Peter Nevill set to reclaim Test wicketkeeping role for first Ashes Test
AUSTRALIA might have decided its wicketkeeper for the first Ashes Test, with selectors poised to recall Peter Nevill 12 months after he was controversially axed.
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PETER Nevill is set to reclaim his place as Test wicketkeeper, armed with a mandate to be Steve Smith’s eyes and ears this Ashes series.
Unless there’s a dramatic twist in the first innings of the Sheffield Shield round starting on Monday, Nevill looks poised to cap an extraordinary roller coaster ride and return to the post he was so controversially axed from 12 months ago.
Australia don’t expect Nevill to completely change his personality and suddenly be a loud voice out on the field.
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However, they’re demanding more presence from the 32-year-old gloveman, something Nevill has already started finetuning for NSW.
Australian spinner Nathan Lyon had a good bond with Matthew Wade as well, but admits no one knows his game as intimately as Nevill.
Lyon said a stint as NSW captain during the recent one-day Cup has given Nevill the ideal platform to launch his reworked presence behind the stumps, should he get a Test call-up later this week.
Wade and Alex Carey would seemingly need to do something special to rob Nevill now.
“I’ve always felt Nev has been a good driver for any side I’ve ever played in,” said Lyon yesterday.
“I actually find Nev controls the energy really well.
“He’s probably not as vocal as Wadey and he doesn’t say as much up to the stump mic as Wadey does, but that’s the way Wadey gets into a fight and I’ve got no dramas with that.
“I think the way Nev controls his teammates and gets his bowlers going around … everyone loves playing under Pete and everyone has so much respect for him.
“I’ve got a lot of time for Nev … the way he’s controlled the energy over the last couple of Shield games has been pretty impressive.”
Wade is the man who made Lyon a cult hero last summer with the “Bowling Garry” catchphrase, but Nevill knows the man they call the GOAT inside out.
With Lyon in the form of his career heading into the Gabba Test, Nevill could be set to capitalise on one of the tighter relationships in cricket.
“Nev knows my game better than anyone if I’m being brutally honest,” said Lyon at a Toyota sponsor’s event in Sydney, where the spinner bowled to a bunch of the car company’s Finnish rally car drivers.
“I’ve played a lot of Shield cricket with him. I’m about to play Big Bash with him and I’ve played a lot of Test matches with him as well.”
Australian selectors will wait until halfway through this round of Shield matches before finalising their side, with the 12 man squad to be named on Friday.
Matt Renshaw is expected to hold his place at the top of the order, although another failure against NSW could put him right on the edge.
The No.6 race is wide open — with questions now being asked about whether selectors need to find a man capable of chipping in a few overs, now that Nathan Coulter-Nile has joined James Pattinson on the sidelines as a fast bowler out of action for the entire Ashes.
Glenn Maxwell has made two half centuries, is an incumbent in the side, can bowl a few overs of spin, and could be set for his first Test match on home soil.
According to Australian star and Victorian teammate Peter Handscomb, Maxwell’s abilities on hard, bouncy pitches shouldn’t be questioned.
“I think he’ll be perfectly fine. You just have to look at his first-class record in Australia. He averages 40, so that’s a good effort to start with. It seems to suggest he can play quicks perfectly fine,” said Handscomb in a recent interview.