This Australian summer has left little doubt about who the best cricket team in the world in Australian conditions is. In my reasonably short lifetime, there have been just four touring nations who have won series on Australian soil: West Indies (1992-1993), South Africa (2008-2009, 2012-2013), England (2010-2011) and India (2019-2020).
Other sides have struggled to match Australia’s intensity when playing on its shores.
The 2022-2023 summer has been incredibly one-sided, and Australia has encountered little competition, barring a couple of roads in Pakistan. Yet underneath the winning, cracks are beginning to appear in the great team.
David Warner is 36 and his opening partner in crime, Usman Khawaja, is a mere 52 days younger than him. Both have acknowledged that they have a limited amount of time left in them, and both most likely retired in the next 12-18 months.
Marnus Labuschagne is 28, Steve Smith is 33, Travis Head is 29, Cameron Green is 23, Alex Carey is 32, Pat Cummins is 29, Mitchell Starc is 33, Josh Hazlewood is 32, Nathan Lyon is 35, Scott Boland is 32.
Most of the Australian team is on the wrong side of 30, meaning that their Test careers have anywhere between 5-8 years left, some even fewer. Australia may end up in a situation similar to South Africa where they have one or two really good batters but an excellent bowling lineup within the next 3-5 years.
When India tours in 2024, most of the current squad will be on the wrong side of 30 with just Head, Labuschagne, Matt Renshaw and Green being under 30 at that time. That makes a very good core of players left over, but the lack of experience left by the retirement of three or maybe more players will tell, and the depth coming behind them is not great.
The obvious cause of the lack of depth has been the demise of the Sheffield Shield competition. For years the Shield has been put on the back-burner, shorn of its Test-quality players. Save for a few players who represent their states consistently (namely Khawaja, Head, Labuschagne, Carey and Green), the remainder of the players have barely been seen in their state’s colours since their Australian debut.
The states that have been less fortunate with selection, Queensland and Western Australia in particular, have managed to produce some excellent players and, therefore, excellent sides.
They’ve done this by retaining enough senior players (who’ve played Test cricket), despite Australian selection, who have helped the younger players to excel.
Cameron Green celebrates a wicket. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
The solution is as simple as energising the Big Bash League. Allow the Test players to play at least the early or late rounds of the Sheffield Shield! Two years ago, when Queensland played New South Wales in the Shield Final, the Test line-up of Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon bowled to Joe Burns, Renshaw, Khawaja and Labuschagne, all current or former Test players.
That made the Shield Final one to watch, and it turned out to be an amazing Final especially because of the Queensland victory.
Now, imagine if Smith and Warner had played along with Kurtis Patterson. Michael Neser to Warner with the new ball? Mitch Swepson to Smith, one of the best players of spin bowling in the world? Those are the opportunities that the likes of Swepson, Wes Agar, Brendan Doggett, Joel Paris and plenty of others would love to have.
Whilst Australia won’t be in the same position as South Africa was this year, without a strong Sheffield Shield competition, underpinned by the return of its Test players, future Test sides will be much weaker. Bring back the Test players to the Shield and watch the quality and the crowds grow as they watch the best of the best battle it out for the Sheffield Shield.
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