Lab rat might be the answer after four flops in Test audition
The Indians were dismissed for a humiliating 46 against New Zealand last week. On latest evidence in the Sheffield Shield, 46 might be more than enough against Australia.
So much carnage in the Test bat-off there might be a dead body.
Sam Konstas? Two. Matt Renshaw? Two. Cam Bancroft? Eight. Usman Khawaja made a duck as if going down in sympathy. Steve Smith? A score Konstas, Renshaw and Khawaja could only dream of. Three. Marcus Harris? Sixteen. Marnus Labuschagne? Twenty-two.
It’s open slather for the Test vacancy alongside Khawaja atop the order against India. Best option for now? Bring back Dave Warner.
More flops than Dick Fosbury at the 1968 Olympics. The Indians were dismissed for a humiliating 46 against New Zealand last week. On latest evidence in the Sheffield Shield, 46 might be more than enough against Australia. All four prospective openers had a hit on Monday. All failed.
Let’s start with Konstas. He has a meticulous routine. He taps his bat once inside his crease and then lifts it hip-height. He lines up the toe of his blade with the top of off stump. Because any batter worth his salt or Test debut knows the whereabouts of his woodwork.
Konstas diligently stuck to his ritual in his first innings of the match between NSW and Victoria at the MCG on Monday. What a thrill for a 19-year-old., playing on one of the world’s greatest grounds. He was so eager to get to the middle he did a Pride of Jenni and bolted about 30 lengths clear of his opening partner, Nic Maddinson. The blink of an eye later, he had Test speedster and MCG virtuoso Scott Boland steaming in.
He left his first ball alone. It missed the stumps by about a wart. Then an outside edge fell perilously short of third slip.
An inside edge was nearly gobbled up by short leg. Konstas was nearly dismissed three times in his first five deliveries, but survived.
Perhaps his luck was in.
Perhaps it wasn’t.
A Boland inswinger veered like Marc Marquez’s Ducati at Phillip Island. Rapped the pads of the young fellow getting raps as a possible Test debutant this summer. Konstas motioned to the umpire that the ball was missing leg. The man in the middle figured otherwise, raising an index finger. Konstas was gone and Australian selection seemed as distant as Perth Stadium from the MCG.
No worries. Renshaw was getting started for Queensland against South Australia at Allan Border Field. He’d make a hundred alongside Khawaja, the confirmed Test opener, and we’d have our pairing. Renshaw was struck on the front pad by towering quick Jordy Buckingham. Replicating Konstas, he thought the umpire might benefit from a little advice. Renshaw suggested he nicked it, but he too was given short shrift by umpie, and Renshaw replicated Konstas in another way, recording a score so low it was hardly worth the effort.
Khawaja made a duck as if going down in sympathy. Bancroft failed. Harris played with more authority than Sunday but came a cropper to Mitchell Starc. As an aside, Starc has bowled the lights out. Most of the Vics have resembled scared little boys trying to face an adult for the first time.
Smith batted at number three for the Blues. He was at his fidgety, hyperactive, entertaining, shuffling, twitching and dedicated best for a while there. You could watch this fascinating character all day. And listen to his bellowing calls. No, not now! They would have heard him inside Rod Laver Arena. No run! They must’ve heard him on Bridge Rd.
Smith looked rock solid. He could bat at No. 3 for Australia, of course, and Labuschagne could play lab rat by opening with Khawaja.
Renshaw had been dismissed inside the first over, so Labuschagne and Khawaja were virtually opening anyway.
Labuschagne and Khawaja – there’s a formidable combination. A combined 122 Tests, 9,565 runs, 26 centuries, 46 fifties. Smith could stride out at first drop in his kingly robes, carrying even bigger numbers: 109 Tests, 9,685 runs, 32 hundreds and 41 half-centuries. A top three to be reckoned with. Then Smith was dismissed. And Labuschagne. That’s when you thought a dead body might wash up on the shore.
What a mad, sad and astonishingly bad Monday for the Test candidates. Konstas, Renshaw, Bancroft and Harris all failed. Murder on the dancefloor. Were we any the wiser about Australian selection and worthiness? No, not now! No runs! They batted like they’d fallen asleep. At least Starc is bowling like the wind.
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