Elevated Maxwell in race to outstrip pace

Glenn Maxwell understands as acutely as anyone that a decision on who fills the number six berth for Australia come the opening Magellan Ashes Test might well be made on what the allrounder can't offer more so than the many and varied skills that he brings.

Maxwell seems certain to be given every chance to push his batting credentials over the coming weeks, with his Victoria captain Peter Handscomb indicating today he will be elevated to the top four of the Bushrangers' batting line-up for the start of the domestic summer.

But while the National Selection Panel has not foreshadowed any insistence that the Test number six role be filled by a player able to contribute with bat and ball rather than a specialist batter, history and risk management suggests that someone with all-round capabilities remains the preferred option.

Furthermore, when it comes to Test matches on Australian soil that preference has been for an auxiliary seamer rather than an allrounder who – like the Victorian – slots in as an extra spin bowler.

That's why, when asked yesterday what he felt he needed to achieve in the upcoming rounds of the JLT Sheffield Shield to ensure he retains his place in Australia's starting XI for the opening Test at the Gabba, Maxwell's flippant response betrayed a harsher reality.

"I probably have to bowl a bit of medium pace, probably around 140(km/h)," Maxwell told Melbourne radio station SEN.

"With the preference for a medium-pace allrounder in Australia, I can understand the way they (the national selectors) go and the way they have in the last few years.

"As frustrating as it can be in my position, you've just got to make sure you're making a lot of runs and being irresistible to select, and to be fair I probably haven't done that over the last few years."

In the years preceding last summer, Australia entrusted the allrounder role to Shane Watson who could provide that 140km/h-plus bowling option as well as hold down a batting spot anywhere in the top six.

When Watson retired at the conclusion of the previous Ashes campaign in the UK in 2015, the duty fell to Mitchell Marsh who then lost his place in the team following Australia's defeat at the hands of South Africa in Perth at the start of last summer.

The selectors then decided to ditch tradition and install specialist batters Callum Ferguson and subsequently Nic Maddinson, a ploy that lasted just three Test matches before seam-bowling allrounder Hilton Cartwright was called up for the final Test of the 2016-17 home season.

With off-spinner Nathan Lyon guaranteed of holding his place for the Ashes campaign after recent heroics in India and Bangladesh, the need to supplement the three-man pace attack (expected to be New South Wales trio Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins) with an extra seamer would appear a likely option.

Foremost in the thinking of the selectors (and captain Steve Smith) would be the unpalatable scenario of a front-line quick breaking down mid-match, and the prospect of having to rely on two remaining quicks should the allrounder role be filled by a spinner such as Maxwell.

The risks associated with jettisoning a bowler to play a sixth specialist batter were also highlighted during last summer's day-night Test against Pakistan in Brisbane when the tourists batted almost 11 hours in the fourth innings and came within 40 runs of their unlikely target of 490.

With just three specialist quicks (plus Lyon) at his disposal, Smith was forced to wring 113 overs out of his pace trio (Starc, Hazlewood and Jackson Bird) and the possibility of that scenario repeating amid a gruelling Ashes summer would likely keep the skipper awake at night.

Short of transforming himself into a seamer over the coming weeks, Maxwell knows that his best – perhaps his only – shot at holding on to his treasured Test berth is to peel off multiple scores of substance in the three Shield matches Victoria will play prior to the opening Test.

That will further galvanise the one advantage the 29-year-old currently holds, that of incumbency.

"Being the current holder of that position in the Test team is probably going to be a bit of an added pressure on myself to perform well, but once you hit the ground for a Shield game you can't be thinking about what can possibly come," Maxwell told cricket.com.au recently.

"You've just got to make sure you're performing well for your team and shutting that out, it might be a big summer coming up but if you're not putting runs on the board and not doing what you do well out in the middle, there's no point thinking about it (Test berth) at all.

"I can't think that I'll definitely be there, or definitely won't be there.

"I just think as they (the selectors) have made it so crystal clear, these three Shield games are going to be (worth) a lot and if someone comes out and peels off three hundreds in these three Shield games then that's fair enough, they're probably going to go that way."

Having been controversially starved of opportunities near the top of the order for Victoria last summer, Maxwell now has a gilt-edged chance to push his case over the coming weeks.

Newly appointed Bushrangers captain and Test batter Handscomb today indicated that Maxwell is likely to start the summer batting at number three or four having appeared as low as seventh in the order under previous skipper Matthew Wade.

"We're going to look to bat him a little bit higher," Handscomb told reporters today.

"Really give him that opportunity to prove himself, and I think having spoken to him he wants that opportunity as well.

"That's completely me, that's where I think (he should bat).

"We're looking at our line-up and the other guys in the team, it's all about putting the team first and if he's in the top four then great, otherwise we'll swap it around and put someone else in the top four.

"But it's the way I'm leaning, it's my decision

"He really wants to get out there and test himself, and take that chance so I hope he comes out and makes as many runs as he can."

Maxwell has acknowledged he was "lucky" to earn a place ahead of South Australia captain Travis Head in Australia's Test touring party to India earlier this year, and just as fortunate to win a Test recall when Mitchell Marsh was ruled out through injury for the third Test in Ranchi.

In his first Test outing for almost three years, Maxwell scored his maiden Test century at Ranchi where Australia hung on for a draw before slumping to defeat and losing the series in the final match at Dharamsala.

On the subsequent two-Test tour to Bangladesh last month, Maxwell made a start in each of his four innings but finished the series with a top score of 38 and a batting average of 33.33.

While conceding his return to Test ranks came about through circumstances rather than compelling weight of performances, Maxwell takes great pride in his ability to grasp that opportunity in Ranchi and has worked hard to further alter his mode of playing in order to try and keep his place in the Australia line-up.

"When I played my previous Tests (in India and the UAE in 2013-14), having had a little bit of early success in one-day cricket and T20 formats for Australia, when I made the step up I thought I could bat the same way and still be aggressive," Maxwell said.

"The last two years have been a slow progression of trying to get to the other side of the game and show the other side of my game, and I showed signs of that in different innings in one day cricket where I could bat a little bit longer and do that hard work that they needed me to do.

"Over this winter, I probably worked ultra-aggressively on my defence which probably shone through in my one-day cricket where I felt I lost a bit of my natural swing and felt I was trying to force it too much.

"Because I'd worked so much on my red-ball game, I probably let my white-ball game slip away and it felt like I was trying to make up for lost time a lot of the way in the one day series (in India earlier this month).

"But in the Test game, I felt extremely comfortable with how I was going about it and almost a refined way that I bat at number six and I felt extremely comfortable when I was over in Bangladesh.

"I just found, unfortunately, a couple of ways to get out in difficult conditions."

2017-18 International Fixtures

Magellan Ashes Series

First Test Gabba, November 23-27. Buy tickets

Second Test Adelaide Oval, December 2-6 (Day-Night). Buy tickets

Third Test WACA Ground, December 14-18. Buy tickets

Fourth Test MCG, December 26-30. Buy tickets

Fifth Test SCG, January 4-8 (Pink Test). Buy tickets

ODI Series v England

First ODI MCG, January 14. Buy tickets

Second ODI Gabba, January 19. Buy tickets

Third ODI SCG, January 21. Buy tickets

Fourth ODI Adelaide Oval, January 26. Buy tickets

Fifth ODI Perth TBC, January 28. Join the ACF

Prime Minister's XI

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Buy tickets

T20 trans-Tasman Tri-Series

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Buy tickets

Second T20I – Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Buy tickets

Third T20I – Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Buy tickets

Fourth T20I – NZ v England, Wellington, February 14

Fifth T20I – NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I – NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final – TBC, Eden Park, February 21