Hohns urges unlucky ones to bang the door down for Test selection

A judgment call was the simple reason behind Australian selectors dropping two players with last-start Test hundreds.

A dejected Kurtis Patterson walks off after being dismissed by Jackson Bird in Southampton this week. Picture: Getty Images

A judgment call was the simple reason behind Australian selectors dropping two players with last-start Test hundreds and picking three players for the Ashes who have never reached three figures.

Both Joe Burns, who made 180 against Sri Lanka in February in his Test return, and Kurtis Patterson, who made an undefeated 114 in the same game, were “desperately unlucky” to miss the 17-man Ashes squad according to chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns.

Burns also made a century two weeks ago for Australia A, while Patterson didn’t pass 50 in seven innings on tour.

Instead Cameron Bancroft was recalled, while Marcus Harris and Marnus Labuschange, a trio with no Test hundreds between them, were given their chance to change that in the five-Test series.

“No one has done anything wrong, it’s just a judgment call on how people are playing at the time and what we think the requirements are,” Hohns said at the squad announcement in Southampton.

“He hasn’t done anything wrong and I think we ask all of our players these days if they are left out to just go back and bang the door down.”

The selection “squeeze” as Hohns called it was on well before the announcement with the “natural” return of Steve Smith and David warner.

Then the emergence of Bancroft demanded at least one member of the top six from Australia’s win over Sri Lanka in Canberra missed the squad.

In the end it was two, and Hohns conceded Burns issue with viral fatigue, which caused him to leave his county cricket stint with Lancashire, played a part in his non-selection.

“It probably didn’t help his cause going home, it would have been ideal for his preparation and to make a good case for himself to stay here and play county cricket,” Hohns said.

“However there was an issue there and no one can blame him for going home. He came over here, scored a hundred, as did Marcus Harris, so it was a tough call that one as to which one would suit us best over here, and ultimately Marcus has got the nod.

“We are very comfortable with the form of Marcus Harris, very much so.

“The same can be said for the middle order area where Kurtis Patterson operates, we have people like Travis Head who is averaging 50 in Test cricket, and then of course Marnus gives us the option of his batting and his legspin bowling.

“So yes there were some disappointments and all we can say to those fellows is desperately unlucky, but go back, keep doing what you’re doing, try to improve your game and belt the door down. We can’t say much more to them, it’s just the way the selection has gone, and desperately bad luck.”

Among the fast bowlers, the resurgent James Pattinson is firming for a spot in the starting side for the first Ashes Test, possibly at the expense of Mitchell Starc, who is still adapting to red-ball cricket after five months of one-day games.

Pattinson, and Pat Cummins, were standouts in the intra-squad match in Southampton, coming after the Victorian snared 7-77 for Australia A.

Test captain Tim Paine said Pattinson, who played the last of his 17 Tests in 2016, should be getting excited about “what might be ahead of him in the next week or so”.

After taking a record 27 wickets at the World Cup, Starc didn’t take a wicket on the bowler-friendly Southampton wicket until day three.

The left-armer, who took 10 wickets and was man of the match in his last Test against Sri Lanka in February, was given the all-clear after knee scans, but Paine conceded he may need more time to adjust to the demands of Test bowling.

THE HERALD SUN