Selectors Mindgames Don't Bear Up Under Scrutiny

The Australian selectors – Trevor Hohns, Greg Chappell and Justin Langer – have named their Test squad for the two Test series against Sri Lanka in a couple of weeks, and it’s fair to say that the playbook has been thrown out the window and they are writing another one. There is little rhyme or reason about the way they have gone about the selection of this team compared to the ones that have been chosen in the first half of the summer. Certainly most thought change had to come, but how can they justify the way they are going about it? It doesn’t feel like there is any consistency at all in the way players are being chosen and that must be the hardest things for the players involved to handle. There’s no doubt it continues to create confusion for the viewing public. The selectors have their reasoning which they are unlikely to share with us, but a sharper look at what has occurred may provide those answers that are not going to be publicly aired.

Will Pucovski. 
Yes we need a kid in the team, and Pucovski appears to be the real deal. The real question is this - is it the right time? Pucovski has had well documented mental health issues. He has only been back in cricket for six weeks or so after spending six weeks away from the game to deal with these issues. He has also been hit in the head three times over the past two seasons, and though I am not aware of his health one can only imagine that these have also been playing on his mind. Leaving all of this aside, my major concern is whether or not now is now the right time to pick him in the Test team for his career sake that his health sake. My thoughts on his talent and likely importance to Australia’s cricketing future is well documented. However for some time I have felt the best way to handle him was to wait until next Australian summer, especially if (when) we were to come back from England without the Ashes. My feelings were that if that is to happen then he would miss the disappointment of that series and be away from any fallout from that loss. The new season with Tests against Pakistan and the West Indies would then be the perfect time to inject him into a team that would require rebuilding. Following his selection in this squad it is a concern about how they will handle him when it comes to the Ashes. Does he start that series or is he left on the bench? If he comes back from an Ashes tour with not many runs and Australia having been dominated, how is he handled at the start of next summer? These are the immediate problems I see. But let’s not be stuck on that for the moment. He will get plenty of support from the Australian public who will rally behind him and hope he succeeds. Whether the selectors have handled this selection well is to be determined in the next few weeks, but I for one cannot wait to see him bat for Australia in Test cricket. 

Joe Burns
What is happening in the selectors’ minds with both Joe Burns? It has been well documented (again as much in this blog as anywhere else) that he has been poorly dealt with in recent times. He made 42 in his last Test innings in South Africa after he was called over following the fall of the three involved in Sandpapergate, and on his first class form from the 2017/18 Sheffield Shield season should never have been in doubt of holding his place for the next Test series, which was in the UAE against Pakistan. He was not selected in A team that played in India where many of the batting candidates were sent, following which he was then overlooked, somewhat unbelievably, for that Pakistan tour. Then despite solid form back home in the Sheffield Shield this season he was again overlooked. Now suddenly he has finally been chosen after the tough run of Aaron Finch. The concern is that there is little solid base behind the selectors decision to decide that he was to be demoted from the Test team after just one Test back in the fold, and that his now subsequent elevation back into the Test team feels like it is a convenient time for them to bring him back so they can point their finger and say they are picking players on the basis of form. Well, only when it appears convenient to them. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is great he is getting another chance, but to me, on form, he shouldn’t have been out of the team in the last nine months. 

Matt Renshaw
Renshaw’s selection in this squad is as strange as any in recent times. Like Burns, Renshaw played in that 4th Test in South Africa, but unlike Burns he then DID go on the A tour and was then picked in the Test squad for the UAE. He was then concussed while fielding in close before Test and did not bat in the lead up match. Despite enough form in the lead up he was then left out of the Test, ostensibly because he had not had enough batting in the lead up because of his concussion and was passed over in favour of Marnus Labuschagne. It was an ordinary selection tool. On his return to Australia Renshaw has broken records in Premier Grade cricket in Brisbane but has barely scored a run in the Sheffield Shield to challenge for a recall. And yet now finds himself back in squad again, and it certainly is not on the strength of big Shield runs, which is what was used as the mantra at the start of the season for selection by the selection panel. 

Marnus Labuschagne has been retained in the Test squad but Peter Handscomb has been left out. Given Labuschagne’s Shield form was similar to Renshaw’s coming in to the BBL break – i.e. not great - it looks on the surface to be a tough call on Handscomb. Both played similar innings in 4th Test against India but one man was retained, and one was not. Is one being retained over the other merely for the fact that one bowls a bit of part-time leg spin? 

On top of these selections, what do we make of those that have been overlooked on this occasion. Do we accept Hohns saying that Maxwell and Wade know what they have to do to make Test team and that it has been clearly communicated to them? A majority of cricket watchers in Australia probably aren’t concerned that they aren’t in the side. What is a problem is that it was clearly said by Langer at the start of the season that runs in the Shield would be a major factor into forcing their way into the Test team. That now appears to be a half truth given the selection of players such as Renshaw and Labuschagne, and that the selectors once again are using the “form” guideline when it suits them, and then ignoring it when it suits other purposes. No matter what Hohns and Langer may have said, the selections made for this squad are not clear cut and the reasoning behind them not necessarily on a solid base of form and ability. Also suggesting that both of these gentlemen needs to make runs batting higher in the order is facetious. You can’t have 50 cricketers all batting at three or four in the batting order. Also, team balance is still important at state level, and states are trying to win a Sheffield Shield title not just be at the whim of what the national selectors want. The selectors in recent years have completely forgotten or ignored this fact, which is part of the reason the competition is stalling. Instead of letting the states pick their strongest teams on their own terms they are being dictated to by the selectors when they want something different. Calling the Tasmanian coach at the start of last season to have Tim Paine bat long enough to make good runs at the expense of Tasmania winning a game of cricket is a perfect example. The selectors trying to dictate to Victoria where Aaron Finch should bat in a Shield game is another. It is this kind of interference that is hurting cricket in Australia at many levels. Maxwell and Wade are both within their rights to believe their cards have been marked as ‘not to be picked again’. 

So, what is the actual reasoning behind all of this? I can speculate and offer some thoughts that I think are close to the mark. Whether you choose to agree or not is another thing altogether. 

1. Matt Renshaw and Peter Siddle have both been chosen on the form they both showed in England last season in County cricket, with an eye to them both as probable tourists in the Ashes squad. Siddle in fact looks to have been carried around all summer with that in mind. Siddle has been good in Shield and BBL as well, but in Renshaw’s case this appears the only possible reason as to why he has been recalled at this time, to get him back around the team that he will be touring with in August and September. 

2. The Test and ODI squads are being separated for their respective World Cup and Ashes tilts. Finch, Handscomb and both Marsh brothers have all been left out of the Test squad for the Sri Lankan series, but they are all in ODI squad for the three one dayers against India. Both Khawaja and Siddle look like they are getting their chance in the Indian series to make the World Cup squad but everyone else is being separated into red ball and white ball corners. 

There’s lots to look forward to in cricket during 2019, and while we can only hope that Australia’s fortunes improve on what we’ve seen so far this summer, it can only happen if our players play to 100% of their ability, and our selectors perform their duty with the same level of proficiency. I continue to have my doubts over their processes and whether it will do more harm than good for Australia’s cricket in the near future. None of that will stop me cheering on those that have been chosen, and hope that they all succeed. I especially hope that when I am at the Canberra Test match that I watch our most exciting young batsman since Ricky Ponting come out and score a glorious century.