Wake-up call: Lessons Australia must heed from capitulation to South Africa in WTC final

Australia will be embarrassed by what looks like a blown chance to win the World Test Championship, but it could be the wake-up call needed to stave off an Ashes annihilation in the summer.

For Australia, their likely capitulation at Lord’s might be the loss they had to have.

As chastening as it would be to butcher a gift-wrapped chance to win successive World Test Championships against a South African team they would back themselves to beat nine times out of 10, at least it may serve as the wake-up call that helps avoid Ashes humiliation.

Australia’s veteran team was teetering after a heavy first Test defeat to India last summer, and although the fightback to win the Border Gavaskar Trophy showed this is a champion team.

Father Time is undefeated and selectors must now be decisive over key calls for the future.

On the eve of this WTC final at Lord’s, selectors clearly felt loyalty in its experienced campaigners was a luxury it could afford, based on Pat Cummins’ explanation for Marnus Labuschagne being picked ahead of young gun Sam Konstas.

Not playing Sam Konstas at Lord’s ultimately hurt Australia. Picture: Paul Harding/Getty Images

“ (Marnus is) a somewhat known quantity. I think our selectors are probably showing you they’d rather give someone an extra little run than pull the pin too early,” Cummins said.

However, now the WTC is almost run and done, it’s difficult to see how selectors can continue offering that kind of rope if they feel a big call needs to be made.

Coach Andrew McDonald has already said selectors will want to bed down its preferred Ashes opening pair at least in the West Indies.

A balance must be struck at the selection table between harnessing the benefits experience brings, without tipping so far the team falls off a cliff.

Andrew McDonald and captain Pat Cummins – along with Australia’s selectors – will have a lot to think about after the WTC disaster. Picture: Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth

Not playing Konstas at Lord’s ultimately hurt Australia and will be looked back on as a blunder because even if he hadn’t managed more than Labuschagne’s runs, he may have scored them at a quicker rate and in the process helped offset the more methodical approach of his top order colleagues who became stuck in mud together.

Konstas will return to the fold for the first Test against the West Indies and the only question is at the expense of whom.

Labuschagne on the surface appears to be dead man walking having gone two years without a Test century, but Usman Khawaja is also cause for concern if his future is being viewed through the prism of the Ashes.

Khawaja has runs on the board so to speak courtesy of his recent double hundred in Sri Lanka, and in isolation that certainly deserves him tackling the West Indies on pitches that could play similar to those he dominates in the subcontinent.

At 38, Usman Khawaja is a cause for concern at the top of Australia’s batting order. Picture: Paul Harding/Gallo Images/Getty Images

But the flip side of the coin is Khawaja is 38, turning 39 in the middle of the Ashes and he has now struggled for some time against quality fast bowling on pacey wickets, namely against Jasprit Bumrah in the summer and now Kagiso Rabada at Lord’s.

Selectors must decide now whether they are going to go all in on Khawaja’s experience and pedigree as they did with David Warner two summers ago, or is it time now to make a change.

Cameron Green is another issue because the jury is out on whether No. 3 is too high for him in the batting order for the Ashes.

The problem being that Australia has a bounty of options for positions 4, 5, 6 and 7, but outside of Konstas the cupboard is bare in the engine room that is the top three.

Steve Smith’s compound fracture injury drama in the WTC Final has complicated matters because if he’s not available in the West Indies there will be another slot to fill.

Josh Inglis is certainly good enough to be in this side having made a century on debut in Sri Lanka, but he does not fit the bill for the top of the order unless Australia bites the bullet and decides to go all-in on following England’s Baz Ball blueprint in the Ashes.

Steve Smith’s finger injury complicates the issue of Australia’s batting line up with a Test tour of the West Indies upcoming. Picture: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth

Sheffield Shield top order specialists Kurtis Patterson, Jason Sangha and Marcus Harris are putting decent numbers up if selectors want to look outside this current squad – while the line has certainly not been put through Nathan McSweeney and Mitchell Marsh’s names.

The bowling attack are not in the gun like the batsmen are, but Nathan Lyon went wicketless on day three at Lord’s and would love some scalps to finish the WTC Final.

Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood were brilliant in the first innings of this Test, before the clouds disappeared and the warm conditions, flat pitch and tenacity of Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma got the better of them in the second dig.

Even though the bowlers are in the mid-30s, they are far from done – but rotating and managing them through the summer along with Scott Boland is going to be key.

All three Australian selectors, McDonald, George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide are in England, which is good, because some significant meetings are on the horizon.

Originally published as Wake-up call: Lessons Australia must heed from capitulation to South Africa in WTC final