Michael Hussey is nearly 38 years of age and either Ponting or Hussey could make the 2013 Ashes touring squad to the UK. One of them has to retire. I would retire Michael Hussey after the Indian test series. Do we want an Australian XI that resembles the English test XI of the 80s? Rod Marsh and John Inverarity are doing an excellent job and they share the same selection theories as Greg Chappell.
The selectors have done an excellent job in picking youth and the trend has to continue.
I would not pick Ed Cowan for a simple reason. He cannot bat at 3 and I prefer to have Shane Watson in the opening position. As Chappelli mentioned on Cricket Info and on CHannel 9, there is no point in re-inventing the wheel with Shane Watson. He has found his niche as a test cricketer for a number of reasons:
- Shane Watson prefers to play against the new ball straight away. During his shield career with Tasmania and Qld, he struggled to bat in the middle order. During his time with Tasmania, he scored a bulk of runs at first drop. During his time with Qld, he really struggled until he was given a chance to open the batting alongside Graeme Smith during his stint at the Royals in 2009.
- He is an attacking right hand opener who can use his body language to bully the opposing bowlers in a similar vein to Matthew Hayden and Gordon Greenidge.
- Shane Watson reminds me of a young 1986-87 and 1987-88 version of David Boon. The David Boon of the late 80s preferred to play against the new ball. He loved to take the attack to the opposition. He scored a bulk of his runs as an opener in comparison to his stint at number 5-6 during the 1984-85 and 1985 tour of England. Apart from his run of outs in 1986-87, he was one of our most successful opening batsman and no 3 batsman since Sir Donald Bradman.
- Shane Watson's body cannot handle the demands of bowling 20 overs of fast medium in an innings. His body is not designed to be an allrounder.
I would pick Dan Christian at number 6 to release Shane Watson from the burden of bowling 25 overs of fast medium deliveries per innings.
Chappelli and Imran Khan always held the view that you need a balanced and varied attack to take 20 wickets in a test match. You need an allrounder at 6 who can relieve the workloads of Siddle, Cummins and Starc/Hilfenhauss.
THE GOV