Why selectors should ignore Matt Renshaw’s horror numbers and pick him for Gabba Test

ONE thing is clear about Australia’s first Test team – Cameron Bancroft must play. But so too should the out-of-form Matt Renshaw, writes Robert Craddock.

Matthew Renshaw reacts after being dismissed for one.

BEFORE we get to Matt Renshaw there’s one thing clear about Australia’s first Test team – Cameron Bancroft must play.

For the selectors to make a public plea for batsmen to step forward in the Sheffield Shield and Bancroft to respond with 390 runs for once out – including two mighty half centuries against the Test attack – is a case which transcends all parochial arguments.

If Bancroft does not play you might as well turn off the lights, shut down the Shield and pick names out of a hat.

Matthew Renshaw reacts after being dismissed for one.

But just because Bancroft plays it does not mean Renshaw misses out. I would have Bancroft batting at six and Renshaw opening in the first two Tests to prove himself at opener.

There is no other batsman in the country who deserves to be in the Test team. Glenn Maxwell’s form is too flakey. Hilton Cartwright is plodding.

Daniel Hughes is classy, improving and being watched closely but his career returns do not yet fully frank a Test call up.

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Marcus Stoinis is highly rated for his cool temperament but lacks runs. Mitchell Marsh isn’t bowling and Jake Lehmann is promising but not there yet.

With just 70 runs from six Sheffield Shield knocks this season Renshaw is badly out of form.

There is too much evidence to say it is bad luck. Every game Usman Khawaja looks dangerous. Renshaw, by contrast, is stuck in first gear, neither scoring nor threatening.

This will sound weird but the way he is batting is not too far removed from the way he must bat to frustrate England and pay a cheeky little dividend for the selectors if they are brave enough to keep the faith.

Against Jimmy Anderson, the best swing bowler Ian Chappell has ever seen, the most important shot on a nerve-wracked first morning at the Gabba is the one you don’t play – the leave.

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Renshaw has tried to be the master of denial this season saying “no’’ to just about everything outside off stump, waiting for the ball to come to him then working it to leg, the time honoured formula for out-of-form batsmen.

It sounds prudent but is dangerously one-dimensional because if a bowler keeps bowling outside off stump, how do you score a run?

That said, simply existing even if he is not expanding, could have its own rewards against Anderson and Stuart Broad.

Cameron Bancroft is almost certain to win a baggy green.

If you knew Renshaw was going to score 20 off 70 balls in an opening partnership of 55 with David Warner before being dismissed would you take it? Probably.

Renshaw is often compared to Matthew Hayden and we can say the comparison now has another common factor - the loathing of the audition innings. “A trait of my career was that every time I was on trial and had to get a big innings to nail selection I just really struggled to do it,’’ Hayden once said.

If Renshaw is dropped it does not automatically spell the end of him for most batsmen feel the axe at some stage.

Ricky Ponting got punted several times. Michael Clarke was heartbroken when the axe landed on him but it made him in the way it made Steve Waugh.

But bravery can have its own rewards. There are few sweeter moments for a panel than when they give a young player a cuddle when they could be shown the door and the big gamble is rewarded.

Originally published as Why selectors should ignore Matt Renshaw’s horror numbers and pick him for Gabba Test