Cliff Notes – The Australia selectors’ aversion to risk might have boxed them into a corner
- The Australian selectors have opted for a conservative squad selection for the first Test, prioritising safety over bold strategies that could surprise the opposition.
- By playing batters out of their specialist positions, the selectors risk creating an unbalanced batting order, potentially undermining the team’s performance in a crucial series.
The Australia selectors’ aversion to risk might have boxed them into a corner.
“A ship is safe in harbour, but that is not what ships are for.” This timeless wisdom speaks to a core dilemma of human endeavour: the choice between safety and potential reward. A ship anchored indefinitely in a quiet port avoids the tempest but it sacrifices its purpose, slowly decaying into irrelevance.
cricket is fundamentally a game of risk-management. To make runs, a batter must risk playing shots; to take wickets, a bowler must risk getting hit for four. How you manage that risk decides your fate and the team’s on the field.
The Australian selectors have taken a safety-first approach to the selection of the squad for the first Test in Perth. The make-up of the squad is not unexpected but I was hoping that they would be bolder and choose a team that would risk surprising the opposition and throw down the gauntlet for one of the most anticipated Ashes contests for many years.
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I do have some sympathy for the selectors as this is not entirely a problem of their making. The traditional supply line of youngsters has been interrupted by professional cricket, meaning that players stay in the domestic system longer, playing for the states, who prioritise winning domestic competitions over producing Australian players.
So here we are in Australian cricket. The oldest international team fielded in 90-plus years will take the field in a fortnight. Thirty-five may be the new 30, but I believe that unless a handful of under 25s are going to be debuting in the next six to 12 months, we are going to have a painful regeneration problem when Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon leave.
Domestic competitions don’t produce Test-ready players; they only identify those with the skills to make it at the top level, so CA must prioritise giving the next generation as much international cricket at the Australia A level as possible to bridge the gap.
Now to the series ahead. Perth Stadium is a venue unlike any other in Test cricket. It will be fast and will bounce more than anything that the England players usually play on. This Test will have a big bearing on the outcome of the series, so the team that performs well here will take a big psychological advantage to Brisbane. The first two Tests – at Perth’s pace cauldron and Brisbane’s pink-ball furnace under lights – could decide the urn. Now was a time to be bold.
Despite selecting a specialist opener, Jake Weatherald, in the squad, I believe the intention is to send Marnus Labuschagne out to open with Khawaja. This will allow Cameron Green and Beau Webster to play, giving the best balance of batting and bowling in the squad – especially as Green has hardly bowled a ball in anger since his recent back surgery.
Opening with Labuschagne is extremely risky. He should bat at three, as that is his specialist spot, where he has delivered prolifically. The fact that he is being considered as an opener suggests that the selectors do not have a specialist they trust, and that one or both of Green and Webster are well short of the bowling loads required to get through a Test match.
Ian Chappell and Ricky Ponting were exceptional No. 3 batters for Australia in their time. That doesn’t mean that they would have been as successful had they been press-ganged into opening. They were often batting early in the innings but the mindset to walk out to open the innings is subtly different.
Marnus has reinvented himself this summer with a return to the intent that he showed early in his Test career. For the past few seasons he has looked like someone who was batting to not get out. This risk-averse attitude to batting actually increases the risk of getting out. In this state of mind, the feet do not move and the runs dry up. Even if one succeeds in not getting out, one doesn’t make many runs because the number of deliveries that you can attack becomes limited. It would be a shame to risk short-circuiting his return to Test cricket by batting him out of position.
Mitch Marsh is the choice I would have preferred. It would have been a left-field choice, but this is a venue where he has an advantage over all other candidates. He grew up in Perth so the bounce would not worry him; he is one of the best players of pace in the country, and he could have bowled some meaningful overs to support the frontline quicks.
If they do go with Labuschagne at the top of the order that will mean Green will be forced to bat at No. 3 again. It is a position for which he is not suited, so all of a sudden, the Australian batting order is dangerously unbalanced.
Usman Khawaja made 87 Getty Images
In time, I expect Green to slot into the No. 4 position he is eminently more suited for. The other reason that I would not send him in early is that, if fit, he will be expected to bowl important overs, so he will need time to prepare to bat rather than put the pads straight on.
England have put nearly all their eggs in the pace basket, bringing a septet of fast bowlers with whom to challenge what they believe to be a fragile batting line-up. They have prioritised the fitness of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood for this series, so I expect them both to play in Perth and in Brisbane, and then they will rotate the rest of the pace squad through the remaining Tests.
If Archer and Wood are both fit for purpose, England could surprise the Australians on a surface that will favour pace. Very few people enjoy batting against real pace. We would all rather bat against medium-pacers and spinners, but at this level, it has to be done. Normally it is one or two really quick bowlers in the line-up and then the pace drops off. Very few teams in history have three or four in the ranks who get it through at over 140kph. That will get your attention and it will require reflexes and concentration of the highest order. The ageing Australian line-up might be put under the pump if the England attack clicks.
Khawaja is the oldest opener to play a Test for Australia since Lindsay Hassett did it in his final Test at The Oval, in 1953. Hassett scored 53 in the first innings of a Test that England won by eight wickets. England had Fred Trueman, who was a genuine quick, in their attack, but Alec Bedser and Trevor Bailey were medium-fast at best. Ussie turns 39 during the series, so he will be tested by a procession of fast bowlers. His potential partner is a 31-year-old debutant or a makeshift opener also in his 30s. England will take a huge advantage if they can make early inroads in the Australia batting regularly in the series.
The selectors have boxed themselves into a corner. Over the past year or so they have shied away from bold calls, leaving themselves no real option now but the conservative line. They were risk-averse in picking the team. They missed an opportunity to lay down the gauntlet at one of the world’s unique venues. And they are actually taking a huge risk by playing batters out of position.
Being risk-averse is not being risk-free. By anchoring in the harbour of familiarity, Australia’s selectors may have invited the very storm they sought to avoid. Perth demanded courage. The Ashes demand it. A ship is safe in harbour, but that is not what ships are for.
