West Australian cricket champion Michael Hussey not sold on Nathan McSweeney being asked to open against India
West Australian cricket champion Michael Hussey has aired his reservations about Nathan McSweeney being tasked with combating Jasprit Bumrah and the new ball against India.
The South Australian skipper was announced as the winner of the Australia A bat-off on Sunday, impressing in the first game and showing he has the technique to handle the new ball in the second despite not adding big scores.
However, his fellow contestants, Marcus Harris, Cam Bancroft and Sam Konstas, could only manage to fire a couple of shots, and made McSweeney debuting in Perth the only real option.
The problem is McSweeny has not opened at first-class level, batting in the middle-order and at first drop for his state.
But given Steve Smith has been confirmed to be slotting back in at No.4 after Cam Green’s back injury, the opening role is seemingly the only place available.
Hussey, who ploughed more than 6000 Test runs at better than 50 and nearly 23,000 in first-class cricket, said he would prefer a full-time opener to brave India’s attack.
“I think it’s a tough ask to ask him to play his first Test match as an opening batsman against India in a huge series when he hasn’t opened before in first class cricket apart from last week in the India A clash,” he said on Fox Cricket’s broadcast of the third ODI between Australia and Pakistan at Optus Stadium.
“It’s not easy at all. I know people will say Simon Katich and Shane Watson have done it in the past.
“They moved from the middle-order up to the top order, but they played 20-30 Test matches before they made the move.
“It’s a tough ask and, personally, I would (prefer a specialist opener), but I think the Australian selectors’ philosophy is picking the best six batters in the country, and then we’ll figure the order out after that.
“They may not play him at the top of the order. Marnus Labuschagne may move up. Maybe they haven’t made up their mind exactly what their order is at this stage. They have just decided these are our six best batters, and now we’ll figure out where they sit best.”
The tantalising five-test Border Gavaskar Trophy series gets underway with the West Test on November 22.
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