SA preview: Selection dilemma looms for Redbacks

Such is the depth of pace-bowling potency South Australia have assembled, coach Jason Gillespie foresees one of his biggest dilemmas for the coming summer will be deciding which ones to squeeze into a starting eleven.

Since taking the Redbacks' helm in 2020, Gillespie has set about building a bowling line-up capable of knocking over opposition teams and delivering wins for an outfit that has landed just one men's cricket trophy over the past quarter of a century – a one-day cup title in 2011-12.

As a result, SA's bowling roster now boasts national team aspirants Brendan Doggett, Wes Agar, Spencer Johnson, Jordan Buckingham, Nathan McAndrew and Henry Thornton as well as Harry Conway, David Grant and seam-bowling all-rounder Liam Scott.

Throw in off-spinner Ben Manenti (winner of the Neil Dansie Medal as SA's premier men's player last season) and leggie Lloyd Pope and it's not difficult to understand the optimism Gillespie and his coaching team take into 2023-24.

But having plentiful options also means potential headaches for the coach and his fellow selectors when all are fit and available.

"I'm going to have some disappointed quicks," Gillespie told cricket.com.au after the Redbacks returned from a pre-season training camp in Darwin this month.

"As an example, we've got Jordan Buckingham and Henry Thornton who have played a few Australia A games this year and done very well but there's no guarantees for anyone when it comes to selection, so there's going to be tricky calls made.

"There's always reasons why players miss out – either there's no spot available, they're not bowling as well as they could, or they're bowling well but someone else is bowling a little bit better.

"But there's so much cricket across the course of the season that you need to have genuine depth, and players will end up playing games at some stage."

Gillespie dismisses suggestions he'll employ a rotation policy to utilise the full complement of quicks across the summer, but won't rule out 'managing' bowlers who have been subjected to heavy workloads or whose output is beginning to flag.

However, while the Redbacks bowling stocks appear both voluminous and versatile, questions remain about their top-order batters' capacity to produce big scores given Australia pair Travis Head and Alex Carey will be absent for much of the season due to international commitments.

SA can point to demonstrable improvement in the Marsh One Day Cup (where they reached the final but lost to Western Australia) and Shield (finishing fourth after five consecutive wooden spoons) competitions last summer.

But they did so with a solitary batter placed in the top 10 leading run scorers of the respective formats – opener Henry Hunt (292 runs at 41.71) in the white-ball game, and number three Daniel Drew (656 at 43.73) who finished second behind WA's Cameron Bancroft in Shield aggregate.

"We know we need to have better output," Gillespie said of a batting line-up that relied heavily on contributions from middle-order players Nathan McSweeney, Jake Lehmann and Manenti last summer.

"But we also understand it's a squad mentality, and if we're going to challenge for trophies we can't just rely on 11 players.

"We have to rely on our full squad."

Having lost regular opener Jake Weatherald to Tasmania, SA will be keen for Hunt to recapture the form that earned him Sheffield Shield Player of the Year recognition in 2021-22 and led to speculation he might be a Test opener-in-waiting.

But his return of 441 Shield runs at less than 26 last season, coupled with the additional burden of SA's interim captaincy led the talented right-hander to renounce the leadership late in the summer in a bid to unburden himself.

With Head unlikely to figure in more than the occasional appearance, Lehmann has been installed as skipper in his absence with the highly-rated McSweeney his deputy.

Manenti has also been identified as a future leader, having been installed as a captain in a couple of SA's recent intra-squad trial games while current captain of Port Adelaide's AFL team, Tom Jonas, has been enlisted to provide additional input to the Redbacks' on-field leadership group.

Jonas's involvement is part of a push to improve communication within a team Gillespie has often described as 'introverted', with external consultant Errol Amerasekera (who has worked with AFL club Richmond among other sporting organisations) also brought in to help foster a stronger culture.

"Sometimes it's just nice for the lads to hear an outside voice and have someone with whom they can bounce some ideas around," Gillespie said.

Former Victoria prodigy Jake Fraser-McGurk is the only new addition to a squad that has been radically revamped by recruiting over recent seasons, but there is one other fresh face who's had a noticeable impact since arriving in Adelaide mid-year.

Former Australia fast bowler and ex-Redback Ryan Harris has taken up his role as bowling coach, following post-playing stints with Australia's under-19s and Queensland Cricket's pathways program as well as working with the men's Test team on a consultant basis.

"Ryno's brought enthusiasm and energy, as well as his IP through his knowledge of the tactical and technical aspects of fast bowling in particular," Gillespie said of his new lieutenant.

"He's a natural coach.

"He loves talking about the game and working individually with players on the technical side of their bowling to build on the great work of Luke Butterworth, who did a fantastic job and has now got a great opportunity to lead his own team (SA's under-19s).

"Ryno just loves being on the tools and getting into the nitty gritty with the quicks, but he's also learning about working with the spinners which has been great for him, and great for us."

South Australia Redbacks 2023-24 squad: Wes Agar, Jordan Buckingham, Jake Carder, Alex Carey*, Harry Conway, Brendan Doggett, Daniel Drew, Jake Fraser-McGurk, David Grant, Travis Head*, Henry Hunt, Spencer Johnson, Thomas Kelly, Jake Lehmann, Nathan McAndrew, Nathan McSweeney, Ben Manenti, Harry Nielsen, Lloyd Pope, Liam Scott, Henry Thornton, Kelvin Smith. Rookies: Kyle Brazell, Aidan Cahill, Isaac Higgins, Harry Matthias

* Cricket Australia contract

Ins: Jake Fraser-McGurk (Victoria), Kelvin Smith 

Outs: Jake Weatherald (Tasmania), Bailey Capel (delisted), Ryan King (delisted), Nick Winter (delisted)

Possible best XIs

Sheffield Shield: Henry Hunt, Jake Carder, Daniel Drew, Travis Head, Nathan McSweeney, Alex Carey, Ben Manenti, Nathan McAndrew, Wes Agar/Jordan Buckingham, Brendan Doggett, Spencer Johnson

Marsh One-Day Cup: Henry Hunt, Travis Head, Daniel Drew, Alex Carey, Nathan McSweeney, Ben Manenti, Nathan McAndrew, Wes Agar, Henry Thornton, Spencer Johnson

Last season

Sheffield Shield: 4th

Marsh One-Day Cup: 2nd                    

Inside Word with head coach Jason Gillespie

The pre-season: "There's a few things we've been working during the off-season, and some are a continuation of work we did last winter. Last year, in one-day cricket our batting coach, Steve Stubbings, challenged the batting group to keep pushing the envelope during those middle overs from 11-40, to be more dynamic and proactive and basically find an extra run per over in that period.

"We improved a lot in that part of the game and made the (Marsh One-Day Cup) final, so we're still challenging our batters in both one-day and four-day formats. Our bowling last year in four-day cricket was very good, and with our batting we showed what we can do but we need to keep being better and putting on big scores more regularly.

"That's a challenge for our batting group and hopefully we can continue to improve there. Last season we also saw a progression with our behind-the-wicket catching, which was a real focus and has been a focus again this winter along with our fielding in general. And a key focus has been our communication between everyone, both coaches and players, and we're exploring ways we can communicate even better in-game."

Player availability/absences: "We've had a lot of guys playing cricket throughout the winter, either with Australia or Australia A teams, or in England, and even Ben Manenti playing for Italy (in ICC T20 World Cup qualifiers). So that's been great to see, and after our camp in Darwin we've got a couple of weeks when most of the squad gets together before the start of the season.

"The only one who's not able to take part at the moment is Wes Agar with a bit of back soreness after playing a lot of cricket with Australia A and then in England, but he should be good to go for the start of the summer."

Young guns: "We haven't made many changes to the squad this year, and that includes re-contracting four of our rookies (Kyle Brazell, Aidan Cahill, Isaac Higgins and Harry Matthias). Kelvin Smith's come in after playing the final one-day and Shield games last summer, but we weren't sure if there would be a spot available for another top-order batter until Jake Weatherald decided he wanted to continue his career elsewhere.

"And we've recruited Jake Fraser-McGurk who is high-end talent. He's a kid who, at 17, scored 50 on debut in both one-day cricket and Shield cricket for Victoria. He's still only 21 and probably felt like he's been treading water a little bit, so we saw an opportunity to recruit a talented young cricketer and hopefully this environment can get the best out of him. In our pre-season games thus far, in the one-dayers, he's been given an opportunity to bat at the top so we see him probably more a higher-order batter in one-day cricket and potentially middle-order in the longer form."

Player to watch: "We're really excited for the coming season because I feel we've got really good depth in our bowling and in our batting, so it's a real squad mentality and I'm reluctant to single out individuals. But Daniel Drew's batting at three in the Shield side last year was definitely a highlight because he's a great story.

"Drewy's worked incredibly hard, had some setbacks but he got the opportunity last summer and he grabbed it both hands. He made a double-hundred (against WA), averaged over 40 in the number three spot which has been a tricky one for South Australia over a few years as we tried to find the right player. So Daniel has a great chance to really cement himself as a long-term player, and he'll be given plenty of opportunity. He's earned the right to be given a good run at it, and he deserves that."

Team to beat: "I think I said the same thing last year, but every team wants to challenge themselves against the best and WA showed they remain the benchmark by winning both the Shield and the One Day Cup. We scored a really good win over them in the Shield at Adelaide Oval but came off second-best in the One-Day Cup Final so we're looking forward to challenging ourselves against them this year, as we are against every team."