Matthew Renshaw has given national selectors plenty to ponder ahead of the Ashes squad announcement, with the Queenslander plundering another century for Australia A in New Zealand this week.
The 27-year-old scored 140 from 261 balls in the second innings of the four-day contest against New Zealand in Lincoln, which ended as a draw on Tuesday. It was his 19th first-class century and sixth red-ball ton in the last 12 months.
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Facing the swinging Dukes ball at Bert Sutcliffe Oval, Renshaw smacked 12 boundaries and a six before falling victim to Kiwi seamer Logan van Beek on Monday afternoon, helping Australia A register 8-366 declared in the second innings.
It comes after the left-hander scored 112 and 78 in the first tour match against New Zealand A at the same venue, which the hosts won by three wickets.
“He’s just a cool head out there,” Australia A teammate Tim Ward said on Monday afternoon.
“He keeps it really simple, and it’s a lot of fun playing out there with him.”
Queensland teammate Mitchell Swepson continued on Tuesday: “He just killed it, didn’t he? Almost looked on another level.
“He’s just at the top of his game. I think he’s just really relaxed at the moment.
“He just has a clear plan and he executed it really well for us.
“He dominated both games and deserved all the runs that he got.”
Set an unlikely target of 374 for victory on Tuesday morning, New Zealand A crawled towards 3-174 before the contest ended as a stalemate.
Swepson, who missed out on a national contract last week, snared three wickets before Kiwis Henry Cooper and Robert O‘Donnell combined for an unbeaten 78-run partnership for the fourth wicket to force the draw.
Earlier in the match, Ward posted his third fifty of the tour while West Australian all-rounder Aaron Hardie top-scored for the tourists in the first innings with 115, his third first-class century.
Renshaw has already proven capable of batting in English conditions — he enjoyed a successful campaign with Somerset in the County Championship last year, scoring 620 runs at 47.69 in eight matches, including two centuries.
He continued that impressive form in the Sheffield Shield after returning home, plundering 310 first-class runs at 51.66 for Queensland this summer. He also scored 81 and 101 not out for the Prime Minister’s XI against West Indies in Canberra last November.
National selectors rewarded Renshaw with a long-awaited Test recall, picked for the New Year’s Test against South Africa and the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy — but he couldn’t make the most of the opportunity, registering scores of 5*, 0, 2 and 2.
Victoria’s Marcus Harris and Western Australia’s Cameron Bancroft are also mounting pressure on David Warner ahead of the Ashes series, which gets under in June. However, Renshaw was not offered a national contract last week, suggesting he may not receive a plane ticket to England this winter.
