Australia’s tour of New Zealand 2024: Despite shock loss to West Indies, conservative squad is the pragmatic choice for Aussies

While fans might reasonably ask why changes haven’t been made after Australia’s Gabba disaster against the West Indies, the chosen squad for NZ is the pragmatic choice, writes DANIEL CHERNY.

At face value it is counterintuitive.

How can Australia lose to the ramshackle West Indies for the first time in more than two decades and no one pays the price?

How is it that the sole addition to the squad is a soon-to-be 34-year-old bowler who has nine Sheffield Shield wickets at more than 50 for the season?

How does the spare batter keep his spot for the trip after twins twos in the Shield this week given he had won the position by a paper-thin margin in the first place?

At first glance, they are all reasonable questions, but all have defensible responses.

The shock Gabba defeat to the Windies last month is a result that selectors are hopeful and confident of being an aberration rather than the start of a marked decline.

Australia’s players look on after their shock loss to the lowly West Indies at the Gabba. Picture: Pat Hoelscher / AFP

Given that except for the retired David Warner they have effectively picked the same squad that drove them towards a World Test Championship last year and with which they hold every Test trophy possible save for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, it should be no shock that the panel of George Bailey, Tony Dodemaide and coach Andrew McDonald have shown loyalty to the incumbents.

There was never any real risk of tinkering with the revamped top six so soon after it was assembled, an assertion backed up by McDonald barely an hour after the Aussies had fallen to the sobering loss in Brisbane.

And despite overall diminished returns from the batting line-up, the sense from McDonald that day was that they had been toppled by a generational performance from Shamar Joseph, the type of one-off display from which sometimes all there is to do is dip your baggy green and say “well played young man.”

Michael Neser has just nine wickets this Sheffield Shield season at an average of over 50. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

Though the Frank Worrell Trophy had been tucked away inside seven sessions at Adelaide Oval earlier in the month, the Brisbane thriller jeopardised Australia’s WTC defence. Indeed on that front it was more costly than a loss to England or India given each series is weighted the same regardless of rubbers, meaning every Test in a two-Test series is in essence worth 250 per cent of the points of one in a five-Test series.

The upshot is Australia’s margin for error across its remaining series in this cycle has dwindled, meaning this is hardly the time to take dramatic risks with selection.

It is in this vein that they have recalled Michael Neser, still yet to play an away Test despite being picked for what is his sixth Test tour dating back to 2018.

It is not a sexy pick.

Neser sits 35th on this season’s Shield wicket-takers list, and those wowed by Xavier Bartlett and Spencer Johnson in recent weeks might be wondering why selectors are going back to the well with the veteran after Lance Morris and the perennially winged Jhye Richardson were ruled out.

Bailey attributed Neser’s selection to being a reward for long-term consistency – which cannot be debated – and as a nod to helpful seam conditions in the Shaky Isles.

It is also a pragmatic call. As the drinks carrier of his era, no one knows better than Neser how unlikely it is that he will play in New Zealand given the big three hegemony and Scott Boland’s position as the clear fourth seed.

Australia is hopeful the defeat at the West Indies is just an aberration off the back of a generational performance by Shamar Joseph. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

If indeed they are Test players of the future, it is more important that Johnson and Bartlett play some Shield cricket between now and the end of March given neither has played a first-class match since last April.

Then there is Matt Renshaw, the backup batter whose selection ahead of Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris last month was contentious. Twenty runs across three innings for Queensland this week were not the performances of a man banging the door down to replace Cameron Green, notionally still the most vulnerable of the incumbents.

Still it would have been a stretch to change the pecking order again on the back of just one Shield round, especially given Bancroft and Harris only performed modestly too.

Renshaw will get a couple of weeks in New Zealand but like Neser will need a dose of luck to play. Given Australia then doesn’t play a Test for another eight months, he will need to do a lot more between now and November to hold his position for the India series.