Opening salvo for Test spot a reality TV contest

Should selectors stick with the tried-and-true or blood an up-and-coming star? Even Ricky Ponting can’t decide.

Joe Burns has done little wrong since he recall to the Test team Picture: Getty Images

The selection will be televised. Fox Sports is rolling its trucks out to a Sydney suburban cricket ground and will broadcast the showdown between the incumbent Joseph Anthony Burns and the challenger William Jan Pucovski.

The Australia A game against India A from December 6 will be played across three days and will feature the two hopefuls.

Cameron Green is due to play the same game to ensure he keeps up the pressure to gain a middle order place as a batsman while he redevelops his bowling muscle.

We’ve been here before. In 2009 Phillips Hughes and Jaques opened the batting for NSW at Newcastle No 1 Sports Ground in what was the quintessential ‘bat off’ for an opener’s place in the Australian squad.

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Hughes won that uneven contest over the senior batsman who was almost crippled with a back injury.

This affair is more complicated and not as necessarily clear cut. In the earlier instance Matthew Hayden had retired and Jaques had been out of the team since mid-year because of injury.

In this instance Burns is the incumbent and the strong messaging from Justin Langer and Trevor Hohns is that possession is 9/10ths of selection law. You do the hard work to get in and if you do your job you should not be overlooked.

Since returning to the team Burns has had a solid run: 97, 4, 9, 53, 0, 35, 18 and 40 against Pakistan and New Zealand in the 2019-20 summer. He has, as Ricky Ponting put it, not “done anything wrong”.

Problem is that Pucovski has not done anything other than the spectacular this season with a pair of double centuries in the Sheffield Shield where Burns has scores of 7, 29, 0, 10 and 11.

Incumbency may be 9/10ths of selection but that could be erased by a similarly lopsided return for the pair against India A.

Selectors are going to need the Wisdom of Solomon on this one. Selecting the squad for this Test series was one of the easier tasks this panel has had in recent years but selecting the team for the first Test might already be keeping them up at night.

Ponting spoke about the dilemma this week and while he started strong on the topic he ended up with splinters.

“I know when I was captain, I had a pretty strong philosophy with the selectors that once you‘re in my team, I wanted to do everything I could to make sure you stayed there,” Ponting told cricket.com.au this week.

“I didn‘t want to be making changes and I always felt it was my responsibility as captain to get the absolute best out of the players I had in my team.

“I think it gives individuals a bit more confidence to go out and play a certain way and not be scared about their position in the line-up. That adds a lot around the group.

“Burns hasn‘t done much wrong. If you go back to last summer, he played really well in the first Test in Brisbane and I remember saying then to lock him in and give him a good go at it for a while.

Will Pucovski and Joe Burns during an Australia A match against Pakistan last season Picture: Getty Images

“We read a lot into what’s happened in the first few rounds of Shield cricket, and because they haven’t played a Test match for so long, a lot people are forgetting what happened last summer.

“The boys have been on a roll with their performances in Test cricket and I always say you don’t want to be making too many changes if you don’t need to.

“But I think that’s where this one becomes a unique one; Burns is about 30, and you’ve got a young guy who seems to be at the peak of his powers, who’s been touted as a very good player for Australia and has been for a few years.

“That‘s where the decision is going to be a really tough one for them.“

Just when you thought he had backed Burns in Ponting admits the case for Pucovski is compelling.

Langer and Hohns have, more than once, cited the chemistry between Burns and David Warner as one of the things in the incumbent’s favour. Langer’s relationship with his big mate Matthew Hayden at the top of the order would loom large in the coach’s thinking and also the very real knowledge that a happy team is a usually a winning team. Some allowance for a confusion of cause and effect should be granted needs be granted around relationships and success. If you are winning you are generally in a better place.

Ponting, who was very close to Langer and Hayden but something of a third wheel when they played, is not so sure the veteran opener should have a say in it.

“I‘m surprised they’re even asking him, to be honest,” Ponting said.

“I know what they‘re talking about because they have done well when they’ve played together. It’s an interesting thing for a selector to come out and say.

“At the end of the day, they‘ve just got to pick who they think the best player is. And if they think their best player and best option is Joe Burns, then stick with him. If they think Pucovski is a better player here and now, they should go with him.

“I‘m just reading the tea leaves a little bit, even with what Justin had to say about the relationship between Burns and Warner, my gut feeling is they won’t go to Pucovski just yet.”.