In 2019 I made this post, where I made my case for Peter Handscomb to be Australia's keeper for the 2019 ODI WC. The selectors ended up sticking with Alex Carey who went on to have a breakout tournament, so maybe my judgement is a little flawed. Regardless here is a similar post on our T20I team.
With the Men's T20I World Cup on our horizon, teams around the world are looking to settle their best XI. Australia is no different, with our last T20I squad featuring the "Best of the BBL", with an eye towards finding suitable backups for our frontline team come the World Cup. An important part of any T20 XI is the wicketkeeper. From Romesh Kaluwitharana to Adam Gilchrist to MS Dhoni to Jos Buttler, wicketkeeper batsmen have played an important part in the evolution of short form cricket by bringing much needed balance and a certain flair to any batting lineup. Australia have had a few wicketkeepers in and around the T20I team in recent times, which begs the question: who deserves the much coveted spot in Australia's XI? With an aim to answer this question lets take a dive into some raw stats and qualatative analysis (i.e my opinion) on Australia's team balance. But first let's take a look at the...
2016 T20I World Cup
After the retirement of Brad Haddin, Matthew Wade seemed all but set to take on Australia's keeping duties in all forms of the game. But a major shock came with Australia's 2016 World Cup squad announcement; Peter Nevill would keep, a man with little T20 batting credentials who now finds himself not even playing in the BBL 5 years on. In justification of this decision, then selector Rod Marsh said "We feel our batting depth in this squad is sufficient enough that we can have a specialist wicket-keeper in the squad...We want Australia’s best wicketkeeper playing in this tournament and we consider Peter Nevill to be the best in the country right now." Indeed, with an XI featuring all rounders Shane Watson and James Faulkner, that Australian team could afford to carry Peter Nevill at 8, who chipped in with 25 runs striking at 227. With this year's World Cup also being held in India, this decision is something to keep in mind as we consider...
This Year's Contenders
Several wicketkeeper batsman have been in and around Australia's T20 squad recently, however since the start of 2019, only 3 have played as the designated wicketkeeper:
**Peter Hands
... keep reading on reddit ➡
I’d love there to be a more interactive wicketkeeper for use in career mode. Selecting your player to be a batsmen or a bowler means you can be exactly that. But when it comes to keeper you literally don’t do anything. Perhaps a pro camera option and moving the right stick to where the ball is? Really doesn’t have to be complicated, just give it a little more playability. Anyone agree?
Ian Healy's the easy answer here - but realistically:
- Played for another 3 years after Gilchrist's first ODI
- Averaged higher than his career average in those 3 years
- 161* in his first innings after Gilchrist arrived.
- Was 35 when he got tapped on the shoulder.
Boucher probably was tapped on the shoulder in equal part due to quota requirements and comparisons to Gilchrist's form with the bat. But was back in the team in no time. Do we still not give him the credit he deserves as the gloveman of his generation because Gilchrist made so many with the bat?
I don't know a lot about the background behind Adam Parore's omission, but a possible contender?
Chris Read and James Foster were both excellent glovemen consistently over looked for Geraint Jones.
Been looking for this compilation record for awhile. Can't seem to find it for sale anywhere. If you have it I'd be will to pay over the top sell on discogs.
So this started as a comment but got long enough to where it would probably be better as it's own thread.
Test squad: Tim Paine (c/wk), Sean Abbott, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner
A Squad: Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Joe Burns, Jackson Bird, Alex Carey (wk), Harry Conway, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Nic Maddinson, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, Tim Paine, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Mark Steketee, Will Sutherland, Mitchell Swepson
On the Test squad
From this the Starting XI I believe will be:
- Will Pucovski
- David Warner
- Marnus Labuschagne
- Steve Smith
- Travis Head
- Matt Wade
- Tim Paine
- Pat Cummins
- Mitch Starc
- Nathan Lyon
- Josh Hazlewood
I wouldn't be surprised if Swepson or Green get a game at some point, but I find it hard to believe that the selectors would offer Joe Burns a spot in the squad but not offer Wade a spot in the starting XI. Neither Head nor Wade have done anything to be dropped, so I think Green will probably sit out most of the tests, unless one of Wade or Head absolutely shits the bed.
Joe Burns being in the squad is nice to see and I respect the decision. However, I was quite surprised he made it given a lacklustre series against New Zealand and a Shield top score of 28. I was expecting he'd be given the flick for Harris in the squad, and have Hamster and the Puc fight it out for the opening spot. I would honestly not be surprised if the selectors have already decided on Pucovski playing, and his battling it out with Burns is more in good faith to Burns than it is to the actual decision.
Other pleasent surprises being Sean Abbott's inclusion, in the squad, but he joins the bowler heirachy behind the second reserve quick, 1. Pattinson, 2. Neser, 3. Abbott. He should be good to watch in the warm up games, but I think it's highly doubtful he plays a test.
On the A Squad, specifically wicketkeeping
Yes, I am banging this drum again. While I understand Carey being the supposed Paine understudy, he's never impressed me in red ball cricket and I fear we're going down a similar path to England where we opt for the supposedly better batsman than keeper, when there isn't really evidence of this. I will say that I don't think Carey is as good of a batsman as Jos Buttler,
... keep reading on reddit ➡Inspired by the Wisden Players of the Century... purely on their keeping achievements, name your top 5.
An article which I found very insightful, and while it's focus is centred around Carey's toil to keep his spot on the team despite being proclaimed as a future talent, it also puts into perspective the pressure that older, experienced campaigners face as soon as a young gun bursts on the scene, even if the showings of that young player have come in small inconsistent bursts, as could be argued to be the case with Josh Phillipe.
