Crucial venue call could shape Khawaja, Head showdown

While selectors have downplayed suggestions next week's Marsh Sheffield Shield fixture will influence the Ashes prospects of rival skippers Travis Head and Usman Khawaja, the Test aspirants surely hold conflicting views on where that match will be played.

As the Shield schedule stands, the venue of the South Australia-Queensland clash to begin next Tuesday could be either Adelaide Oval or Karen Rolton Oval depending on the final ladder positions of teams in the Weber WBBL.

With eight WBBL games still to be played between now and Sunday, and places within the top four (which will decide where the three finals matches are fixtured) yet to be decided, the location of the Shield match from November 23-26 remains similarly clouded.

It is understood pitches for four-day cricket are being prepared at both Adelaide and Karen Rolton ovals.

However, if Adelaide Strikers finish in the top two and thereby earn the right to host either the two preliminary finals (on November 24 and 25) or grand final (November 27) those games will be played at Adelaide Oval which offers enhanced spectator amenities and broadcast facilities.

As cricket.com.au reported earlier this week, current top-of-the-table outfit Melbourne Renegades are in the box seat to finish the regular season in first place but will be unable to host the grand final at Marvel Stadium due to various quarantine restrictions that continue to apply to travellers leaving Victoria.

While Cricket Australia is working with the Renegades to identify possible alternative final venues should that scenario arise, the placing of WBBL teams – and therefore the locations for play-off games – won't be definitively known until after the regular season's last game in Adelaide on Sunday evening.

At which time Khawaja and Head will learn which of the grounds, where they boast markedly different records, will host their final first-class hit-out before selectors name Australia's starting XI for the first Vodafone Ashes Test at the Gabba beginning December 8.

From Khawaja's perspective, he would seemingly prefer it be played at Adelaide Oval which will also host the second Ashes Test, a day-night match starting December 16.

The Queensland captain, whose most recent Test appearance was Australia's memorable defeat at the hands of England at Headingley during the 2019 Ashes series, averages 63.46 from his 13 first-class innings at the historic venue.

The left-hander's Adelaide Oval record against the Redbacks is even more impressive, with three centuries from his seven Shield innings at an average of 81.57.

That includes a first-class career-best score of 214 when playing for New South Wales in 2010 – an innings that helped propel him into Australia's Test team two months later – and 174 in his most recent outing last month, which he rated his finest Shield hundred.

By contrast, Khawaja's record at Karen Rolton Oval (barely two kilometres south-west) is meagre albeit from a small sample of three first-class innings across two matches in which he's scored 65 runs at an average of 21.67 with a best of 41 against NSW at the start of last summer.

The disparity in Head's return at his home city's two first-class venues is equally stark.

In 60 first-class innings at Adelaide Oval, the SA skipper and former Test vice-captain averages 34.32 with 15 half-centuries but only two hundreds and a high score of 114 against Western Australia six years ago.

That return is even skinnier against Queensland's bowlers at Adelaide Oval, where his 12 Shield innings have netted him 299 runs at 24.92 with a highest score of 85 in February, 2018.

However, at Rolton Oval he averages a remarkable 87.50 from his seven knocks including scores of 171 not out (against Tasmania) and 163 (WA) in his past two outings at the venue.

It's therefore easy to understand why – if afforded their respective choices – Khawaja might plump for next week's Shield game to be played at Adelaide Oval, while Head's claims for a Test recall (having been dropped from Australia's team last summer) could benefit from another innings or two at Rolton.

Not that performances in the final first-class fixture before Australia begin their Ashes defence is likely to significantly sway the make-up of the starting XI for the Gabba, which chair George Bailey claims the panel is "pretty close" to finalising.

While Bailey and his fellow selectors – men's team coach Justin Langer and Tony Dodemaide – might have identified a preferred candidate to fill the number five batting berth rendered vacant by Matthew Wade's omission, the recently installed chair refused to flag the panel's thinking.

"You'd have nothing to write about tomorrow then, I want to see where you guys (journalists) land," Bailey told a media conference yesterday.

"Have a crack at it.

"It will make the Shield game much more exciting next week."

And even though the 15-man Ashes squad named yesterday is for the first two Vodafone Tests in Brisbane and Adelaide, Bailey foreshadowed changes throughout the five-Test campaign will be kept to a minimum unless necessity dictates.

"I think once you make that decision, it's important to give guys an opportunity and we know Test cricket's hard," Bailey said when asked whether selectors would adopt a 'pick and stick' approach to the Ashes series.

"If you're riding each and every innings then I think it puts players under enormous pressure, but that's (also) just the yin and yang of the game.

"One of the other reasons around only naming a squad until the end of Adelaide is there's still a bit of uncertainty around what the summer's going to look like.

"And one of the things we learned from last year is, wherever possible, if we can provide players an opportunity to get back and play some cricket rather than just being part of the squad and not playing at all, then that's important as well."

Australia's Ashes squad: Tim Paine (c), Pat Cummins (vc), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

Australia A players: Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Henry Hunt, Josh Inglis, Nic Maddinson, Mitchell Marsh, Matt Renshaw, Mark Steketee, Bryce Street

Vodafone Men's Ashes v England

Tour Matches

Nov 23-25: England v England Lions, Brisbane

Nov 30 – Dec 3: England v England Lions, Brisbane

Dec 1-3: Australian intra-squad match, Brisbane

Dec 9-12: Australia A v England Lions, Brisbane

Tests

First Test: December 8-12, The Gabba

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Perth Stadium