The Australian one-day inter*national squad is on its way home from South Africa, leaving behind in its wake a five-nil whitewash and facing a summer that includes series against four visiting sides with serious question marks over who deserves a Test place.
High performance manager Pat Howard yesterday defended the team’s form in South Africa and the player management schedule, saying there were already plans to rest Steve Smith, David Warner and a number of the bowlers from the domestic Matador Cup series.
The side lost on Wednesday night to South Africa despite a brilliant 173 by Warner — his *second century in a week. The opener’s 386 runs at an average of 77.2 broke a 25-year record for the highest total by an Australian in a five-match series and was the 10th highest of overall.
“Smith and Warner won’t play straight away. They’ve got a couple of niggles to get over,” Howard said. “Mitch Marsh is only going to play as a batsman first game.
“People very quickly forget how long the winter is,” he said. “Guys left Australia in January, went to New Zealand for one-dayers, (then the) World T20, 30 players go to the IPL from Aust*ralian cricket, then we went to the West Indies and then Sri Lanka and then South Africa.”
Howard said because the fixture list is so crowded it was hard to get a pre-season for the players, but a number of bowlers are *making their way back to action.
Peter Siddle made his comeback to one-day cricket in the Matador Cup yesterday, Josh *Hazlewood will start bowling next week and Mitchell Starc is bowling after suffering a serious leg injury in a training accident. Pat Cummins is bowling in the one-day games and may play some Sheffield Shield games but will not be fit for the six Test matches (three against South *Africa and three against Pakistan) in the Australian summer.
With so many bowlers unavailable, the one-day side included an inexperienced attack. Chris Tremain, Scott Boland, Joe Mennie, Dan Worrall and John Hastings were all used with *limited success.
“I don’t want to judge people at the start (of their careers),” Howard said. “Give people time. There is that test about how people rise to the occasion — we challenge players when they come into the international squad. We’ll see what it’s like, they’ll go back into domestic cricket and got to dominate that.
“I want to see how those players take that opportunity and grow from it because if you want to be No 1 in all three forms you need a lot of depth.”
Former captain Mark Taylor believes the Test side is unsettled, with only five players demanding a place.
“I’ll tell you the people who pick themselves at the moment: Warner, Smith, (Peter) Nevill, Starc, Hazlewood and I think everyone else at this stage will be talked about,” Taylor told *cricket.com.au
Chairman of selectors Rod Marsh has indicated he will not look to renew his contract when it expires in June next year and relayed that information to Cricket Australia three months ago.
Howard said he had not begun to look for a replacement and praised Marsh who has, like anyone who does the job, not been *immune to criticism.
“I think Rod has done a very critical job,” he said. “He took a team to No 1 in the world six months after losing a Test team. He should be very proud of the work he’s done.
“(He’s) got a fantastic relationship with all the players he deals with. A huge amount of respect, he’s Rod Marsh..”
