- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
With two wins on the card, Australia may still not win the Ashes series despite retaining the urn. But will that be the team’s fault or would the blame lie with the selectors?
Australia has been on the unlucky end of four coin tosses that has put England in initial control of every Test and yet the Aussies won the first two. But when you look closely at the individual performances within the team, there were troubling signs from the outset. None more so than the performance of David Warner.
When an opening batter goes out cheaply it reduces the overall team score. More than that, a contributing factor is that it exposes the next batter far too early to an opening partnership of spirited bowling with a brand new ball and an unused new surface.
Among opening batters’ tasks, they begin to blunt an opposition attack but unless they are at the crease long enough this is left to the next batter. So an opening batter’s failure at the crease impacts on the third batter.
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Marnus Labuschagne at first drop has been affected by Warner’s failures. Going through their innings, when Warner scored 9, Labuschagne scored a duck. When Warner scored 4 and 1 Labuschagne scored 21 and 33. Conversely, when Warner scored his only +50 score Labuschagne scored 47.
It’s not difficult to extrapolate this a little further and conclude that all batters after that are exposed to conditions less ideal than they would expect to find for their position in the order.
A failure by any batter forces a change in the approach of batters to follow. Form plays a big part in batters and some faith and support needs to be shown to ensure that a team gets the best out of a cricketer over an extended period of time.
When a form slump extends beyond two matches, solutions need to be found. In an Ashes series on English soil, these solutions don’t have the luxury of time. Yet Warner has now failed in 6 out of his last 7 innings. He arrived in England with a sub-par track record, after enduring a horror 2019 Ashes where he could only manage 95 runs across 10 innings at an average of 9.5.
Yet selectors saw fit to include him in this year’s Ashes tour of England. They were aware of his weakness on English soil, they were aware of his past failures there, they were aware of his current form, they were aware of his recent poor form in India, the list goes on. As the tour progressed and the failures kept being amassed, selectors kept him in the side.
(Photo by Gareth Copley – ECB/ECB via Getty Images)
Without quoting names, I can remember times over many years when previous selectors have been unfairly brutal in axing players at the first hint of a failed innings. It’s not a prospect that should be considered lightly, especially when it impacts on a player’s career.
So selectors have a very difficult task of getting the balance right. Too much faith shown in a player is just as bad as too little faith shown. But the difference is that one impacts an individual player while the other impacts the whole team.
The 2023 Australian Ashes campaign will be the final crossroad as an English win is already highly predictable. Keeping in mind how England played on day two of the 4th Test, it will take a monumental effort to even pull out a draw let alone a win.
Selectors now have the final decision to make over the lineup of the team for the 5th Test. Do they show more faith in an ageing 36 year old who has little future in this game, or do you show faith in a new line up?
What would make them think that Warner could perform any differently than he has done over his last 8-10 innings? How many more chances does he get?
Did they get the team selection right for the 4th Test? 317 runs clearly was not enough and could prove to be decisive to the outcome of the Test. How much responsibility can be attributed to the selectors for the outcome of this Test and for that matter, the previous Test?
Australia did not go into the fourth Test with the right team. Without Warner in the team we could have kept a spinner, accommodated Green and Marsh or included Harris, and shuffled the order. It’s time to show more faith in the team.
Selectors have one more chance to get this right.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.