Filtering the “promising” from “real deals” usually involves competing against each other. Competition is healthy, Australia’s up-and-comers need to stash the technical guff, get away from the “wangers” and play some hard cricket. As rugby league super coach of the 1970s and ’80s Jack Gibson observed, “potential never won nothing”.
Fortunately, there is a competition called the Sheffield Shield that should provide the selectors with enough performances across differing pitches and scenarios to allow context beyond educated guesses, or curb players from picking and choosing their own fates, which seems to be the way of the contemporary Test player.
Jofra Archer is back in the frame for England’s tour Down Under after years interupted by injury.Credit: Getty Images
Round one of the Shield has primed the form guide nicely, and what a contrast the local conditions around the nation provided.
Allan Border Field in Brisbane has been an early season highway, made for bowlers to toil and batsmen to flail. Adelaide Oval’s drop-in pitches have been traditionally benign, unless the cerise ball has been flung under the lights. Batsmen have again been favoured, but that’s OK – bowlers need to earn wickets with persistence and effort sometimes.
Where once the WACA pitch was as hard as steel and as white as a stuccoed hacienda, it is now turned out as green as spinach and as soft as a fresh-baked loaf of bread. This conflates bowlers’ numbers (spin and seam) – with spin used in just the ninth over of the game, and the first ball from off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli going over the batsman’s left shoulder as he prodded forward – and defeats the batsmen’s technique, challenging their confidence.
If Cameron Green was looking for a decent time at the crease as he angles for one of the top three spots, then he should be having a quiet word with his home groundsmen. Granted, the weather was very unlike Perth, with cloud and drizzle on the first two days, but divots should not be taken out of the WACA pitch in any iteration.
England quick Mark Wood.Credit: Getty Images
Home Test pitches have been more and more favouring seam bowling, producing some exciting but short-lived cricket. Nathan Lyon hardly got a trundle last year against India and even though he was the NSW captain in Perth, he bowled little, hence him being available for the Blues’ Shield game in Melbourne next week.
If the same conditions are on the menu for the Tests, that will serve England better than Australia.
With all the talk of who will play, the next most important question is on what will they play?
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Australia should back themselves to beat England on hard, bouncing traditional pitches via their experienced and elite bowling attack (fitness assumed).
England might have Jofra Archer and Mark Wood to bowl fast, but they have proven fragile, and grinding days in the field on rock-hard surfaces will limit the number of overs per Test and seriously question their ability to play consecutive matches. They are called “Tests” for a reason, and a five-Test series needs mental and physical resilience from all combatants, but especially the key fast bowlers.
So, the examinees around the country had some mixed results. There are three more Shield games to go before the first Ashes Test – will they be played on cabbage patches or runways? Something in between might work to Australia’s advantage.
