1. Pat Cummins v the medical staff
Australia’s medical staff have done Pat Cummins and Australian Cricket a great service by ruling the Australian captain out of the second Test against the West Indies in Adelaide, beginning on Thursday.
Cummins is understandably disappointed that he will miss a second successive day-night Test, one of the special occasions in Australian cricket.
However, the bigger picture is an eye-watering schedule stretching out for the next 15 months. As captain and Test cricket’s most highly ranked bowler, Cummins is integral to the Australian side across a three-Test series against South Africa, Test tours of India and England, a 50-over World Cup, another home summer, and a tour of New Zealand.
Given that Australia beat England in Adelaide last summer without Cummins, who was banned because of strict Covid protocols, and the injured Josh Hazlewood, there seems no reason why they can’t beat a nondescript West Indies side that was outplayed in Perth.
David Warner is against at the centre of controversy.Credit:Getty
2. Can David Warner score a century?
Anyone wondering what it’s like to bat under lights in Adelaide should ask David Warner. He batted through the opening day against Pakistan three years ago and came back for more, spending nine hours at the crease on his way to 335 not out. Move over Don Bradman. His highest score was only 334.
But following that magic milestone Warner, 36, has scored just one more century in Test cricket, an unbeaten 111 against New Zealand later that same season.
Not that Warner has looked in bad nick. He scored 106 at better than a run a ball in a one-day match against England a little more than a fortnight ago.
Having dragged a wide ball into his stumps on the first morning of the Perth Test, he then watched Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith pile on the runs. It shapes as a case of watch out West Indies. Wednesday night’s Instagram furore adds another huge level of complexity.
Australia fast bowler Scott Boland.Credit:Getty Images
3. Will Scott Boland’s bowling average remain in single figures?
If Scott Boland never played another Test, he would have the opportunity of telling anyone who’ll listen that he had a better bowling average than of all the greats of the game. Boland’s current standing in the game is remarkable. In three Tests he has 18 wickets at a bowling average under 10. Actually, 9.55. Thanks, England.
When Steve Waugh once said “there are no fairytales in sport” he clearly wasn’t counting on Boland making a Boxing Day Test debut at his home ground, the MCG, claiming 6-7 in the second innings. England were bowled out for 68 in their second innings and the Test was over by lunch on the third day.
While the Adelaide Oval pitch won’t be the green mamba rolled out in Melbourne last year, it has a thick cover of thatched grass that will make Boland’s seamers a handful.
4. When will Nathan Lyon join the 450 club?
Largely anonymous alongside Australia’s imposing pace attack, Nathan Lyon has become the invisible assassin.
No more so than in Adelaide, where Lyon has 56 wickets in 11 Tests and needs just one more to become the leading wicket-taker at the 138-year-old Test venue.
He also needs four more wickets to join the exclusive 450 club, which currently has just seven members and just two other Australians, Shane Warne (708) and Glenn McGrath (563).
The enormity of Lyon’s achievement is highlighted by history. Just six Australian off-spinners have managed 100 or more wickets on Australia’s largely unforgiving pitches and second to Lyon on that list is Hugh Trumble, whose 141 wickets came between 1980 and 1904 when pitches could be more bowler-friendly.
5. The problem is Perth, not the Australian team
A little bit of history will also offer some perspective to the mumblings that the Australian cricket team is not as popular as once it was.
Despite the great players Western Australia have produced, at one stage having seven in the Test team during the early 1980s, fans have never turned up to Test cricket in Perth.
The average attendance at Test cricket in Perth is 46,000 a match. The crowd at Perth Stadium was 42,000.
And they couldn’t have gone in droves even if they wanted to because the WACA Ground only held 20,000. It was only ever that full for Ashes Tests, with thousands of England fans stuck in the blazing sun as the temperature soared into the 40s and a scorching easterly blew off the desert.
The South Australian Cricket Association members have always been strong supporters of Test cricket. Not withstanding a nondescript West Indies side, attendances at the Adelaide Test will leave Perth in the shade.
