Australia to face harsh reality that the squad depth simply isn’t there

With Australia staring down the barrel against a rampant Indian outfit, BEN HORNE explains the brutal reality facing selectors and fans.

Australia’s top order is in crisis and the chastening news is there is no one standing by to bail them out.

The heat is firmly on Marnus Labuschagne whose career is now at a crossroads.

Labuschagne has made just 123 runs from his past 10 innings at an average of 13.66 – with a 90 against New Zealand the only high point.

But despite the looming humiliation in Perth, selectors may still be unlikely to swing the axe because the queue behind the top order is wafer thin.

Australia won’t want to panic in the selection room after one shellacking, which they can get away with as a team with a lot of runs on the board over many years.

But the confronting truth is, sticking solid this series may have just as much to do with the dearth of options capable of stepping up to Test cricket, as it does a show of resounding faith in out of sorts stars.

In contrast, India is bulldozing their way through the first Test with arguably five of their best players not even in this XI, with captain Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Shami still to come back in, and Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja surplus to requirements in Perth.

India have come out firing at the first Test in Perth, without several key stars. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

At least three of those are giants of the game, Shami is great, and Gill could yet become great.

That’s scary for an Australian team who in comparison do not have much behind the XI forced to spend a draining day in the dirt in Perth’s 33 degree heat – aside from Cameron Green of course, who is out injured for the summer.

If day four isn’t quite D-Day for the remaining members of Australia’s wobbly top six, then the heat is certainly rising on batsmen to find form by the second Test in Adelaide, especially when India are holders of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and so are in theory already half a Test in front.

Former England captain and Fox Cricket expert Michael Vaughan fears the paper thin depth outside the Test team is only compounding the inconsistent returns of Labuschagne, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith and potentially leading to softening standards.

Debutant Nathan McSweeney obviously deserves a second chance, especially after a nightmare ball keeping low from Jasprit Bumrah pinned him for a duck, but there are problems everywhere and – at the moment – few obvious answers for Australia’s batsmen.

“I think obviously the batting unit is a batting unit that has had plenty of success in the past. There’s some great players in it, but consistently now for a number of games they’ve just not managed to score the runs that many would have expected, including themselves,” Vaughan said on Fox Cricket.

Australian batsmen including Travis Head and Steve Smith are facing extreme pressure to perform. Picture: Gareth Copley-ICC/ICC via Getty Images

“I just wonder about what’s underneath. What’s underneath this Australian batting line-up really pushing the standards in the first team?

“Standards generally get driven in a team because you’ve got many players pushing for places in it. I just don’t see too many doing that.

“You don’t want to be looking all the time in the past, but when Australia had a batting line up that had many world class players in it, I reckon you had seven or eight world class players not in it, and that’s just in the batting department.

“If I was an Australian fan I’d be worried that there’s just not the level of quality waiting to get into this team … (and) maybe some in the team are too comfortable because they feel like they’re not getting pushed by those outside of it.”

Given Australia felt its best option to fill the opening void for this series was turning to Nathan McSweeney, who had never opened for his state, it doesn’t inspire confidence about the top order batsmen waiting in the wings.

Nathan McSweeney was tasked with opening the batting, yet never opened for his state team. Picture: SAEED KHAN / AFP

Marcus Harris would be the next opening batsman option for Australia. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Marcus Harris, who was overlooked for McSweeney and when Smith became a makeshift opener last summer, is probably the next cab off the rank and he averages just 25 from 14 Tests – explaining why he hasn’t been called back already.

Wicketkeeper Josh Inglis has made a very good start to the Sheffield Shield season and is an excellent international player on the rise, but banking on him to replicate Matt Wade and succeed as a specialist Test batsman in a position higher than No.5 or 6 is a big call.

All-rounders Beau Webster and Aaron Hardie are outstanding domestic players but again don’t really help Australia as top order candidates.

Bowling wise, the ultra-reliable Scott Boland waits in the wings, but below him few stand out, although Spencer Johnson getting through 27 overs (and taking three wickets) in his first Sheffield Shield match for South Australia for some time is a positive.

Vaughan said the best case scenario for Australia out of the punishing opening three days in Perth is that they were majorly underdone after nine months with no Test cricket and will benefit from the run.

But Cricket Australia scheduling has hurt them again with no Sheffield Shield matches for Test batsmen to play in the long gap until Adelaide.

This Test and certainly this series could shape the future of Australia’s team, and Jasprit Bumrah is not the man you want to face when you’re balancing on the high wire.

“I think the debate over the next week or two going into the second and third Test matches will be, are Australia short of a gallop and they needed this game to get back into Test match cricket mode, or are they a team that’s just starting to get over the edge and they’re in need of a little medial work? That’s going to be the big debate over the next week or so,” Vaughan said on Fox.

“… When you’re playing against someone of quality like Jasprit Bumrah, arguably the best bowler in the world, he will expose any flaws. That might be technical, and particularly mental. If you have any doubts over your position in the side, or your own game, I think someone like Jasprit Bumrah will unearth that.”

Strap yourself in.

Originally published as Australia to face harsh reality that the squad depth simply isn’t there