The brave new world of Tasmanian cricket is already at crisis point a month into the 2017/18 season, and it is a difficult thing to work out what can possibly be done to stop the decline. After a forgettable JLT Cup where wins were few and highlights even rarer, they have been defeated heavily in both of the opening Sheffield Shield rounds with barely a raised voice in anger. The alarm bells must be ringing loud and clear in the southern state, but are there any answers forthcoming?
In a match dominated by low scores and solid if not spectacularly threatening bowling, Queensland scrapped their way to a seven wicket victory inside three days at Bellerive Oval, consigning Tasmania to the cellar of the Shield table and with a number of questions needing immediate answers. While they have banked on a mixture of experience and youth in their team to start the summer, the batting line up is assuredly not working at the moment. Whereas Queensland was guided by Test graduates Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja in negotiating the tricky fourth innings chase of 156 for victory, the Tigers batting has found no such resolve in the first games of the season.
In two innings against Western Australia and two against Queensland, Tasmania has not managed to score above 250. Its 231 in the first innings in Perth was followed by the record low total of 63. Here at home against Queensland, they scored 186 and 150. No matter what the conditions are that you are playing in, scores like that are not going to win you cricket matches. The bowlers have done their best to keep their opponents in check, but when the hammer has come down their best has just fallen short of maintaining a status quo in the runs department.
On paper the top seven looks like it could be formidable. The experience of Jordan Silk, Alex Doolan, George Bailey and Matthew Wade is mixed with the young tyros in Jake Doran, Beau Webster and Ben McDermott. Any combination these batsmen at the crease should be performing a role for the team, and ensuring that at least a couple who make starts go on with it to make a substantial score.
But it just isn’t happening. The opening partnerships have been 15, 4, 1 and 12. Doran’s admirable gritty 54 in the first innings in Perth has been followed by scores of 4, 0 and 0. Ben McDermott at seven has done well in the first innings of matches with 45 not out and 37, but followed those with ducks in both second innings. None of the senior players looks like making a score to carry the team. Here on Sunday, with the bowlers having done a wonderful job to somehow grab a five run first innings lead, Silk and Doolan had put together an 80 run partnership to get the score to 1/92 and a 97 run lead, and Tasmania looked to be in the driver’s seat. They then lost 8/30 in an abysmal collapse that rivalled the 9/35 in the second innings in Perth, and the match was lost at that point.
The problem now lies in what to do next. On paper (again that term) this looks to be the best batting line up Tasmania can produce. How many failures with the bat do you accept before you have to relegate the youth such as Doran back to Grade cricket? Doran was feted throughout his junior cricket days, but so far has failed to come to terms with first class cricket. McDermott has already had some starring moments but he needs to develop consistency, and quickly. Perhaps more than this, the senior players need to find something to inspire their team. George Bailey needs a score for his own sake let alone his team, while Silk and Doolan need to convert their starts to much bigger scores. Matthew Wade and Jackson Bird may both be away from the squad on Test duty following the next Shield game – or they may not.
Tasmania travels to Melbourne to play Victoria next week, against a team also finding the going tougher than they have in recent seasons. Whatever players Tasmania rest their success on for that fixture they need to find some runs, or else the season may well be over for them before the Test matches even start. Should that be the case, it could trigger a whole new set of circumstances at the selection table, and careers may well be changed forever as a result.
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