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Nic Maddinson could be forgiven for cursing teammate Usman Khawaja and Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq at the Gabba yesterday.
Misbah took a brilliant catch proving there’s life in the old dog yet at 42. The catch sent Khawaja packing with a declaration imminent.
To be more precise exactly 13 deliveries, as Maddinson strode to the centre on a hiding to nothing.
After Test digs of a duck and one, Maddinson sure didn’t need another failure that would probably cost him a berth in the biggest Test of any calendar year – the MCG on Boxing Day.
But fate wasn’t on the 25-year-old’s side, a nervous slash at the first ball he faced that was so far outside off stump he needed a plank to get anywhere near it.
Another slash netted him a first time Test boundary over mid-on, but a hook was right down Babar Azam’s throat at fine leg, and Maddinson was gone in three deliveries, his Test career on a knife’s edge.
If only Khawaja and Misbah hadn’t combined to put Maddinson in the hot seat.
It will be a brave selection panel to retain Maddison for the MCG, even though he’s been party to beating the South Africans in Adelaide, and barring bucketing rain, thumping the Pakistanis at the Gabba.
So who are the alternatives?
For starters, there are far too many left-handed batsmen in the side: David Warner, Matt Renshaw, Khawaja, Maddinson, Matthew Wade, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood.
It’s the right-handers who are scoring the runs against the three-prong left-arm Pakistan attack – Steve Smith (130 and 63), and Peter Handscomb (105 and 35*), with Nathan Lyon (29), and Jackson Bird’s career high 19* sharing a 10th wicket 49-run stand.
If Maddinson is to be replaced, that cuts out Shaun Marsh and Travis Head as more left-handers, leaving right-handers Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell as contenders.
But if the selectors stick to their new youngster policy that’s been successful with Renshaw and Handscomb, their best bet would be the 22-year-old Head who shone in the ODIs whitewashing the Kiwis with 52, 57, and 37 batting six, and 2-37 with his tidy offies at the MCG.
Head is also an excellent fieldsman, and if required a more than useful keeper, as is Handscomb.
So the genuine options are there if the selectors decide enough is enough for Nic Maddinson, but as he was the skipper’s pick, he mat yet survive for the biggest game of his life.
That would have been more likely had Usman Khawaja and Misbah-ul-Haq not pooped his party.