Australia Test scout: Selectors pray Sheffield Shield opener answers key questions for India series
A potential Cameron Green sized hole has left Aussie selectors with a huge headache. And after having their first look at how to solve it, it’s now even more unclear, as a 19-year-old and a veteran both made monster hundreds.
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Someone new. Someone fresh. Someone not tainted by Test failures past. Someone who could be anything.
It was probably no surprise that on the first day of the Sheffield Shield season, the 152 of teenage NSW opener Sam Konstas against South Australia seemed to most excite the commentariat.
With Cameron Green’s injury leaving the distinct possibility that Australia could start the Test summer without a player in its XI under the age of 30, the prospect of Konstas leapfrogging all and sundry was tantalising.
The idea that Konstas - though clearly prodigious - should suddenly be in the Test frame is a touch ridiculous. It is one century against a solid but hardly almighty SA attack. But with a pair of Australia A matches against India A to come ahead of the first Test, selectors would surely at least be contemplating blooding the Sydney local - mentored by Shane Watson and managed by his wife Lee - to see if he can swim at the next level.
So what then of that trio of Test discards: Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft and Matt Renshaw? WA’s Bancroft got a gem from Queensland’s Michael Neser - another veteran still not going away - to fall first ball at the WACA Ground on Tuesday.
Across the continent, Harris overcame the early challenge of Tasmania’s seamers to produce a classy 143, putting on 239 for the third wicket with fellow centurion Peter Handscomb after the Vics were inserted.
As far as Junction Oval pitches go, this was on the trickier side. A deck that had been under covers in the days leading up to the match had a fair smattering of grass and offered plenty for the seamers early. Just ask the obdurate Ash Chandransinghe whose return to Shield cricket yielded a first over duck when he left a length Gabe Bell delivery that clipped the off-bail.
But it was still the Junction, it was still October, and it was still Marcus Harris making bulk runs to leave you wondering what it all meant.
This was Harris’ seventh Shield ton at the venue to make it 29 all up in first-class cricket. It was a terrific innings, but you have to wonder how much stock the selection panel including Tony Dodemaide - on duty in Melbourne on Tuesday - place in more Harris runs at a venue where he averages around 70 in Shield cricket?
The prognosis on Green’s back is still unclear, with CA keeping the specifics of his scan results a state secret for the time being, perhaps weighing up the benefits and risks of him playing as a specialist batter while recuperating from the back issue sustained during what has proven to be a costly tour of England.
How will selectors know whether Harris has improved to the extent he is ready to make the jump if Green’s injury creates an opening in the top six and quite possibly at the top of the order if Steve Smith drops back down to No. 4?
In a rare turn of events, cricket’s jumbled fixture is set to provide help. It just so happens that Harris and the Vics are due to play NSW at the MCG in the second Shield round starting on October 20.
Not just any old Blues side though. Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon are set to play, although Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are now looking a bit more doubtful.
But if Harris, 32, was ever going to be able to prove that he is a different player to the man who averages 25.29 across 14 Tests, this will his best chance to do so.
Harris has worked keenly on his mental game over the off-season and is trying to avoid falling into the trap of riding the bumps of an umpteenth Test selection race.
“Probably in the past, it’s weighed on my mind a lot more than what it is at the moment,” Harris said at stumps on day one.
“I’m just sort of playing it as it comes at me. I think last year was a good lesson for that. I’ll just keep playing whatever I’m playing and trying to put some runs on the board. I think it’s always helpful if you get runs earlyin the season, to sort of kickstart your season a little bit. But, yeah, just focus on what I’m doing here.”
But if he can tame Lyon, Starc and company, the panel’s attention will have to be grabbed.
By the same token, should Konstas manage to do what he did against SA against Scott Boland at the ground where he might one day be a statue then those calls for the kid’s expedition will be more grounded in reality.
Test scout: The Aussie hopes hanging on Shield opener
- Jacob Kuriype and Joe Barton
Cricket is back. Summer is nearly here. And it’s time for Australia’s Sheffield Shield stars to grab the spotlight.
Australia’s Test selectors will enter the summer with more headaches about the make-up of their best XI than they’ve had in recent years – adding extra weight to the importance of performances in the opening round of the Shield.
With question marks surrounding the top of the order, the usage of Steve Smith and Travis Head, and the fitness of all-round options Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh, there’s multiple moving parts when it comes to nailing down the team that will face India in the first Test in Perth next month.
That opens the door for fringe stars, forgotten options and the best young talent in the country in the opening round of the domestic first-class competition.
Marcus Harris
Six years ago Marcus Harris’ long wait for a baggy green came to an end as he was called up to play India.
He will be hoping for history to repeat this summer, after riding the pine for Australia for the better part of two years before being usurped for selection by Steve Smith’s surprise move to the top of the order.
Smith is expected to return to the middle order this summer, and with Cameron Green injured there could be room for a specialist opener.
He’d be forgiven for thinking selectors owe him one, but he’ll need to make his mark if he is going to be recalled. The Victorian averaged 29.75 in the Sheffield Shield last summer, but enjoyed himself in county cricket in the winter (388 runs at 43.11) and recently notched a half-century in the One-Day Cup.
All-round headache
It’s seemingly a bad time to be a seam-bowling all-rounder in Australia right now.
With an injury cloud hanging over Cameron Green, there could be a hole to fill in Australia’s Test XI.
Unfortunately for selectors, they won’t get a chance to scout the two leading contenders to replace the tall-timber this week – both Aaron Hardie and Will Sutherland are sitting out the opening round of the Sheffield Shield.
Hardie was ruled out of Western Australia’s match against Queensland with a quad issue, while Sutherland was sidelined for “load management” reasons.
The injury is particularly untimely for Hardie, who has looked a Test player in waiting for a while now. With a first-class batting average of 40.45 and bowling average of 28.53, the 25-year-old did his cause no harm on Australia’s limited overs tour of England where he shone with bat and ball.
Cameron Bancroft
The forgotten man of Australian cricket? That’s certainly the view of fans from out west, who have called for Bancroft’s return to the Test team after excellent displays across the past three Sheffield Shield seasons.
Bancroft has spent five years out of the Test team, but has kept his name at the selection table by piling on the runs for Western Australia. The leading Shield runscorer two years ago – with 945 at an average of 59 – Bancroft was second only to Beau Webster last summer, plundering another 778 with three centuries.
With question marks around the top of the Australian order, the 31-year-old Bancroft is sure to be in discussion. But runs are the best currency, and getting them early will be a big tick in his favour.
Captain Marnus
Marnus Labuschagne has got a strangle hold on the No.3 position but his form over the early rounds of the Sheffield Shield will be worth paying attention to.
The dogged right-hander is captaining the Bulls for the first time since being handed the reins. Queensland will be hoping that is the first step in his eventual succession to Pat Cummins as Australia’s Test skipper.
How he fares tactically and how the responsibility affects his performance could have both short and long-term effects.
Captaincy aside, Labuschagne will be intent on putting two middling years behind him. The 30-year-old is averaging 30 in Test cricket in 2024, having averaged 34.91 in 2023 – well short of the 62.29 he averaged from 2019 to the end of 2022.
Matthew Renshaw
Like Bancroft and Harris, Renshaw will eye an opportunity to break back into the national set-up with the news that the Steve Smith opening experiment looks set to end.
Renshaw has featured most recently of the trio, playing in India last year, and been a travelling reserve – indicating he is the next cab off the rank – but his Shield returns in recent years haven’t been mindblowing.
Just three centuries in the past three years, and a meagre average of 24.93 last year, aren’t exactly knocking down the door of selectors.
But Renshaw, and his measured approach to occupying the crease, is well liked by selectors and he could very easily mount a compelling case if he can cash in against a strong Western Australian bowling lineup this week.
Michael Neser
As outlined above, Australia has some genuine concerns when it comes to filling the Test all-round spot.
And while Green – and Mitchell Marsh – are predominantly bat-first options, Australia could go in another direction and give their front-line quicks a genuine back-up who can soak up bulk overs.
Neser has twice played for Australia as a fast bowler, but could he be a stop-gap to fix the all-rounder conundrum?
The 34-year-old has become a more reliable batting option recently, hitting four of his five first-class centuries in the past two years while lifting his average towards 30.
Another whose name always comes up at the selection table. A bright start to the Shield season with the bat, especially, could rocket him into calculations.
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Originally published as Australia Test scout: Selectors pray Sheffield Shield opener answers key questions for India series
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