On a day when Australia confirmed a 16-man squad for the two upcoming Tests in Sri Lanka, the final sentence of a statement from head selector George Bailey in the Cricket Australia press release stood out.
“We are excited about the opportunity ahead for the squad members who are at the start of their Test careers to continue to grow their games in subcontinent conditions where we have a number of important tours in coming years,” Bailey said.
In other words, Australia will use the two Tests in Galle to give young talent invaluable experience, knowing there are still enough seasoned cricketers in the touring party to win a series in Sri Lanka for the first time since 2011.
The invest-in-youth approach was made possible the moment Beau Webster crunched a boundary at the SCG to seal Australia’s 3-1 series win over India and guarantee Pat Cummins’s side a berth in the World Test Championship final.
Instead of having to win one or both Tests in Galle, Australia can afford to be a bit more experimental, knowing they will play South Africa at Lord’s in June no matter what. For Australia, it is a free spin.
And spin is what this is all about. Peter Handscomb was invited into Australia’s squad during the Sydney Test, the 33-year-old having long been recognised as one of the country’s finest players of slow bowling. He hit the SCG nets for a tune-up, buoyed by the prospect of another chance to represent Australia, with a tour to the spin-friendly wickets of Sri Lanka looming.
Australia’s squad for the two-Test tour of Sri Lanka
Steve Smith (captain), Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan McSweeney, Cooper Connolly, Beau Webster, Alex Carey, Sean Abbott, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Josh Inglis.
Ultimately, it was a trip to Sydney for nothing, as Handscomb and Glenn Maxwell, another subcontinent specialist who is also in his 30s, were left out of the touring party. Handscomb would have every right to wonder whether something changed in those few days.
Some players believed they might have more chance of playing in Sri Lanka if Australia won in Sydney. On a Zoom call with reporters on Thursday, Bailey denied the SCG result had influenced plans for Sri Lanka.
“No. I know there’s been a lot of speculation around that,” Bailey said. “We view every Test tour and Test match as really important.
“For us, it was more around structuring up two or three different ways of what we thought the first XI may look like … once we were sort of clear on the direction we thought that first XI may take, then the squad sort of took shape after that.”
Still, if Australia had desperately needed to beat Sri Lanka to secure a World Test Championship final spot, fast bowler Josh Hazlewood (calf) could well have been rushed back from injury.
Test call-ups Cooper Connolly, Matt Kuhnemann, Todd Murphy, Nathan McSweeney.Credit:
Travis Head had been slated to open the batting in Sri Lanka with Usman Khawaja, but there is every chance 19-year-old Sam Konstas could retain his spot at the top.
Konstas could fail four times in a row in Galle and it wouldn’t be a disaster. Australia will consider it a price worth paying if experience in subcontinental conditions helps Konstas’s development ahead of a five-Test tour to India in 2027. Australia haven’t beaten India in India since 2004.
“I guess what we have seen is he is a quick learner,” Bailey said of Konstas.
The same applies for 21-year-old West Australian batting all-rounder Cooper Connolly.
Connolly has a highest first-class score of 90, but any fears he has been promoted to Test cricket too soon should be offset against the fact he made that score on his Sheffield Shield debut, batting at No.7 in a final that his side won by 377 runs. He is a classy player.
“I think he is the best young talent in the country in terms of being a full package,” one state coach told this masthead.
According to cricket statistician Adam Morehouse, the last Australian top-six batter to play a Test without a first-class hundred or wicket was Ron Archer in 1953.
Connolly has played four first-class matches, three of those being this season. Only six Australians – George Bonnor, JJ Ferris, Walter Giffen, Tom Horan, Sammy Jones and Bill Watson – made their Test debuts with exactly four first-class matches to their names. Five of the six did so before 1877.
Cooper Connolly hits out for the Scorchers.Credit: Getty Images
Pat Cummins had played just three first-class matches when he debuted, and look how that turned out.
Even if the likes of Konstas and Connolly don’t play, it will be a worthwhile exercise sending them to train on spinning tracks. The chance to learn off old-timers such as Usman Khawaja (six Tests in Sri Lanka) and Steve Smith (five in Sri Lanka) will be invaluable.
“I don’t think there’s any way to replicate the types of conditions you get in Sri Lanka, specifically within domestic cricket in Australia,” Bailey said.
Selection will be fascinating. Will Australia play just one frontline fast bowler? Is Sean Abbott a better chance of playing than Scott Boland due to his ability with the bat?
What does it all mean for the Ashes? Very little. This is a conditions-specific squad with more than a hint of forward planning at a time when selectors have been criticised for a perceived lack of looking to the future.
Remember that the injured Cam Green will come back into the mix. He will be available to play as a batter in the World Test Championship final and is sure to be in Ashes squad calculations.
Australia also have three Tests against the West Indies in the Caribbean to get through before Ashes previews can be written up.
This squad is more about India in 2027 than it is about England next summer. In that context it is, in the words of former Test opener Ed Cowan, “perfect”. That will be especially true if the bold selections pay off in two years’ time.
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