Former Australian players Ricky Ponting and Ian Healy have backed Australia A captain Nathan McSweeney to take up the opening slot alongside Usman Khawaja in the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy against India.
An injury to Cameron Green has left Australia short on batting options for the five-match Test series against India, scheduled to start on November 22 in Perth. The opening slot has been up for grabs since David Warner retired earlier this year.
Steve Smith filled in for the role following Warner’s retirement in the New Zealand series earlier this year, but the Australian run-machine is expected to return to number four. Green was expected to open, but his unavailability forces Australia to look at other options.
Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris were expected to fight for the spot along with young Sam Konstas in the ongoing Australia A vs India A matches. However, the trio have failed to step up in both innings of the first unofficial Test in which McSweeney may have caught attention.
Konstas was the one initially backed to partner Khawaja in the BGT, but the youngster registered a duck and 16 runs in his two outings against India A in Mackay. Bancroft also registered a duck followed by 16, batting at number three.
Harris, who has earlier opened for Australia against India, also did not make any telling contributions, scoring 17 and 36 in his two innings. McSweeney, on the other hand, scored 39 in the first innings and remains unbeaten on 47 in the second.
Ponting had earlier backed Konstas to be selected as the opener, but the former Australian skipper is now leaning towards McSweeney after his recent showing in the A team.
“I was put on the spot about a week ago, and I sort of immediately went to the young guy, Sam Konstas. He had come off back-to-back hundreds against South Australia,” Ponting said on the ‘ICC Review Show’.
“Then I thought a bit more about it and, he is so young and he has probably not even played on grounds like Optus (Perth) Stadium or at The Gabba. He wouldn’t have played a pink-ball (match) at Adelaide Oval either. So there’s a lot of things that stack up against the young guy, although there’s no doubt that he’s got talent.”
McSweeney has scored 291 runs in his previous four innings, which has included a century in the Sheffield Shield and the One-Day Cup.
“The only name left for me more or less is Nathan McSweeney, who is Queensland-born now playing for South Australia. He got the most out of any of those guys from the ‘A’ game in Australia at the moment.”
“And he’s more experienced. He has captained Australia A in the past, and he’s captaining them now. So, I’m leaning towards McSweeney now for that opening role at the start of the Australian summer.”
Healy, the former wicketkeeper, also followed Ponting in backing teh South Australian to earn selection for the vacant opener’s slot in the Australia team for the Test series against India.
“I was glad people could see how Nathan McSweeney can bat yesterday, he put his shots away for the good of the situation,” Healy told SEN Radio. “I knew about him because he’s come from my club and the Australian selectors know about it because he’s played like that for South Australia and very well recently.
“He showed that at 25 years of age, he’s the most ready of the four. The tried and tested Bancroft and Harris are a bit older and Konstas is a bit younger. He’s the most suited from that performance overall,” Healy added.
Ponting believed that if Australia intended to return to Bancroft and Harris – both of whom have previous Test experience – they would have done so after Warner’s retirement. Instead, the Australian think tank experimented by sending Smith to open, a strategy that did not yield significant results.
“Another thing that I’d said then was that I don’t think they’d go back to a Bancroft or Harris because if they’re willing to do that they would’ve done it the last year,” Ponting added.
