On Sunday night, Fox Cricket’s Mark Waugh made the left-field suggestion for captain Tim Paine to open the batting in the first Test against India.
Waugh’s reasoning behind this call is that Tim Paine has a good-track record opening the batting for Tasmania and this shift in the line-up will enable a place for potential debutant Cameron Green in the middle-order.
Interestingly, Waugh was one of the selectors involved with the Australian national teams between 2014 and 2018. During this period, he is credited with being one of the key reasons that Tim Paine was picked in the 2017-18 Ashes Test side ahead of Matthew Wade and Peter Nevill as the first-choice wicketkeeper.
At the time, Paine had only played seven Sheffield Shield matches within the last two seasons, causing his inclusion in the squad to be criticised. Despite this, Paine played in all five Tests, averaging 48.00 with the bat and taking 25 catches as well as three stumpings with the gloves.
Paine has opened for Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield, One Day Cup and the Futures League on a combined 28 occasions. In these 28 innings, he has three centuries and five fifties at an average of 35.32.
This season so far, Joe Burns is averaging 6.88 in first class cricket for Queensland and Australia A in their two warm-up matches against India. Having had a good summer last year, averaging 38.17 against Pakistan and New Zealand in five Tests, it was assumed that he and David Warner would continue to open together in this upcoming series against India. This mindset has since changed due to Burns’ poor form and Will Pucovski’s recent success.
Can the selectors gamble on an out-of-form Joe Burns? (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Also, with Cameron Green averaging 72.6 in his last six innings for Western Australia as well as scoring 125* and achieving bowling figures of 2/12 and 1/20 for Australia A against India, the young all-rounder is deserving of a spot in the middle order for the first Test.
The issue here is that Matthew Wade and Travis Head have been performing well at five and six. Wade averaged 63.88 against Pakistan and New Zealand last season and Travis Head averaged 42.60 in the last series on Australian soil against the Kiwis. Moving Tim Paine from his usual batting position of seven to an opening spot would allow Cameron Green to get the game-time in the baggy green he deserves.
It should be noted that Green suffered a concussion when bowling for Australia A on Friday when the ball was smacked back at him by Jasprit Bumrah, hitting the 21-year-old on the side of his head, near his temple.
Despite this, Green has still been included and flown out to Adelaide as part of Australia’s first Test squad. Australia A captain Alex Carey stated, “From reports I think he’s in really high spirits.”
Due to the injuries of Pucovski and Warner, Joe Burns’ run of low scores for Queensland and Australia A and Cameron Green potentially coming into the middle-order (injury permitting), I believe Tim Paine should open the batting for the first time in his Test career.
sheek
Roar Guru
Jameswm, It's crazy to improve one position by reducing two. The best possies for Labuschagne & Smith are 3 & 4. Wade volunteered to open & he should be praised for sticking his neck out. Once Warner returns, it might be Wade vs Head for #5, assuming Green keeps on improving. At opener, it might be warner with either Burns or Pucovski, depending on how Burns performs. I'm a bit surprised some folk are so quick to dump guys.
sheek
Roar Guru
This is absolute nonsense. What are you guys trying to do? EndP career prematurely? He's already wicket-keeper & captain, & frankly I reckon these twin jobs are already impacting on his batting concentration. Now you want him to open as well????? Give yourself an uppercut for such muddled thinking! By the way, those hoping that Smith might regain the captaincy from Paine, forget it. He did the crime, & served his time. But he doesn't deserve to ever captain Australia again. Smith went missing in action when he was required to stand up & be counted. And sorry for the cliches.....
Pierro
Roar Rookie
Im still rooting for him to make some runs in a way as its no fun for supporters or him my fear would be he has a good innings then can't discover consistent form again. Already he can't buy a run off 12 deliveries. Double edged sword I don't want him or the team to fail but don't think he's the right long term option
Rohan
Roar Rookie
Pretty sure Khawaja has said he doesn't want it
Jeff
Roar Rookie
They won't push Burns down the order. He simply has to make runs - and bat through at least ten overs IMO.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
I wouldn't be opening with burns from what I've seen drop him down the order now the teams selected, they won't though . Only saving grace is he's going to come in during daylight from the looks of it but he's out form. Its his last chance for test cricket so perhaps he will grind something out . Id drop him down the list
DTM
Roar Rookie
I too was an opening bat and wicket keeper (and usually captain). However club cricket is very different to a test match so I can understand the hesitancy. If Australia win the toss and bat, Paine would get more of a rest than normal before keeping in the first innings. As I mentioned before, Wade is a capable back up keeper so if the match situation determines that Paine has to bat after a long spell in the field, he can have a break from the gloves before batting. Likely the test match will be over inside 4 days so the risk of fatigue is minimal.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
I think after this summer perhaps I think carey would add quite a few runs with the bat and he tends to travel well in all formats of the game . It's a moot point for this summer but we need to pay close attention in sth Africa and sth Africa are a poor team. Saying that in this particular adelaide test It probably would be a bonus to have carey's batting and extra runs in a potential 3 to 4 day encounter
jameswm
Roar Guru
Yeah I played grade cricket with a guy who said he batted better when he was keeping because his eye was in. He didn’t open though.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Wait, so you'd rather see Paine axed from the Test side completely in place of Carey?! :shocked:
Pierro
Roar Rookie
Micko I had a funny idea open with wade and paine and being sean marsh in after labs and and smith . It sounds insane but do burns and harris inspire much . In a way this would be a stronger line up now with carey in but they refuse to budge o. Paine and it’s hard to not let him play this summer . The batting would have huge depth . It’s a conundrum as paines a good keeper . Marsh has a great record at adelaide
Pierro
Roar Rookie
Spot on james . My first call seven days ago was to elevate marnus . This is one test . Spot on about Sean marsh to being in form . The selectors seems desperate to start burns or harris at all costs. Two players that will likely be replaced at top at mcg or this series
Ace
Roar Rookie
Thanks Micko for response. I was thinking that if the selectors put it on Paine to open the batting , as suggested by some, then some relief could come from Wade at some point in this test. Also nice to know that there is back up for that role of keeper Cheers
JamesH
Roar Guru
Renshaw is batting at 5 because his form as an opener was awful. Completely lost his off stump and was edging everything. I'd like to see him back up there at some point but he needs to get his confidence back first.
JamesH
Roar Guru
If you open with Labuschagne then you're guaranteed that he'll be batting in the first 10 overs ;)
JamesH
Roar Guru
The answer for one test is to just pick the players who are most likely to do a job, before the first-choice openers come back. If those options are Marsh and Khawaja (and I'm not saying they are) then so be it. The first match of a must-win series vs India is not the time to be experimenting. By the way, Marsh and Khawaja have pretty good records in Australia overall. It's overseas where they have both struggled the most.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Paul asked: Can I ask a simple question; On what basis does the author think Paine has the technique to open successfully? SPD Smith has made a good technique redundant to success.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
John Allan asked: Could someone let me know what came first (not the chicken or the egg); Burns opening for Queensland or Australia? No probo. Qld by almost exactly 2 years. 06Nov13 to 05Nov15
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
No problem, gotta get it off your chest!
Jakarta Fan
Roar Rookie
As a keeper-opening bat myself, I found keeping for a full innings and then coming in to bat was fantastic. My eye was in, I could read the pace better and generally performed very well. Nevertheless, my preference would be to use Wade as the opener as he is a more like-for-like replacement for Warner, and if Pucovsky is not fully recovered, Wade could partner Warner until he is fit and ready. Burns? Please, never again!