Selection Leaves Australia Spinning

Since Michael Clarke took over as Australian captain, Australia have played 23 Tests, and in that time picked 28 players, of which 13 have been bowlers and a further 4 all-rounders* (list at the bottom if you want to try and guess them all). Even more concerning for the Australians is that a further 14 bowlers and another all-rounder have been used in white ball cricket**. That's a quite remarkable 32 bowling options in 26 months.

The Australian rotation policy has led to lots of criticism from their own press, a large chunk of it justified and a large chunk of it not. They have been beset by injuries during this period, although you have to ask yourself the question that when you have ten bowlers out injured for an ODI, is that bad luck or is it just poor conditioning.

But one of the oddities about this is, T20s aside where the Aussies have been pretty horrid, most of the bowlers have performed well enough to justify further inclusion. They do seem to be going through a period where they are producing a lot of talented quick bowlers, but this however, does not justify picking every single one of them.

The confusion with Australian bowling begins with the Test spinner Nathan Lyon. Lyon is not the greatest bowler I have ever seen, but he is a decent Test bowler capable of a doing a job. Despite an encouraging start of his career, even before the current tour of India where he's been dropped, Australia seem very reluctant to back him, shown by his non-selection in white ball cricket and the fast tracked passport of Shali Ahmad.

The reluctance over Lyon and his exact role within the team then affects the balance of the quicks they select. Unable to decide whether Lyon is there to take wickets or keep thinks tight, the Aussies keep alternating between two wicket takers and one stock bowler and the reverse, which in turn causes confusion between the three quicks as to who should be bowling in what role. The biggest victim of this is Ben Hilfenhaus, who despite an excellent record over the period, is out of the side as he falls between the camps. Causing more trouble is the refusal of the Australians to make a decision as to whether they back Mitchell Johnson as an international bowler or that he's a busted flush and they should move on, and the rolling list of injuries suffered by the best prospects in Starc, Cummins and Pattinson, and you end up with a system that leaves Glenn Maxwell playing as a front-line Test bowler.

But as bad as this muddle seems, as mentioned previously a lot of those bowlers have performed well. Australia are failing to make the most of their bowling options, but their attack is still able to compete. The batting line-up however is suffering from the opposite problem - a lack of talent and overly consistent selection.

In the same period, only three Aussie batters have averaged over 40 in Tests (Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey and Dave Warner). Ed Cowan, Phil Hughes and Shane Watson, numbers 1,3 and 4 in the current series, average 32, 27 and 26 respectively. Shaun Marsh and Usman Khawaja produced similar averages in their spells in the team, and this is completely ignoring the ongoing Wade/Haddin/Hartley debate as to who Australia should use to keep wicket.

The key to sorting out Australia's batting line-up comes down to making a big decision over Shane Watson. Watson is a fantastically talented cricketer, but his form in Tests shows that if he doesn't bowl he isn't worth his spot in the side, certainly not at four. Watson is saved only by his fantastic white ball form with the bat and his potential to bowl again, but Australia cannot afford to bat him higher than six and need to be prepared to drop him if he doesn't do the job they need.

The other selection issue relates to two players not in the team - Shaun Marsh and George Bailey. The Australian batting line-up lacks grit and Cowan doesn't seem to be able to push on from his starts, putting his place under threat from the quickly improving Alex Doolan. Marsh and Bailey could potentially replace the technically inept Phil Hughes, allowing the struggling Cowan to be replaced by Doolan, or possibly a return to his favoured position for Watson. 

Both Marsh and Bailey have their own problems. Marsh has twice been in trouble for drinking related activity in the past six months and his own horror series against India is still fresh in the minds of the selectors. Bailey's problems are not entirely of his own making. He is a proud Tasmania captain, in a country where Tasmania are seen very much as the sickly child of Australian cricket. He is happy to be outspoken, taking on media mogul Steve McNamara during the summer in a war of words over selection. Bailey does have limited strokeplay and is used to being his own captain, but would provided much needed leadership.

Whatever they do, the selection problems are becoming cyclical. The poor batting forces the selection of Wade as keeper, whose poor keeping in particular lets Lyon down. That leads to questions over Lyon's role and the fast bowling merry go round gets into full swing. If the Australians don't solve this by the summer, it could be a very good time to be an English cricket fan.

*Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Ryan Harris, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Trent Copeland, Michael Beer, Xavier Doherty, John Hastings, Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques and Steve Smith.

**Brett Lee, Clint McKay, Doug Bollinger, Shaun Tait, James Faulkner, Jason Krejza, Ben Cutting, Nathan Hauritz, Kane Richardson, Brad Hogg, Steven O'Keefe, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Josh Hazelwood, Ben Laughlin and Dan Christian.