Teenage quick Mahli Beardman’s rapid ascension to the Australian cricket team won’t be the last as the national selectors try to safeguard against a dramatic drop-off when their Big Three fast bowlers retire.
Despite only playing one domestic one-dayer for Western Australia and still yet to play a first-class match, the 19-year-old has been fast-tracked into the squad for the ODI series against England.
Former Australian paceman Damien Fleming believes Beardman’s teammates from the World Cup-winning under-19 side, Callum Vidler, Charlie Anderson and Tom Straker could also be given a chance in the senior side in the next couple of years.
Replacing Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the next few years will be a mammoth task given they are multi-format stars so effectively the selectors will eventually be looking at filling nine gaps across the Test, ODI and T20 line-ups.
The bumper crop from the under 19s team will take time to develop but Fleming likes what he sees in the young talent.
They will likely have to bide their time behind a long list of seasoned performers who have been given a taste of national honours without ever cementing a spot: Scott Boland, Michael Neser, Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Jhye Richardson, Lance Morris, Xavier Bartlett and Spencer Johnson.
To borrow a baseball term, Australia’s putting together quite the bullpen of seamers who would not look out of place in the international arena.
“Callum Vidler has already played a couple of games for Queensland, Charlie Anderson has got a bit of swing, I like the look of Tom Straker and then with Beardman, he looks fast already but he could definitely add extra pace,” Fleming said.
“We’ll see how they progress. But I think there’s some real potential there. And they’re all a bit different too.”
Beardman may not get a match for the Aussies in their five-match series over the next two weeks unless there are further injuries or there is a dead rubber game later on.
Mahli Beardman celebrates a wicket during the ICC U19 Men’s World Cup 2024 Final. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images)
The Western Australian was named player of the match after the Under 19 World Cup final win over India in South Africa in February after ripping through the top order to take 3-15.
Beardman has stated that he thinks he can surpass the 150km/h mark and Fleming says it’s possible if he makes a few tweaks to his front-on action.
“There’s nothing like genuine pace. Just looking at his action, I certainly think he can get quicker,” The Roar columnist said.
“He is a little bit mixed in his action. As in, the back leg kicks out and he’s angled towards leg slip. And then he’s got to bowl around himself a little bit.
“But he must be really strong and he really muscles that ball there. But my concern would be certainly there would be a lot of strain on his back with his action. I’d like to get his feet more aligned.
“And if your feet are more aligned, it’s easier to get that back leg through with power. Also, your front leg doesn’t collapse as much.
“But it’s also how they manage workloads in bowlers like this that have got extreme pace. You can start to introduce them into white-ball cricket and youu’re less likely to get stressies.”
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Fleming said his gut feel was that after the upcoming India series, Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins would be aiming to keep firing until the following Ashes summer against England before even considering retirement.
There is a chance that they could scale back their white-ball commitments or retire from the shorter formats altogether to prolong their Test careers.
Xavier Bartlett celebrates at Melbourne Cricket Ground. (Photo by Morgan Hancock – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Fleming said he would love to see Morris and Richardson get an extended injury-free run of matches to press their claims for the national side and he picked Bartlett as a potential three-format quick in the post Big Three era.
“Bartlett is not as fast as Hazelwood but he’s worked really hard on his technique with Andy Bichel and he bowls over-the-top bouncy outswingers,” he said.
Bartlett is one of the injured bowlers alongside Johnson, Ellis and Riley Meredith who have been forced out of the tour of England.
With Cummins resting to manage his workload for the upcoming summer, Ben Dwarshuis and Beardman were drafted into the touring party with the series opener getting underway on Thursday night at 9.30pm AEST at Trent Bridge.
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