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I can’t believe I’m even thinking this for a fast bowler who’s going to go down as an all-time great but I’d be leaving Josh Hazlewood out of the attack for the Boxing Day Test.
My problem with Josh is just with this grunter muscle issue. I think it’s pretty risky to play him because mainly we’ve got a very able replacement in Scott Boland, who is averaging 10 runs a wicket so far in his five Tests.
It’s strange to think that we’re playing someone with five Tests ahead of a guy with 217 wickets at 26.16 in 58 matches but it just shows the depth that we’ve got and how well Boland’s done since he’s been given a chance.
He is going to be playing at home on the pitch that he knows so well in front of his home crowd so my feeling is why take the risk? We’ve got a big 2023 of Test cricket, a one-day World Cup with Josh so let him have another week to recover from his injury and let him go when they get to Sydney.
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They provide very similar skills – they’re both very accurate, high releases, bouncy, shape the ball away a bit and constantly hit the seam at a reasonably full length as well, targeting off bail.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Bay 13 will be happy – they’ll be able to cheer Bowlo like they did with other Victorians like Max Walker, Merv Hughes, Peter Siddle. He’s their man. And if he goes anywhere near getting 6-7 again, there may be a statute for him.
That only solves the problem for one Test if everyone’s available for Sydney in the new year. The SCG pitch has been pretty dry so there might only be two seamers picked if the Aussies go with a second spinner.
With the trip to India coming up in February, I wouldn’t mind them playing another spinner with Nathan Lyon so we can know before we go who’s the right option for that tour.
I wrote the other day about David Warner’s form and he knows he needs to get runs but when someone is playing their 100th Test, it’s time to reflect on an amazing career.
I first saw him at under 19 level, I was coaching the Aussies under 19 team at the Cricket Academy at Brisbane. So I went to the championships for a couple of years and he was always going to get a game in the Aussie under 19s based on what he was doing back then for NSW.
He was a middle-order player, aggressive, bowled handy leg-spinners and was a gun fielder.
I knew a bit about his upbringing in a tough Housing Commission environment, he loved his cricket and you could tell that we had a special talent on our hands.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
He had a lot of skill and he certainly wasn’t just a slogger. I was surprised that NSW didn’t give him much of a go at first-class level for a few years and he made his name initially in the T20 and 50-over formats.
When he made that 70 against South Africa for the Aussie T20 side, all the talk was that the kids will want to play this format in the future to be like him.
Dave said he always wanted to wear a baggy green and was very consistent with that.
Anyone who watched him bat could see he had a sound technique and wasn’t worried about leaving a ball and when he did get a go in Tests, he scored that hundred on a green seamer at Hobart against a very good New Zealand attack. That silenced any doubts about whether he could make it in red-ball cricket.
I think he will go down as one of Australia’s best openers of all time. He’s like Michael Slater, Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle – a batter who could take the opposition on from the start and change games in a flash.
He’s had a wonderful career and I feel if he gets runs in both these Tests, then he’s career will continue on. If he misses out, then that’s when the debate will be on about whether he should go on.
But for now, I hope he has a wonderful 100th Test, gets runs, has a chance to sing the victory song and it’s a celebration of his career.
This match at the MCG will be memorable for another reason, paying tribute to the late, great Shane Warne.
The Aussies are going to be wearing the white floppy hat and a bit of zinc cream on the nose in honour of Warnie and at 3.50pm they’re going to stop play for a tribute because that was his baggy green cap number.
He loved playing at the MCG. He’s got the grandstand there now named after him which is so fantastic. It will be an emotional match.
My greatest memory of him at the G was his hat-trick against England in 1994.
I was at mid-off and I’d got my own hat-trick on debut a few months earlier in Pakistan so yes, we did have a chat before the third ball.
I did jokingly say to him that because I had to get a Test hat-trick I could give him some advice. I did think about going for a bouncer or a yorker but went with my stock outswinger and it did the trick.
He went with his top-spinning leg break and Devon Malcolm gloved it and David Boon on his 34th birthday took the spectacular catch.
I remember the boys were all running in but because I was at mid-off I couldn’t see if he’d caught it so I was looking at the umpire because he didn’t give it out immediately.
Then it seemed like ages before he put his finger up and then in celebrations I was the last one in there. The crowd was buzzing – he was probably at his peak as a bowler although he had a very long peak.
I’m expecting a great celebration of Warnie’s career and life on Boxing Day.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
For South Africa, I think they need to balance their team better after how bad their batting was in Brisbane.
Lungi Ngidi was probably the least impressive of their quicks so I’d be looking to leave him out and bring in an extra batter.
Marco Jansen looks a fine prospect but batting him at No.7 this early in his career seems a spot too high.
Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Keshav Maharaj should be able to get the 20 Aussie wickets needed but they need decent totals from the batters to defend.
Theunis de Bruyn got an 80-odd in the warm-up game so I’d bring him in as the extra batter in the middle order.