Tag Archives: S Marsh

Swap Burns for Wade

2020-21 India in Aus, , , , , , ,

It’s no longer up for discussion. The Australian selectors cannot afford to retain Joe Burns as opening batsmen for the First Test against India in Adelaide on 17 December. After scores of 4, 0, 0 and 1 in practice matches against India A and India – and 57 Sheffield Shield runs across five innings this season at an average of 11.40 – Burns has demonstrated his confidence is shot and his technique sadly lacking. With an average of 38.30 and only 4 centuries across 36 Test innings, Burns has never been a world-class opener, and at 31, he’s not going to start getting better.

With David Warner and Will Pucovski absent due to injury and concussion respectively, Marcus Harris has been drafted into the squad. With scores of 35, 25 not out, 26 and 5 in the practice matches, Harris hasn’t shot the lights out, but he’s more convincing than Burns. And with scores of 239, 71 and 45 in his three Shield games this season, his recent results suggest he’s learned a thing or two since his first 9 Tests led to 385 runs across 17 innings at 24.06. With openers dropping like flies, he’s a reasonable selection.

But if Burns is jettisoned – and he should be – who will open with Harris?

I don’t like the idea of shoe-horning Labuschagne into the opening position. He’s not in the team as an opener and I think messing with his position in the order could be damaging.

Bring back Shaun Marsh? I suppose it’s not the worst idea, only because Marsh – with the pressure off him now he’s left the Test team – is churning out runs in the Sheffield Shield with scores of 31, 110 not out, 6, 115, 88 and 135 so far this season (485 runs at 97.00). But Marsh is 37 and right at the end of his career. It would hardly be a forward-looking move to bring him back.

I think the best option is to elevate Matthew Wade to open with Harris. Yes, it’s true Wade doesn’t normally open in red ball cricket, but he faces the new ball in white ball cricket, so it’s not as if the role is completely unfamiliar. And although I’m sceptical of picking Test batsmen on their white ball form (remember Aaron Finch and George Bailey?), Wade is an incumbent member of the Test team and has been in good form with the bat in white ball cricket. Moreover, his two Shield games this season have yielded 83, 57 not out, 10 and 59. It’s far from a perfect solution, but with openers thin on the ground and Burns doing his best to drop himself from contention with a string of low scores, it’s difficult to think of a better one.

The only other possibility might be to draft in Alex Carey to open the batting, which wouldn’t be utterly crazy only because Carey is Paine’s heir-apparent and some time in the Test team might be useful for him. But Carey is not a red ball opener either, and his inclusion would mean either Green or Wade would miss out in the middle order. So not a great idea, really.

Justin Langer likes to show loyalty to players and can be blind to their failings (Mitchell Marsh, anyone?), so it wouldn’t surprise me if he retains Burns to open. I hope, though, that he concedes Burns is not up to the job.

Here’s my preferred team for the First Test:

  1. M Wade
  2. M Harris
  3. M Labuschagne
  4. S Smith
  5. T Head
  6. C Green
  7. T Paine
  8. Cummins
  9. Starc
  10. Lyon
  11. Hazlewood
  12. Pattinson

Selectors Colour Blind on Finch

2018-19 India in Aus, , , , , , , , , , , ,

One of the biggest criticisms of Australia’s Test selectors is that they are inconsistent in their selection criteria. They imply that performance in red ball cricket is of paramount importance, yet they have in recent years rolled the dice on untested youngsters (e.g. Ashton Agar) or on players who have done well in white ball cricket. (e.g. George Bailey).

The Test squad selected for the first two Tests of the 2018-19 Indian summer is a reasonably sound one. It faces an uphill battle to defeat India because there is so little batting talent in Australia to choose from, but at least it’s consistent in that most of the batsmen can justify their selection on the strength of their red ball cricket, if for no other reason that there is nobody better to take their place.

Khawaja? Yes, fine. Travis Head? Well….I suppose so. Just. He’s been unconvincing but has done just well enough to get another chance given his youth. Marcus Harris is not a ‘bolter’ as the media has said. He has averaged north of 40 for both of the past two completed Shield seasons and is averaging 86.40 so far this season. He deserves his shot, and 26 is a good age to have learned his craft and to hit the accelerator. I hope Matt Renshaw gets his act together because he has youth on his side and just seems to ooze potential from every pore, but Harris edged him out, fair and square. Peter Handscomb might not make the starting eleven on 6 December but he, too, has a good combination of track record and recent performance. Even the hellishly inconsistent Shaun Marsh deserves his position based on recent performances. His brother, Mitchell, more assuredly does not deserve his, but the selectors have made it clear Mitchell Marsh will be picked if he can more or less stand upright. Yes, he made 151 against Queensland at Allan Border Field recently but who hasn’t made a score like that on that wicket? It’s a road. Put me in on that wicket. I’ll make 150, too.

But I digress.

The glaring exception is Aaron Finch. Why on earth is he described by all and sundry as a ‘lock’ for the First Test? Finch is a nice bloke and an experienced hand, but there is no evidence (and I mean none) to suggest he is among Australia’s top six red ball batsmen. After 79 first-class matches, he averages 36.58 and has made a mere 7 centuries from 131 innings. In the 2017-18 Shield season, he played 8 matches but averaged only 35.28 with only a single century. His selection is being described by the coaches as justfied based on innings of 62, 49, 39 and 31 in the 2-Test series against Pakistan in the UAE. Not long ago, Glenn Maxwell was denied a Test spot because it was said he needed to make hundreds. Now, personally I think Maxwell is overrated and does not necessarily deserve to be in the Test team, but if that is the rule for selection, why on earth is Finch a ‘lock’? It makes no sense. He currently appears to be out of form, but Finch is primarily a white ball specialist who swings hard for the fences without moving his feet. C’mon, he is not a Test batsman. I hope very much to be proven wrong, but if he opens for Australia on 6 December, I suspect he will fail against what is the best Indian pace attack to visit these shores for a long time.

If one is honest and logical, there is no place for Finch.

If the selectors really mean what they say and wish to strike the proper balance between performance and potential in red ball cricket, and if they absolutely insist on retaining M Marsh, the top six should be:

M Harris
M Renshaw
U Khawaja
S Marsh
T Head or P Handscomb
M Marsh
T Paine
P Cummins
M Starc
N Lyon
J Hazlewood

Personally, I would jettison M Marsh and play both Head and Handscomb with four bowlers (after all, Head can bowl some part-time offies), but as I said, the selectors appear illogically committed to M Marsh.

Paine’s position deserves plenty of debate, but we’ll save that for another post.

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….

 

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.

Discounting Shaun Marsh’s New Suit

2015-16 W Indies in Aus, , ,

In the old Hans Christian Andersen tale ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, only a child is prepared to state the obvious and declare the emperor naked. Let me be that child.

The West Indies have had a brand new suit designed and stitched for Shaun Marsh. Once dressed in his finery, Shaun Marsh can continue his masquerade as the ‘talented’ Test cricketer the selectors and certain over-enthusiastic commentators have always claimed he is. The selectors appear to have heaved a big sigh of relief, assuring themselves they weren’t wrong after all, that at long last Marsh has delivered on his promise. So much so, in fact, that it is suggested Joe Burns may be jettisoned for the 2nd Test so that Marsh may be retained when Usman Khajawa returns after injury.

This would be an awful travesty.

Disclaimer: OK, I admit it: I’m a Shaun Marsh skeptic. Always have been. I think he’s the ‘new Shane Watson’; i.e. he has the appearance of a Test cricketer but lacks the temperament and skill to hold a long-term place in Australia’s batting line-up. I also think he tends to achieve Test selection despite lacking the track record to justify it. He’s just. Not. Good. Enough.

I don’t wish to beat up on the woeful West Indies team – too may in the media have already done that and I have nothing to add – so let’s save time and be blunt. They are rubbish, and runs scored against them simply shouldn’t be valued as highly as runs scored against any of the other six decent Test-playing nations. Any rational observer should apply a huge discount to the value of Marsh’s innings of 182 against the West Indies in Hobart. The West Indies’ bowling attack would hardly threaten the local Under-11s, and the pitch – while not as mind-numbingly flat as Perth – contained few gremlins. The West Indies’ only decent fast bowler, Shannon Gabriel, departed injured after over only ten overs. Kemar Roach was appalling. I like Jason Holder a lot but the guy bowls only at medium pace (calling him ‘fast-medium’ is being kind). Jomel Warrican did his best and credit to him for nabbing Steve Smith’s wicket, but he wasn’t threatening thereafter.

Prior to the 1st Test, Marsh’s Test average after 16 matches was 32.57. This number is not some sort of aberration or statistical distortion that somehow masks his true worth – it represents Marsh’s achievements across the not inconsiderable number of 29 Test innings. And it isn’t good enough. After Hobart, Marsh’s average stands at 37.72, still not exceptional but it flatters him nonetheless.

It is no surprise to see Shane Watson today expressing his hope that Marsh’s big innings against West Indies will silence the latter’s critics. Himself a chronic underperformer, Watson just doesn’t get it, and never did. A good Test batsman makes runs under pressure against GOOD opposition teams and does so with some regularity. Watson could not manage it, and Marsh has not, either.

Meanwhile, Joe Burns does not deserve to be axed. He has played only 6 Tests, having been anointed as Chris Rogers’ successor, and while his performances to date have been a little inconsistent, his Test average of 40.36 is perfectly acceptable and the left-right hand combination is worth preserving. The selectors are often criticized for not sticking with the players they choose. If Burns was the right batsman to open with David Warner a week ago, then he still should be, regardless of Shaun Marsh’s performance. He is still only 26 (Marsh is 32), and if the selectors truly wish to nurture younger players for the longer term, Burns is clearly the more sensible bet of the two.

Let’s be clear. Shaun Marsh was only called up when Khawaja succumbed to injury. All other things being equal, no amount of runs against this hopeless West Indies team is enough reason to retain him over either Burns or Khawaja if the latter two are fit. Tough bikkies, to be sure, but any other move would consign the selection policy to the realm of the utterly illogical (where it is already teetering after the Coulter-Nile inclusion).

 

Post-NZ Tweaking

2015 NZ in Aus, , , , , , ,

Demote M Marsh, Promote Nevill

Mitchell Marsh is not a No. 6 Test batsman. This was made abundantly clear during the 2015 Ashes series, when he looked all at sea. He lacks technique, and has yet to prove he can graft an innings on anything other than a hard Aussie pitch. You need a proper batsman at No. 6. Mitchell Marsh is not that; he’s a reasonably talented slugger. It was well worth giving him a try as the batting all-rounder and I can’t fault the selectors for that, but after three Tests against New Zealand, it’s time to face facts. Although Marsh barely had a chance to bat in the first two games, he again struggled in the 3rd Test against the moving ball. His defenders might say he wasn’t the only one to struggle but it’s more about how he looks at the crease when under pressure; uncomfortable and short on technique.

Darren Lehmann has once again raised the possibility of promoting Peter Nevill to No. 6. This is a very good idea. Although regarding himself as a batting all-rounder, Mitchell Marsh is only justifying his selection at present as a zippy first-change medium-fast bowler. Dropping him to No. 7 would take some of the pressure off him and might help lead to an improvement in his batting average. Moreover, the numbers make sense; Mitchell Marsh’s first-class batting average of 31.00 (55 matches) doesn’t measure up to Nevill’s 41.01 (65 matches). Nevill should bat higher.

Sids on Borrowed Time

In the 3rd Test against NZ, Peter Siddle reminded the selectors why they had overlooked him for much of the previous year. The Adelaide Oval was supposed to be the place where Siddle would shine, taking wickets on a flattish pitch with his accurate line and length. It didn’t happen. This is not necessarily Siddle’s fault; after all, the pitch did not resemble Adelaide pitches of the past due to the introduction of the pink ball and the decision to leave more grass on it than usual. But Siddle looked very average to me. The selectors left him out for months due to their preference for faster bowlers, and sure enough, with his pace below 130 kph much of the time, Siddle simply did not look threatening. He was fortunate to achieve his (richly deserved) 200-wicket milestone in NZ’s first innings but did not look like taking a wicket in the second innings (and indeed did not).

With James Pattinson coming into the team to replace the injured Mitchell Starc for the West Indies series, Siddle looks likely to hold his place for a while, but it’s due more to good fortune than form. After his prolonged injury problems, Jackson Bird is back in form with 18 wickets from his first four Sheffield Shield matches this season, and will surely attract some attention from selectors. Even the evergreen Dougie Bollinger is taking wickets for NSW (12 of them in his first two Shield games), but at 34 he faces an uphill battle for Test selection.

If Pattinson performs and remains injury-free (two big ‘ifs’ there), I would expect to see Siddle dropped when Starc returns from injury.

Shaun Marsh Shouldn’t Stay

Shaun Marsh’s innings of 49 in the second innings in Adelaide, which helped Australia defeat New Zealand, probably won’t help him keep his place in the team. Although assisted by two benign pitches, Usman Khajawa batted superbly in the first two Tests against New Zealand and should slot back in when he returns from injury. I remain a big Shaun Marsh skeptic. If one more commentator tells me Marsh is ‘very talented’, my head will explode. The stats just don’t back it up. Marsh’s first-class average of 38.35 after 114 matches is mediocre. Moreover, it is Marsh’s repeated failure of nerve that should be cause for concern. True, his second innings performance in Adelaide probably rescued his team, but he is renowned for failing in pressure situations. The amateurish way in which he ran himself out for 2 in the first innings in Adelaide suggests nothing much has changed. This guy has been playing first-class cricket for fifteen years – if he hasn’t discovered a way to manage his nerves and get through tough scrapes, he is hardly likely to do so now.

 

Don’t Cut Voges

2015 Ashes, , , , ,

The selectors should not cut Adam Voges before the 4th Test at Trent Bridge.

Warner, Rogers and Smith will obviously play. Smith failed twice at Edgbaston but I doubt many would argue he isn’t Australia’s best batsman. He needs to master the Art of the Leave outside off stump, but he’s only 26 so give him time.

Clarke is obviously in woeful form that might trigger his retirement after the Ashes but he’s the skipper and therefore won’t be dropped before the end of the Fifth Test. Sure, he might pull a Graeme Swann and bail out on his teammates by retiring in the middle of a tough series, but whatever else you might say about Clarke, I don’t think he would do such a thing. Like him or loathe him, that’s not his way. Either he’ll make a score soon or he won’t , but he’s not going anywhere soon.

Mitchell Marsh is not a Test No. 6 batsman. We knew that before Edgbaston but it’s even more obvious now. But I would still have him over Shane Watson any day of the week. It’s ironic; Marsh considers himself a batting all-rounder but it’s his bowling that has impressed so far at Lord’s and to a lesser extent at Edgbaston. When Marsh comes on to bowl, he’s far more likely to take a wicket than Watson. Sure, he needs to improve as a batsmen but he’s only 23 and needs more time. Think back to when Steve Smith played his first Ashes series in Australia. He was inserted as a leg spinner and batted at No. 6, and was absolutely hopeless. It’s worth giving Marsh more time.

Which leaves us with Voges.

The selectors often cop flack but who could fault them for picking Voges when he scored 1,358 runs at an average of 104.46 in last season’s Sheffield Shield? The guy has played 167 first class matches and made 11,141 runs at 45.10. Then he goes and makes a century on Test debut; it was ‘only’ against the West Indies but it was also a pressure situation in which Australia was struggling at 6/126 in Dominica. He has also played in England a lot, turning out for Middlesex, Hampshire and Nottinghamshire during his career. Voges can play.

Like most of us, I’m at a loss to explain why Voges has only scored 73 runs at 14.60 in five innings so far this series. Why he continues to waft the bat outside off stump is something I can’t explain. Nerves, perhaps? He seems to be struggling with the swinging ball but so is every other Australian batsman. Every cricket journalist whose work I’ve read since Edgbaston has condemned Voges to the scrapheap. All of them assume he’ll be replaced at Trent Bridge by Shaun Marsh.

I’m going to go the other way. I think they should keep Voges. To swap Voges for Shaun Marsh merely because the Aussie media is baying for blood would be illogical, and far riskier than keeping him.

To be sure, Voges’ past five innings have been inadequate, but it’s only five innings. Let’s remember why Voges was selected in the first place; i.e. he has scored buckets of runs in recent times. He has a long and admirable track record, and bailed Australia out of trouble only two months ago in Dominica. Yes, it’s the Ashes now and the pressure is on, but five poor scores is not enough to pull the rug out from somebody you thought was good enough only a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, is Shaun Marsh a reliable Test batsman? I think he is anything but.

Marsh has made 2 centuries and 4 fifties in his 25 Test innings to date; in other words, he has made 50 or more in 24% of his Test innings. This is a lower ratio than even Shane Watson, who made 50 or more in 26% of his 109 Test innings and was renowned for failing to live up to his potential in Test cricket. Incidentally, that same ratio is 40% for Chris Rogers and 37% for both Steve Smith and David Warner. Even for Michael Clarke it is 28% (but that number would have been far higher as recently as two years ago before Clarke’s form went into decline). As they did for a long time with Shane Watson, the selectors like to say Shaun Marsh’s mediocre Test average (35.79) does not reflect his ‘talent’. I think it’s pretty spot on, and it isn’t good enough.

Shaun Marsh has a history of not performing under pressure. In my view, it would be a mistake to consider his centuries in tour matches against a WICB President’s XI in Antigua in May and then against Kent and Derbyshire as evidence of his readiness to meet Australia’s Test requirements. His brother Mitchell is living proof that big scores against pop-gun county bowling attacks on flat decks do not necessarily mean much.

But Australia are 2-1 down, and the pressure is on the selectors. If the media coverage is correct, Voges will be jettisoned for Marsh at Trent Bridge. I can understand why the selectors might do this just to be seen to be taking action, but I think Voges is the better bet of the two.