Five bowlers for Boxing Day Test can blast Australia to series win over New Zealand
Australia coach Justin Langer has hinted a flat wicket at the MCG could lead to a pace bowler replacing a batsman for the second Test. ROBERT CRADDOCK explains why that may a smart call.
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Six batsmen, a keeper, a spinner and three quicks. It’s been the safe option in Test cricket for more than a century but it’s not always the right one.
Australia is contemplating the rare gamble of playing an extra fast bowler instead of a batsman in the Boxing Day Test but they’ll only do it if the wicket looks as if it’s a transplanted section of St Kilda Road.
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It won’t please the purists but there are a wide range of reasons why it might be the right call to bring in both James Pattinson and Michael Neser and drop a batsman, say Travis Head.
There has been some relevant arguments on social media claiming Head would be unlucky to go with a Test average of 40.82 after 15 matches given Ricky Ponting (40.73), Michael Clarke (40.31), Steve Smith (35.22) and Matthew Hayden (33.88) all had inferior records after the same number of Tests.
Fair point. We tend to forget many of Australia’s finest batsmen took years to find themselves at Test level.
But Head would not be gone for good. His absence would be condition-sensitive and he might be only gone for one Test.
Here are five points why four fast bowlers could work.
BECAUSE BOWLERS CAN BAT
Given the right conditions Australia’s tail can wag like a newborn puppy’s at playtime.
Pat Cummins at his best can fight with the best of them, James Pattinson is averaging almost 27 in Tests while Mitchell Starc’s big hitting has netted him an average of 22.
Even Nathan Lyon is improving at the end of the innings. They’ll be fine on a flat deck.
Why not challenge them to score 80 between them?
BECAUSE FIVE IS ENOUGH
If the wicket really is as flat as it has been in recent years five in-form batsmen should be enough.
Surely Warner, Labuschagne or Smith will go mega-big. Cricket teams occasionally should be chosen to tackle the conditions and the more they are slanted one way the more you prepare for them by stocking up the other way.
On raging seamers, for instance, teams can often do with an extra batsman.
On ultra-flat decks an extra bowler can be priceless and change the whole vibe of the attack.
BECAUSE NESER CAN BAT
Neser’s batting record suggests he would be a typical Test match No 7 which is where he would bat, behind Tim Paine, if Australia goes this way.
While Neser has not scored a first class century and his first class average is a modest 25 he averaged almost 44 in Sheffield Shield cricket last season.
BECAUSE OF THE DOUBLE HEADER
Back-to-back Tests are infamous bowler killers.
It’s been a massive year for the bowlers and with the Sydney Test starting four days after Melbourne why not freshen up the troops by playing an extra quick.
BECAUSE OF BODYLINE BOUNCEBACK
On the Ashes tour there was a sense that Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson may not be ideal choices in the same team because they are attacking bowlers and things could get away if they don’t click.
That vibe has changed due to Starc’s increased accuracy but if they are given the support of a couple of extra quicks they have the chance to switch on the afterburners and attack at full throttle in short, sharp spells if required.
Originally published as Five bowlers for Boxing Day Test can blast Australia to series win over New Zealand