Moises Henriques to debut in Chennai

The Australian Squad for the 1st Test has been announced and it includes one debutant.

David Warner, 
Ed Cowan, 
Phillip Hughes, 
Shane Watson, 
Michael Clarke (captain), 
Matthew Wade (wk), 
*Moises Henriques (debutant), 
Peter Siddle, 
Mitchell Starc, 
James Pattinson, 
Nathan Lyon.

Moises Henriques (New South Wales) will become Baggy Green number 432 and the warm-up games were enough to boost his case as the called to duty all-rounder.

Moises batted with aggression and freedom during the warm-up matches and it is reported that he found reverse swing during the warm-up matches with the ball in hand, backed by a tight line and length.
Furthermore he maintained economical figures which, if achieved against India, will build some serious pressure allowing some brutal partnerships from the bowling department. The last all-rounder to do this with good effectiveness was Andrew McDonald, who assisted Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle against The Proteas in this regard.

Moises has the benefit as an aggressive middle order batsman but his bowling should not be underestimated, as his figures of 4-12 in the first warm-up game gave massive credibility to warrant his selection.
Warm-up games are there either for experienced players to show form and adapt to conditions, or for new comers to impress and make an impression. In Moises' case it was the latter.

If the pitch happens to turn into a bit of a landmine then both him and Nathan Lyon will prove to be a handful. Some satisfactory depth in our batting line-up will help a stack if this benefits India, even with a top three of left handed batsmen. Always a talking point for the Indian spin department.

On the topic of spinners, Nathan Lyon has been retained as the front-line spinner of choice, which is a wise move by Michael Clarke and the selectors given the number of spinners whose confidence has been shattered through inconsistent selection policies and lack of belief shown in their skills.

Nathan should head into the game with better self-belief based on this decision and he'll remember the aspects of the summer that resulted in some criticism. Lack of wickets to ease the workload of the fast bowlers or find ways to menace the middle order and get vital breakthroughs was a worry. This was notable in Adelaide against The Proteas. He also dropped dynamics of his bowling that had been strongly attributed to his success.

Fortunately Nathan is a bloke who is aware of the word on the street and has continued to defend himself, which is an admirable quality. Also counts for something when Shane Warne still tips you as the best spinner in Australia.

Batting wise Ed Cowan impressed with some credible performances in the warm-up games, alongside Shane Watson who will play as a middle order batsman with David Warner, having been declared fit to play.
It allows the Cowan/David Warner partnership to continue and Watto shouldn't be too stressed out in the middle order after making a good return to the ODI circuit and being the leading batsman in the warm-up games.

All in all I am happy with the squad and the fast bowling unit was always going to be a bit of a tricky one to decide upon given every guy deserves a place in the starting XI. One spinner is also fine in my eyes.
Michael Clarke is there for part-time spin and the inclusion of Henriques will ensure it's not a rhythm of all out pace.

All fixtures can be found here or by clicking the graphic at the top of the page.

*Read the last article at The Baggy Green Blog:
The enhanced value and importance of women's cricket'

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The missing class

Just a decade ago, many Australian fans and most importantly the selectors could name a handful of batting replacements to fill in or even take over the spots of the current batting lineup. How things have changed in the space of a decade with no player in their late 20′s knocking the door down for selection.

When talking about unlucky batsmen from the past decade in Australian cricket, names such as Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Phil Jaques, Michael Bevan, Chris Rogers, Martin Love and Michael Di Venuto were mentioned. A decade ago these were the players putting pressure on the incumbents with their First Class averages well above 45. The thing each of these guys have in common apart from missing the boat in regards to Test cricket is each of them were in their late 20s a decade ago.

Back then the selectors and fans were debating over whether to pick a young promising player such as Michael Clarke and Shane Watson or go with the guys mentioned above. Times have changed substantially since then with no such luxury for the current selectors. The batsmen in their late 20s have First Class averages between 35-40 and while there are some promising youngsters on the scene, they have not been able to established themselves at Test level yet.

If we go back to the 2005/06 season where the batsmen in their late 20s now would have been in their early 20s, Mark Cosgrove made 736 runs at 66.9, George Bailey 778 runs at 43.22, Shaun Marsh 676 runs at 37.55, Callum Ferguson 506 runs at  36.14 and Cameron White 482 runs at 30.12.

2006/07 was awful for the guys mentioned above with Cosgrove the best of the lot with 703 runs at 37. Andrew McDonald actually made a fair amount of runs this season which I did not pick up on previously with 750 runs at 57.69.

The 2007/08 season showed some promise with Luke Pomersbach putting his name on the radar with 743 runs at 61.91 and it was also Philip Hughes’ first season where he ended up with 559 runs at 62.11. Shaun Marsh and Cameron White also put in some solid numbers and interesting enough neither of them would play this amount of games again (7 and 9 respectively). McDonald backed up his previous season with a solid 545 at 49.54.

2008/09 saw the emergence of the other young leftie who is currently in the Australian setup in Usman Khawaja. Hughes had a massive second year to back up his first one while White had another solid season but like Khawaja and Hughes, he did not play enough games to push the 1000 run barrier. Pomersbach copped the second year syndrome, from which he would never recapture the heights of his 07/08 season. McDonald was not required as much this season but still produced 356 runs at 44.5. The thing to notice is his lack of 100s which was noticeable when he was picked for Australia.

The next season was our first sighting of Steven Smith who had a mammoth season with four hundreds for 772 runs at 77.2. Hughes also had a big year almost cracking the 1000 run barrier and Khawaja backed up his first season. This was also Peter Forrest’s first noticeable production.

The mark of the new decade also brought about a change in the run scorers. Gone were Martin Love and Brad Hodge and the veterans left struggled with age appearing to catch up with them. Two seasons have gone in this new decade with a lack of big runs and no batsmen has crossed the 1000 run barrier since the 2008/09 season. McDonald may well have cracked this mark if he did not get injured after he started the season with a bang with 458 runs from 8 innings including 3 hundreds at an average of 76.33.

Of the players I mentioned who are in their late 20s now, Mark Cosgrove is the only one that has a respectable First Class record. Shaun Marsh has been producing runs in the past few seasons but his lack of matches either through injury or national duty has meant he is still yet to play a full season and his First Class average is well below 40. Cameron White is in the same boat however his First Class average is acceptable at 40 but his recent demotion from the National setup coupled with a lackluster return in Shield cricket means White won’t be adding to his test tally anytime soon.

George Bailey has been consistent in producing season averages of 40 but this season is the first time he has cracked an average of 50 and this is reflected in his overall FC average which is almost dead on 40.

Callum Ferguson was one I thought could do a Michael Clarke and make up for his sub par First Class stats by stepping up at the next level. The signs were promising early with Ferguson averaging 41 in ODI cricket but the selectors never pulled the trigger in taking a punt on him in the Test arena and since then Ferguson has struggled to put any sort of numbers up. All things considered, his First Class stats are even poorer when you consider his home ground is the Adelaide Oval.

There are other names in their late 20s who have been producing recently such as Rob Quiney, Peter Forrest, Ed Cowan and Liam Davis but apart from Cowan none of them have a First Class average over 40. Andrew McDonald is another whose FC average has taken a battering due to his poor start to his career but from 06/07 onwards he has produced solid numbers in a strong Victorian batting lineup. It is a shame his 10/11 season got cut short else he might be in the frame right now.

It is clear players from the class of early 2000s have not lived up to the hype and failed to kick on like many would have hoped. George Bailey and Peter Forrest are next in line for the Australian batting lineup which shows how far the standards have dropped as apart from this season (2011/12) and 09/10 for Cowan neither has made an significant impression in the runs department during their First Class cricket span.

There is still hope that the current youngsters on the scene will bring Australia back to the glory days where batsmen like David Hussey, Martin Love and co could be left out and the side still remained strong.

In around 5 years Philip Hughes, Steven Smith, Usman Khawaja, Glenn Maxwell, Joe Burns, Chris Lynn and Tom Cooper (Netherlands/ South Australia) will be in their late 20s and one can only hope they kick on and don’t follow their predecessors.

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