The Test contenders: One opening spot and a wide open field to fill it

Tried and previously tested? New and possibly improved? But after Steve Smith’s dramatic shift up the order, probably not borrowed.

Australian selectors have themselves an old-fashioned clichéd conundrum to kick off the Test summer, with an opening slot to fill and a month to do so before India arrive boasting the Border-Gavaskar trophy Australia hasn’t held in a decade.

With Cameron Green sidelined through injury, Smith returns to No.4.

And in Smith’s place now? The tried, previously tested and found wanting, in Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris or Matt Renshaw?

Perhaps the new, prodigiously talented – and possibly an improvement – Sam Konstas?

Already, the idea of borrowing from elsewhere in the batting line-up once more – with a Travis Head or Mitch Marsh shuffling north – has been all-but scotched.

All of which drags all eyes to a handful of Sheffield Shield matches beginning on Sunday, two more Australia A outings at either end of the country, and then, an Indian attack boasting far more compelling credentials on Australian soil than most any touring side in recent times.

Bancroft and Harris: Back to the well once more?

Selection chair George Bailey naturally turned to Bancroft and Harris on Monday as leading opening options, pointing to their consistency at state level. Critics naturally counter with the caveat in Bailey’s comments “they’ve both had a look at Test cricket as well”.

As Australia A’s leading openers against Indian counterparts in two four-day games, the floor is all theirs, particularly given Renshaw’s omission points to a slide down the pecking order, just eight months after being Australia’s reserve Test batter.

On Shield numbers alone, Bancroft is the standout. His seven hundreds for Western Australia in the past two seasons have him batting long and streets ahead of all comers in aggregate and averages.

The first Test being played on Perth’s Optus Stadium pitch – not quite Bancroft’s native WACA deck, but still Australia’s bounciest – against world-class Indian quicks Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj also plays into his favour.

So too, his status as one of the country’s best fielders. At 31, he is a different prospect entirely from the one trashed by Sandpapergate, with the last of his 10 Tests (446 runs at 26.23) coming in 2019, after which he was dropped by Western Australia and since rebuilt into the domestic game’s most consistent batter.

Much like Bancroft, Harris’s Test record – 607 runs at 25.29 from 14 outings – hasn’t convinced selectors or fans, the left-hander last getting the nod in the New Year’s Ashes Test of 2021-22 when Usman Khawaja made the most memorable of returns with twin centuries.

Harris made way for Khawaja as a result and toured England last winter as the squad’s reserve batter, but followed up with an underwhelming Shield campaign.

Now 32, he reeled off 143 and 52 to start this summer on a pedestrian Junction Oval pitch, in stark contrast to Bancroft’s pair against Queensland – knocked over twice in four balls by Michael Neser.

Renshaw failed to fire in the same match with six and 15 opening for the Bulls, following on from scores of eight, 14, two and two to finish last year’s Shield well and truly out of nick – shortly after touring New Zealand as the national side’s back-up batter.

Bailey insisted on Monday that Renshaw’s Shield efforts will still be considered up against the Australia A fixtures, where 19-year-old Konstas gets a crack instead.

Matt Renshaw last played for Australia on the 2023 tour of India.Credit: Getty Images

Pick the prodigy: Could Konstas force the selectors’ hand?

And as for Konstas, he might just be timing his run to perfection.

Green has been hobbled as the only incumbent Test player under 30, with generational change coming for Cummins’ side sooner rather than later.

In concert with an ageing contingent, the above opening options and Will Pucovski’s sad exit from contention, public momentum is building fast behind Konstas since his pair of maiden first-class hundreds last week – the first teenager to perform the feat since Ricky Ponting 31 years ago.

Bailey naturally, and probably necessarily, played down the hype that has followed, pointing out that he is five games into his first-class career and in no need of “undue pressure or expectation”.

Sam Konstas has shot into Test reckoning.Credit: Getty Images

As well as scoring centuries for fun throughout his rise to open for NSW, Konstas is known to meditate before an innings and has been noted for his maturity and holistic approach to the game.

If Konstas bats long this weekend against Victoria and then India A he will naturally score runs, that’s the type of opener he is.

He’ll open for a strong NSW outfit at the MCG from Sunday where Scott Boland is expected to play, while Harris will face Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon. Bancroft and Renshaw get another chance to begin their long-form summers in earnest in Perth (WA v Tasmania) and Brisbane (Queensland v SA) as well at the weekend.

The sense is a Test call-up is still another summer away for Konstas, but then there’s no sense of a standout alternative either.

Which is why despite Smith’s shift back down the order, an argument had been made for another top-six batter being pushed north once more.

Khawaja himself nominated Head as his preferred partner in that scenario while watching him thrash 154* opening against England last month. And without Green’s bowling as a fifth option, the credentials of hard-hitting all-rounders Beau Webster and Aaron Hardie coming into the middle order held some appeal.

But just as Marsh was reluctant to entertain opening last year given he had found long-sought Test success batting at six, Pat Cummins has dismissed moving either he or Head up to face the new ball.

Their middle-order pyrotechnics are considered just too valuable, though Head’s potential as a Test opener on the subcontinent remains in play.

Australia are due in Sri Lanka in January/February, but ideally one of the opening contenders will have silenced that conversation as well over the course of the summer.

Starting right now, when Australia turns to a small clutch of matches and a wide open field to fill one batting spot.

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