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Competition for spots is a good thing – it fosters a culture of high performance and ensures players are always striving to perform and impress, with the carrot of higher honours never too far away.
At the moment, however, it seems that instability and uncertainty in the Australian team might be peddling the poor performances we have seen of late.
Underscoring all of the struggles at present is the recently reaffirmed bans to the nation’s two most prolific run-scorers, but it seems that the consistent search for their replacements is leaving the squad hamstrung, as those in the side rarely have the security to play with the requisite confidence and freedom to perform at the top level. Indeed every domestic match sees calls for a replacement as another crop of players ‘put themselves in the frame’ for selection come 6 December in Adelaide.
Mike Hussey commented to this end last week, citing the fact that, in the limited-overs formats at least, the Australian selection revolving door, which has seen 20 debutants since the 2015 World Cup, has bred a culture of selfishness as players desperately try to cling to their place in the side and those outside of it bash the door down for a way in.
Interestingly, with no Steve Smith, David Warner or Cameron Bancroft, this tendency for selection leapfrog is creeping into the Test squad as well. The most recent round of Sheffield Shield cricket has seen Shaun Marsh seemingly secure his place in the line-up for the first Test with a big hundred while his brother struggled.
Don’t forget Matt Renshaw, who was visibly crushed with his cheap second-innings dismissal against NSW, perhaps realising more was on the line than a victory for his state. The same goes for his opening partner, Joe Burns. Have the two Queenslanders forfeited positions in the Australian team?
Incumbent Marnus Labuschagne managed a half-century in the first innings but certainly didn’t lock down a spot. Meanwhile, Matthew Wade, Alex Doolan, Marcus Harris, Travis Head and Moises Henriques are all in the aforementioned ‘frame’ for selection after big scores for their respective states.
The Indian media have dubbed Australian cricket to be “in tatters” and feel that the upcoming series will be their best opportunity yet to claim an inaugural series victory in Australia. Claims that Australia is “a nation in turmoil” might be overcooking it a little, but from the outside looking in there is a seeming lack of direction or confidence in how the Australian team can get back on its feet and regain its mantle as the No.1 cricketing nation in the world.
Twelve months with three banned players was never going to be an easy period for Australian cricket. It was unlikely that it would be overly successful, but it is doubtful that granting a range of players the opportunity to represent Australia for a short period of time would ever reap the greatest results. Few cricketers perform close to their best all of the time, even less can go up a level and perform how they were before. At this time it is hard for players to find continuity and composure when they know that a failure will surely result in an axing as the search for Smith’s replacement.
(Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
In his 2010-11 diary of a season In the Firing Line, Ed Cowan wrote of the emptiness he felt representing an Australia A side that took on the touring English team before the Ashes. Noting that the match felt like a mismatch of players from across the country had come together to represent themselves rather than the team and proceeded to lose by ten wickets. By contrast, Ed’s far from star-studded Tasmanian Tigers took home the Sheffield Shield that year in a season where selflessness was paramount and primacy was placed on team success.
There is no silver bullet to turn around the performances of late, but Australia could do worse than take heed from the Tasmanian Tigers of 2010-11. Let the players battle it out in Shield cricket for their spot in the next week before perhaps the selected XI are granted a sense of security in their spots – and encouraged to play with that selfless pursuit of team success.
If that’s the case, I’d be willing to wager we will see some improvement in the coming months.
Of course, until that point, the noise and selection debate will continue to rage.
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