It might have taken a disaster, but at least we’re talking about Test cricket again

THE greatest hatchet job in Australian cricket history has had one benefit already — people are talking about Test cricket again writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Sheffield Shield. QLD v SA at The Gabba. Matt Renshaw on his way to 50 runs. Pic Mark Calleja

AMAZING but true. A Test squad chosen by the national selectors has matched the one picked by the fat man woofing down a stubby on the couch.

You could call it the “We’ve had a gutful XI,’’ Australia’s greatest Test match hatchet job in 132 years by a group of selectors given a licence to shoot up the town after the sudden departure of chairman Rod Marsh meant all previous bets were off.

As a chorus of fans around the country shouted “sack these blokes, they’re no good’’ just for once the selectors have said “we agree … cop this’’ and sacked half the squad.

This is one of the most significant Test teams Australia has ever chosen with dam-bursting frustration dripping off every change.

All at once this team is exciting, vulnerable, interesting, gettable and high risk in the extreme although the alternative options had less spark than a flat battery so it is less of a gamble than it appears.

Matt Renshaw is in, but fellow Queensland Joe Burns did not survive the purge.

Fasten your seat belts for a bumpy ride where every success and failure is over-exaggerated.

The perverse benefit — even though it’s taken a disaster to do it — is that Australian fans are suddenly talking Test cricket again.

Cynical talk it may be but better than no talk at all.

And nothing wins doubting hearts quicker than a young debutant made good.

Heads are turning and it is now Steve Smith’s challenge to keep their interest.

Matt Renshaw will make his Test debut because he has managed to sidestep a batting cancer sweeping Australia.

It’s called paralysis by fear and anxiety.

Poor Joe Burns and Callum Ferguson were so determined to shore up their Test futures the stress of it all swallowed them whole and scrambled their radar.

Could Renshaw be the player Australia needs.

Cameron Bancroft has been tipped so often as a Test opener of the near future he now carries the expectation like a ball and chain and is struggling to get out of first gear.

Enter Renshaw the bolter. The man who, until The Courier-Mail’s Ben Dorries tipped him as a Test contender last Thursday, no one was talking about.

Apart from his obvious technical assurity, Renshaw’s selection is a punt on the greatest virtue of unscarred youth — a free, unshackled mind.

How often does it work like this in life and sport that victory goes to the scooper who dive-bombs through the pressure at the last moment?

That’s not to say Renshaw did not have special pressures. He walked out to bat on Thursday with his face plastered over the front and back of The Courier-Mail as a youngster who could become the Test match bolter.

RUTHLESS: Heads hit the floor as new era begins

EXCLUSIVE: Poor form has TV deal in tatters

Significantly, the challenge lifted rather than daunted him and his innings of 108 and 51 made his case irresistible.

The tall left-hander strongly resembles Matthew Hayden at the crease and the comparison runs even deeper than their powerful physical presence.

Some say Hayden was more cavalier but in his early days he was very much a Renshaw sort of player.

Before he spread his wings Hayden spent hundreds of hours grooving a shrewd defensive game made for seaming decks the Gabba where his bat swung like a pendulum in a low risk arc.

Once the concrete slab had been laid, then came the fancy interior decorating.

It worked for one Matt the Bat. It might just work for another.

Originally published as It might have taken a disaster, but at least we’re talking about Test cricket again