The recently concluded Australia and West Indies series didn’t even feel like cricket—it was fast, fast, and more fast. In the blink of an eye, Australia were batting and then suddenly bowling. Whatever that was, it certainly wasn’t Test cricket though fast bowlers might disagree with what I’ve just said. And you know what I mean, right?
This isn’t just my opinion, the coach of Australia, Andrew McDonald, would likely agree. In his recent interview on The New Ball on SEN Radio, McDonald said it’s difficult to make any judgement about his side’s batting unit based on the surfaces they just played on.
“It’s really difficult to make accurate judgments on both batting units based upon the surfaces that we played on,” McDonald told The New Ball on SEN Radio. “And you take that into the third Test, which is a pink-ball Dukes on that surface, that game just moved way too fast and at times, it didn’t even look like cricket.
“…That cricket was borderline impossible to play at certain stages. Some of those deliveries from Mitchell Starc, the way that ball behaved under lights. So it’s a bigger question for what the pink Dukes look like for Test match cricket, really.”
He conceded, though, that the series had left questions rather than answering them. “It feels as though we’ll still be a little bit unsettled in terms of what our combinations look like at the top of the order with the way that the performances have gone here,” he said. “In saying that, there’s a lot of cricket still to come to be able to gather that information.”
And there were more questions about the young opener, Sam Konstas who had replaced Marnus Labuschagne in the role. Sam averaged only 8.33 with the bat and his fielding in the last Test match was questionable too.
Nevertheless, the chances are still there that he can open alongside Usman Khawaja against England in Perth when the Ashes starts. However, it will require a great batting effort by the opener in the Sheffield Shield season.
“I don’t think anyone’s damaged by being exposed to Test cricket because I think what it does do is it gives you a taste of what that level is like,” he said. “All the things that come around being a Test cricketer, not just purely going out there, marking centre and going about your business.
“There’s no doubt he’s got some things to work on, like all our players do, and they continually work on. He’s clear on what they are. We feel as though across the journey, he’s a highly talented player, and I hate to use that word talent, but his skillsets over time, I think we’ll see the real Sam Konstas.
“At the moment he’s juggling his aggressive nature, he’s juggling his technique and the way he really wants to go about playing it. But when you’ve got up-and-down seaming wickets, it can force you into those corners a lot quicker than some surfaces that potentially are batter friendly, which we were expecting to get here.”
McDonald also shed light on Marnus, who was dropped from the side for the very first time since 2019. He was dropped after the final of the World Test Championship against South Africa.
“I think towards the end there [before being left out], and Marnus won’t mind me saying this, that there was a little bit of going backward and forward on plans and at certain stages he wasn’t clear,” he said. “He’s got great clarity leaving here, which is a successful tour, albeit he hasn’t played a game…and [we] look forward to what he does coming into the early Shield rounds and then putting his hand up for selection for Perth.
“But he’s a quality player. He averages 46 in Test match cricket. We feel as though this wasn’t going to be a huge gap before he does return because of the quality, but the start of the Shield season will really shape that.”
The coach also revealed that in August, Starc will be joining Pat Cummins in missing the white-ball games against South Africa in the Top End.
