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The selection committee will be left scratching their heads more than ever after Sam Konstas and Cameron Bancroft collected ducks and Marcus Harris failed to convert a start for Australia A, with Nathan McSweeney doing the most to improve his credentials. The events of the first day in Mackay were unlikely to have given a definitive answer regarding who opens for Australia in Perth.
Though it was thought that the batting contest might have to wait until McSweeney brought in India A, contenders to partner Usman Khawaja in the first Test were taking aim before tea after Brendan Doggett scored a career-best 6 for 15 in conditions that helped make things difficult for the batters throughout. Additionally, two of them left before the half.
Bancroft was given caught down the leg side after four single-figure Sheffield Shield scores, but replays showed it came off the thigh pad. Konstas, the 19-year-old who has been the most talked-about player this season, edged ahead in the opening over against Mukesh Kumar as he looked to drive. Bancroft, who had excellent domestic form but was unable to push his way back into the Test team the previous season, flung back his head in disgust.
Despite reaching double figures, Harris lacked conviction. After surviving a massive appeal for caught behind, Baba Indrajith dropped him on eighth slip against a ball that straightened from behind Kumar’s wicket.
He had a good on-drive after the rest, but he lost his innings when he flashed at India’s Test player Prasidh Krishna, who was sacked at second slip. When Cooper Connolly was given a life in the cordon late in the day, Prasidh had a chance to have a third.
McSweeney, who bats three in the Sheffield Shield but is ranked fourth here to make room for the three openers above him, added to the mystery by playing as steadily as anyone throughout the day, facing 110 balls for his 29 to support the notion that he might still be the answer at the top of the order.
Australia’s head coach, Andrew McDonald, said earlier in the day in Melbourne that there was more selection uncertainty than is desirable, but that it would not be decided by a single innings.
“I think sometimes you’re pushed into a space where you can’t give certainty a long way out,” he said. “There is a balance in that we prefer to be more settled coming for the summer, no doubt. If you have certainly that’s fantastic, but there’ll be moving parts in the summer as well that create discussions and decisions about who’s going to play the next Test. Whilst we want to give clarity and certainty, sometimes that’s not always able to happen.
“There’s a lot of context and consideration around body of work for those senior players in Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft. Clearly Sam Konstas hasn’t been able to have that body of work behind him because of the limited Shield cricket that he’s played, and Nathan McSweeney is somewhere in the middle of that.