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Opinion
You can smell it in the air. In just over 24 hours, Test cricket will be back on Australian soil for the first time in almost 12 months.
India are here and Australia are looking for revenge from the last time they faced the subcontinent’s most feared team on these shores, which of course will be a slightly easier task with Steve Smith and David Warner back in the line-up (yes, Warner is currently out with a leg injury, but he will most likely be on-field for Boxing Day).
But the preparation for the first Test, a day-night affair in Adelaide, has been anything but cruisy for the Aussies.
Apart from the scare Smith sent through the camp yesterday, when he was unable to train in the main hit-out before the series opener, their opening mess at the top of the order looks a one-way trip to misery and the middle order appears unsettled.
Justin Langer has revealed that, if fit – and it’s a big if – Cameron Green will make his debut, while Marnus Labuschagne won’t open the batting, leaving two of Marcus Harris, Joe Burns and Matthew Wade to be named at the top of the order.
The bottom line is that the best XI isn’t settled and that, so close to the first ball of the series, is a cause for concern.
Cameron Green (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
I wrote earlier this week about the Australian selectors needing to throw away the manual at the top of the order, but it’s looking more and more likely that Burns and Harris will be there.
Harris’ form has been under par, while Burns has been downright atrocious with the bat in all of his knocks to start the summer, both at Sheffield Shield level and in the tour games played over the last fortnight.
If Wade is to come up the order and open (and he should, particularly if Green is going to play), then it’s also an unproven quantity.
Limited overs opening batsman? Sure, been there, done that, and with great success. But Test opening batsman? He has never even proven himself at Sheffield Shield level at the top of the order, and against a swinging red ball, to go with a firey Indian bowling attack, it would be a monumental risk.
Labuschagne and Smith will bat at three and four, and are the best players in the side with Warner out, but following them, it’s onto Travis Head or Wade himself if not opening, Green, and captain Tim Paine.
That won’t inspire a lot of confidence. While Head had a strong start to the Sheffield Shield season, he scored just 18 in the first innings against India in the tour game and has only had a single century in his last 15 Test innings.
And while Paine has been a great leader during a troubling time, his Test average leaves a lot to be desired, as does his form. Despite a rare Shield century to kick-off the season, he has only made it to double figures once in the five innings since.
Add that to a debutant, albeit one who is on fire, and there is a real cause for concern about where the runs are going to come from.
The Indian bowlers will be licking their lips, and if they find a way to get rid of Labuschagne and Smith cheaply, Australia have the potential to fall apart like a house of cards.
That, of course, won’t be an easy task, given the incredible consistency of scoring runs from both batsmen, but this is going to be a difficult series.
Marnus Labuschagne (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Adelaide under lights can prove to be a tricky place to bat and with Jasprit Bumrah, potentially the best bowler in the world, India can trouble two of the best batsmen in the world.
In truth, the battle between Bumrah and the rest of the attack against Smith and Labuschagne is where this series may be won and lost.
Teams have begun to figure Smith out and Bumrah’s aggressive bowling could well trouble the former Australian captain, while Labuschagne is likely to be in early more often than he isn’t, putting enormous pressure on Australia’s most consistent number three since Ricky Ponting in his prime.
In saying that, Smith averages a ridiculous 71.14 in Australia with the bat, while Labuschagne ticks along at a staggering 85.41 on home soil, the duo piling up runs last summer.
India will post a stiffer challenge than Pakistan and New Zealand did, but Smith and Labuschagne are the glue holding Australia’s fragile batting together, and there is a strong likelihood they will find themselves at the crease with Australia two-for-not-many multiple times throughout this series.
That is something they weren’t often faced with last summer given the nature of starts David Warner and co. got the team off to. But without in-form and potentially makeshift openers, at least for the summer’s opening Test, they will be under the pump.
The weight of a nation’s hopes rests on Smith and Labuschagne. If it all proves too much, Australia might as well hand the Border-Gavaskar trophy to India now.