Last Updated on 5 hours ago by Charbel Coorey
Mike Hussey believes the Australian Test team is in good health despite four defeats from their past seven matches.
In a 12-month period labelled as legacy defining, Pat Cummins’ team have stumbled at the first hurdles, drawing the two-match series at home to Bangladesh before losing 2-1 in South Africa. However, Hussey believes there are positive signs ahead.
Mike Hussey expects core of Australia Test team to remain, with only Marnus Labuschagne to drop out
The former Australia batsman, who will work with the team as coach during the upcoming T20I series against England, says the form of Matt Renshaw, Cameron Green and Josh Inglis is a positive. He expects those three to hold down their spots, with Marnus Labuschagne unlikely to keep his place after another disappointing series.
“If we had lost that last Test [in Cape Town], but got 250, 260 and taken it right down to the wire, then people probably wouldn’t be as much up in arms,” Hussey said, as quoted by CODE Sports.
“I’m not expecting the Aussie camp to panic too much despite all the emotion going on outside. I think obviously Marnus is going to probably find it hard to keep his place in the team — he’s been given a pretty long rope over a while now.
“But other than that, I don’t know how much more change. They really like (Cam) Green; he’s done well against Bangladesh, and he did reasonably well when he played. (Josh) Inglis got a century, so he deserves to keep his spot.
“Renshaw did really well … Travis Head, you’re not going to do anything with him, and then Steve Smith is pretty much a walk-up start. So that’s pretty much your top six; you throw Carey in, that’s your top seven.”
Who are the leading contenders from the Sheffield Shield?
Hussey also says there are more candidates putting their hand up at Sheffield Shield level. He pinpoints Sam Konstas, Kurtis Patterson, Nathan McSweeney and Jack Clayton as leading candidates to make the Test team in the near future.
Clayton in particular has emerged as a strong candidate. The left-hander has made a solid start to the Sheffield Shield season for Queensland, scoring 303 runs in the opening three matches at an average of 75.75.
“That’s been one really promising thing from my point of view is that we’ve been wanting guys at the level below to start banging the door down and we’re starting to see that,” Hussey said.
“I still want to see more of it and more consistently, but it’s good to see Sam Konstas getting a few runs [71 and 151* against Western Australia]. We know his talent, but we want him to churn out some good first-class runs.
“Kurtis Patterson’s done well over a period of time; he’s got to be there or thereabouts. Then McSweeney has been pretty consistent as well. It was good to see Cameron Bancroft send a reminder to the selectors … and then there’s Jack Clayton who’s been chipping away nicely over the past few years, and he’s highly regarded up in Queensland.”
Australia’s four-match series against New Zealand begins on December 9. It shapes up as a vital series in the World Test Championship (WTC) race, with Australia dropping from first to third.
The Black Caps are currently top of the WTC standings with a two-match series against India to come this month. South Africa are in second with a home series against Bangladesh on the horizon.
