Australia v Sri Lanka Test cricket: Aussie selection resembles reality show

Australian cricket has resembled reality TV the past year. Ugly, occasionally entertaining and a stark reminder of where we are.

Steve Smith, left, and the new faces of Australian cricket.

Australia’s Great Test Makeover III is set for launch under lights in Brisbane this Thursday.

Producers and fans will be hoping the introduction of new characters Will Pucovski, Kurtis Patterson and Jhye Richardson will inject new energy into a storyline that grew tired quickly after showing some early promise in season two.

The judges on the selection panel will be hoping the chosen few perform better than some of their recent choices.

Australian cricket has resembled a reality television program in the past 12 months. It hasn’t been pretty. It’s occasionally been entertaining, but it is a sobering reminder of the times we live in.

Aaron Finch came then went. Shaun Marsh and his brother Mitchell are gone. Marnus Labuschagne was in, then out and is in again. Joe Burns was in and out and looked in again but might be out again. Matthew Renshaw should have been in, but was out and is now in when he should be out, which only goes to show how the panel is turning itself inside out in the search for the right cattle.

MORE: Selectors opt for new line-up

Selectors at least look like they have found the right setting for this series.

By the end Finch looked like he was in an episode of “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”. He did well in UAE but looked increasingly lost in three matches against India. It must have come as a relief to be taken from the island (or whatever it is that happens in such programs).

Shaun Marsh may have been in a similar state of mind.

Patterson is rushed in on the strength of two centuries in a tour match. Add to it one in a club game the previous weekend and you can see the strength of his case.

Selectors need to be applauded for being flexible enough to admit that his argument was stronger than that put forward by Joe Burns and Matthew Renshaw, who were picked in the squad but failed to fire in the day-night match against Sri Lanka.

At least Marnus Labuschagne and Pucovski showed enough to save the panel from further blushes.

The social media level insanity of the lead-up to the match should not, however, detract from the anticipation of what is at hand.

Pucovski’s debut brings a level of excitement — if not level of experience of total of runs — that matches the call-up of Phil Hughes in 2009.

Just 20 years old and with only a handful of first-class game under his belt, the Victorian showed just how good he is when he made 243 against WA earlier in the Sheffield Shield summer. Cricket has been aware of his talent for a decade, and few who saw him play in recent years doubted this moment would come.

Patterson’s call-up looks to have cruelled Joe Burns’s chances. Before the tour match it was assumed that Burns would play on the back of a solid Shield summer (average 47) and previous Test experience.

If he misses out Burns will have every reason to feel hard done by. He was called up in the moment of crisis after the three players were banned in South Africa and played the last Test there, performing well enough given the circumstances.

Aaron Finch was favoured for the UAE tour against Pakistan and then persisted with as an opener in Australia _ an idea that seemed ill-advised from the outset.

When Finch was axed for the last Test Labuschagne was slotted into the middle order and Usman Khawaja used as a placeholder at the top of the order with Marcus Harris.

Khawaja could find himself opening for this series before resuming a more suitable place in the order when David Warner returns.

Patterson’s NSW team-mates are convinced he is ready for the next level, Trent Copeland saying he “hasn’t seen a player better prepared for Test cricket since Steve Smith”.

Selection is not done yet, but tune in on Thursday. It should be fun.