Why did the Australian selectors opt for a squad without an all-rounder?

While the Australian selectors have thrown a lot of surprises with the squad they have selected for the first two Ashes Tests, the most surprising of them all is the absence of an all-rounder from the squad. Ahead of the selectors’ meet, the No. 6 spot was a subject of much debate in the Australian cricketing circles.

A majority were of the opinion it was the position of an all-rounder who will not only add balance to the side but also give Australian speedsters a break every now and again to allow the captain to use them in short bursts, something similar to what Shane Watson did for Michael Clarke in the 2015 Ashes. There were four players in contention for that spot:

Hilton Cartwright

It was during the last Australian summer that the Zimbabwe-born all-rounder made his debut for his adopted country against Pakistan and has played a couple of Test matches since then. He has a total of 55 runs in two games and is yet to get his first Test wicket.

But the reason why he was the pick for No. 6 by most of the former players and pundits was his form in first-class cricket with the bat in the last couple of seasons. He was the second highest run-scorer in the Sheffield Shield last season with 861 runs and this season too, he has shown good form in the first couple of games in the Shield scoring 152 runs at an average of 38.

Mitchell Marsh

Mitchell Marsh has always been rated very highly by the Aussies and that’s why he has been given numerous opportunities to prove his worth in the whites, but he has failed to establish himself as a Test cricketer so far. He averages just a tad over 20 with the bat in the 21 Test matches that he has played and his bowling figures aren’t that pretty either as he has a total 29 wickets at an average of 37.48. However, there are still many who believe that the Western Australia skipper has it in him what it takes to be a good Test player.

Marcus Stoinis

Stoinis has been there playing domestic cricket in Australia for quite a long time, but it’s only in the last year or so that he has been brought into the mix by the national selectors. While he is yet to don the whites for the Kangaroos, he has done well in the opportunities that he has got in limited-overs cricket and based on that, he has now been viewed as a Test prospect as well. His batting and bowling averages in a 70-game old first-class career are 28.85 and 28.58 respectively. While the former is not satisfactory for a top 6 batsman, the latter is pretty decent for a 5th bowler.

Glenn Maxwell

Glenn Maxwell has found himself on the fringes of Australia’s Test team for a long time but has never quite got a proper go. In fact, he hasn’t played even a single Test match at home so far. All his 7 Test outings have been in the subcontinent where Australia likes to play him as a spin bowling all-rounder. While he doesn’t boast a great Test record and averages just about 26 with the bat, he scored a hundred earlier on the India tour under extremely testing conditions.

Specialist batsman at No.6

Amidst all the debate on which of these four should be preferred, the Australian selectors went completely the other way and picked a specialist batsman in Shaun Marsh for the crucial No.6 spot. Now as surprising as it may seem, let’s try and think from their point of view and guess why they chose to ignore all of the above four names.

Question mark over the bowling credentials of the all-rounders

Whatever Test cricket Hilton Cartwright has played so far, it’s very clear that he is nothing more than a military medium bowler. Hardly any of his deliveries in Test cricket have clocked over 125 kph and he is unlikely to create any problems for the quality Test batsmen with that sort of pace. So his game is more about batting than anything else.

Mitchell Marsh though is not a military medium. He is a far better bowler than Cartwright. If in rhythm, he can crank it up to 140 kph and does whack the deck as well. But the problem with him at the moment is that he has not started bowling at all since his shoulder operation earlier this year. He is playing first-class cricket for Western Australia purely as a batsman and would have been available for Australia as a batsman only, at least for the first couple of games.

Coming to Stoinis, he is someone who just hasn’t done enough with either bat or ball in Australian domestic first-class circuit to convince the selectors that he is the man for the all-rounder’s job in red ball cricket. While his first-class bowling stats don’t look bad, he is again a little bit like Cartwright who bowls at a gentle pace and isn’t known to make the bowl hoop around corners.

And as far as Maxwell is concerned, him being a spin bowler might have gone against him because if the Australian think tank needed an all-rounder to rotate the quick bowlers, they would have preferred a seam-bowling all-rounder. Maxwell wouldn’t have offered much with the ball in Australian conditions. Also, he didn’t do anything significant with the bat in the four Shield games that he played ahead of the team selection. He scored 200 runs in 3 games with a couple of fifties which was not bad but was not enough to convince the selectors that he could do the job at no. 6 as well as a specialist batsman.

So rather than picking a player who offers a decent bit with the bat and only a slight bit with the ball, the Australian selectors eventually went with Shaun Marsh who may not offer anything with the ball, but will offer certainty and solidity with the bat.