The Australian Test team has looked much more settled during the last three series and produced some significant results.
More significant challenges in the form of an away tour to the subcontinent and an away Ashes campaign are coming up and those will prove to be the real benchmarks.
However, we should also keep in mind that an even stiffer challenge awaits: retirements out of the batting group.
If we glance through the Shield teams and performances, some young guns may be ready to step up when the greats eventually hang up their bats.
Without his concussion issues, Will Pucovski would have been a regular in the Test team by now. However, the fact remains that he is an extraordinary talent. Remember, not many in the present era average around 50 (48.97 after 45 innings) in Shield cricket.
Both current openers might need to be replaced after a couple of years and who better a replacement than Redbacks opener Henry Hunt? He has been consistent in the Shield as well as the tour of Sri Lanka with Australia A. Even in the current season, he has had an important contribution of 97* to save a game for his state. He has all the skills and mental aptitude which necessary if he plays at the highest level.
(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
The second opener is a player who has already been there and done that, albeit for a brief stunt.
Matt Renshaw has been scoring at number five for the Bulls and also had some significant contributions in county cricket this year. As I write this, he has already posted a double century against New South Wales, which further strengthens his claim.
Significantly, and not just by chance, he has moved back to opening for the Bulls – no doubt with an eye on the Australian Test team opening slot.
West Australian Teague Wyllie already looks the part. His entire setup at the batting crease and the attitude and maturity he has displayed are beyond his age. I remember seeing him back in the U19 World Cup where he batted calmly. He looks really confident in his own skills.
Aaron Hardie really put his hand up last year. He has not fired so far with the bat in the first couple of Shield grounds but he is a massive talent to watch out for, who has the required technique and attitude. That he can bowl at a fair click is just an addition.
Now to the matter of whether the selectors will be brave enough to blood these youngsters. In the past, the selectors have been hesitant and have instead given an excessively long rope to a misfiring incumbent. Opportunity delayed to the right person is like an opportunity missed, though this does seem to have started changing a bit in the George Bailey era.
These youngsters have shown promise at an early stage of their career and only having them around the Aussie setup will bring the best out of them.
So in view of having these young guns around the Australian setup, can Cricket Australia bolster the Australia A program and have these talented youngsters tour and play in different conditions under different kinds of pressure?
Can we see an annual fixture of Australia vs Australia A as a warm-up before the start of the Shield? Will we see the handover happen in time from the great batters or will these youngsters lose out due to a delayed and sceptical transition process?
CLICK HERE for a seven-day free trial to watch international cricket on KAYO
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
Selection is an iffy business Notable early strugglers: I M, Chappell, Boon, S R Waugh, Martyn, Hayden, Langer, Khawaja and there are a heap more Then you have your hot starters: I've prob missed a lot but Blewett, P J Hughes, Handscomb, Renshaw are a some who came back to the field for one reason or another. Interestingly oppositions are bowling a lot better to Labuetc. And then there is the misguided selection of the team man who is good in the sheds or has a hot streak at the right time. Or both: Hookes, Cowan, Doolan, Quiney, Bailey. Did I miss anyone recently? And of course, anyone from NSW gets first dibs. I still haven't given up hope.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
The selectors got most things right in the 1990s, but the summer of 96-97 was perhaps an exception.
The Late News
Roar Rookie
Totally. We have lost the value of the old tours...in almost all international sports.
The Late News
Roar Rookie
Inexplicably dropped? Ha! I have not suffered that complaint sir.
badmanners
Roar Rookie
Handscomb averages 28 in India which includes Ranchi as you mentioned where he did bat well to score 72 no. If you take that score out he averages 18 from 7 innings. Not exactly compelling.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Maybe they've peaked early, and the guys who don't get those contracts come to the Shield later when they're 22-25 and dominant at club level?
Simoc
Roar Rookie
I prefer to throw them in at the deep end straight away. Put Wyllie in at 3 in the Test team and let him fail. He'll come back our best batter by far. Guys like Tendulkar, Miandad and Kohli were thrown in to the test team as kids. We aren't giving that opportunity because of our weak safety first selectors who look after their mates. And Green could also be given that position now.
Baggy_Green
Roar Pro
Just go through the rookie contracts of the state teams year after year. Hardly 5 to 10% of these rookies eventually make it to the state team on a consistent basis. This in my view is a systemic problem of getting the deserving talent to make a step up to the Shield level.
Andrew
Guest
Handscomb is in good form. He should bat @5. Him & Smith can win the upcoming 'Border-Gavaskar Trophy' in India for the first time since 2004. He's the best player of spin after Hayden, Martyn, Clarke & Smith. Played really well in Ranchi to save the Test. He has got an ODI hundred in Mohali as well. I'm concerned about Warner, Khawaja, Head & Carey facing R Ashwin.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
The ones that fail are simply not as good as was first thought. What about Ponting's career? His first 8 or 9 of his hundreds were prior to his run machine days, and most were scored under heavy match pressure, some of them against some of the classiest bowlers ever seen. I was at the Gabba in November 1996, when against a powerful West Indies attack, out for revenge, he counter attacked on the first morning to overcome the early loss of debutante Matthew Elliott. By lunch he had reached 57. After being inexplicably dropped, his first match upon return at Headingly in the middle of the following year, he came in at 4 for 50 and scored his maiden test ton - five a good four months before his 23rd birthday. What exactly about his career are you referring to? That he didn't pile on the hordes of colossal runs until he was in his later 20s?
Baggy_Green
Roar Pro
Agree Rellum , he is a perfect #3 followed by Marnus at 4. Think he started opening for the Vics only because there was a vacancy in test team at that spot
Rellum
Roar Guru
I can give you many examples how players who were set back from mindless promotion of youth for this line of thinking. Go look up Ponting's career to see how it should be done.
Drab
Roar Rookie
Amp up the developmental tours to England and the sub continent so to fast track promising players. We don't play enough long form cricket and the shield is no longer enough.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
A player that talented needs to play at an appropriate level. Just like a 14 year old who is good enough to play senior first grade is not gonna be kept languishing in under 14s. McGrath and Warne are two other names that spring to mind, and obviously there are quite a few more.
Rellum
Roar Guru
I mean Greg
Clear as mud
Guest
i like the Chappelli logic. it's subjective, but with parameters: https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ian-chappell-when-is-the-right-time-to-blood-a-player-1334026
Rellum
Roar Guru
Ah, nope, needs to show consistency before being thrown in. The Chappell era shows us the folly of blooding players before they are ready
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
Nope. Someone that talented, one big season is enough ala Bradman and Michael Slater, just two names that spring instantly to mind. You don’t make that sort of talent wait an inordinate amount of time just for the sake of it.
Rellum
Roar Guru
I think Will should end up being our number 3 or 4 with Whylie and other opening
Rellum
Roar Guru
He needs to perform this year and next and after that he can come through.