Thursday, February 5, 2009

Squad to tour South Africa

Here's my take on who should be the 14 men to go to South Africa for the three match test series beginning this month:

Simon Katich - probably Australia's most important batsman at the moment
Phil Hughes - he may struggle, may even get dropped, but all the great ones get back
Ricky Ponting (c) - his batting is where it needs to be, but his captaincy needs to improve
Michael Clarke (vc) - and he needs to start batting at four
Michael Hussey - a move to five would relieve some of the pressure
Andrew McDonald - did enough in Sydney, his bowling clearly superior to Symonds
Brad Haddin (wk) - had plenty of form with the bat during the test series
Mitchell Johnson - hopefully the longer form of the game will suit him
Bryce McGain - after his performance v South Africa, he simply must go
Doug Bollinger - deserves another crack
Peter Siddle - certainly the honest trundler Australia needs
Callum Ferguson - elevation into ODI squad indicates selectors are warming to him
Ben Hilfenhaus - may get to play if green top produced or if Bollinger falters
Cameron White - provides flexibility, extra bat, possibly extra bowler

The last position is the toughest, because the selectors may be tempted to take six specialist bowlers out of a squad of 14. Personally I think they should be taking 15 to provide more flexibility, meaning they had two other options with bat and ball. Also the back up batsman proved tough to choose, but Ferguson has done enough to deserve to tour. I believe it's more important to swap Clarke and M Hussey in the batting order. D Hussey simply hasn't done enough in the ODIs to warrant a tour place.

UPDATE - I got 12 out of 14 right, with Marcus North and Nathan Hauritz instead of Cameron White and Callum Ferguson.

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