Australian squad selections are rarely smooth and almost never universally well-received these days, but I reckon the Australian squad for the limited-overs tour of India is about right.
After a disappointing World Cup this year, it was a natural progression that this Australian summer’s one-dayers and Twenty20s would be used to introduce new blood into the system.
Australia head to India after the third Test against New Zealand in Sydney to play three one-dayers on 14, 17 and 19 January.
The squad was named on Tuesday and, as always, the focus has been on who was left out. In all, eight players from the World Cup squad were left out: Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Matthew Wade, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon and Nathan Coulter-Nile.
(Darrian Traynor – CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images)
In their place comes Marnus Labuschagne, Sean Abbott – who hasn’t played an ODI since 2014 – Ashton Agar, Ashton Turner and, rather surprisingly given the state of his hamstring, Josh Hazlewood.
As pointed out by Ronan O’Connell yesterday, it’s the first time Hazlewood has been teamed with Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc in ODI cricket in well over a year.
Obviously, with only 14 going to India, at least three players from the 17-man World Cup squad were going to miss out anyway, but there’s a real changing of the guard about it.
And, frankly, of course there should be.
With less than four years until the next World Cup, there’s no better time than now to start looking at newer, younger options. And for the most part it’s actually hard to argue with much of the change of direction.
At 32 Nathan Lyon could well be still playing by the time the next World Cup rolls around, but 29 ODIs in nine seasons tells you that he’s never really nailed down the preferred spinner’s spot with the white ball. And though he didn’t have a great time at the World Cup, Adam Zampa still has time on his side. As does Ashton Agar, whose batting is also about to become more important.
Behrendorff is unavailable because of injury anyway, and presuming Hazlewood can regain fitness, it’s not a bad call to throw the best bowling attack in the world the white ball too. Abbott didn’t necessarily have the best state one-day campaign with the ball, but he has hit a bit of form since, taking 12 wickets in his last seven games across various formats. And has made handy lower-order runs for New South Wales of late too.
On World Cup form you certainly couldn’t argue with Stoinis’s omission, but he’s actually made similar returns with the ball as Abbott, taking 21 wickets in his last ten games for Western Australia. But five scores under three in his last six games undo all of that. His bowling has always been reasonable – if over-reliant on the shorter lengths – but his batting is going to be what gives him a point of difference.
(Jono Searle – CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images)
Maxwell has clearly been left out from a lack of cricket, with his recent time out from the game to take on mental health struggles rightly treated like an injury. Just getting back on the cricket field will be his most immediate priority, and so retaining him in a national squad that contributed what he described as mental and physical burnout would be pushing duty-of-care boundaries.
Ronan wondered yesterday if their omissions might spell the end of Shaun Marsh and Usman Khawaja’s Australian careers, and I think you can probably throw Matthew Wade’s national limited-over ambitions in this mix as well.
Every Australian cricket fan and armchair selector will know full well the perils of putting a line through Marsh’s name, but at 36 right now you do have to wonder if it really is his time in the green and gold done. It’s hard to see him doing anything in the next few years that couldn’t be done just as well by a younger player.
And everyone’s cult hero Marnus Labuschagne certainly looks like that player right now. In the form of his life currently, there are far fewer reasons not to include him than to name him for what world be a well-deserved international limited-overs debut.
I don’t like Wade’s chances of getting back into the side – for much the same reason as Marsh, actually – but I don’t think the door has completely closed on Khawaja just yet. But he might only have 18 or so months to regain his spot before it just becomes too easy for the selectors to move on from him.
These three ODIs in India in January, along with the games in South African in February, are certainly going to give us a clear heads-up on who the selectors think will lead the next World Cup campaign, and there’s no doubt there’s a huge opportunity in front of the players selected for India most immediately.
And it will be most intriguing to see over time if this squad announcement really has ended a few coloured-gear careers.
Brendon the 1st
Roar Rookie
You'll get no arguments from me, I'm over the commercialisation of sport, it doesn't tug on my heart strings like it used to.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
I wouldn’t expect the selectors to tell the world what their plan is for WC in 4 years time – that’s not going to happen! Hohns has overseen 2-3 successful WC campaigns and will believe ‘the process’, so with a diverse range of players at the selectors disposal and India wanting the Aussies to play in the next WC venue whenever their tv demands it, it’s a fine opportunity to experiment for a coupla years before bedding in. Sure that’s speculation, but they’ll never tell opponents like the mainstream media what they’re thinking so they can destroy every new player for not performing as ‘they’d’ decide they should.
VivGilchrist
Roar Rookie
Disagree. Money is killing the fabric of AFL. The AFL has changed the game of Aussie Rules for the worse.
anon
Roar Pro
Maxi stuck it up everyone with his massive IPL contract. He should just become a T20 mercenary at this point. Give a parting serve to Langer first though.
anon
Roar Pro
The problem is that he was often hung out to dry by the top order who were content to trundle along at a 75 strike rate, boosting their averages while leaving the middle order to risk their wickets and averages (and spot in the side). We're still stuck in the 80's with our ODI mentality. We value a 35 off 50 higher than 22 off 15.
matth
Roar Guru
And for his role, that sort of inconsistency is a given. If his job was to trundle along at an 85 strike rate, then his consistency goes up.
Brendon the 1st
Roar Rookie
Yes, absolutely but they've somehow not let it ruin the fabric of their sport. Cricket is in the process of killing the golden goose in T20 while simultaneously alienating traditional supporters. This calender really is ridiculous
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Not sure the ball tampering had much to do with it. The bans were already at an end when the BCCI/CA spat reached its peak in April.
Paul
Roar Guru
again though I2I, is that the plan, because I suspect you're guessing, the same as I am? If it is, CA should spell it out so we can understand what they're trying to achieve with the ODI squad.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Surely a plan is a progressive thing over 4 years, also determined by the venue. Who cares if a bowler heavy team loses a coupla irrelevant games 3 1/2 years out, especially if it gives you perspective on how a couple of prospects are developing? Also in form 37yo's are fine, but interchangeable in a year or two time if the major changes have bedded in by then.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Probably very close to the truth, just crowds the schedule more in light of the WTC. If players are burning out now then they will soon decide whether a T20 circuit income is preferable to a central contract as they can break their year into small, lucrative blocks of their own choosing, rather than a board cramming schedules to satisfy their bank balance.
Homer
Guest
Could it be because both boards have agreed to split the ODI and Test legs so that each team is visiting the other every year, in part to satisfy CA's TV rights and to shore up its bottom line? I am sure CA will have a windfall hosting Sri Lanka, West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand in succession, given that Bangaldesh is not even on CA's peripheral vision, without the annual visitations from India and/or England.
anon
Roar Pro
If this was Langer's team and his job was on the line, he wouldn't go into battle with Turner coming in at number 5.
anon
Roar Pro
You move some players around to fit in the best ODI batsman of 2019.
VivGilchrist
Roar Rookie
Money talks... isn’t that the AFL’s mantra?
Tom
Khawaja doesn't fit in the team with Finch, Warner and Smith in the top 3. Khawaja was fantastic opening the batting with Warner banned but he has an ordinary record batting in any other position. Smith averages 50 at 3 and only 30 at 4 so he needs to be batting at 3. Khawaja is perhaps a little unlucky to not be there as a replacement if something was to happen to the top 3 though.
Marty
Roar Rookie
No, it’s how things operate in the world that exists in your very active imagination. I don’t see any others accusing Langer of some sort of grand conspiracy. Now is that because you’re right and everyone else is wrong, or maybe because it’s the other way around?
anon
Roar Pro
Langer has made it crystal clear that he didn't select Maxwell because he didn't think his performance over the past 12 months was acceptable. If he thought Maxwell was underdone he would have said that, rather than throw Maxi under the bus with a comment about his supposed poor output.
anon
Roar Pro
That's how people operate in the real world. Langer's first priority is making sure he is credited with any success the team has.
Patrick
Roar Rookie
Hi thebush ????, AFL and NRL combined are also almost a billion a year. There is a thought about where cricket ought to be near in this country if it were properly managed historically or even in the past 20 years. BBL is too little too late, but still shows that cricket was the sleep ???? walking giant of Australian sport. Very bad administration. Never really thought about what could make the short format as marketable as possible. Still think 20/20 not the most optimum format for doing this. Should sit down with the greats and intelligent marketers to get it right. Make it happen. As for England, 2005 showed it can capture the broader public's imagination over there. Learn how to keep it. Start by giving working class boys from the north with good hand eye coordination free bats. But who knows with England the way it is changing demographically.