Why MCG holdout may give Harris edge to keep spot

Marcus Harris' crucial knock on a pitch described by batting genius Steve Smith as the most seam-friendly he has played on has not been forgotten by selectors mulling Usman Khawaja's irresistible case for retention.

Khawaja's dominant Test comeback in Sydney has given Australia one of their most difficult selection conundrums of recent times for the Vodafone Ashes finale as he jostles for two available batting spots in Hobart with a healthy Travis Head and opener Harris.

Head missed the drawn contest with England in Sydney after contracting COVID-19 and watched his replacement become just the third batter to score centuries in each innings of an SCG Test.

Australia had insisted before the clash that Head, who blazed a match-turning 152 in the series opener at the Gabba, would be an automatic inclusion after he emerged out of isolation.

Presuming the Aussies would not consider dropping Khawaja, who scored more runs in one Test than what every England player not named Joe Root has managed for the whole series, Harris shapes as the logical fall guy for Khawaja.

But while Harris' 179 runs at 29.83 for the series mark the lowest among Australia's specialist bats, the left-hander's Test-high 76 at the MCG two weeks ago remains fresh in the selection panel's memories.

Under fire for lean returns in the first two Ashes encounters, Harris kept a rampant Jimmy Anderson-led England attack at bay for four-and-a-half hours in Melbourne on a surface that offered more seam movement than Smith had ever seen in his previous 79 Tests.

"That was just a phenomenal performance from 'Uzzie' (in Sydney)," selector Tony Dodemaide told reporters on Tuesday.

"Having said that, there is a lot of conversations to be had over the next couple of days. It's a very difficult one. It's a great place to be when there's so much competition for places.

"What we also remember too is only a week-and-a-half ago, Marcus probably played the most consequential innings of the game in Melbourne and set up that (first innings) for Australia which won us the game."

None of the other 21 players managed to bat even half as long as Harris, with the 29-year-old's 189-ball stand allowing Australia to reach 267 and beat England by an innings and 14 runs.

Hobart was lashed by heavy rain on the weekend and although that is no guarantee Bellerive will prove as bowler friendly as the MCG, Blundstone Arena's head curator Marcus Pamplin said today the surface prepared would be similar to Sheffield Shield pitches that have provided some of the competition's leanest batting returns.

"It will have a tinge of green on it for sure. The lead-up hasn't been the greatest but we've always had a tinge of green on the wickets down here," said Pamplin after Hobart was lashed with 24mm rain in just 30 minutes on Saturday.

"I expect it to be a good contest. The first day will be a bit in it and then, for some period in the game, it will flatten out to be a good batting pitch.

"Then it should start to go up and down (with bounce) by day three or four."

One factor in Harris' favour could be his pink-ball experience in Hobart, having featured in two of the four day-night first-class matches previously held at the venue, though the most recent of those was played more than four years ago.

The overall first-class batting records in Hobart of all three of Harris (who averages 36.40 in Hobart versus 39.46 for his career), Khawaja (29.70 versus 43.64) and Head (28.84 versus 40.48) is a reflection of the ground's reputation as being one of the more difficult Shield venues to make big runs at.

A more compelling reason to keep Harris as David Warner's opening partner might be Khawaja's lack of recent experience opening the batting, combined with his own insistence that batting in the middle-order is a significantly different challenge to taking on the new ball.

Khawaja has a formidable record as a Test opener (two centuries and an average of 96.80 from seven innings) but has not batted there for Queensland since the last time he opened for Australia three summers ago.

Intriguingly, he does boast some recent experience batting against three of the current Ashes tourists; his most recent first-class game as an opener was when he partnered Harris for Australia A in a tour match against England Lions in February 2020.

Neither scored more than 30 against the Ollie Robinson, Craig Overton and Dom Bess-led attack and the Lions won by nine wickets after making their hosts follow on.

"It's very different batting at the top of the list compared to batting at five and Uzzie said that himself," said Dodemaide.

"So there's certainly some challenging conversations for us over the next 48 hours or so."

Dodemaide, part of a three-person selection panel along with chair George Bailey and coach Justin Langer, did emphasise they viewed Khawaja as having the ability anywhere in the order.

 

"Initially at the start of the summer, we had Uzzie in (the squad) right from the start. We went with Trav (at No.5) who played brilliantly in Brisbane and in Adelaide," he said.

"But we had Uzzie there as the reserve better and the rationale to do that was because he was so versatile and could really bat anywhere from one to six.

"I think that rationale still holds. Certainly there's a number of considerations we'll need to go through, but we're confident we could do that (open)."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nic Maddinson, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 275 runs

Third Test: Australia won by an innings and 14 runs

Fourth Test: Match drawn

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena