"For a while now, the likes of Head, Marsh, and Carey have been getting the top order out of a little bit of trouble at times" - Aaron Finch
Former Australia cricketer Aaron Finch feels there is pressure on the top order to be among the runs, particularly Marnus Labuschagne, to reduce the over-reliance on the counter-attacking middle and lower-middle order batters. The Men in Yellow have shuffled their batting order yet again, with Steve Smith returning to No. 4 in Cameron Green's absence, while Nathan McSweeney becomes the new opening batter.
Despite their strength on paper, the Australian top order has struggled for the majority of the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. All of them had moments of brilliance in the Ashes, and the trend continued in the ensuing home season as well.
Finch emphasized the importance of Labuschagne's role at No. 3 in the setup. The right-handed batter has been erratic and inconsistent in recent times, causing him to not only lose his No.1 spot in the ICC Test batting rankings but also to slide out of the top 10 altogether.
Finch said on the 'Willow Talk' podcast (via daily newspaper The West Australian):
"For a while now, the likes of Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, and Alex Carey have been getting them out of a little bit of trouble at times. I think Marnus in particular, there’ll be some extra pressure on this one and just another part in his whole career."
"You look back, there was often talk about Marnus gets dropped a lot and he goes on and cashes in, where as now he’s nicking them now or they’re taking half chances that they haven’t taken for a while," he added.
In the ongoing WTC cycle, Labuschagne has recorded one ton and five fifties, but during the same timeframe, came a string of six innings where he failed to record double figures.
“This is a big summer, no doubt. The level between Shield cricket and Test cricket is great but he dominates domestic cricket, so that shows that he is the best player for Australia to have batting at No.3. I’ve got no doubt that he’ll turn it around. He works too hard, he tinkers constantly with his game, and maybe it’s time just to say ‘right, this is your summer and really to take it upon yourself to be that man at No.3’," Finch said.
While most of his recent exploits have come in white-ball cricket, he had a set of decent outings for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield ahead of the Border-Gavaskar series. He scored 77 in the first innings against Western Australia, but could not make much of an impression in the clash against Southern Australia.
"Steve Smith walking in and the ball’s 35 overs old compared to eight overs old, that is a different game altogether" - Aaron Finch on Nathan McSweeney's assurance at the top
Australia's hunt for an opening batter came to an end as Nathan McSweeney won the race against the likes of Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris, and Sam Konstas to feature in the squad for the first Test against India. The South Australia batter has negligible experience as a red-ball opening batter but has impressed the management with his ability.
Finch has opined that Khawaja and McSweeney offering early resistance will allow Steve Smith to come out against an older ball that is less likely to move, making things much easier.
“He’s not going to blaze away in the first half an hour. If that lightens the load on Steve Smith (because) he (McSweeney) gets through an hour, gets through two hours, gets through three hours — Steve Smith walking in and the ball’s 35 overs old compared to eight overs old, that is a different game altogether. I think you take that into account as well. I like the selection,” Finch said in the same interview.
The first Test between India and Australia is scheduled to begin from November 22 onwards at the Optus Stadium in Perth.