The Australian selectors must have been told that ODI cricket is going the way of the dinosaurs in the next couple of years.
That’s the only way to explain their inertia when it comes to bringing new blood into the 50-over team.
The squad announced on Monday for the Champions Trophy tournament next month in Pakistan contains just one player who hasn’t already blown out 30 candles or will do so later this year in Aaron Hardie, the “baby” of the touring party at 26.
Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Marcus Stoinis are somehow still considered worth persisting with despite middling form and advancing years while 33-year-old Alex Carey has been brought back from the proverbial white-ball wilderness to tour as a back-up batter at the expense of Jake Fraser-McGurk or anyone else from Generation Z.
Not that Fraser McGurk has been in form lately this summer, whether in the green and gold of Australia or the whatever shade of green it is that the Melbourne Stars wear.
The hit and miss opener has decidedly been more miss than hit, but as is the case with the Test team, for the established players, it is harder to get out of the ODI squad than to get in.
The players such as Fraser-McGurk, Spencer Johnson, Lance Morris, Xavier Bartlett, who have been given a brief chance to shine when the big dogs have had a rest, have basically been given a few cracks at doing well, and in the case of Bartlett and Johnson in particular, even if they have shown they are up to the task, they are still surplus to requirements when the 30-something Aussie stalwarts are available.
Sam Konstas looks well suited to the shorter formats judging by the way he ramped the world’s best bowler in his Test debut and some of his exploits for the Sydney Thunder at BBL level.
He has played just the one List A 50-over match for NSW, making just 10, but he registered a century for the Australian under 19s last year on their way to World Cup glory in the one-day format.
His name should be pencilled, if not inked, in the selection panel’s little black book as a player worth a sizeable investment in all three formats.
Sam Konstas takes a swing at the SCG. (Photo by Morgan Hancock – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
After winning the World Cup at the end of 2023, that was the perfect time to usher in the new breed, and for the likes of Smith, Labuschagne, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc to drop a format or two.
They all have Test cricket as their first love, but they are finding it hard to split with the white-ball teams as well.
They won’t but the selection panel should be urging them to choose one or another, not all three formats, to prolong their international careers rather than burning out their twilight summers.
The next ODI World Cup is two years away in South Africa and once this Champions Trophy is out of the way, no more time can be wasted on players who should not be part of the title defence.
The Champions Trophy is being hyped up as an important showcase event, but the majority of cricket fans will not remember who takes home said trophy within a few months of this tournament being run and won, let alone a year or two down the track.
In the overcrowded calendar of ICC events, this is the one that clearly holds little to no real importance.
When it comes to players on the outside looking in, there is plenty of talent on the domestic one-day scene in the newly renamed Dean Jones Trophy tournament.
Funnily enough, the leading run-scorer for 2024-25 is someone long considered a red-ball specialist who has managed to reinvent his short-form game in Matt Renshaw.
The Queensland left-hander has piled up 283 runs at 70.75 at a strike rate of 120 after a couple of years of being given brief look-ins at Test level.
Jake Fraser-McGurk. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Nathan McSweeney is another player who deserves a shot in the ODI squad after his brief dalliance with the Test team.
All-rounder Beau Webster, after his impressive entry into international cricket at the SCG earlier this month, should also be considered as a potential building block for the ODI team post the Champions Trophy along with Cameron Green when he returns from his back surgery.
Jhye Richardson’s latest injury blow is a setback to his chances of a return in the short form after taking nine wickets at 15.88 for WA this summer.
Victorian seamer Sam Elliott, who leads all wicket-takers with 12 at 16 on the domestic scene, is making a case to be in contention alongside Johnson, Morris and Bartlett as the new breed of ODI quicks who can take up the mantle in the post-Big Three era.
The Champions Trophy is a crucial tournament for Mitchell Marsh who needs to prove that his poor returns in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy were just a blip on the radar rather than a sign that he will soon be washed up at international level.
He is set to open the batting with Travis Head, with Steve Smith coming in at first drop, his preferred position in the 50-over arena.
If Smith plays, then Labuschagne, a very similar player in terms of their steady tempo at this level, is probably not needed and the Aussies can load up their middle order with Glenn Maxwell, Matt Short, Aaron Hardie and potentially Stoinis, although he has not delivered too often in recent years for Australia and at 35, surely his time is up and younger all-rounders take his spot.
On the spin bowling front, Mitchell Swepson keeps performing well for Queensland in the 50-over format as well as Brisbane Heat in the BBL but he is probably behind Tanveer Sangha, who is considered a long-term spin option, and Todd Murphy when it comes to who is next in-line behind Adam Zampa, who himself is no spring chicken these days, turning 33 in March.
Just like Nathan Lyon in the Test team, the Aussies can’t afford to wait much longer when it comes to getting game time into more than just one frontline spinner.
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