Australian cricket’s cautious venture into uncharted selection territory
While Cricket Australia has shown great leadership in its sensitive handling of the game’s current mental health issues, there remains one great unknown.
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Cricket Australia hierarchy is navigating cautiously through uncharted territory as it weighs up the promise of boom youngster Will Pucovski and excitement machine Nic Maddinson.
Selectors announced an unchanged squad to face New Zealand in a three-Test series, starting next Thursday, except for the fact they omitted Cameron Bancroft, as a reflection of just how settled Australia’s top six is after a thumping series win over Pakistan.
It meant a call did not need to be made on the prospect of Pucovski or Maddinson coming in as a spare batsman – however it may only be a matter of time until such a decision needs to be made.
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Maddinson was firmly in the selection frame at the start of the summer, before withdrawing on the eve of the Australia A selection trial match against Pakistan due to mental health issues.
Pucovski was all-but penciled into make the first Test team against Pakistan, until he too asked not to be considered for selection as he took time away to focus on his own mental health.
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Both men returned to state cricket last week and picked up from where they left off – each making first-up half centuries for Victoria at the MCG.
Cricket Australia has shown great leadership in the sensitive way it has handled the recent run of mental health concerns raised by Maddinson, Pucovski, Glenn Maxwell and women’s star Sophie Molineux.
However, particularly in the case of Maddinson and Pucovski, the great unknown remains how and when to nominate them again for national selection.
Mental health is not the same as recovering from a hamstring strain, and Cricket Australia has already made it clear that the bravery of those involved to put their hands up would not impede their selection hopes in the future in any way.
National selector Trevor Hohns indicated the management of their return as selection candidates has been and will continue to be a comprehensive – yet complicated – process involving team psychologists and input from Victorian officials.
“That’s a difficult question for me to answer. We did do our checks. I can’t really answer that (whether they were available for selection) right now,” Hohns said.
“… That comes from the psychologist attached to Cricket Australia, so we obviously do checks on those sort of guys from time to time.
“Two of them as we know (Maddinson and Pucovski) have played Sheffield Shield cricket, (but) that does not necessarily mean they’re available for representation of Australia.”
Hohns has been at the selection helm during an unstable period of Australian cricket, however, he was able to relish in the chance to simply tick off on an unchanged squad.
Tim Paine has a sore finger, but Hohns insists the tough Tasmanian will soldier on, while Mitchell Starc’s issues pertain to a cut on his big toe and nothing to do with ligaments or bones.
Australia’s biggest headache will come for the third and final Test against New Zealand.
Hohns said selectors will have to seriously consider resting the fast bowlers given how close the Boxing Day and New Years’ Tests are together – possibly opening the door for a return for James Pattinson or a debut for Queenslander Michael Neser.
Neser will keep his body in tune by playing Sheffield Shield for the Bulls against NSW, starting on Saturday.
The other complication is the hunt for a second spinner to potentially accompany Nathan Lyon at the SCG, and then push for selection on next year’s tour of Bangladesh.
Ashton Agar would appear the frontrunner, although Hohns declined to nominate names.
“It’s a bit of an issue for us but we’re really focusing on our spin bowling department at the moment,” Hohns said.
“We will be putting a couple of players – that I won’t nominate now because they haven’t been informed – on notice to make sure they’re doing extra work in case they’re required,” he said.
“We’ll obviously be very careful (also) about monitoring the (fast) bowlers workloads.”
AUSTRALIA SQUAD: Tim Paine (c), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazelwood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner
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Originally published as Australian cricket’s cautious venture into uncharted selection territory