Australia to sack Matt Renshaw and call-up wicketkeeper Tim Paine for first Ashes Test
AUSTRALIA has sacked Matthew Renshaw and plucked Tim Paine from the Tasmanian Wilderness to keep in his first Test in seven years for the opening Ashes Test.
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Australia has sacked Matthew Renshaw and pulled a selection stunner by plucking Tim Paine from the Tasmanian Wilderness to keep in the first Ashes Test.
Cameron Bancroft will make his Test debut against England as an opener, but the earth-shattering shock is that 32-year-old Paine will pull on the gloves despite not keeping for his State all season.
Paine played the last of his four Test matches way back in 2010, and after a devastating finger injury suffered in a charity game a few years ago it seemed as though a promising career had been dashed.
However, the experienced campaigner has leapfrogged Peter Nevill as well as Tassie teammate and Australian incumbent Matthew Wade to keep wicket for Australia in the biggest series of them all.
After a week of toing and froing, the great white hope from last summer Renshaw has fallen by the wayside.
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The 21-year-old was the beacon for a new Australia when picked out of the crisis that engulfed the team 12 months ago, but after a lean patch where he has scored just 70 runs in six Shield innings, selectors have decided that he doesn’t have the form to go into battle against Jimmy Anderson.
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It’s an enormous blow to the confidence of a young player, but the form of West Australian Bancroft cannot be ignored and he will be given his opportunity in his best position at the top of the order.
Renshaw is far from the first up and coming star to be dropped from the Test side and Australia will be hoping his axing proves a career turning point as it has for the likes of Matthew Hayden and Steve and Mark Waugh before him.
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Shaun Marsh is a strong chance to return as Australia’s No. 6, unless selectors decide they want an all-rounder at No.6.
From Australia’s last Test match, which was against Bangladesh in early September, Wade, Glenn Maxwell and possibly Hilton Cartwright are the main casualties, although Ricky Ponting believes Cartwright is firmly in the mix to play.
Paine has given a taste of what he can do against the English, making a solid 52 for the Cricket Australia XI in Adelaide last week in a tour match.
From there, Paine was thrown back into the Tasmanian side to face Victoria — but bizarrely wasn’t given the gloves — however an unbeaten 71 not out at the MCG reinforced that he is in good batting nick.
That said, Paine looms as a gigantic bolter, given he only kept in three matches for Tasmania last year and has made just one first-class century in his career.
However, the Australian camp rates him as a world class gloveman and an inspiring team man.
Paine made his Test debut alongside Steve Smith against Pakistan at Lord’s more than seven years ago.
Against India later that year he also played two Tests, making two half centuries, including a 92 in Mohali.
For the first time ever superstar quicks Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins will combine — with right-arm tearaway Cummins to make his debut on home soil.
Bancroft was in 2015 the heartbreak kid when he was picked to go on an Australian Test tour of Bangladesh, only for it to be cancelled due to security problems.
But now he is getting his opportunity in the form of his life — fresh from a double ton against South Australia at the WACA.
AUSTRALIAN LIKELY XI FOR FIRST ASHES TEST: David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (capt), Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird (12th)