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'Make sure your top six do their job': Healy

Australian great calls for batting uncertainty not to influence 'keeping selection

Former Australian Test 'keeper Ian Healy has reaffirmed his belief that selectors will revert back to Peter Nevill behind the stumps for the Magellan Ashes, but says he disapproves of the current treatment of Australian glovemen by national selectors.

Speaking to SEN Breakfast, Healy tipped decision-makers to give the nod to the NSW 'keeper after dropping incumbent Matthew Wade during Australia's one-day tour of India, in part for his failure to fire with the bat.

Both players hit centuries in Premier Cricket outings across the weekend, setting up a massive showdown with the bat across the first three rounds of JLT Sheffield Shield cricket.

Healy, a long-time advocate of Nevill's glovework which he again said was "the best in the country," lamented the NSW 'keeper was dropped from the Test team in the first place.

"I think Peter Nevill has a greater grasp on the technical aspects of wicketkeeping. For some reason he got dropped a year ago and now Matthew Wade is on the improve having had a better Test in Bangladesh, but he's still not batting the way he can," Healy said.

"He's improving and we're going to drop him.

"That's the dilemma and the agenda that you need to be aware of with what is going on in there."

The Queensland great said the decision to axe – and immediately recall – Wade in India highlighted the chop-and-change nature that had characterised Australia's selections in recent times.

"I think they sort of disrespected Wadey a little bit in India, dropping him for one one-day game and then bringing him back, that's not the respect that you think a 'keeper that's going to be in the Ashes deserves," Healy added.

"I sense that they might be going back to Nevill."

Whilst conceding runs are among the key criteria in selecting modern-day 'keepers, Healy said he believed Australia's current crop of glovemen were paying the price for the side's persistent struggles at number six, whilst also contending with the legacy of the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman of all time in Adam Gilchrist.

"The disruptions to the top order is putting a whole lot of pressure on the wicketkeeping selection, and it shouldn't. The wicketkeeper needs to be that 'keeper that can average 30, they don't need to average 45 like Gilly," he said.

"The quandary we've got at the moment is we do not know our number six. We've got a brand new number two (in Matthew Renshaw), (Peter) Handscomb brand new at five, and (Usman) Khawaja's been in and out, in and out.

"Gilly averaged well into the forties, so that's the pressure every 'keeper is under after that.

"Thirty is what you need. Someone to average 30, make handy runs when we absolutely need them and make sure your top six do their job."

Healy said he welcomed the increased attention the race for Test positions was having on domestic cricket.

Referencing the centuries scored by Nevill and Wade in Premier cricket last weekend, the 53-year old said he was looking forward to seeing who jumped out of the pack for the start of the Shield season on Thursday.

"Isn't it great that club cricket means something, and Shield cricket – the first three rounds of Shield is going to mean a whole lot to Pete Nevill, Matthew Wade Alex Carey, Jimmy Peirson for that wicketkeeper's spot, as well as the number six batting spot," he said.

"Whoever's in the best form will play number six."