Australia’s big plans for forgotten Queensland opener Matt Renshaw
With Test opener Marcus Harris under mounting pressure selectors could look to recall forgotten man Matt Renshaw ahead of upcoming subcontinent tours.
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Matthew Renshaw could be thrust back to the top of Queensland’s order with an eye to reuniting him with David Warner next year as the forgotten man receives backing from the highest of places.
Legendary former captains Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh want Renshaw in the Test team – but are both puzzled by his move to No. 5 in the Sheffield Shield.
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Renshaw, a boyhood friend of Joe Root who batted with England’s captain in Yorkshire grounds as a five-year-old, has fallen off the map since being dumped on the eve of the 2017-18 Ashes.
But Queensland chairman of selectors Chris Hartley said the left-hander had matured greatly since bursting on to the Test scene as a 20-year-old and returning from a six-month mental health break last year.
“One of the reasons Matt shifted into that middle order was bringing him back after he had some time away from the game where he could work on a few areas that have now become strengths of his,” Hartley told News Corp on Tuesday.
“One in particular was playing spin. As an opening batsman you don’t get exposed to spin as often, but he’s gone away and worked on it and is actually one of our better players of spin now.
“And obviously being an opening batter he’s got that ability at No. 5-6 to counter the second new ball and really turn momentum back in our favour, which he’s done a number of times.”
Ashes opener Marcus Harris is on shaky ground, averaging just 22.2 after 12 Tests without a century.
Renshaw was dropped with a Test average of 36.6 and a high score of 184. His only appearance since came directly after the Cape Town sandpaper scandal as Warner and Steve Smith were banned.
But Australia has multiple subcontinent tours on the horizon, starting with three Tests in Pakistan in March, and the volume of spin bowling in those series could see the reprogrammed left-hander considered in the middle order.
Queensland’s stacked top-order includes future star Bryce Street, ex-Test opener Joe Burns, Ashes hero Marnus Labuschagne and captain Usman Khawaja, who all bat above Renshaw.
But Hartley said the Bulls would consider promoting Renshaw if it helped accelerate his Test return.
“We certainly are open to Matt batting back at the top of the order,” Hartley said.
“Right now we’ve got a couple of really strong options there, but ultimately we want to get Matt back into the Test side and if the next opportunity is back at the top then we’d certainly have to consider using him in that way.
“The great thing for him is the Australian selectors are aware that he’s got the game to do it at the top, because that’s where he started his Test career.
“We’re obviously striving success as a Queensland team, but we’re also trying to get our players up in national selection,” he said.
“If that was something that Justin Langer and the Australian selection panel were interested in seeing then … we would certainly have that discussion.
“Coming out of the Ashes we’ll see what the Australian selectors might like to see as well.”
Hartley said a Test recall could unlock Renshaw as a three-format player for Australia after developing a range of gears that are suited to the white ball.
Ponting said Renshaw could be the man beyond the Ashes — but added “he’s got to get back up the top of the order for Queensland”.
Waugh said: “I don’t know why he is batting in the lower order because he did a great job for Australia opening. He’s got a good technique but for some reason he is not the flavour of the day”.
The next Aussie opener is obvious … and it’s not even close
As Marcus Harris’s Test career slipped on to life support the reality sunk in that David Warner is destined to be remembered as a Batman who never quite found his Robin.
It’s on again, if not right now then soon enough … the search for another opening companion for Warner who has had 13 partners in his 87 Tests.
Warner has done well to forge an exceptional record without having the nourishment of a long term partner of the Hayden-Langer, Simpson-Lawry variety.
The 41 innings he partnered Chris Rogers between 2013-15, which averaged 51 runs each, was the closest it got.
As Warner enters the last few years of his Test career the question lingers – could his last chance be Usman Khawaja, a man who, incredibly, he opened the bowling with as a seven-year-old a quarter of a century ago?
If Australia wins in Adelaide as they may keep Harris but they owe him nothing and he currently is not good enough at the opening’s most important skill – letting dangerous balls go – to go the journey against decent attacks.
Teams expect to get Harris nibbling outside off stump so they ruthlessly probe that channel, often from around the wicket, and are often rewarded for cricket’s most obvious yet venomous thimble and pea trick.
Winning is seen as a reason for keeping a side together but it can also be the perfect time to blood an emerging youngster like Henry Hunt or Bryce Street, who has been compared to a young Justin Langer.
If Harris is dropped he can have no complaints because his Test record of 12 matches for 466 runs at 22 is notable for the amount of chances he has been given without cracking the code including his most recent dismissal for 23, brilliantly caught behind by Jos Buttler in the fifth time he has fallen to Stuart Broad in Tests.
There is a chance Australia could recall Khawaja some time this summer which would be an enchanting result for several reasons.
Australia's opening contenders
Marcus Harris
Test career
Matches: 12
Runs: 466
Average: 22.19
Usman Khawaja
Test career
Matches: 44
Runs: 2887
Average: 40.66
Bryce Street
First-class career
Matches: 22
Runs: 1349
Average: 40.87
Henry Hunt
First-class career
Matches: 22
Runs: 1579
Average: 38.51
The reunion of Warner and Khawaja, the two former seven-year-old new ball partners, at the top of the order would be quite something.
“He hasn’t changed much – even back then he was like Marnus (Labuschagne) on steroids,’’ Khawaja said of Warner.
“We did everything back then. It was a lot of fun.’’
Khawaja and Warner get along well and it would be interesting to watch the chemistry between them.
The other intriguing aspect of a Khawaja recall would be that it would open the door for him to play a Test in the country of his birth, Pakistan.
Khawaja was born in Islamabad and came to Australia with his family when he was five.
He has always had a desire to play a Test in his homeland and this could be his chance.
The finest innings of Khawaja’s Test career, a sublime, match-saving 141, came as an opener against Pakistan in Dubai.
If Australia wins the Ashes in a canter as they are likely to do it will take the pressure off but with three Test tours of the Indian subcontinent looming in the next two years they will want to find the right man to partner Warner.
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