Opinion
In January 2017, Marcus Stoinis played the innings of his life.
Chasing 287 to win at Eden Park, Stoinis come out to bat with the score at 5-54 after 13 overs and made an incredible 146 not out.
Sadly, Australia fell six runs short when number 11 Josh Hazlewood was run out at the non-striker’s end without facing a ball.
After that, there was a hope that Australian cricket had uncovered a star and that Stoinis would be an important member of the side for years to come.
But in the nearly four years since, Stoinis has failed to perform to international standard.
In 2015, he played a single ODI and made four runs at a strike rate of 80.
In 2017, he batted seven times to make 341 runs at 113.67 and a strike rate 100.29.
In 2018, he batted 13 times and made 376 runs at 28.92 at a strike rate of 96.66.
In 2019, he batted 17 times and made 329 runs at 23.50 at a strike rate of 80.44.
In 2020, Stoinis has batted three times so far and made 56 runs at 18.67 at a strike rate of 101.82.
Looking at those numbers, Stoinis had a good run of form in 2017 but hasn’t performed since.
It’s been argued that, in order for Stoinis to do well, he needs to bat at the top of order so that he has time to get into his innings but he was given that opportunity during the recent ODI series in England and he didn’t perform.
Looking at Stoinis’ IPL record, he’s done fairly well while batting in the middle order.
In the 2019 IPL, Stoinis made 211 runs at 52.75 at a strike rate of 135.26, while in the World Cup that immediately followed he made just 87 runs at 14.50 at a strike rate of 76.99.
Stoinis has never really had an issue batting in the middle order, just in doing it at international level.
With Mitch Marsh picking up an injury during the IPL, it creates an opportunity for a pace all-rounder in the ODI team and the selectors will be tempted to pick Stoinis again.
But the selectors should look to younger players like Cameron Green, Jack Edwards or Jack Wildermuth.
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