Tag Archives: Bancroft

Warner: Enough Already

2023 Aus in England incl WTC, , ,

Enough is enough. David Warner must not be picked for the WTC final or the Ashes. It’s been fifteen months since we last called on the selectors to put Warner out to pasture (see Yesterday’s Hero). He’s still here, and dragging down the team’s chances every time he walks out to bat. It was alarming to see Andrew Macdonald quoted as saying “[a]t the moment Dave’s fully in our plans for the World Test Championship” after the end of the India Test series. He needs to explain the logic underlying that statement.

Ricky Ponting, too, seemed to share this sentiment, saying “I think they’ll definitely want to play him in the World Test Championship match” without giving a reason. Even Ponting, however, seems confused, saying in the same interview that he thinks Warner missed a chance to retire during the Australian summer and that “David’s record in the UK is not as strong as it is in some other places around the world”. Ricky, if he should have retired and plays poorly in England, why on earth would they select him for England? It makes no sense.

In 28 Test innings in 17 Tests since December 2021, Warner has made 847 runs at an average of 31.37. This is already mediocre for a Test opener, but if you strip out his aberrant 200 against a weak South African team in the first innings of the Second Test of the 2022-23 home series, it drops to 24.88. And it’s worth noting Alex Carey also made 111 in that same innings, while Steve Smith made 85 and both Travis Head and Cameron Green each made 51. So not the toughest of assignments, really.

If you look only at his most recent 7 Tests (11 innings) from the beginning of the 2022-23 home summer to the Second Test against India in Delhi when he retired hurt, he’s made 341 runs at 31.00. Strip out that one-off double ton against the Proteas, and his average for that period drops to 12.82. And this is the guy who averaged 9.50 across ten Test innings (including three consecutive ducks) in the most recent Ashes series in England in 2019 when he became Stuart Broad’s bunny.

It’s delusional to imagine Warner will do well in England this summer. And there are – for a change – a number of compelling alternatives.

*Renshaw’s number include Sheffield Shield, PM’s XI vs West Indies and three Tests. ^Harris’ numbers include Sheffield Shield and PM’s XI.

The most obvious is Cameron Bancroft, who deserves a Test recall several years after Sandpapergate. He’s the leading run-scorer in the 2022-23 Sheffield Shield, with 849 runs at 60.64, including four centuries. And while I don’t recommend picking Test players based on white ball, it doesn’t hurt his case that he’s made 327 runs at 65.40 in this season’s Marsh One Day Cup.

Or there’s Matt Renshaw. Although Renshaw failed in the three innings he played in India this time, it’s worth remembering he made a match-winning 68 in the first innings of the First Test in Pune in 2017 (when Steve O’Keefe cleaned up with 12 wickets). He’s had only an average sort of red ball season in 2022-23 with 501 runs at 41.75 including 81 and 101 not out for the PM’s XI against the West Indies but made 194 runs at 64.67 in the Marsh One Day Cup. He also made 620 runs at 47.69 for Somerset in the England County Championship in 2022, so he knowns English conditions.

Then there’s Marcus Harris, who continues to fall short when he gets his opportunities but who still represents a better bet than Warner. Harris only played 7 Shield games this season, making 468 runs at 39.00, but scoring two centuries and two 50s. Like Renshaw, he did well in the Marsh One Day Cup (315 runs at 63.00) and knows English conditions , making 726 runs at 42.70 for Gloucestershire in 2022.

Any one of these guys, who have all played Test cricket, could do a better job than Warner in England, although Bancroft is the obvious chance given the numbers he has racked up recently.

Got That Right

2017-18 Ashes in Aus, , , , , , , , , , , ,

In the eyes of cricket fans, the selectors can doing very little right. The howling noise over the selection of Tim Paine and Shaun Marsh for the Ashes was deafening.

Now, with Australia 2-0 up in the series, it seems fitting to give the selectors a pat on the back not only for the selection of Paine and Marsh, who have played well, but for the contenders they did not pick.

Many felt Matthew Renshaw was hard done by when discarded in favour of Cameron Bancroft, but the truth is it was an excellent call by the selectors. In the first five games of the Sheffield Shield this season, Renshaw has scored 111 runs in 10 innings at an average of 12.33 and with a top score of 19. At 21, he is young enough to work on his game and regain his Test spot at some point, but he has a lot of work to do.

None of the prospective wicketkeeper candidates have shown they should have been picked over Paine. Peter Nevill has scored 221 runs at 31.57 in 8 innings, with a single half-century. Matthew Wade’s form with the bat has not improved appreciably; he has 154 runs at 22.00 in this year’s Shield, with only one half-century (72 not out in Round Five). Excluding that innings, he has not passed 30.  Alex Carey scored his maiden first-class ton (139) in Round Five, and has 301 runs at 43.00 so far for the season. Promising, but more evidence is required. Jimmy Pierson scored an 82 not out in Round Five but has scored only 156 runs at 22.29 in 8 innings.

First, top order contenders: Hilton Cartwright was considered for the Ashes but has done poorly in the Shield; he has scored 216 runs at 21.60 this Shield season, suggesting the decision to omit him from the Test squad was the correct one. Nic Maddinson was not seriously in contention for the Ashes, and a good thing, too, with only 177 runs at 17.70 so far this season. Why his name gets mentioned for a Test recall is a mystery to me.

Middle order contenders Kurtis Patterson (260 runs at 28.89) and Jake Lehmann (336 runs at 37.33) have not demonstrated that they should have been selected over Shaun Marsh. Lehmann in particular has seen his scores fall away after his scores of 103 and 93 in Round Two nearly got him a Baggy Green. Since then, his scores have been 13, 24, 1, 17, 43 and 26. Good call, selectors.  Marcus Stoinis has only batted five times this season and has only 103 runs at 20.60. Again, well done, selectors.

Travis Head is not far away, with Shield scores of 67, 80, 132 and 65 so far this season. He has scored 421 runs at 42.10 and must remain in contention but is probably slightly behind Glenn Maxwell in the race for a Test spot in the middle order (see ‘Zombies Live!’).

All in all, the selectors deserve some credit as much for the players they didn’t pick as for those they did. But they probably won’t get it.

 

 

 

Zombies Live!

2017-18 Ashes in Aus, , , , ,

The zombie cricketers are alive and kicking.

By zombies, I mean those players who refuse to die. They have tried and failed at Test cricket, then gone back to state cricket and performed well enough to at least come back into contention for a Test recall.

Tim Paine is perhaps the greatest zombie of them all, having been dead and buried until his shock recall for the Ashes. He fluffed a catch in Brisbane but also pulled off an excellent stumping and made a stylish 57 in the first innings in Adelaide. There would appear to be life in the old boy yet. At the very least, he has not embarrassed the selectors.

The other obvious zombie, of course, is Shaun Marsh, who not only won a recall for the Ashes but won player of the match in the 2nd Test in Adelaide with an excellent ton. Trevor Hohns and Team must be enormously relieved.

Elsewhere, discarded Test opener Joe Burns has lurched back into the selectors’ sights with 514 runs at 57.11 in his first ten Sheffield Shield innings this season, including scores of 70, 81, 103 and finally 202 not out against South Australia in Round Four.  But Cameron Bancroft is likely to get a few more games yet, so Burns will probably have to bide his time.

Perennial zombie Glenn Maxwell has cracked 590 runs at 73.75 so far this Shield season, with scores of 60, 64, 278 and 96. One would have to think Maxwell has his eye on the No. 5 Test slot currently occupied by the hopelessly out-of-form Peter Handscomb.  Will the selectors let Handscomb play out the series as they did with George Bailey four years ago? As it was with Bailey, they might if the team keeps winning.

And lastly there is Mitchell Marsh, arguably the most disappointing Test cricketer of the past half-decade. Finally sent back to WA after 21 Tests in which he averaged only 21.74 with the bat and took only 29 wickets at 37.48, Mitchell has scored 402 runs at 44.67 in the Shield this season, including scores of 95 and 141. The selectors took a lot of stick for persevering with Mitchell for so long, so one wonders how well he must do at state level – and for how long – before he gets another chance at Test cricket.

Feed them braaains….

 

Soft in the Middle

2016-17 S Africa in Aus, , , , , , , ,

 

As just about everybody except the selectors agrees, Mitchell Marsh does not deserve his place in the Test team, and now Adam Voges is struggling for runs. I don’t know if Father Time has finally caught up with Adam Voges or whether he’s about to make a big score, but one way or another, it seems likely that one or possibly two middle order batting slots will soon be opening up.

Selector Mark Waugh has indicated new squad member Callum Ferguson of South Australia may play in the Second Test against South Africa in Hobart. Either selectors have changed their mind about guaranteeing the dismal M Marsh a last chance, or they know something about Voges’ hamstring that we don’t. Either way, the middle order has been so poor for so long that long-suffering Aussie fans would be happy to see a new face in there just on the slim chance he might make a few runs.

The table below summarizes the first-class careers of a few promising contenders. (Cameron Bancroft is included not because he’s a middle order player but because he’s a contender for Joe Burns’ spot as opener if Burns blows his latest chance. )

First class stats
CareerMatInnsRunsAve100s50s
Bailey, G121215779139.751939
Bancroft, C4479279237.2279
Ferguson, C101185672040.231535
Handscomb, P6099363938.71824
Maddinson, N58102361438.04817
Patterson, K3256217142.56513
White, C152256916740.562045

Given the lack of middle order runs lately, Ferguson’s call-up is not illogical. Despite his career average of 40.23, he averaged 52.25 across 19 innings in 2014-15, and 53.11 in an injury-shortened 2015-16 season of 10 innings. In the first two games of 2016-17, he made 101 against WA followed by a third-ball duck against Tasmania, so make of that what you will. I have always been a little suspicious of Ferguson, wondering if his average is flattered by playing so often on the bowling green of the Adelaide Oval. But given the alternatives, he is frankly as good a choice as any.

Sheffield ShieldMatInnsRunsAve
2015-16
Bailey, G91776147.56
Bancroft, C101773245.75
Ferguson, C51047853.11
Handscomb, P111978443.56
Maddinson, N101748830.5
Patterson, K91773752.64
White, C5933842.25
2016-17*
Bailey, G2425986.33
Bancroft, C246516.25
Ferguson, C2210150.5
Handscomb, P2314849.33
Maddinson, N1211658
Patterson, K2422255.5
White, C2317487

*Only two games played so far in 2016-17

George Bailey (34) and Cameron White (33) have made careers out of performing well when no Test spots were available and poorly when the selectors were on the hunt. Bailey eventually managed to play five Tests but was about the only player who underperformed in a 5-0 whitewash of England, and was dropped. White has never managed to be in the right place at the right time. Both men are getting too old to interest the selectors.

Of the younger players, Nic Maddinson (25 next month) has been touted as a future Test player since his first class debut six years ago, but has never managed to string together enough good scores. He had a mediocre season last year but has this year with 116 and 0 against WA. Still not battering down the selectors’ door.

Peter Handscomb (25) is under close scrutiny but needs a big year in the 2016-17 Shield. He is going to be fighting off Kurtis Patterson (23), who debuted back in 2011 but is only recently starting to make some big runs. Patterson, who bats at No. 4 for NSW, averaged 52.64 in 2015-16 and has shot out of the blocks this year with scores of 111, 38, 60 and 13.

If Ferguson plays and either Mitchell Marsh or Voges disappears before the end of the summer, and if the selectors abandon their foolish insistence on an all-rounder and decide to play six batsmen instead, my money would be on Kurtis Patterson. Test selection is all about being in the right place at the right time.

Swap Lynn for Voges (Eventually)

T20, , ,

They’re calling it ‘Lynn-sanity’.

As of 8 January, Chris Lynn has scored more runs (321 at an average of 64.20) than any other player thus far in the Big Bash League, and whacked more sixes (20) than any other batsman. He has faced more balls (189) than any other batsman in the BBL (thanks largely to repeated failures by disappointing West Indian import Lendl Simmons, who opens the batting for the Heat).

But the selectors should not pigeonhole Lynn as merely a T20 slogger.

Unlike many others who have starred in the short form of the game (e.g. Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell), Lynn actually possesses an attractive batting technique and a proven track record in longer form red-ball cricket (i.e. a first class average of 45.88). Lynn should be earmarked for higher honours, not only in the ODI team – from which he was recently excluded – but also the Test team.

With Usman Khawaja now back in the Test team, 36-year old Adam Voges has a lock on the No. 5 spot until he chooses to retire. The selectors should be seeking to identify his replacement. Their repeated attempts to shoe-horn Shaun Marsh into the Test team are misguided and a waste of time. Not only has Marsh demonstrated his mediocrity as a Test player, he’s too old. By the time Voges retires, Marsh will be 35 or 36. Will the selectors still be lauding his alleged ‘talent’ and ‘potential’ then? What would be the point?

No. They must go for youth.

Cameron Bancroft is promising, but he’s an opening batsman. His best chance is to hope that Joe Burns fails and needs to be replaced. At 24, Nic Maddinson has been touted as a future star since his first-class debut five years ago but has never managed to string together the scores he needs.

First-class careerAgeMatInnsNORunsHSAve10050
Lynn, Chris2535598234025045.88511
2009-1036022013936.6710
2010-11915364117253.4222
2011-1281412568019.6901
2012-13--------
2013-14815475210468.3616
2014-1579047125052.3312
2015-16--------
Marsh, Shaun3211520324701018239.161732
Maddinson, N2451896318218138.33715
Bancroft, C2329532186421136.5456

Lynn’s biggest problem has been injury rather than form. Lynn missed the entire 2012-13 Sheffield Shield season after copping a nasty blow to the groin from a Doug Bollinger thunderbolt. He returned to average 58.70 in seven matches in the 2013-14 Shield season AND make 104 and 61 not out against the touring England team before missing the first half of the 2014-15 season following shoulder surgery. He still managed to average 62.71 in  five Shield matches, including 250 against Victoria in February 2015. Lynn then dislocated his shoulder in September 2015 and missed the entire 2015 Matador Cup and the first half of the 2015-16 Shield season.

Lynn needs to stay on the park long enough to rack up some red-ball runs. If only he can stay fit and maintain the sort of form he has displayed in the past, it will be difficult to overlook him when Voges finally calls it quits.

Concerns Over Burns & Khawaja

2015 NZ in Aus, , ,

The Australian selectors have picked Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja for the First Test squad to face New Zealand on 5 November. Shaun Marsh and Cameron Bancroft missed out.

In relative terms, these are sensible selections; i.e. picking Burns and Khawaja makes more sense than picking Marsh and Bancroft. Shaun Marsh has provided ample evidence after 15 Tests that he is simply not up to the job, and at 32 years of age should be cast aside permanently. Bancroft, who will turn 23 next month, is promising but has only played 24 first-class matches. He is looking good but ideally the selectors would like to see more. A good domestic season in 2015-16 would propel him to the front of the queue of those awaiting Test selection.

In absolute terms, however, there is reason to be concerned about the selection of Burns and Khawaja. The latter, in particular, can count himself lucky to be included given the lack of red ball cricket he has had lately.

There’s a ton of pressure on both players.

Burns performed reasonably well in his two Tests against India last summer, especially with scores of 58 and 66 in the Sydney Test. He missed out on the Ashes tour (barely) but was clearly earmarked by the selectors to take Chris Rogers’ place upon the latter’s retirement. Burns posted 493 runs at 44.82 in the 2013-14 Sheffield Shield, and followed that up with 793 runs at 52.86 runs in the 2014-15 Shield competition, thereby earning his Test call-up last summer.

However, Burns’ form since the Sydney Test of January 2015 has been inconsistent. He played 7 games (11 innings) for Middlesex in the 2015 County Championship but posted only 320 runs at 29.09 with three half-centuries  and a top score of 87. He made only 8 for Australia A against India A in a 4-day match in Chennai in July 2015 (but didn’t bat in the 2nd innings as Australia A won by ten wickets), and had an unspectacular 2015 Matador Cup, scoring three half-centuries while averaging only 35.33.

He did make 154 in August for Australia A against India A in a 50-over game in Chennai, and did himself no harm with a century (102) in a (non-first-class) tour match against New Zealand a week ago when playing for the Cricket Australia XI. However, conditions for the latter match at Manuka Oval in Canberra were so conducive to batting that only four wickets out of 20 actually fell (two on each side) because most batsmen retired early to give their teammates a hit.

Having recently turned 26, Burns – who has 60 first-class matches [average 40.93] under his belt – offers the selectors a good mix of youth and experience. But he’s going to have to crank that average up into the mid-40s if he wants to hang on to the Test opener’s spot.

Usman Khawaja, meanwhile, has played so little red ball cricket in recent months it is impossible to know what sort of form he is really in. 

Khawaja, who will turn 29 in December, is at risk of joining that procession of batsmen who have failed to reproduce their good first-class form at the Test level (e.g. Rob Quiney, Alex Doolan, Shaun Marsh etc). Khawaja has played 9 Tests and in his 17 innings made only 377 runs at 25.13 and made more than 50 only twice. He is often lauded for his good technique but just never cut the mustard when playing with the big boys.

In 89 first-class matches he has 5,558 runs at 39.98. It’s not a bad record but if he’s to bat in the Australian Test team’s top order, it needs to be better than that. What’s slightly troubling is that injury sidelined Khawaja for much of the 2014-15 season, so there’s a bit of a hole in his recent track record. He made 531 runs at 53.10 in the 2013-14 Sheffield, but missed all but two games of the following season. He made 523 runs at 74.71 in the 2014 Matador Cup but played only three games in the recent 2015 competition, making 90 runs at an average of 30.00.

Khawaja, UInningsRunsAverage100s50s
First-class
2013-14 Sheffield Shield1455150.0913
2014 County Championship1341331.7613
2014-15 Sheffield Shield35527.5000
2015 Aus A vs India A411137.0000
50-over
2014 Matador Cup752374.7121
2015 Aus A vs India A / SAf A426766.7512
2015 Matador Cup3903001

In CY 2015, Khawaja has played only two first-class matches. In both he represented Australia A against India A in July, making scores of 25, 12, 33 and 41 not out (111 runs at 37.00). He did rather better in the four 50-over games played by Australia A against India A and South Africa A in August, making scores of 73, 100, 18 and 76 (267 runs at 66.75). Like Burns, he made a century (111 not out) in the tour match against NZ in October, but as mentioned above, few of the batsmen on either side were genuinely tested in that game.

To put it another way, in the past year and a half, Khawaja has strode to the wicket in a first-class game on 20 occasions (and 13 of those were for Lancashire). In those 20 innings, he has made 579 runs at 32.16 and reached a century only once. It’s not easy to see why this recent record demands Test selection.

Perhaps the selectors are looking more at Khawaja’s recent 50-over record, which is considerably better. But players who succeed against the white ball do not always translate that success to the Test arena (remember George Bailey?).

Khawaja is not a bad cricketer. At times he has excelled. But his statistics suggest he has been picked on potential rather than performance. It is the second time he has been in this position. He is 29 now – the first time he was given a chance he was only 24. The pressure is on him to deliver this time. One would think he’s unlikely to get a third bite at the cherry.

 

 

Lay Off the Selectors

2015 Ashes, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Let’s be honest, we cricket fans have all had a whinge about the selectors from time to time. In the aftermath of the Ashes loss in England, the knives are out for a lot of people, including Rod Marsh and his team.

I think that’s unjustified. The selectors did a pretty good job on this Ashes tour, and do not deserve much of the criticism they’ve received.

“I’m just racking my brain to try and think of who else we could have picked,” Marsh has said.

He’s right.

There really wasn’t anybody else who genuinely justified selection. There were good reasons to pick each member of the Ashes squad with the exception of Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh. These two players have a long track record of underperformance and inconsistency at Test level. Neither player has the skill or mental aptitude for Test cricket, and both have spent years demonstrating that.

But the truth is it would not have mattered much.

Neither Watson nor Shaun Marsh was responsible for the loss of the Ashes. I’m sure you could point fingers at more than these three, but Steve Smith, Michael Clarke and Adam Voges were primarily responsible for the series loss due to their inability to score runs at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge. Yes, Johnson, Starc and Hazlewood certainly could have bowled a better line and length, but they were always defending low totals. The main problem was the middle order batting.

Generally, selectors pick players who have been making runs and taking wickets. They did that.

The veterans in the squad such as Clarke and Brad Haddin had good track records, and although their runs had been drying up, Clarke made 128 against India as recently as December. Chris Rogers, David Warner and Smith all played well prior to the Ashes. Voges averaged over 100 last season in the Sheffield Shield and has a long and impressive first class career – why wouldn’t you pick him? After the World Cup, you couldn’t go past Mitchell Starc, and you’d pick Mitchell Johnson on the strength of the 2013-14 Ashes series even if the guy hadn’t rolled his arm over since. Josh Hazlewood was very impressive in his early career, and Nathan Lyon only gets better and better.

True, the Mitchell Marsh experiment didn’t work out, but he was worth a shot. Given Watson’s extended run of poor form, it was a well worth giving Mitchell Marsh a chance after Cardiff. He is definitely not a Test No. 6 batsman, but at 23 he has time on his side, and should be sent back to the Sheffield Shield to make some runs. Marsh is not the first young player to be thrown into the cauldron a little bit too early (Steve Smith was woeful when first he played Test cricket), and he has enormous potential.

Moreover, I give the selectors great kudos for swapping Haddin for Peter Nevill after Cardiff, and am pretty sick and tired of ex-players stirring the pot and whingeing that the ‘family first’ policy should have ensured a game for Haddin at Lord’s. Nevill was a better bet than Haddin, and the selectors made a tough call. They deserve more credit for it.

Oh, and the idea that Peter Siddle should have played at Trent Bridge? C’mon…. It wouldn’t have made any difference. The sad, brutal truth is that Sidds is now only a back-up bowler who would probably not have been in the squad at all if James Pattinson and Pat Cummins were fit and had enough recent red ball cricket under their belts. It’s a cruel statement, but fair. Siddle is down on pace and not the force he once was. The selectors know this. They were right to omit him.

Darren Lehmann has said that swapping out Mitchell Marsh for his brother Shaun in the Fourth Test was a selection error, but again, this selection made little difference to the series result. As mentioned above, Shaun Marsh has been nothing but a disappointment at Test level and should never have been in the squad, but ultimately the series was slipping away by the time he was called up and it would not have mattered which Marsh was selected.

So in my view, Watson and Shaun Marsh are the two black marks against the selectors, but they earn one back for the replacement of Haddin with Nevill. Moreover, they shouldn’t be pilloried for picking either Mitchell Marsh or Voges.

And should any of the up-and-comers have been picked? Joe Burns, Cameron Bancroft and Usman Khawaja are having a good tour of India with Australia A this month, and all three stand a chance of achieving (or regaining) a Test place in coming months. But were they battering down the selectors’ door before the Ashes tour? Not really.

Pat Howard, the performance manager of the Australian team, has gone on record blaming himself for (among other things) trying to prepare Ryan Harris for the series, picking a ‘Dad’s Army’ team and having the selectors announce one touring party for both the West Indies and England.

It’s very noble of Howard to accept blame for the loss of the Ashes, but I struggle to see how any of his alleged transgressions were responsible.

As I’ve noted before (see my earlier post ‘Mythbusting’), Harris was always unlikely to be ready to play. Even if he did play, he was 18 months older than in the previous Ashes series and there was no guarantee he would have been anywhere as effective. Suggestions that Australia ‘missed’ Harris are misguided. Australia might have missed the bowler Harris used to be, but he probably would not have been that bowler in the current series anyway.

As for Howard’s reference to ‘Dad’s Army’, I’m not sure what he’s referring to (but mind you, I don’t what his job entails anyway). It was the selectors’ job to pick the side, not Howard’s, and as I’ve opined above, they did a decent job. I’m not sure exactly what Howard is accepting blame for.

Finally, Australia flew straight from the West Indies to England. At no point between the two series was there sufficient time for other Australians to play enough first-class cricket to impress the selectors. So even if the selectors had decided to pick an entirely new squad for the Ashes at the end of the West Indies series, who would they have chosen other than the players they already had?

Howard has said he welcomes any review of his position. Great – perhaps we’ll find out what he actually does and why it matters.

In the meantime, I think the critics should lay off the selectors. They’re doing okay.

Ban(croft) For Your Buck

2015 Aus A in India, ,

With the Australian Test side imploding so dreadfully at Edgbaston, one performance yesterday by an Australian batsman escaped the attention of many.

Yesterday, Cameron Bancroft, the 22-year old Western Australian opener, scored 150 off 267 balls for Australia A against India A in Chennai. Bancroft’s innings was all the more impressive considering it was part of a team score of 9/329 and was made against former Indian Test bowlers such as Varun Aaron and Pragyan Ohja. No other batsman in the Australia A team scored higher than 54, and India A had already been bowled out for 135. This was no batsman’s paradise. Bancroft’s big ton came after scores of 2 and 51 in Australia A’s first tour match last week.

Bancroft’s innings could be timely. Since the beginning of the current Ashes series, Chris ‘Buck’ Rogers has clearly regretted mentioning the likelihood of his retirement at the end of the series as it has created a distraction for him, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t going to happen.

Bancroft may have just stormed to the front of the queue of players competing to replace Rogers. He has only played 23 first class matches to date, but was the third highest run scorer in the 2013-14 Sheffield Shield with 896 runs at 47.15 with 3 centuries and a top score of 211. It was this performance that won him selection for the current tour of India by Australia A.

With Adam Voges (who, incidentally, was the Shield’s top scorer in 2014-15 with 1,358 runs at 104.46) struggling to retain his Test place, one would think the selectors will give Shaun Marsh first crack. Personally, I wouldn’t – I think both Marsh brothers are almost as over-rated by the selectors as Shane Watson was, although Mitchell Marsh, at only 23, shows promise if given enough time to develop. Unfortunately, in the current Ashes squad there are no other batting alternatives to Shaun.

Assuming Rogers retires this year and Voges is dropped, a vacancy will open up (possibly two, if Michael Clarke retires, but’s that for another post).

In fairness, Joe Burns is almost certainly the next batsman to be picked. He’s already played two Tests and didn’t do badly (two half centuries in the second of his two Tests in the summer of 2014-15). Burns earned his Test debut against India in Australia last summer batting at No. 6, mostly because the selectors couldn’t squeeze him in anywhere else. But I think it’s fair to say they envision him batting at the top of the order (he opens the batting for Queensland, after all) once Rogers retires. Moreover, Burns, who will be 26 in September, is a little further advanced than Bancroft, with 3,799 first class runs at 41.29 from 59 matches. In the 2014-15 Sheffield Shield, he was the sixth highest run scorer with 793 runs at 52.86 with 2 centuries and a top score of 183.

But nothing is certain. Burns is currently on the Australia A tour of India as well but was out for only 8 in yesterday’s game (in which Bancroft made 150). He did not play in the first match last week. Moreover, he has had a less than stellar season playing for Middlesex this year, where he has made only 320 runs at 29.09, with a top score of 87.

You’re only as good as your last season. Once Buck retires, Burns might need to look over his shoulder for Bancroft.

(So you do get the headline for this post? Bancroft for your Buck; i.e. Buck Rogers? Well, I thought it was almost clever. Wow, there’s no pleasing some people. )