Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Is this the best Australia has to offer?

Series’ between India and Australia in recent years have always been hard-fought and full of competitiveness. Both the teams have usually gone all out to fight the hardest and earn their team victory. Today, a 17-man Australian squad to take on India next month has been named.

Squad:

Batting: David Warner, Ed Cowan, Phillip Hughes, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke (captain), Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith.

All-rounders: Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Johnson.

Keeper: Matthew Wade (wk).

Bowlers: James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle, Jackson Bird, Xavier Doherty, Nathan Lyon.

This was the first time when I felt absolutely nothing on reading of the team selected. Yes, it was a tough task for the NSP to pick a team following the retirements of some of the experienced campaigners, but I for one, am not quite sure they got it right regarding a couple of selections.

Chief selector, John Inverarity said, “It is a large squad and we felt as though we needed that for flexibility,” I’m not sure about the idea of flexibility, but what is Doherty’s selection based on? He last played against England where Kevin Pietersen ripped him apart, and all of us thought that it spelled the end for him! He makes a comeback based on the recent ODI and T20 performances, perhaps, because there is no other reason I can think of, given his abysmal record of 119 wickets in 51 games at an average of 44.78! But does that form validate a Test selection? In this season of the Sheffield Shield, he averages 80 with 2 wickets. Surely, that could not have been overlooked?

Steve o’ Keefe

On the other hand, what has been overlooked – one too many times – is the brilliance of the New South Wales Captain, Steve o’ Keefe. Despite being the leading spinner in this Sheffield Shield season, he has not found himself a place in the squad. Isn’t the point of the Sheffield Shield competition to evaluate players for the big stage? His numbers are perhaps the only ones that look like a bowler’s amongst all the spinners in Australia, with an average below 30 in first-class cricket. Adding to that, he is also a very handy batsman who has contributed time and again with the bat for his NSW side, an able leader with a smart cricketing brain and a team player through and through.

My next question is, what has Smith done to warrant a place in the team? Why have both, Smith and Maxwell been picked ahead of Steve O’ Keefe? Smith is a great fielder, yes, but is that why he is in the team? Time and again he has failed to warrant his selection, despite being given numerous opportunities. He neither has the technique nor application to handle batting in Tests. A player who can’t exactly bowl nor bat is far from being an all-rounder. So, I think we need to redefine the definition of an all-rounder if Steve Smith is picked as one.

Other teams around the world at one stage used to pick players who could hardly be termed as all-rounders and we jeered at them for that. Today, we’re the laughing stocks and they’re the ones laughing; how the tables have turned!

We don’t need a bunch of ambiguous all-rounders; what we need to beat India are a bunch of specialist batsmen and bowlers who know their job and how to get it done at the end of the day. I don’t see us having that any more. Australia faces perhaps its toughest period in cricket right now, and by making selections of the mediocre ahead of the deserving isn’t helping the morale among those players nor the fans. We want to see the best XI out there facing India. Are these 17 the best that Australia has right now? Let’s not start over again.