Voges deserves Test selection, says Langer

Warriors coach Justin Langer believes his captain Adam Voges should represent Australia at Test level in the upcoming tours to the Caribbean and United Kingdom.

Cricket Australia is set to name its squad for the two-Test tour early next week, and Voges has shot into selection calculations after a record-breaking Bupa Sheffield Shield season.

The last time Australia played Test cricket in the Caribbean, in April 2012, six batsmen were included in the 16-strong touring party, and Langer says he’d “love to think” that Voges would be included in that group.

"I think Adam Voges has to get selected for if not the West Indies then the Ashes tour,” he said following WA’s draw with Victoria in the Shield final in Hobart.

“No-one deserves it more.

“Not only has he had a great year this year, he's had two great years, and he's the captain of a very successful team.

“You like to have leaders in any team, don't you? And he's a great leader."

Voges recorded the fourth-best Shield season with the bat in the competition’s history this summer, scoring 1358 runs at 104.46 with six centuries and top score of 249.

In his century of Shield matches, WA skipper Adam Voges scored a brilliant century to put his state on top in the Sheffield Shield final

Only a trio of left-handers – Simon Katich, Michael Bevan and Matthew Elliott – have been more prolific in a Shield season, and all three men donned the Baggy Green and played Test cricket.

The 35-year-old is seemingly in a battle with at least two other batsmen in Test incumbents Shaun Marsh and Joe Burns, as well as batting allrounders Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell for a ticket to the Windies.

All four men have tasted Test cricket and are younger than the WA captain, with Burns, Maxwell and Mitch Marsh almost a decade Voges’ junior.

But as 107-Test veteran Langer points out, if Voges needs proof that age is just a number in modern times, he needed only to have looked across the field during the five days of the Shield final at Victoria and Australia opening batsman Chris Rogers.

Rogers returned to the Test arena 18 months ago at the same age Voges is now, and has since cemented a spot at the top of the order, and Langer sees no reason why his state skipper can’t replicate Rogers’s Test career.

"I said to Rod (Marsh) and Darren (Lehmann), before they picked Joe Burns (to debut on Boxing Day), that if anyone deserved to get selected he (Voges) did,” Langer said.

“He's just got back-to-back hundreds in a Shield game."

"He's got 1300-odd Shield runs this year, he's a fantastic person, he's done well in international cricket before.

“He's had a great year, and someone like Chris Rogers has shown that age shouldn’t be a barrier.

“Chris Rogers has had a good really good international career now and helped Australia's success over the past few years coming in late."

Voges will begin walking in Rogers’ shadow when he lines up for Middlesex in the England county championship this winter, replacing the former captain while he’s on Test duty.

Meanwhile Bushrangers captain Matthew Wade has paid tribute to fallen friend Phillip Hughes with a new tattoo.

The tattoo on his right forearm is a bust of Hughes sporting his trademark cheeky smile, the same used on a bronze plaque outside the home dressing room at the SCG. 

Wade has several tattoos, including initials of his family, the Australian flag and his Test, ODI and T20I numbers.