If Australia names Will Pucovski in first Test squad it should play him, writes Robert Craddock

Will Pucovski is locked in a battle with Travis Head for a spot in Australia’s first Test team and selectors can’t leave him on the periphery again, writes Robert Craddock.

Will Pucovski in action for Victoria. Picture: Getty Images

Back in the 1970s, they called it the curse of the Australian vice-captain.

Name someone vice-captain of the Australian Test team and watch them slide backwards and out of the team.

It seemed — almost overnight — a milestone would turn into a millstone.

It’s happening again, with Mitchell Marsh, Josh Hazlewood and Travis Head all being axed or omitted after being promoted to second in charge.

Hazelwood has roared back into form but, for Marsh, sidelined after punching a wall, and Head, dropped for the final Ashes Test, the challenge continues to fight their way back to where they were when Australia’s selectors tagged them as heirs to the Test captaincy.

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Victoria’s Will Pucovski is locked in a head-to-head battle with Head for the No.6 batting spot in next month’s first Test at the Gabba against Pakistan.

You could almost feel the invisible ball and chain being dragged by both batsmen on Friday as they set out to try and clinch Test selection.

Head failed to advance his cause by scoring a 25-ball duck against Queensland at the Gabba, but he was unlucky to get dropped in the first place and would not need to shoot the lights out to get another chance.

Pucovski, 21, scored just six off his first 34 balls against Western Australia in Perth as he tried ultra hard to dig in for the long haul.

Australia wants to do the right thing by Pucovski. The challenge now is to find out what that thing is.

Victorian batsman Will Pucovski is close to a Test debut. Picture: AAP

The one point just about every important judge agrees on is that Pucovski, a former Australian Under-19 star, is the best talent of his generation and, all things being equal, should have a long-lasting Test career.

But nothing in Test cricket is simple.

Pucovski is an unusual player in that he has had a series of concussions and also had to fight mental challenges which once struck him down in the middle of a double century against Western Australia at the WACA.

Australia picked him in the Test side at the Gabba last year, fully intending to play him.

His family were all but told he was playing.

But when he landed in Brisbane it was evident the national selectors did not consider him as mentally ready as their counterparts.

More on a gut feeling than anything, they watched him closely and felt he was not quite ready, so they decided to keep him in cotton wool and play Kurtis Patterson instead.

Australia is treading cautiously because it knows it cannot treat mental issues like physical problems.

You can’t just say “hamstring … four weeks”. You can’t put a time on stress related conditions.

Travis Head was dropped from the final Ashes Test. Picture: AAP

Pucovski has been given the all clear and is ready to go but no medical test is capable of identifying whether there are further challenges ahead.

Pucovski looks back now at the events of last summer and feels grateful he was not handed a baggy green cap.

“I wasn’t necessarily angry at the decision or anything, it was more in hindsight, even I look at it now and I’m grateful I didn’t get picked because I don’t know if I was quite ready,’’ he said.

“But now that I’ve had a few more experiences, I feel like I’d be ready now, which is a really good place to be in. Not knowing was tough.

“More just from that emotional sense because you wake up and you still don’t know if you’re playing for Australia the next day or not.

‘But then when I found out, it was almost a sense of relief, to be honest, just because I’d been so stressed over the previous couple of days, not knowing what was going to happen.’’

One thing Australia learnt from Brisbane is that the worst option between blooding and holding Pucovski is half-blooding him.

Test match batting turns the strongest minds inside out.

The last thing you need to be doing with a player who has tackled anxiety issues is leaving him on the agonising periphery of selection.

The answer for Australia might be simply to put him in.