Former Australia captain Michael Clarke has taken aim at the long-term planning of the national selectors, coming as young gun Sam Konstas has been urged to show aggression if he makes his Test debut on Boxing Day.
The decision to axe opening batsman Nathan McSweeney, 25, after only three Tests and include young gun Sam Konstas, 19, has put selection chairman George Bailey and his panel under the microscope, this major move coming despite the five-Test series being split at 1-1 heading into the showcase match of the summer.
Former Australia captain Michael Clarke will back Sam Konstas come Boxing Day, but says the national selectors make a mistake axing Nathan McSweeney. Credit: Getty Images
Clarke said the selectors had made the wrong call to drop McSweeney, despite having only 72 runs at 14.4, as the remaining top seven batters – aside from the uncapped Konstas – are aged 30 years or older.
“Everyone apart from Nathan McSweeney is over 30 years of age, and high 30s. What are we going to do? Continue to give a youngster two or three games, drop him, try someone else and keep these older players?” Clarke said on the Beyond23 cricket podcast.
“What happens if Usman Khawaja in two Test matches retires? Does McSweeney then come back in, or does he go to the back of the queue? They (selectors) have got to come out and say: ‘We made a mistake picking him.’ This could end Nathan McSweeney’s career. They picked him, he deserved the summer.”
Clarke said the team’s senior players had not been contributing as they would have liked.
“No matter who they picked in that opening position, they had to give him [McSweeney] the series. I think the selectors have got this wrong. We’ve got Usman Khawaja who has just turned 38, Ussie has made no runs. He’s a senior player,” Clarke said.
“We’ve got Marnus Labuschagne, we were talking about before the series, before he made his 60, he has made no runs. Smithy [Steve Smith] batted like a genius [in Brisbane] and made a hard-fought hundred, but he’s been under pressure,” Clarke said.
“Mitchell Marsh is in the team as the allrounder – he bowled two overs in the (Brisbane) Test match. Selecting a player and selecting your team is not about right here this minute. There is a lot more that goes into it.”
Upon announcing Konstas’ inclusion, Bailey defended McSweeney’s initial call-up, despite the South Australian captain having not been a specialist opener.
“It hasn’t quite worked out as you’d like it to … but it’s still very much the start of his career,” Bailey said.
Ben Oliver, Cricket Australia’s high-performance boss of national teams, defended the long-term planning of the men’s team after losing the first Test in Perth.
Konstas, who was in the Test frame before the series began, has joined the squad after a strong start to the summer. The NSW opener made twin hundreds in a Sheffield Shield match against South Australia, a century for the Prime Minister’s XI against India and another score of 88 against Western Australia at the SCG. He then brought up a 50 off 20 balls on his Big Bash debut.
He will become Australia’s fourth-youngest debutant – behind only Ian Craig, Pat Cummins and Tom Garrett – should he step out before a likely crowd of more than 90,000 at the MCG on Thursday.
Test great Adam Gilchrist said the message to Konstas would be to play with intent, something McSweeney had struggled to consistently do.
“It’s tough on McSweeney, the job they asked him to do, bat out of position. I thought they would retain him … I thought they valued enough that he didn’t get the runs, but he took up a lot of overs and wore the attack down and allowed Marnus and even Smithy and Travis to come in a little bit later. But I think it’s the scoring, or the lack of aggression,” Gilchrist told Fox Cricket.
“I would imagine you would be saying to Sam Konstas: ‘Come in, play your natural game, we’ll back you in, we need you to be aggressive’.”
Josh Inglis has been in Australia’s squad as a spare batter and could come into calculations for the MCG Test.
Scott Boland is expected to replace the injured Josh Hazlewood in the XI, with Jhye Richardson and Sean Abbott added as cover given the back-to-back Tests.
India have won their past two Tests at the MCG, where conditions are typically more akin to home, when there are more catches in front of the wicket. That they hold the Border-Gavaskar Trophy means they need to win one Test to retain the prize.
Jasprit Bumrah, Australia’s No.1 nemesis, has a phenomenal record in Melbourne – his most successful Australian venue where he has 15 wickets at 13.06 in two Tests. In a stunning summer to date, the pace ace has 21 wickets at 10.09, confirming his reputation as an all-time great.
“Melbourne and Sydney suit India more than the first three Test matches. Australia have their work cut out. They have to be at their best,” Clarke said.
“If you had have said to India when they arrived in Australia, it’s one all after Perth, day nighter in Adelaide and Brisbane, are you taking that? They would be doing backflips, because they know our record of late in Melbourne hasn’t been great, and Sydney is a wicket that spin plays a part.”
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