Test squad for India series coming soon

The selection of Australia’s squad for the opening Test of the summer against India in Brisbane has been modelled on the blueprint that delivered a five-nil Ashes whitewash last season, team performance boss Pat Howard said today.

The decision to have the National Selection Panel finalise what is expected to be a 12-man squad and announce it on Monday – the day before a full round of Bupa Sheffield Shield matches including several Test aspirants begins – has been debated widely in recent days.

That discussion has been further complicated by ongoing doubts surrounding the fitness of captain Michael Clarke and comments from selector Mark Waugh on national television last night when he claimed the selection time frame was instituted by Cricket Australia for “marketing” rather than “logistics” reasons.

In moving to clarify those remarks, Howard – the CA’s Executive General Manager of Team Performance – pointed out those “logistics” considerations were the same as the ones successfully implemented in the lead-up to last year’s first Ashes Test at the Gabba.

On that occasion, the 12-man squad for the opening Commonwealth Bank Test was unveiled the day prior to the commencement of a full round of Shield matches in which the squad members – except for the fast bowlers who were rested – all took part.

From there, the players went into a training camp for several days at the Bupa National Cricket Centre in Brisbane prior to the Test beginning and that blueprint will be followed again this year with the squad to convene at the NCC on December 1 ahead of the Test beginning December 4.

Clarke was yesterday ruled out of participation in the coming round of Shield matches due to his hamstring injury and if he is named in the squad he will need to prove his fitness under simulated or grade cricket conditions.

Howard confirmed Waugh’s assertion on Fox Sports’ ‘Inside Cricket’ that if the NSP felt it needed to delay the announcement of the squad or wanted to expand the number of players in the initial squad beyond the expected 12 then that was available to them.

“If the selectors feel they need more time to select the squad that option is always there,” Howard said.

He added that the policy underpinning the selection process meant that efforts in an isolated match did not carry as much weight as “consistent performances over a period of time and particularly strong performances in pressure situations”.

That was underscored last year when veteran opener Chris Rogers posted scores of three and 11 in Victoria’s Shield match against Tasmania after he had been named in the Test squad while Phil Hughes – considered a rival for that berth – plundered a double century for South Australia.

Rogers ended up playing all five Ashes Test and was Australia’s third-highest runs scorer in that historic whitewash.

Howard said the early selection of Australia’s squad for the start of the four-match Commonwealth Bank Test series against India was instigated to allow the “best possible preparation” and claimed he had spoken with Waugh this morning about his choice of words on television last night.

Waugh told fellow ‘Inside Cricket’ panellists and ex-Australian teammates Allan Border, Glenn McGrath and Brendon Julian that the selectors would prefer to wait until the conclusion of the next round of Bupa Sheffield Shield matches next Friday before naming the Test squad.

That would have allowed them two matches in which the full complement of Test aspirants (excluding those currently involved in the Carlton Mid ODI Series) to stake their claims in the red-ball format.

“We’re sitting down on Saturday to pick the first Test team, so that doesn’t actually allow us to look at the second round of Shield matches,” Waugh said when asked why the squad was being named early.

“I’m not the chairman of selectors, I’m just new on the block.

“Ideally you would like to see the second round of Sheffield Shield matches but that’s not a decision the selectors have made.

“Cricket Australia have made that and it’s for marketing (sic) purposes.”

The National Selection Panel comprises Rod Marsh (Chair), Trevor Hohns, Waugh and Darren Lehmann.