes with some sane selection policy.
JamesH
Roar Guru
I definitely agree he should have opened in the fifth test. I'd probably have brought back Bancroft too, if only for his ability so soak up some deliveries. Warner had three consecutive ducks at that point and Harris hadn't reached 20 in four digs. Going into the fifth test with both of them opening was madness.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
Interesting analysis James . I think we also have to factor in Khawaja being 32 and Warner turning 33 this year. they arent going to get better. Burns is 30 so has four good years in front of him although still not sold him playing on english pitches but then again none of the openers have shown much there outside of chris rogers in the last decade.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
I like that idea Ben , Start Khawaja with Burns. Give Warner the drinks to carry in brisbane. Doesn't deserve it after his last 24 months of idiocy and the poorest series as opener on average in cricket history. Why should he just walk back in to the side . No doubt he will claim his place back on flatter pitches in Australia but make him earn it. Pakistan won't present the problems India will pose the following summer in Australia although NZ could test out some of the top order.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
Dropping khawaja in england and not moving him up to open was a critical mistake particularly in the 5th test let alone the 4th test. He was a damm site better than all the openers in england and effectively was opening most of the time when he played. I agree his 40 and 36 were good in england. We could have used opening partnerships of 50 to 100 in the two test matches we lost. May have come home 3 1 winners
Pierro
Roar Rookie
Its a good observation Labuschagne superb against dukes ball but now back to kookaburra and different pitches . Much like australian form often doesn't measure up in England, English form needs validation in Australia. I selected Labaschange first test in england and it took an injury with smith to get him selected. He deserves his start in Brisbane though and his shield form must be monitored. Im a fan of his tenacity and his ability to not fish for the ball and leave deliveries was enormous in england compared to some of the other batsman idiocy and poor judgment on those pitches
badmanners
Roar Rookie
"Division 2" After seeing how poor England's batting and bowling depth is in there home conditions then I'd reasonably expect our batsmen to score well in division 2. Labu has a test average of 32 in Aus (Small sample size) 50 in England and 20 in UAE , excepting England not great numbers and the Ashes numbers are a bit of a surprise but his form in England would give him the inside running on a spot next tour of England but you'd have to think long and hard about giving him another run in the UAE. Maybe his bowling would get him over the line? Contrast this to Ussie. Great in the UAE and at home but after a reasonable sample size in England he's still only averaging sub 20, none of the other players you listed had played a test under English conditions and runs in English conditions were what was required during the Ashes. Not sure how you can "feasibly evaluate based on past experience" when they are yet to play test cricket in that country. I expect Ussie will, barring injury, play tests at home this year as he is, as you say, strong here. But I'd feel we've seen enough of him in England at test level to say he'd need to play with a lot of success in county cricket first division before he should be given another opportunity.
Josh H
Roar Rookie
"Labu wasn't showing any outstanding form before being drafted in as injury replacement and there wouldn’t have been many thinking he would perform as well as he has" Umm, so scoring 1114 runs at 62, including 5 centuries, in his first ever county season, topping the runscorers charts in division 2 isn't good form? Hate to see what your idea of bad form is. "you only know a player is not an improvement on the incumbent is by giving him a try" I don't disagree at all mate, but have a look at all of the players vying for his spots (opener/no.3) - all of them have Test match experience. Burns, Labs, Renshaw, Bancroft, Harris. No debutants in the mix. All of them have had a go, therefore we can feasibly evaluate based on past experience. Who has the best Test average out of all of them? Khawaja. Who has the best first-class average out of all of them? Khawaja. Only Burns has managed to reach 40 in either. Only Labs is in form. Khawaja is essentially the best of a bad bunch. That's my point.
So you look at runs/wickets without context? Not a smart one are you. An ape could see Harris' runs against India are worth more than Khawja's hundred against a 2nd XI Sri lanka
Any moron who watches cricket casually can see that the runs Khawaja made against Sri Lanka in the 2nd innings in Canberra were largely inconsequential. You'd have to be delusional to acknowledge otherwise. Runs are still runs granted, but not all are equal. Harris' two 70s against the best team in the world have a lot more weight than Khawaja's failings and one decent innings against a 2nd XI Sri Lanka through out the summer.
badmanners
Roar Rookie
Josh H you only know a player is not an improvement on the incumbent is by giving him a try. In this instance the incumbent wasn't showing improvement on his previous indifferent form, so a shuffle was tried. Harris deserved a go on his Aus form but equally maybe should have been replaced for the last test. Labu wasn't showing any outstanding form before being drafted in as injury replacement and there wouldn't have been many thinking he would perform as well as he has.
Josh H
Roar Rookie
That’s not the point The point is, has anyone else done any better? The only batsmen I can think of who are proven to have done better than Khawaja away are Smith and Labs, that’s it. You can chop and change all you like but it’s absolutely fruitless when the guy you’re replacing is better than the guy you want to replace him with. Not great selection policy
blanco
Guest
I'm a big Jhye fan so if he is fit and bowling well I'd pick him in test and odi. That's just how good I know he is.He offers Australia's test bowling attack another dimension in that he swings it more than the other Aussie bowlers. I can't see Khawaja being picked to bat at 3.
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
Back again. The deflecting refers to diminishing the innings listed. The crack about giving up is in relation to you discounting innings in lost causes. I was having a laugh, as in "the sooner we lose this match the sooner we get to the pub". I agree he has been dodgy from 2016. Anyway we will see what happens.
James
Roar Rookie
LOL. A new statistical category, meaningless runs! We will need to look at meaningless catches, meaningless wickets, meaningless runouts. Statisticians will love it. Just take them off cricketers records and readjust the numbers! Maybe the great Don Bradman scored meaningless runs too. Let's adjust his average. No longer 99.94. It's my on fault I know. I should never have engaged in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
Not changing the rules, just pointing out that if you remove the not out against Sri Lanka, which was quite possibly the most meaningless not out hundred someone will ever make, he made 310 runs in 11 innings for 10 dismissals over the summer at an average of 31. So he's dead on equal with Harris. And considering he was our 'best' and most senior batsman thats really poor returns.
James
Roar Rookie
It doesn't count as winning if you keep changing the rules.
Khawaja's averaged boosted massively by 1 good not out score in a pressure free situation where we were already going to win the game. Check mate!