When teams were picked with four specialist bowlers, any overs contributed by the top six were precious โ better still if they were quality overs. Certainly, teams through the 1980s were picked with four pacemen with no thought given to the necessity of an all-rounder. As more one-day internationals were played, the likes of Simon OโDonnell and Trevor Chappell, with all-round skills who fleetingly crossed the barrier into Test cricket, came into their own.
Australia have been fortunate with the batting prowess of their wicketkeepers in recent decades, from Ian Healy to Brad Haddin, especially Adam Gilchrist and now Alex Carey being elevated into the top six.
Potential: Cameron Green.Credit: AP
The salient point with Careyโs elevation is not so much his form, which has been outstanding, but about the man who now follows him in โ Cameron Green.
The West Australian has been on the greasy pole this summer. Proposed as a No.3 amid the chaos of Perth, when Usman Khawaja was unavailable, he appeared at six. Green has been considered a member of the genuine all-rounders club since his arrival on the first-class scene because he could bowl at 140 kph and make hundreds. Fair enough.
Selectors need a fit and in-form Green, but his lanky body has proven unreliable โ which can happen when you try to bowl fast. His batting has also lost a sheen of consistency. He looks uncertain at the crease, unsure whether to attack or drop anchor. Getting shuffled up and down the order can bring a fog to the expectations of each role and the game situation.
Greenโs back-away dismissal in Brisbane will forever feature on his lowlights reel. After 36 Tests, he has taken 38 wickets at 37 and averages 33 with the bat โ not quite the territory of a genuine all-rounder, but skirting around the boundary fence. Greenโs wingspan and bucket hands in the gully add the third element that keeps him in the team, for now.
Green is the keystone to building a team which has a balance of pace and spin โ unlike the XI at the MCG โ but he needs to lift.
The selectors will stick with him a little longer, cross their fingers and behove the deities of Keith Miller, Alan Davidson, Richie Benaud, Shane Watson, Mark Waugh and Doug Walters, because the balance of the modern Test team demands a fifth bowler even though matches rarely go the distance.
Australia fielded five seam bowlers in the MCG Test, Green included, which feels like overkill. But when you leave a spinner out, the dice has been rolled โ unlike the pitch.
England have the luxury of a genuine, world-class all-rounder in Ben Stokes. They donโt play a specialist spinner but a batsman in Will Jacks who bowls something that could just about be described as โoff spinโ. It allows them to play eight batsmen (which is about three short). England have been so worried about the legitimacy of their batting philosophy that they refuse to pick a frontline spinner because it weakens the batting.
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Australiaโs selectors would like to build the next generation around the genuine all-round abilities of Green and Carey.
This Australian squad has served the nation well, but the band is starting to break up under the ravages of age. Carey is a future captain and Green is the keystone to building a team which has a balance of pace and spin โ unlike the XI at the MCG โ but he needs to lift.
Maybe giving him a concrete batting number would clear the mind and ensure consistency. Otherwise, the other all-rounder in the squad, Beau Webster, will be filling his shoes.
