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So worried are Australia's selectors by the lack of batting quality
available to them for this year's dual Ashes assignments that the
seasoned duo of Chris Rogers and Adam Voges are being seriously considered for Test squad duty.
The national selector John Inverarity mentioned both Rogers, 35, and
Voges, 33, as possible Ashes tourists while speaking at some length
about Australia's widespread batting problems as he announced the list
of centrally contracted players for 2013-14. Only six specialist batsmen
were granted contracts among the 20 players chosen, leaving
Inverarity's panel plenty of scope to choose batsmen from outside the
list when they name an Ashes squad of 17.
Rogers and Voges both have the advantage of considerable batting
experience in England, the former an especially prolific performer
during northern summers. Rogers, who played his only Test match in 2008,
has compiled 9,230 first-class runs at an average of 53.97 in England
with 28 centuries, the vast majority made at the top of the order
against the moving ball.
Voges' record is not quite as imposing, but his 2736 runs at 45.60 with
four centuries for Nottinghamshire have added lustre when it is
considered that the club's home ground, Trent Bridge, is where the first
Test of the Ashes series will be played. Never chosen in a Test XI,
Voges made a composed ODI century at the MCG earlier this year.
Inverarity said Rogers "has been and will be in discussions", and mentioned Voges alongside Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Alex Doolan
as other batting contenders among the group who did not receive a CA
contract. Overall, however, Inverarity maintained a disappointed if not
quite bewildered tone at the problems of Australian batting, exposed as
they were by a series of horrid displays in India.
"We do not have the batting depth in Australian cricket now that we
enjoyed 15 years ago. We just don't. That's something that cricket in
Australia really needs to address and we need to get more batsmen making
runs prolifically," Inverarity said. "We thirst for players who do
really well across all formats.
"That's a concern for Australian cricket, as we've said consistently in
recent times. We are looking for consistent, prolific run-scorers in all
forms of cricket. Those players to whom it doesn't matter whether it's
white ball, red ball, Twenty20, whatever it is, they go out and they
churn out the runs.
"There has been an absence of that in recent years in club cricket,
domestic interstate cricket, and international cricket, and that needs
to be a real focus of coaching and development in Australia. It's just
got to be done, it needs to be done. That involves technique but mindset
as well. That's what we need."
Australia's increasingly jumbled schedule of different formats both at
junior and domestic levels has been a major bother for the selectors.
Australia's limited-overs captain George Bailey
made only one first-class half-century all summer, a famine largely
attributable to a season in which he jumped ceaselessly from first-class
to one-day to T20 and back again.
Inverarity cited the example of Doolan, who was the dominant domestic
batsman in the early part of the season, peaking with an attractive
century for Australia A against the South Africans at the SCG, but then
spent much of the December-January period as a fringe player for the
Melbourne Renegades in the BBL. Perhaps not surprisingly, he struggled
to regain his earlier touch when the Sheffield Shield resumed.
Khawaja's case provides further cause for disquiet. His place as a
reserve batsman for the national team kept him out of numerous Shield
engagements for Queensland including the final. Whether or not Khawaja
should have played Tests over that time is a matter for the selectors,
but the schedule left them with precious little evidence on which to
choose him.
"He worked very hard in India and did well, and he will be well
prepared," Inverarity said. "He's strongly in contention for the Ashes,
but it is a concern [the lack of first-class matches]. It's certainly
not an ideal preparation, him not playing more red-ball cricket."
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
Feeds: Daniel Brettig
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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