Australia have 7 batsmen who average over 40 in first class cricket who are currently eligible to play:
Renshaw
Burns
Khawaja
S Marsh
Maxwell
Patterson
White
Of those, White and Marsh are 35 and don't have long left.
Renshaw is in the squad but not picked.
Maxwell and Burns were inexplicably left out, despite Burns being the incumbent opener, in form and top scoring in the last test he played in.
Patterson probably deserved a run over other players in the squad based on the stated selection criteria (% of scores over 30).
Only Khawaja and S Marsh were picked, and one of those two is old and both were dropped the last time they played in spinning conditions.
Honestly with Smith and Warner out, we should be experimenting with these tests. And not with players like Labaschagne, but with proven domestic performers.
Burns
Renshaw
Khawaja
S Marsh
Patterson
Maxwell
Paine (c)
Starc
Siddle
Lyon
Holland
This XI combines the available players with the most test experience, the best statistics and the most promise in the country. It's absurd that of this list, only S Marsh and Khawaja are playing.
Why are we playing two blokes in the top six who average under 35 in first class cricket (M Marsh, Labaschagne)? To put that into perspective, Hartley, who was considered the best gloveman in the country averaged almost 35 but was deemed not a good enough batsman to keep wicket for Australia. Why do we have no batsmen batting in the entire middle order who average over 40 in first class cricket?
Ok, let's forget about averages. Let's look at who is scoring runs in the shield. Let's put aside S Marsh, who scored plenty in the tests and should be given a bit of grace, and Khawaja who deserves his place more than anyone there.
Players who have scored more than 500 runs in each of the last two seasons:
Ferguson
Weatherald
Head
Burns
Harris
Patterson
Hughes
Turner
Cartwright
Bailey
White
Wildermuth
Lehmann
Dean
A couple of players are absent since they played international cricket, but why is Labaschagne ahead of any of the guys on this list? He's literally had one good first class season. Why is M Marsh ahead of most of the guys on this list? I'm not saying that these guys are deserving of a call up, most of them aren't, but surely Ferguson might be worth looking at as a stop gap for one of the banned two. Or perhaps White, Burns or Patterson, who have a first class average over 40 and appears on the above list.
The selection policies in place are ludicrous and it's costing us test matches. With even slightly better batting we would have been able to capitalise on a relatively low first innings total. Renshaw should be playing. Burns should be there. As should Maxwell.
We're not talking about players averaging north of 50, this isn't the 00s. But we still should pick the best of the available bunch. Getting flattened in the UAE won't mean much but if this idiotic selection is happening over the summer we're going to suffer the ultimate humiliation and lose to Sri Lanka, or worse - India.