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There is only one number that is going to matter against India this summer, and it is not the batter’s age or where he lands in the order. It’s the number of runs.
If Australia start badly in their five-Test series against India, beginning at Perth’s Optus Stadium on Friday week, then Nathan McSweeney may not be the only new batter given an opportunity in the team.
The selectors have got most things right under the reign of panel chief George Bailey and coach Andrew McDonald. The decision to name McSweeney, 25, on Sunday ahead of the tried and failed 30-somethings or the raw but promising Sam Konstas, 19, is another tick.
Not that Konstas may need to wait long for an opportunity if he continues to improve at the current rate given Usman Khawaja turns 38 next month. However Khawaja is far from Australia’s biggest batting concern. He can play as long as his form and desire allows him.
Last season Australia had their oldest Test team in about a century until Warner retired after the Sydney Test and was replaced by Cameron Green, 25, who has been ruled out of this summer following back surgery.
McSweeney has that nice balance of being in his mid 20s with a strong Sheffield Shield season behind him last summer and a good start both for South Australia and for Australia A heading into this Test series.
And in a pointer to possible future leadership, the former Queenslander is now his state captain, led the Brisbane Heat to the Big Bash League title as stand-in skipper last season, and is the current Australia A captain.
While he bats at No.3 in the Shield for South Australia, the decision to choose McSweeney as an opener to partner Khawaja in the first Test also saves a lot of internal grief.
Even before Green’s back injury ruled him out for this season, there had been some internal talk of moving Marnus Labuschagne up to open and dropping Steve Smith to No.3. Australia’s best since Bradman had underperformed taking over from Warner at the top of the order, which had allowed Green to slot in at No.4.
This wasn’t such a bad idea given that Smith averages 67.08 at No.3 and 61.51 at No.4. But Labuschagne contracted what Khawaja calls “openingitis” and made it clear he didn’t want to move. Not that he has the final say.
Now Green is out, Smith slots back to No.4, where he has played most of his cricket.
Steve Smith. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
That left an opening vacancy. There was some mumbling about moving Labuschagne up to face the new ball and slotting McSweeney into No.3, where he bats for South Australia, but that was met with a similar lack of enthusiasm.
Khawaja was happy to champion Travis Head as his opening partner given his stunning success at the top of the order in white-ball cricket. Like for like, Khawaja argued, swapping out one dasher, Warner, for another, Head, who would complement Khawaja’s sheet-anchor role.
Publicly Head said “my best position is where the team wants me to bat”. Privately it appeared that “openingitis” had proved contagious given Head’s grumbles. Despite his white-ball brilliance, he was having enough trouble making Test runs at No.5.
Greg Chappell has been talking up Mitch Marsh as a potential opener for the best part of a year now, working on the Khawaja theory of replacing a dasher with a dasher.
Marsh doesn’t think it’s a good idea and reluctantly said so after making a belligerent 90 in the opening Test of last season at Perth against Pakistan.
“How do I answer this without making a headline?” Marsh sighed. “For me I appreciate there’s talk about it and eventually we’re going to need a new opener with Davey leaving, but I’ve worked really hard to get back in this side and for me to look forward to having a role as an opener just doesn’t make sense to me.
“I love being at No.6 and in my last four Test matches I’ve really found my way and I guess who I am as a Test cricketer and I’m loving it, so I’m reluctant to change that.”
Marsh’s plea to stay in his current role makes sense. Since his dramatic return to Test cricket with a run-a-ball century in the Headingley Test on last year’s Ashes tour he has been Australia’s best performed batter with 750 runs at 46.88.
No one else named in the 13-player squad on Sunday has averaged better than 34 in that time. Indeed, the best two averages after Marsh across those 17 months belong to the injured Green, 45.86, and retired Warner, 37.33.
By contrast Khawaja, Smith and Labuschagne have averaged between 31 and 34 across their past 10 Tests, while Head has averaged 26.72 despite a match-winning century during his home Test at the Adelaide Oval.
If India knock a few of those big names over quickly on the way to an early win or two, things will get awkward.