Australia to think long and hard before settling on quicks solution

Australia is trying to figure out a way to squeeze Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood into the playing XI for Lord’s.

Mitchell Starc, right, is in the frame to make Australia’s XI for the Lord’s Test. Picture: Getty Images

England has lost James Anderson for the second Test and is wary of recalling Jofra Archer who is recovering from injury. Australia is trying to figure out a way to squeeze Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood into its playing XI for Lord’s.

That pretty much sums up where the two teams are at.

Four of the senior Australian players and coach Justin Langer have been sent for a holiday for a few days while the rest of the squad travelled to Worcester today to prepare for Wednesday’s tour match against the local county side. It should be an unpleasant affair for the host batsman as Australia’s shunned quicks aim to earn a place in the side for the second Test.

Justin Langer says, however, that selectors will choose a side suited to the conditions of the match and that it is possible there could be changes to the bowling line up.

Pat Cummins isn’t giving up his spot to anybody. The seamer is taking a break after picking up seven wickets in the Test, including 4-32 on the last day. Nathan Lyon is in the same position, the game’s leading wicket taker in the period since his debut passed 350 wickets on Monday when he picked up 6-49 to spin Australia to victory. He is about to pass Dennis Lillee the hunt for Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne’s top rankings on his country’s list of all-time wicket takers will start.

James Pattinson only bowled eight overs in the second innings and with a week until the next Test he will be fit, available and hard to ignore when the team sheet is handed to the match referee at Lord’s in seven days time.

Langer says Peter Siddle was pick of the bowlers at Edgbaston and rated his wicketless efforts on the last day “the best none for I have ever seen”.

David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are due runs and capable of delivering them. Steve Smith is making runs in his sleep, Matthew Wade made a century on return, Travis Head got a half century and wants more and Usman Khawaja was important.

Tim Paine has just captained his side to one of the great victories in the first Ashes Test and is sitting on a 1-0 advantage, the best wicket keeper in the country well positioned to achieve in England what Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke’s teams could not in 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2015.

The Prime Minister, himself well experienced in defying the odds and overcoming ministerial scandals, has taken to tweeting about Smith’s exploits. He should not mind if we use one of his phrases: what’s not to like about Australia?

Langer admits it will be hard to leave out Starc and Hazlewood, saying it was only a “gut feel” that saw Siddle start ahead of the first, but it will be just as hard to leave out any of the seamers who played in this match.

“They didn’t bowl that many overs in the second innings, we were really nervous after the first innings because Patto bowled 27 overs in the first innings, that’s a lot of overs and we thought if he blows out to a 50 over game for all of our guys that starts putting some pressure on their body with the spikes they are going to get, but they didn’t bowl that many overs in the second innings which is going to give us a really good headache going into the next Test,” he said.

“We have always said, all through the World Cup and for this series — from day one — that we will look at the wicket at Lord’s with the slope and the grass on it and there might be a bit of extra bounce (and then decide).

“We will pick the team that we think will win this Test match and that’s the way we will keep going.”

England suffered when Anderson broke down on the first morning of the Test and selector’s will be wary of recalling Archer for fear of the same. Joe Root defended the call to name the veteran quick in the first Test.

“If someone’s declared fit to play, and there’s a unanimous decision to pick someone, you’ve got to put full trust in that,” he said. “Because it’s the same area in general it’s easy to ask questions about the process and the decision-making going into it. With Jofra, we’re in a slightly different situation where he’ll have played a lot of cricket in between and we’ll have a clearer idea of where he’s at. We’ll turn up to Lord’s and make sure in the next few days we don’t make any shotgun decisions. We’re very clear about how we’re going to select the squad and go from there.”

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