There have been some positives during the current Australian tour of India.
Er….,Todd Murphy bowled well. Oh, and Nathan Lyon too. Usman Khawaja and Peter Handscomb have also had their moments with the bat.
And – yep, that’s about it.
It’s been pretty grim.
Still, these things happen. They particularly happen in India, where for whatever reason the Australian selectors lose it before the first Test and decide to rework the team. It happened in 2013 when the selectors brought in Moises Henriques, 2017 and the decision to dump Khawaja and bring in the Marshes, as well as in 2023, when the best Australian batter of the summer was left out of the first match.
Sigh.
The solution in India is to play a second spinner. And even then, you don’t necessarily have to. Picking batters according to pitch conditions never works.
Just remember who panicked first on this tour. It was not the Aussies batters, it was the selectors. They lost it, then the batters, then the fans – who have been revealed to be among the worst in the world. God bless the internet and culture wars.
Still, it could be worse. Truly.
I actually think David Warner’s injury is a useful thing and wish he’d had it at the start of the tour. It avoids an awkward conversation. I’ll be genuinely interested to see how Travis Head goes at the top of the order. Australia has invested a lot in him.
It was good to send Ashton Agar home. I don’t want to be mean but he shouldn’t have gone on the tour in the first place. Let him play some cricket. Personally, I think Mitchell Swepson may as well have stayed home as well – I don’t think they want to play him.
Ashton Agar. (AFP, Saeed Khan)
It’s rotten what happened to Pat Cummins but Steve Smith can take over for the remaining two Tests. And it’s rough for Josh Hazlewood now that Starc is back.
It will be curious to see how Cameron Green goes. I guess he gets two Tests automatically, yeah? Is that how these things work? And Head gets two Tests automatically? What if he fails twice in the third match? Who opens?
I believe Marnus Labushcagne’s luck has turned and he’s going to become a player who averages around 40, Jimmy Adams style – but I have said that before and been wrong.
There are two players I’d like to see flown over, to replace Warner and Cummins. One is very logical, the other more a matter from the heart.
The logical one is Michael Neser. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again – he should already be in India. His bowling is ideal for Indian conditions – far more so than Lance Morris – and he’s a great lower order bat. I like Scott Boland, everyone likes Boland, but Neser is as good a bowler and a much better batter (average 25.32 versus Boland’s 12.6). Imagine an Australian batting line up with Starc at eight and Neser at nine.
Michael Neser (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Why play three spinners? What’s the point? Apparently it depends on Green being able to bowl. Says who?
We should play two pace bowlers and two spinners. Three spinners is overkill, especially when two of them are as green as Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann.
My second choice is Glenn Maxwell. Yeah, I know he failed twice in the Shield game. I know he’s recovering from his broken leg. I don’t care. Cricket Australia owes us Maxwell fans another Test. I get emotional when it comes to Maxwell. That’s more gut feel, I admit it.
As a result, here is my team for the third Test.
1. Head
2. Khawaja
3. Labuschagne
4. Smith
5. Maxwell/Handscomb
6. Green
7. Carey
8. Starc
9. Neser
10. Lyon
11. Murphy
That is a good side if the batters can do their jobs. And selectors, if we’re not going to pick Neser, can we have Boland in the eleven please? We can’t rely on India’s top order being dodgy forever.
Sadly, it looks like being 4-0 no matter what the selectors do.
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