Australia needs a settled side for Ashes series, says Russell Gould

WHEN Australia won the Ashes in 2013, the home team did not change from the first Test to the last. How times have changed.

Cameron Bancroft is the latest batsman to put his hand up for Ashes selection.

LAST time the Ashes were fought for in Australia, in 2013, the home team was victorious. Easily too.

It was a 5-0 whitewash during which the Aussie XI did not change from the first match to the last.

Ah, the good old days.

That’s the sort of scenario the current crop of national selectors, headed up by Trevor “Cracker” Hohns, could only dream of.

The reality is Australia has been unable to lock on to anything that resembles a consistently successful side in its past 15 Tests, and has slumped to fifth on the ICC rankings as a result.

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Starting with the 3-0 shellacking at the hands of Sri Lanka in the winter of 2016, through to the lucky 1-1 escape against Bangladesh in September, 26 players have worn the baggy green for Australia.

That figure could reach 27 should the groundswell of support for red-hot West Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft results in his elevation to the national team for the opening Ashes Test at the Gabba next week.

Cameron Bancroft is the latest batsman to put his hand up for Ashes selection.

A week out from the start of the series, we don’t really know who should open, keep, or bat at No.6.

The call to arms from selectors, and captain Steve Smith to “go forth and get runs” in three straight Sheffield Shield matches to lock down those spots was heeded by no one other than Bancroft.

In fact, everyone else did the complete opposite, creating a week of Ashes Idol auditions.

Tasmanian skipper George Bailey, who dubbed himself the “whitewash wizard” after his role in the romp to victory four summers ago, made a hundred himself at the MCG on Monday and said his “phone was on”.

He was joking, but so dire was the pre-match situation, not for Tassie but for Australia, that he brought in wicketkeeper Tim Paine, as a batsman, because if “he or Matty Wade got a hundred, they could get the call up”.

What a shocking picture that paints of the current state of our national cricketing affairs.

Of course the selectors could very well have had their side locked and loaded before all the last ditch efforts to get in this week. You’d hope they would have a pretty clear picture at least. It’s not like the Ashes series has suddenly popped up from nowhere.

There’s plenty of talk Peter Nevill will return to the Test side for the Ashes.

But the chopping and changing through the past 15 Tests suggests they are not quite sure about their own judgment. They called the turnstile a “horses for courses” policy as the Test team travelled the sub-continent. But that lack of continuity has lead to calls for a return to the “pick and stick” success of previous times.

That was, however, when the team was winning.

In the 15 Tests just gone, in which only three players, skipper Steve Smith, opener Dave Warner and once-maligned but now revered spinner Nathan Lyon played in every one, the Aussies won six, lost eight, and drew one.

While the top end held things together, at the other end of the scale there were seven players brought in for two Tests or less. Four players got just a single go at it through that stretch before being sent away for possible re-consideration somewhere down the track. Maybe.

That time has come this week for Peter Nevill, who could get another look in after being dropped 10 Tests ago.

But he’s the only one set for another chance, after Bancroft provided the only other name for Hohns and company to even consider.

Most of the incumbents will get first crack at staking a claim for a long-term spot, and to win back to Ashes. But their presence doesn’t scare a few old English types who don’t rate them too highly.

Ian Botham called the Aussie batting line-up “one of the poorest I’ve seen” while former off-spinner and long-time antagonist Graeme Swann said it was “one of the weakest” to turn out for Australia in decades.

It was during Ricky Ponting’s time as Aussie skipper that the saying “it’s harder to get out of the Test team than in” emerged, because his team rarely if ever changed.

He has watched on as the ins and outs skyrocket in recent times, but remained unalarmed ahead of the Ashes.

Ponting thinks the home team will “win easily”.

He tried to endorse the batting line-up in the wake of the English attacks too.

“I reckon they’re going OK, those blokes, I don’t reckon it’s that weak at all,” Ponting said.

We’ll take “not weak at all” as a massive pump up because hope more than overwhelming confidence is all we have to cling on to right now.