Why George Bailey is the unluckiest cricketer of this generation
The selection of teams, and in particular, the selection of players for a country to a tour or any major league are often challenging and hard-pressing for selectors if they have a huge bench strength and an array of talented players to choose from their pool. Despite the challenges, there are certain ways to hand-pick a few with an assertion that a team has enough balance in its store without any loopholes.
Any team, while selecting the playing eleven or fifteen for instance, they often look for an individual his/her recent form and success, the amount of experience the player has in the playing conditions (be it a tour game or a home series), and the ability of the player to fit into the team. And there are other parameters upon which a player is selected for the series as well.
But those parameters are considered in cases when the team faces a transition and likes to give chances to new players to give them an exposure. Also, one can distinguish and easily predict the people who are going to be picked for the series depending on the tour, and the opposition they are going to play against.
More often, the team that has a handful of players would not face any problems in eliminating a few; however they might face hiccups when their star player or any player from the playing eleven is not available due to injury or any other circumstances. This is one case. And, the other case is, when the team has a pool of players beyond the playing eleven.
One such team that possesses the traits of the latter case as stated above, and gives a herculean task for selectors is Australia. Australia has always been the team with the maximum balance every time, and their bench strength is still good enough to represent an Australia-A team or likewise in any format of the game of cricket.
Australian team selection has been reasonable quite sometimes, which is quite evident when they won the big tournaments, including the World Cup in 2015. However, no matter what the statistics’ and results say, it’s still unclear upon the selection of a few players, especially when a player like George Bailey is left out of the team, despite his astounding performances.
Is this guy unfortunate again?
Before the onset of the World Cup in 2015, Bailey led Australia to a series in India, though Australia lost the series, Bailey was the maximum run scorer for Australia in it. Even in different other series that happened over the same time, Bailey did score well and contributed more to the team. Remember, he was the only player from Australia to be ranked in the top 10 of the ICC ODI batting rankings during that period; in fact, he was in top five for some time, though.
Despite performing well, and holding current form, he was left out of the team owing to the fact that the team’s rested captain back then, Michael Clarke, is returning to the World cup directly, and Australia had no other option other than keeping Bailey out and Clarke in. Perhaps, it was interesting, and it did work well for Australia. Their strengths and home advantage had offered them much to their expectations. But, is Australia overlooking Bailey again for the T20 World Cup?
Bailey’s recent form has been phenomenal; he smashed over 200 runs in the recently concluded domestic league for Hobart Hurricanes, and also scored the most runs for Australia against India in the ODI series earlier this year. He was rested in the T20 series against India and South Africa, although selectors opined that this has got nothing to do away with the World cup coming in, the drop of Bailey in the Australian squad for T20 World Cup, which was announced subsequently is nothing more than quixotic.
Yes indeed, Bailey has a lot of experience playing in India, representing Punjab Team in the IPL and also leading Australia in 2014/15. Besides, his recent form is sublime.
The Australian team is strong without him, but having Bailey in the team can make certain differences in terms of strategy and viewpoints. Australian selectors might get their decision right, if the present team is too strong to clinch their maiden T20 title, however, no player in the recent times can be as unlucky as Bailey in not getting picked up for the team, despite strongholds.
Bailey, 33, would certainly need to prove big time, rising against all odds to prove that he is the talisman Australia disdained.