Ed Cowan cops serve from Aaron Finch over brutal claim about Nathan McSweeney's Test debut
South Australia captain was picked to partner Usman Khawaja as Australia's newest Test opener.
Aaron Finch has defended the elevation of Nathan McSweeney into Australia's Test side after firing back at criticism from former opener Ed Cowan, who labelled it a "guess" from Aussie selectors. McSweeney is not a traditional opener and normally bats at No.3 for South Australia, but won the battle to partner Usman Khawaja for Australia's five-Test series against India, starting on November 22 in Perth.
McSweeney's form in Sheffield Shield and for Australia A saw him get the nod ahead of rival Test hopefuls Marcus Harris, Sam Konstas and Cameron Bancroft - all of whom open the batting for their states. McSweeney top-scored for Australia A in both innings of the first match against India A when he was batting down the order but produced modest scores of 14 and 25 when promoted to open in the second match.
And Cowan says it's McSweeney's record against the new ball that is most concerning after questioning his call-up to the Test side. Chief selector George Bailey argued that concerns around McSweeney's promotion were largely irrelevant because he often comes in to bat inside the opening 10 overs at Shield level anyway.
But Cowan says a look at McSweeney's scores in recent matches when he has faced the new ball paint a different picture. “He has two scores over 50; 53 and 67 against NSW. Here are his other scores: 22, 32, 10, 0, 12, 48, 36, 15, 20, 25, 11, 0, 7 and 0,” Cowan said on ABC’s Grandstand Cricket podcast.
Cowan says the manner of McSweeney's dismissals opening for Australia A, where he was caught out edging in both innings, suggested the 25-year-old was not ready to bat at the top of the order for Australia. “The data would suggest at the moment in his career, he doesn’t have the technique nor the temperament to do it,” Cowan added, pointing to McSweeney’s first-class record of 358 runs at 22 when batting within the first 10 overs for South Australia.
“Do you know what a selection is when the data doesn’t support your point of view? It’s a guess," he added. But Australia's former white-ball captain Finch - who was also picked to open in Tests for Australia while batting in the middle order for Victoria - argued that all selections involved an element of guess-work. And Finch says he's confident McSweeney does have the right technique and temperament to succeed.
Aaron Finch backs Nathan McSweeney's Test selection
“All selection is literally guessing!” Finch said on cricket podcast Willow Talk, in response to Cowan’s comments. “I like the selection. I think when you look at his game as a whole, he looks very organised. He’s technically quite sound, he’s got the runs on the board.
"I think his leadership with South Australia — which wouldn’t have been the easiest job over the last probably decade as well, I mean, when you’ve had not a huge amount of success particularly in Shield cricket, that can be quite a different environment to come into, when he’s coming down from Queensland as well. But I think it’s a good selection.
“If you look at his stats, the amount of times that he’s in inside the first 15 or 20 runs anyway shows that he’s equipped to face the new ball consistently, so yeah, I like the selection. I think with that squad there’s 12 of those guys that picked themselves.”
Australia's chief selector Bailey also clapped back at Cowan's criticism on Wednesday by insisting the McSweeney selection was more than a guess and explaining how he complements the rest of the players in the Test side. “I’d like to think it’s a little more than a guess, but I guess we could all run our fingers down the list of leading run-scorers and leading wicket-takers and just work our way through the top, but that’s not how cricket teams work,” Bailey told SEN.
RELATED:
Ricky Ponting's feud with India coach heats up over Virat Kohli drama
Cummins cops backlash as legends rip Aussie captain over photo with wife
Cricket legends blast 'meaningless' ODI series after stars' absences
“The one-day team that’s played recently, I think that was a good example... There’s players in there that actually have the capacity to perform at one-day level, but one thing that was quite apparent was that they didn’t quite gel. They didn’t quite know how each of their teammates worked and what it looked like when they were in partnerships and working together. We certainly think Nathan will complement the players he has around him in the Test team.”
with AAP
