Matt Renshaw and Pete Handscomb are under consideration to return to Australia’s Test team in India after making the last tour there in 2017, while Todd Murphy’s rising star as a spin bowler should also put him firmly in the frame.
As the Twenty20 World Cup makes its way around the country, the Sheffield Shield’s early rounds are providing a glimpse of the talent underneath a Test team that is quite settled in terms of places for a home series, but far more open for overseas assignments.
While Australia’s line-up for five Tests against the West Indies and South Africa is unlikely to deviate much from a batting order featuring David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Cameron Green and Travis Head, India in February and March is another matter.
Matt Renshaw reverse sweeps in Pune in Australia’s 2017 victory.Credit:AP
A drawn series in Sri Lanka on sharply spinning surfaces raised queries about Head in particular, while Warner was another who struggled to make a significant contribution in foreign conditions.
That means the selectors will be looking at other players to round out the batting options for the India tour, with Glenn Maxwell chosen as a reserve member of the squad in Sri Lanka when Head’s fitness was in doubt.
Marcus Harris, 30, who played some part in the Ashes last summer and then toured Pakistan but not Sri Lanka, has kept himself in the selectors’ thoughts with consistent runs at state and county levels.
The previous tour to India five years ago seems an age away, but its fluctuating conditions and fortunes were experienced not only by Maxwell but also Renshaw (then Warner’s opening partner) and Handscomb, before the duo fell out of favour.
As Victorian captain, 31-year-old Handscomb has since carved out a spot at the top of the Sheffield Shield aggregates, and last week sculpted a monumental, unbeaten 281 against Western Australia on an admittedly placid Junction Oval surface.
Renshaw, meanwhile, has re-staked his claim for consideration at the top of the order, fashioning his own double century against New South Wales at Drummoyne with the incumbent Test opener Usman Khawaja happy to bat No. 4 as Queensland captain. Still only 26, he has already seen plenty of undulations in his career.
A Test record of 636 runs at 33.47 from 11 matches appeared to be enough evidence to persist with Renshaw, but he has been harshly discarded twice. In 2017 Renshaw played 10 consecutive Tests before being left out for Cameron Bancroft ahead of the home Ashes, only to be recalled following the Newlands scandal.
Later in 2018, he suffered a concussion when fielding at short leg in Australia’s warm-up ahead of a series against Pakistan in the UAE, and was not considered again despite that being the season in which neither Warner nor Smith were available.
Handscomb, too, was dropped early in the 2017-18 Ashes series, then recalled briefly in South Africa and again in 2018-19 to play the last of 16 Tests against India in January.
Murphy, 21, impressed many as an Australia A bowler on the Sri Lanka trip, and was one of few bowlers who looked capable of breaking through on that same Junction Oval surface where Handscomb scored so freely.
Apart from his undoubted skills as an off-spinner, Murphy has also attracted approving reviews on the strength of his personality with the ball in hand, interpreted as a desire to win the mental battles with opponents that run parallel with the technical duels.
Another player to have made big strides in recent times is the Queensland wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson, 30, who made an unbeaten century for Australia A in Sri Lanka and then followed up with another hundred against Tasmania in the Shield.
Since the start of the 2020-21 season, Peirson has not only been part of a Shield-winning Bulls line-up but also hammered five centuries while averaging close to 50 in first-class matches.
He has also built a strong wicket-keeping rapport with the wrist spinner Mitch Swepson, much as another Queenslander, Ian Healy, once did with Shane Warne.
