Mitchell Marsh’s form slump has reached the point where the selectors will be doing his career more harm than good if they keep him in the firing line while he can barely lay bat on ball or bowl one on the stumps.
Apart from a couple of key catches, Marsh was little more than a passenger in Australia’s fourth Test win over India at the MCG and if he is in the line-up for the series decider in Sydney on Friday, serious questions have to be asked about the selection panel’s reluctance to drop established stars.
Tasmanian all-rounder Beau Webster deserves his shot at Test cricket and with the Sri Lanka two-Test tour looming on the horizon, now is the perfect time to see if he can handle the elite level.
At 31 and with Cameron Green due to return later this year from back surgery, this window is possibly Webster’s only chance to get his hands on a baggy green cap.
And it’s not like he does not deserve it – he became only the second player after West Indies legend Sir Garfield Sobers to notch 900 runs and 30 wickets in a Sheffield Shield season last summer and has again been performing well for Tassie when not needed as part of Australia’s extended Test squad.
Webster could be a crucial component of Australia’s Sri Lanka campaign later next month with his ability to bowl seam and spin.
The Sri Lankan wickets often require a third spinner or an extra pace option in addition to the four frontline bowlers.
Webster could bat at six or seven if Alex Carey goes in ahead of him and serve the dual purpose of the extra bowler in a style depending on the conditions with Travis Head another option for spin back-up to Nathan Lyon and probably Matt Kuhnemann.
The MCG Test also showed that Mitchell Starc needs a spell. Even if he can shake off his side strain, he looks fatigued after a heavy workload this series and despite putting in a wholehearted performance on day five to support Pat Cummins and Scott Boland, it would do him well to sit out the SCG clash and also be in Australia’s best interests in their mission to ensure they close out the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
Even though Sean Abbott has vast knowledge of the surface from more than a decade with NSW, the selectors should be putting their faith in Jhye Richardson to come in for Starc.
When it comes to swing, he is Australia’s next best option and his movement through the air will trouble India’s left- and right-handed batters in equal measure.
Beau Webster. (Photo by Josh Chadwick/Getty Images)
MCG pitch all but perfect
There were a few concerns on day three when India’s tail wagged that the MCG pitch was turning into a blancmange but it turned out to be exactly what you want from a Test wicket.
Bowlers were able to get movement for most of the match, batters could build decent innings if they were willing to do the hard yards early and with all four results in play on the final day, there was a little bit of wear and tear but nothing sinister.
The days of the drop-in wicket creating a lottery for players or a low, slow batting paradise are long gone.
Bails malarkey needs to be banned
The ICC needs to show some rare backbone and step in to bring an end to this fad of players switching bails during matches.
Unless the wicket has been broken and a player is helping put the stumps back into position to save the square-leg umpire a trip, they should not be touching them at all.
Even then, the umpires need to be sure that the bails are on right.
The NBA has a “delay of game” rule where players are not allowed to touch the basketball after a basket. Cricket needs something similar – players are not allowed to make any adjustments to the wicket, whether it’s a superstitious switch of the bails or using them to mark guard at the crease.
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Sam Konstas, Mohammed Siraj and Mitchell Starc tried their luck with the tactic in Melbourne and most cricket fans point the finger at former England fast bowler Stuart Broad for popularising the ploy after his antics in last year’s Ashes series.
But former Australian batter Darren Lehmann on ABC Radio said it is not a new piece of by-play and that Justin Langer had a habit of doing it during his Test career a couple of decades ago.
Konstas craving feeds wisdom to its youth
Sam Konstas will undoubtedly be the crowd favourite on his home track at the SCG after his memorable debut in Melbourne.
The challenge for the brash 19-year-old will be to temper his T20-style batting tactics with traditional play, depending on the conditions.
He’s certainly got the technique and the bravado could fade quickly if Jasprit Bumrah can dismiss him cheaply first up in Sydney but on the other hand, if his counter-attacking style has worked for him at every other level, why stop now?
Cummins could see the method to the seeming madness of ramping the world’s best bowler.
“I can hang around here and probably wait to nick a ball to the slip, or I can try to put some pressure back on the bowler and take the game on,” was how he summarised the Konstas game plan after the 184-run in Melbourne.
Sam Konstas ramps at Melbourne Cricket Ground. (Photo by Morgan Hancock – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
“It was tough. We chose to bat but day one, the MCG always does something.
“Taking on their main guys … everyone walked out there with a bit more intent. I think you see everyone else out there, being proactive. He set up that first morning for us, probably that whole day, that whole innings.
“He has that no-fear mindset, which is amazing. We’ve really loved what he brought to the team.”
Fancy Pant’s too high for India
If Konstas needs to see how a batter can push the envelope too much with new-age shots in Test cricket, he simply needs to cast his gaze to the opposition dressing room.
Rishabh Pant is throwing caution to the wind way too often, not just in the fourth Test when he was out ramping in the first innings and slogging in the second.
In the second Test at Adelaide he batted in similarly cavalier fashion when his team was well behind but it came off for a while before he was out to a traditional forward defensive shot.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma basically said post-game on Monday night that Pant needed to sort himself out.
“He needs to understand what is required from himself, more than any one of us telling him. It’s about him understanding and figuring out what is the right way to go about it. In the past, he’s given us a lot of success, doing what he does,” he said.
“There needs to be a balance about it. It’s about him figuring out what’s the right way to do things. It’s just about the situation as well – do you want to take that risk, do you want to let the opposition come back into the game?”
Pant has reached 20 in five of his seven innings on this tour but has gone no higher than 37.
He has been elevated to No.5 in the line-up either side of the horrific car crash which ruled him out of Test cricket for more than a year and averages a superb 54.54 in 17 matches in the position and mid 30s when used elsewhere.
But the Indians are a top-order batter too light in their current line-up, particularly with Rohit in career-worse form, so Shubman Gill should surely come back into the side for the fifth Test and Pant should drop down to six.
The best keeper-batter of all, Adam Gilchrist, whacked 17 tons and averaged 47.6 while pretty much always coming in at No.7.
It’s too much for a keeper to be sweating it out for sessions in the field then being asked to bat as high as five in the order in the Test match arena.
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