Tag Archives: Henriques

Head-Less is Best

2021 Aus in S Africa, , ,

The Australian selectors have included Travis Head in the 19-man squad to tour South Africa. This makes no sense.

Twice in the past two years, Head was dropped from the Test team in the middle of a big series because he wasn’t performing. He was left out after the fourth of five Ashes Tests in England in 2019 after making 191 runs at 27.29, then excluded again after the first two Tests against in India after making 7, 38 and 17. In both cases, he was judged by the selectors to be performing unacceptably. They were right in their assessments.

The selectors axed Matthew Wade after he failed to make good after repeated opportunities. Fair enough. This is Test cricket, not tiddlywinks, and the middle order is horribly brittle.

So what makes Head different from Wade? The fact that he is younger and ‘might’ improve? He’s already had 19 Tests to make a case, and his performances are getting worse, not better. In his last 11 Tests, Head is averaging only 30.63, so his nominal Test average of 39.75 is flattering him.

Head just isn’t good enough to bat at No. 5 for Australia and doesn’t deserve a recall.

One can’t blame the selectors for giving players a chance and then cutting them if they fail. They did it with Joe Burns and Matt Wade, and they should do it with Head. They have kept Moises Henriques waiting in the wings for ages – they might as well give him a chance or release him to go back and play for NSW. Henriques turns 34 on 1 February so he’s not a long-term option, but who knows – maybe he’ll grab the late-career opportunity as Tim Paine has and help win the Ashes.

As noted in past posts, I think Alex Carey should play as a specialist batter at No. 6 (pushing Cameron Green up to No. 5) until such time as Paine retires. At least Carey is now in the Test squad.

But picking Travis Head again is simply illogical.

So Is Wade Any Good?

2020-21 India in Aus, , ,

Is Matthew Wade good enough to hold his position in the Australian Test team?

Frankly, it’s hard to tell.

The selectors have rightly weeded out players like Joe Burns and Travis Head who have failed to score Test centuries against good teams in demanding conditions when their team really needed them.

Wade, meanwhile, has been around for a little while posting acceptable but hellishly inconsistent scores. He was the only batsman other than Steven Smith to score a century against England during the away series there in 2019 (in fact, he scored TWO). Given that few Australian batsmen other than Smith (not even Warner and Labuschagne) seem able to score hundreds against the best teams (i.e. England and India), Wade’s feat is not to be sniffed at. Unfortunately, scores of 1, 6, 1, and 0 in the same series meant he finished the five Ashes Tests with an average of only 33.70.

In the 2019-20 home summer when he played two Tests against Pakistan and three against New Zealand, he posted scores of 60, 38, 12, 17, 38, 30 and 22 for an average across five Tests of 43.40. On the numbers, not a bad result. However, his opportunities were curtailed in both series, crimped by huge scores by David Warner (154 in the 1st Test against Pakistan and 335* in the 2nd Test) and Marnus Labuschagne (185 in the 1st Test against Pakistan and 162 in the 2nd, then 143 in the 1st Test against NZ and 215 in the 3rd Test). In both series, then, Wade performed adequately, but how well might he have done if the top order had failed in the face of a good attack and he was called upon to save the team? We’ll never know. I’m not saying he couldn’t have done it, I’m just saying….we’ll never know.

In six innings across three Tests against India this summer, Wade has posted scores of 8, 33, 30, 40, 13 and 4 for an average of 21.33. For four of those innings, he was called upon to open the innings, which was not his usual position, so you’d have to say he did about as well as any other opener Australia had in reserve. He was freakishly and unluckily run out for 33 in the second innings in Adelaide when Australia’s victory was already beyond doubt, so that one doesn’t really tell us much. In the second innings in Sydney, he got a ripsnorter of a delivery which he edged behind, but I can’t really blame him too much for that one, either.

But Wade threw his wicket away needlessly in the first innings of BOTH the Melbourne AND Sydney Tests trying hit Ashwin, then Jadeja, over cow corner when there was no need to play such an aggressive stroke. One thing is clear: if Wade throws away his wicket with a rash shot one more time, he’s likely to give the selectors enough cause to drop him. If he doesn’t, I suspect they’ll retain him for the forthcoming tour of South Africa if for no other reason that compelling alternatives are few. Moises Henriques is waiting in the wings to take Wade’s spot, having scored two centuries for NSW in the first three Sheffield Shield games of the 2020-21 season. But Moises will turn 34 on 1 February (making him 11 months OLDER than Wade), so he’s hardly a long-term solution to any problem, and his first-class average of 35.96 trails Wade’s 40.85.

If Wade can’t demonstrate an ability to go on once he has reached 40, his middle-order spot for the 2021-22 Ashes will be thrown wide open to whoever can perform in the back half of the 2020-21 Shield season. Moises? Alex Carey? Glenn Maxwell? Other names like Ben McDermott and Nic Maddinson get bandied around in the media, but neither have proven themselves worthy of Test selection.

If Not Mitchell…?

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

Okay, a few minutes after my last post in which I lambasted the selectors’ inattention to Mitchell Marsh’s failings, Rod Marsh has said the 25-year old all-rounder is on notice.

The public acknowledgement of Mitchell Marsh’s poor performances is a big step forward. It’s difficult to know how much patience the selectors will continue to show Marsh, but reading between the lines, one would think if he doesn’t make a big score in the three Tests against South Africa, he may be left out of the side to play Pakistan.

So who – if anybody – would be considered for the all-rounder slot?

The trouble is the selectors have for years insisted on picking an all-rounder even if no suitable player was available. A Test all-rounder should be competitive at international level as either a batsman or bowler (preferably both, of course, but players who excel at both are like hen’s teeth). The players selected for Australia in recent years have not been particularly outstanding in either discipline. And really, this was obvious before they were picked.

Australia is full of solid, handy all-rounders who represent their states with some success and for long periods of time, but who are not good enough for Test cricket (Dan Christian is a good example). Shane Watson may have justified selection early in his career, but not for the last two or three years of it. The selectors tried the likes of John Hastings (1 Test), Moises Henriques (4), Glenn Maxwell (3), Ashton Agar (2), James Faulkner (1), Steven O’Keefe (3) and Jon Holland (2), but none have nailed the spot.

There is not a single player capable of batting in the top 6 in the Test team while also bowling well enough to be the fourth or fifth bowler. Watson was not good enough, neither are Mitchell Marsh or Henriques.

For me, the most sensible option on pitches in Australia and outside the sub-continent would be to pick James Faulkner (182 first-class wickets at 24.36 and 2,397 runs at 31.96) and have him bat at No. 8. The selectors have tended to consider Faulkner only for the short form of the game, but he spends so much time travelling with the ODI and T20 teams that he has little chance to play red ball cricket. Of all the all-rounders tried so far, he is the most promising and deserves more opportunity.

On the sub-continent, beginning with the Australian tour of India next February, it would make sense to play (at least) two spinners. In this case, the first choice should be Steven O’Keefe (207 wickets at 23.84 and 1,844 runs at 29.74). O’Keefe was sent home from Sri Lanka recently with a hamstring injury and has since missed the Matador Cup with a broken finger but I would think his selection for India is a lock. Breathing down O’Keefe’s neck is the promising Adam Zampa.

The obvious result of all this is that the selectors would still need to find a batsman to bat at No. 6.