The Ashes - Aussie Squad

Cricket Australia will, amongst hype and chardonnay at the Sydney Opera House, announce a 16 man squad for the first Ashes Test against England to be played in 10 days at Brisbane. With a full round of Sheffield Shield matches and the Australian Bum Fluff XI match against England still to be played, this was the only option left open to them. England, of course arrived with their squad a few weeks ago and having asked to dispense with the up country Lilac Hill games have been handed games against the Sheffield Shield cellar dwellers and the up and comers. Are we rude or shrewd the way we treat touring teams in this country or are we that insecure that our administrators won't sanction opportunities to make the opposition match hard?

First class games so far this season have thrown doubt on at least one player already standing perilously close to the shadows, Mike Hussey. His 3 runs at 1.5 are hardly the stuff to bolster the nerves of the new look selection panel where Greg Chappell is having an increasingly public profile on his way to eventually unseating current Chairman, Andrew Hilditch. Another Middle order man, Marcus North, has batted true to form with a century and next to nothing. Australia might join hands and pray for the days when he might score four or five 40's in a row. To make matters more interesting, Michael Clarke, despite being free of his celebrity engagements, is still suffering from back strain - fitness, where the bloody hell are ya? Simon Katich - the man who should be King - Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting all pick themselves ... two on form and recent record and the Skipper because he has the best five o'clock shadow and hang dog sad puppy look. Cricket Australia is already preparing its followers for the bad news the two months from late November to early January will bring.

Given the form and health doubts about the middle order, the selectors must bring in Khawaja, Smith and McDonald and of those three, the man I would rush back into the side is the Victorian. In his brief Test career he has done everything asked of him and his batting is even better than his first shot at the top level. Three hundreds in five Shield innings, including two against the impossibly star studded NSW at the SCG make him the perfect man to bat at six and then bowl his stump to stump slow mediums which won't get many Poms out but will slow them down whilst others take a breather. As things stand, I would risk playing Hussey for a few more Tests and drop North as McDonald is at least as good a batsman and is certainly a more useful variation as a bowler. Send North west and keep Khawaja and Smith waiting in the wings.

Haddin writes his own ticket which is a Paine for the clever Tasmanian.

Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Siddle and Bollinger will be the pace attack if fit, leaving Hauritz driving the big drink bottle in Brisbane. Of these Johnson remains the riskiest of selections. Very few players before him have been so much at the mercy of their moods as Johnson clearly is. On his good days, he is a fine bowler and meaty contributor with the bat. He can win matches. But on those other days, class batsmen such as England have with them, will murder his inconsistency and he won't bleed runs, he'll hemorrhage them. Ryan Harris, if fit, would be my replacement for him. Hauritz remains a pale imitation of off spinners past. He isn't a pimple on derriere of the great off tweakers like Ashley Mallet or Erapuli Prasanna. What's worse, he's at the end of one of those long outback roads as Graeme Swann pulls up his destination. In deference to Greg Chappell, a man whose coaching claim to fame was the recognition and fast track promotion of talent, the other two bowlers I'd include in this squad may not be babes in arms but at 30 are seasoned to the art of fast bowling. Darren Pattison just about beat the Sandgropers by himself in Perth and bowled his side back into the match against Tasmania in Melbourne, with the comeback boy, Siddle, firing at the other end. He spent last season winning a Sheffield Shield for Victoria. The other is Mark Cameron, a roughie who is currently the leading Sheffield wicket takers for this season. The bloke I would liked to have had in Cameron's place is Josh Hazelwood but injury has cost him a chance.

My squad then in selection order for the first Test is: Katich, Watson, Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, McDonald, Haddin, Johnson, Siddle, Hilfenhaus, Bollinger ... Hauritz (12th), Khawaja, Smith, Cameron, Pattison.

I expect the Australian selectors unlikely to agree.

See how they went in Peter English's article "An Embarassing Dress Rehearsal"