On early evidence, the introduction of Beau Webster to the Test team looks like the right move.
I’m not sure where the notion of his replacing Mitchell Marsh as being “difficult” comes from. It wasn’t quite the no-brainer of Sam Konstas’s selection, but it was straightforward. His catching, bowling and batting, especially, have been well up to the standard.
There was no luck behind Webster’s baggy green. He earned the all-rounder’s spot through consistent and exceptional performances in the Sheffield Shield. So good was his performance with bat and ball in the 2023-24 season that he bested the record of one of world cricket’s all-time great all-rounders, Sir Garfield Sobers: that of taking 30 wickets and 900 runs. In his last first-class match, in late November at the SCG, he played a significant role in Tasmania’s win, scoring 110 runs and taking five wickets plus a couple of catches in the slips.
His evolution as a top-class player has taken time – 93 first-class games for more than 5000 runs and 148 wickets since debuting in February 2014. He sent down off-breaks back then, but was canny enough to work out that Australian pitches have become well-watered lawns – his home patch at Bellerive the exemplar. Spinning pitches, including that at the SCG, are as rare as interest rate drops these days. Seam up was the way to go, and Beau went with the flow.
His batting average equals his bowling average – a rule of thumb that indicates a genuine all-rounder. Webster’s road to the baggy green has been the opposite to that of Konstas, and there are plenty of Websters growing in the Sheffield Shield despite widespread accusations of the competition’s mediocrity. As a state selector, I watch every ball of NSW games and as many in the other games as possible via the excellent Cricket Australia live-streaming service.
Beau Webster top-scores for Australia on debut, with 57.Credit: Getty Images
The Shield standard is high, but the scheduling is troublesome: having a T20 competition running while the Test series is in its decisive phase is not conducive to producing future Test players. After Webster’s starring role for Tasmania in November, Western Australia were the next Shield visitors to the SCG, where they proceeded to “rest” fast bowler Jhye Richardson while playing Lance Morris.
Richardson has sat on the pine ever since, waiting as a reserve for the national team while his match conditioning ebbs away. Were he to be called upon today, Richardson’s ability to get through a Test match bowling 40 overs or so would have to be in doubt, especially given his chequered injury history. Yet if there had been a Shield game to play in lieu of net sessions at the MCG or SCG, Richardson could have honed his red-ball stamina, skill and competitiveness. Four overs in a BBL game is a lighter workload than a short practice net. Playing a two-day club game would be more useful.
Many of our valued cricketing institutions from the 1970s are due a spruce-up, and Lord Sheffield’s Shield is no exception. When Tasmania became the sixth Sheffield Shield team, the population of Australia was near to 14 million. Now it is close on 28 million – double the bodies yet with no increase in the number of first-class teams. Geopolitical boundaries and the self-interest of the six states have served to stunt the potential of the national game. The football codes have continued to expand, establishing franchises where the population demands. Cricket needs some serious introspection. Maybe new CEO Todd Greenberg can encourage that.
At least the Big Bash League grew beyond state divisions. There are enough quality players and anxious fans to increase the number of teams even further, but the paradox is that the BBL season has recently been shortened. As the Shield competition is a financial loss-leader, adding two more teams would seem like a useful long-term investment in the continuation of Australia’s Test team as a competitive force. The national team’s success is the core factor in the growth of grassroots, for fans, and most importantly, at the box office.
Cricket Australia’s newly appointed chief executive Todd Greenberg.Credit: Getty Images
No doubt the BBL swells the exchequer, which enables players, coaches, development officers and administrators to be paid. Devoting more resources to the promotion of the Shield might be useful as well. A team in Canberra seems logical, perhaps with a sibling on the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast – or even Darwin. It’s a big country, and cricket is played all over it.
Apart from the graduated ascent of Beau Webster, there are some shooting stars and some solid citizens getting an education in the Sheffield Shield. The T20 path to Test cricket works for very few, and selectors and coaches must tread carefully through the fireworks and confetti.
Konstas is in the comet class, but he won’t become a better Test player via T20. Will Cooper Connolly or Jake Fraser-McGurk get enough red-ball cricket to crack the Test team? Maybe Test cricket will have to adapt to their style. Imagine a line-up with Konstas reverse-ramping, Fraser McGurk blasting good length balls over mid-wicket and Connolly flicking behind square for six. Never say never.
Meanwhile, the caravan has moved on and more orthodox players such as Kurtis Patterson (Test average 144, last Test innings 114 not out) have re-emerged as potential replacements for Marnus Labuschagne or Usman Khawaja. A complement is needed for Konstas rather than a twin. Nathan McSweeney will return to the Test side, but not opening the batting. McSweeney’s Sheffield Shield performances earned him a baggy green and there is no reason to think that his education wasn’t good enough.
The Morris v Konstas confrontation in the NSW-WA Shield game I wrote about before the Melbourne Test was a high-class examination for both players. It was a Test-level contest, which we must expect from Shield games if players are to be ready for the step-up. T20 cricket is not going to deliver Test cricketers by itself, and playing white-ball cricket alone, with its prescribed lines and lengths and scripted tempo and rhythm, will not do either. The symphony of a Test match needs more than the percussion and brass.
The next mission for Australia is two Tests in Sri Lanka. The Tigers haven’t been at the top of their game for a while, but Australia will find the pitches of Galle a different shade of brown. Spin will become important and Australia have quite a few tweakers to choose from. The off spin of Corey Rocchiccioli or Todd Murphy if Nathan Lyon stumbles, the leg spin of Mitchell Swepson, Tanveer Sangha or Lloyd Pope, or maybe the left-arm wrist spin from Hamish McKenzie or finger spin of Matthew Kuhnemann – all of these guys have been ploughing away in the Shield, learning their trade, gaining experience.
Batting back-ups might be found in Tim Ward, Josh Phillippe, Jordan Silk, Jack Edwards, Henry Hunt or Matthew Short, or even the forgotten Marcus Harris.
The Shield should not be sold short by its owners. It needs expansion to continue the flow of talent to the top of the pyramid next to Konstas and Webster.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
