Battling opener Cameron Bancroft is suddenly playing for his Test career
SIX weeks ago, Cameron Bancroft seemed like the answer to Australia’s problems at the top of the order. Now, he’s playing for his Test career.
Ashes
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CAMERON Bancroft suddenly finds himself playing for his Test career, just six weeks after he was seen as the answer to Australia’s problems.
Unless the badly out of sorts opener can salvage a score in the second innings of this Test, Australia will have a major decision to make over whether to expose him to the ruthless examination posed by the world’s top ranked pace attack, South Africa, next month.
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Despite Australia’s dominance this Ashes series, Bancroft hasn’t been able to make an impact since his 82 not out in the second innings in Brisbane.
The key factor being the longer the series has gone, the worse he has looked.
“You can see this is where he has fallen throughout the series to the quickies,” said Mark Taylor on Nine.
“You see the bat is finishing up heading towards a wide mid-on position.
“It just creates that gate between bat and pad. It’s been an issue where Cameron Bancroft has been exposed, I think, in this series.
“He has got some work to do there.”
Friday’s seven ball duck exposed a significant technical fault where Bancroft struggles to play straight lines in defence, and the sound of Stuart Broad cleaning up his stumps might as well been alarm bells going off for the four Test series in South Africa.
Bancroft has struggled against the short ball as well this summer, and the Proteas’ world class seamers Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada will have taken note.
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Five Tests isn’t a particularly long time for a rookie opener to be given to find his feet, but selectors will be less inclined to show faith if they feel there are technical problems that can’t be fixed on the run.
Queenslander Joe Burns is looming as a near certainty for South Africa, even if Bancroft survives to make the squad.
Selectors will feel they at least need solid back-up for the opening spot, and Burns is the second highest run-scorer this Sheffield Shield season with a double hundred and a century to his name.
Burns (three Test centuries) can cover opener and the middle order spots and his combination with David Warner across his first 13 Tests has been promising.
Bancroft averages 25 for the series, slightly less than George Bailey averaged in 2013-14 when he was axed after five Ashes Tests for the squad to South Africa.
Peter Handscomb is likely to make the cut for South Africa, given selectors have been very keen to make it clear that he was not dropped on form to make way for Mitchell Marsh, but simply as a conditions-based decision.
On the last trip to South Africa in 2014, Shane Watson and Moises Henriques both went as all-rounders.
If Australia follow that same pattern Marcus Stoinis will fly, but Mitchell Marsh has cemented himself for a substantial amount of time as first-choice all-rounder, meaning selectors may feel that spot would be better devoted to top order batting depth.
Australia are likely to take 15 players to South Africa when they name their squad in mid to late January.
If Burns, Bancroft and Handscomb are all picked then there will be no room for the other candidates Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Matt Renshaw.
The schedule has conspired to make Australia’s preparation for South Africa a headache, with some players to head over for a tour game starting on February 22, and others to go without any preparation for the first Test as they’ll be tied up playing for Australia’s Twenty20 side in New Zealand.
Australia are yet to decide how multi-format stars Steve Smith, David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Tim Paine and Pat Cummins divide their time, but they won’t be chopping and changing and will be selected for one or the other.
Twenty20 players would then fly to South Africa after the tri-series final on February 21, but would miss the four-day warm-up match in Benoni.
The tour match could pose as a shootout in a scenario where Bancroft and Burns were both picked.
Possible Australian squad for South Africa:
Bowlers: Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Jackson Bird, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Lyon
All-rounder: Mitchell Marsh
Wicketkeeper: Tim Paine
Batsmen: Steve Smith, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Joe Burns, (One of: Cameron Bancroft/Glenn Maxwell/Marcus Stoinis
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