Don't Go Changin'

Australia is enjoying a period of stability not seen since the Waugh-Ponting era

Peter Lalor

Who was the last batter to make their debut for the Australian Test side and who will be next?

IF you answered Will Pucovski to the first half of that question, well done you.  The star-crossed Victorian star played his first and last Test against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2021-22. Despite confirming the selectors faith with a half century in the first innings, fate resolved that Pucovski would wear the Baggy Green once and once only.

The 26-year-old’s career looks certain to have come to an unfortunate end following his concussion in the last Shield game, heart breaking as that is, it is not the point.

Who is going to be the next to make their debut? It is a good question without an obvious answer.  There is every chance that the 2024-25 Test series against India begins and ends with the incumbent batting line up.

Nine series have passed since Pucovski’s debut and not a single top order player has proved themselves more worthy of Test debut.

Alternatively, you could argue that the batters who have played in the 30 odd Tests since have done the job asked and nobody else was going to do it any better.

Pat Cummins said as much when set upon after the win over New Zealand in the Wellington Test

“We’re very clear that these six guys are the six best batters in Australia,” Cummins said.

“At times it might not have clicked all together at once but the story of our team has been someone’s been able to stand up when they need to. So everyone’s going well.”

Cummins is enjoying a period of stability not seen since the Waugh-Ponting era when it was often said that it was harder to get out of the team than into it.

Cameron Green, the new No.4 and man of the match against the Kiwis, made his debut in the same series as Pucovski. The all-rounder has contributed to some of the limited churn in the intervening period by allowing Mitchell Marsh to seize his spot when he was injured in England and spinners when indisposed in India, but was always going to return.

The people who run the side these days are blessed by the success of the side.

Successful sides are stable sides.  In the period since Australia last picked a batter on debut, England has blooded a host of fresh batters, a handful of all-rounders and a clutch of keeper batsman. If Australia’s results had been similarly poor the pressure to change it would have been impossible to resist.

Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne and Aaron Finch were the three given opportunities before Green and Pucovski _  all made their debuts in the 2018-19 series against Pakistan when Smith and Warner were absent.

Marcus Harris and Kurtis Patterson were inducted soon after.

The selectors should be congratulated on their success rate. Pucovski would almost certainly be playing had he not had his issues, Harris has and is there and abouts, Finch didn’t turn out, Patterson scored a Test century but was squeezed out.

There is, however, no doubt that this selection panel respects experience and is not as keen on the youth/potential as previous incarnations. Need a new opener? Bring back Khawaja. Veterans under pressure? Give them time. Warner got it, Smith is getting it, Marnus too.

These people have proven they have what it takes at Test level, as Andrew McDonald observed this week about Marnus: “there's going to be some ebbs and flows in your career".

Where once a vacancy was usually offered to a developing cricketer, now they are just as likely to be offered to the mature aged player. Blame Mike Hussey for starting that trend and Usman Khawaja for confirming it.

As Dan Christian says, old blokes win shit.

The selectors, however, shown they are willing to make hard decisions in white ball cricket. Smith can’t get a permanent place in the T20 side, Alex Carey was replaced by Josh Inglis, Jake Fraser McGurk is one of a dozen to play this first 50 over game for Australia in the period since Pucovski and Green made their Test debuts. T20 sides and squads have featured a rolling roster.

David Warner would often worn us hacks that we would miss him when he was gone. He would point out that he generated more headlines and was the subject of more pictures than anyone else in cricket. Complain, he would, about the attention, before going out of his way to feed his various social media accounts. Warner has 10.6 million followers on Instagram _ ten times the number signed up to follow Cummins.

Someone in the camp admitted the other day that they missed him and you would, wouldn’t you? It must be like when the kids leave home or your noisy neighbours move out, but his absence has seen others put under pressure.

The vacuum has seen critics who’d been sated for sometime with calls for Warner to be dropped looking for their next victim, and its been a field day for them. Everywhere you look the sky is falling in. Steve Smith is done and the idea of re-heating him as opener is dumb. Marnus Labuschagne has lost it and can’t go on. Green was overrated, Travis Head has been found out. Mitchell Marsh should never have been given another chance. Alex Carey’s average is following a similarly trajectory to the aforementioned batters.

There’s truth to some of the observations. Smith’s ICC ranking is beneath 800 points for the first time in a decade. Labuschagne is out of the top 10 for the first time. Head is also slipping.

In the past 12 months Labuschagne has averaged 30 and Smith 41. Khawaja is holding steady with an average of 46 in that period _ the same as his career average.  Warner putted along at 35 in that time.

Carey, who averaged 26 in the last year  is probably the one feeling the most pressure. The fact his glove work is approaching impeccable allows more leeway with the bat, but unfortunately for Carey there’s a man called Josh Inglis who is turning heads.

Ricky Ponting noted this in a recent interview  with SEN’s Gerard Whateley.

“I read some stuff about that with someone like Inglis knocking the door down really,” he said.

“He made a brilliant hundred in this last Shield game for WA, you know, he's not put a foot wrong in the coloured clothing for Australia, whether it's in T20 cricket or One Day International cricket. His keeping his elite.”

“I'm sure Alex would like to be contributing more with the bat, and he's got the game to do it. 

“His keeping has also been absolutely outstanding for Australia ever since he put the gloves on.

“So, I think things have to go really pear-shaped for Alex Carey over the next little bit for him not to be around at the start of the Australian summer.”

To defend the stability of the Test team is not to criticise the quality of candidates in first class cricket.

There are a host of very good batters pushing for a place, but the reality is that few have mounted an argument so persuasive that it would lead to the exclusion of any incumbent.

The Warner denouement demonstrated this perfectly. The selection panel was never moved to replace him with Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft or Matthew Renshaw when his returns began to fall away.

And, when he did step down, the chance to get Cam Green into the team was more important than turning to any of the trio in waiting.

Green’s big innings in Wellington confirmed suspicions his returns would be greater at No.4. Smith hasn’t nailed the opening position yet but has shown signs. If he does then it is bad luck for all the batters out there in Sheffield Shield hoping to get a start.

Nic Maddison’s name came up in selection meetings 18 months ago, but injury saw him slip away. Centuries in his last three games for Victoria ensure he is back on the list of potential candidates.

Beau Webster is averaging 70 in Shield cricket, but is batting at No.6 and might be be better advised to bat higher.

Ollie Davies, Nathan McSweeney, Aaron Hardy and Matt Short are also in the wings and highly rated, but are they going to push ahead of players like Harris, Renshaw and Bancroft who have been in and out of the side over the years.

Statistician Ric Finlay noted this week that Australia has fielded the same side in the last four Tests. The record for Australia was the unchanged team that took on England for five consecutive Tests in 1989 and at home in 2013-14 (the series that constituted George Bailey’s entire Test career).

It will take injury or a hellishly bad start to the Sheffield Shield for Smith, Carey or Head to not take the field in that first Test match of the Border Gavaskar series and it will need to be matched by commanding returns from any outside for us to see anything but the same side taking the field against New Zealand not to front up for the first Test of the summer.