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Agar, Renshaw, Morris: Australia's Sydney balancing act
Could Scott Boland be forced out of the team? Where does Marcus Harris stand after a summer as a reserve?
Australia can book a spot in the World Test Championship final with a win over South Africa in Sydney. But for one of the rare times during this WTC cycle, Australia's selection is very much an unknown. They have added Matt Renshaw and Ashton Agar to the squad in place of the injured pair Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc, but what the XI will look like will remain unclear until they see the pitch at the SCG, which is expected to offer turn.
"One thing I've learned around wickets recently is never assume anything," Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. "I think we'll just wait and see what unfolds from the ground staff in terms of the wicket they prepare. But what I will say around that is that we feel as though we've got a squad for whatever that surface may be. We've got pretty much all bases covered."
Green's injury is what makes the selection complex. Pat Cummins described him as irreplaceable, and Australia haven't opted for an allrounder to replace him. They need to decide whether they pick seven batters or five bowlers.
The case for Ashton Agar
Firstly, the decision to include Agar as the second spinner in the squad has raised eyebrows. Agar's first-class average and strike-rate are significantly inferior to a host of Australia's domestic spinners including Mitchell Swepson, Todd Murphy, Jon Holland and Matthew Kuhnemann. Even South Australia's Ben Manenti and Western Australia understudy Corey Rocchiccioli have better records from small sample sizes. But McDonald confirmed Australia's selectors wanted a left-arm orthodox to complement the right-arm offspin of Nathan Lyon.
"We feel as though the complementing type of spinner that we've picked here with the left-arm orthodox is the way that we wanted to go," McDonald said. "Sometimes the second spinner isn't necessarily the best next spinner if that makes sense. It's the one that complements what you have and we feel like the left-arm orthodox can be successful in Sydney and also as we venture the subcontinent."
The control of a left-arm orthodox spinner, as opposed to a right-arm legspinner, seems to be the preference. However, Agar has a higher career economy rate, average and strike-rate in first-class cricket than the other two left-arm orthodox options in Holland and Kuhnemann. Agar has been focusing on his white-ball bowling in recent years, with great success, and has only played three first-class games since October 2020 including two in the last five weeks. Crucially, though, he also averages 28 with the bat with three first-class centuries, which is a major reason why he has got the nod and it gives the selectors two ways of picking him for Sydney and India.
"It could be two spinners, two quicks," McDonald said. "It could be we could play a slightly more aggressive team with Alex Carey going into six and play five bowlers [with Agar at No.7]. We feel pretty comfortable that Ash has got that skill set and he's a very mature player now and we feel that if he was to get that opportunity in India, or firstly here, that he'll be able to step up."
The case for Matt Renshaw
Renshaw has returned to opening for Queensland this year with success. He also opened for Australia A in Sri Lanka in the winter and for the Prime Minister's XI against West Indies where he made 81 and 101 not out. However, Renshaw is clearly being looked at as a middle-order option because of his skill against both the new ball and spin bowling and his experience from Test tours of India and Bangladesh in 2017.
It seems Renshaw would likely play if it was going to be an old-school big spinning pitch in Sydney, like the Sheffield Shield pitch between New South Wales and Western Australia earlier this summer, where Australia would only need four bowlers, including two spinners, and then an extra batter at six with good skill against spin who could play a vital role in a low scoring game.
"We feel with Matt in particular, he's got the flexibility to bat anywhere in the order from the top through the middle as well and we've seen over time his spin play has improved," McDonald said. "We feel as though he could potentially fill that middle-order position."
McDonald noted that Peter Handscomb, one of Australia's best players of spin and the leading Shield runscorer in the past two summers, could consider himself unlucky not to be called up for Sydney and remains in the frame for India.
The case for Marcus Harris
Harris has been the spare batter in the squad all summer and last played in the Sydney Ashes Test 12 months ago. Harris' best chance to feature is if the SCG pitch is a batting-friendly, non-spinning track, similar to the modern Test pitches in Sydney. In which case, Australia could pick seven batters, three quicks, and one spinner. Harris would come in as the next batting cab off the rank and he could open, with Usman Khawaja sliding to No. 5 as a one-off, the position he batted on his recall last year where he made twin hundreds.
"With Marcus Harris, we feel he's an opening batter or top three," McDonald said. "We've seen him bat at three at times across his career. We don't want to give too much away. The Khawaja one, yeah, he could bat in the middle. But we do like the combination of him and David [Warner] at the top and that's probably where we'll head in the future as well unless things shifted significantly on us."
The case for Lance Morris or Josh Hazlewood
There is a scenario where Morris, the fastest bowler in Australia, could play in front of Hazlewood, who has declared himself fit after a side strain, or even Scott Boland (Test average 12.21). It would likely come if Australia picked a five-pronged attack and felt the third quick needed to be a short-burst strike bowler with high pace, given Cummins, Boland or Hazlewood, and two spinners would be able to shoulder the majority of the overs and control the run-rate.
"All scenarios are on the table," McDonald said. "If we feel as though we need some airspeed then no doubt Lance is the obvious one. The conditions will determine that. I'd love to be able to speak in more depth around it. In two days' time, I'll probably be better positioned to be able to discuss and talk about that. I think that's one that's possible if the conditions present that way."
Ben Stokes, Sikandar Raza, Suryakumar Yadav and Renuka Singh make it to our 2022 teams of the year
ESPNcricinfo's staff pick their Test, ODI, T20 and women's teams of the year
It has only been six months since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum took charge of England's Test side, but the turnaround in fortunes has been dramatic and that dominance is reflected in ESPNcricinfo's Test team of the year. Four England players feature in it, as do four players from Australia, the team currently leading the World Test Championship table.
Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Stokes, who form the XI's middle order, were among the top six run-scorers of the calendar year. Two others from that list of prolific batters, both Aussies, are also in our XI - Usman Khawaja opens the batting, while Marnus Labuschagne comes in at No. 3. Kraigg Brathwaite, West Indies' sole representative in the side, partners Khawaja up top.
The fast-bowling attack consists of England's James Anderson, who has appeared indefatigable in his 40th year, South Africa's Kagiso Rabada, and Pat Cummins of Australia. Our XI might be tested in subcontinental conditions given it has only one frontline slow bowler, Australia offspinner Nathan Lyon, although he will get support from Root, who bowled over 140 overs of spin in the year.
India may be second on the WTC points table, but our staff combined to pick only one player from the side in the Test XI - Rishabh Pant, who takes the gloves.
Babar Azam, who was prolific in 50-over cricket in 2022, making three hundreds and five fifties in nine innings for Pakistan, leads our ODI XI and bats at No. 3 below openers Travis Head and Shubman Gill. India's Shreyas Iyer, with over 700 runs at an average of 56, slots in at No. 4, followed by New Zealand keeper-batter Tom Latham and two offspinning allrounders, Zimbabwe's Sikandar Raza and Bangladesh's Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Both made unbeaten hundreds in home wins, Raza getting two in a series win over Bangladesh in Harare, and Miraz getting his while handing India a series defeat in Mirpur.
They will lend support to our canny bowling attack in which Adam Zampa brings the wristspin option, while Trent Boult offers left-arm variety to Alzarri Joseph and Mohammed Siraj's right-arm pace.
Our men's T20 XI contains several title winners from 2022 - Jos Buttler, Alex Hales and Sam Curran (Player of the Tournament) lifted the T20 World Cup for England; Hardik Pandya, David Miller and Rashid Khan won Gujarat Titans the IPL trophy in their maiden season; Haris Rauf was red-hot for Lahore Qalandars, who won their first PSL title this year; Wanindu Hasaranga chipped in with bat and ball, and was the Player of the Tournament when Sri Lanka won the T20 Asia Cup in Dubai in September; Hales was also part of the Trent Rockets side that won the men's Hundred.
Suryakumar Yadav didn't win any team trophies this year, but would you really keep a batter as inventive as him (who had a strike rate of 176 and over 1500 T20 runs) out of the side? He bats at No. 4, below Rilee Rossouw, who also struck above 170 and played for the PSL's losing finalists Multan Sultans.
Seamer Josh Little, who played for Manchester Originals, the losing finalists in the Hundred and took 2 for 16 in Ireland's victory over England in the T20 World Cup, rounds out our men's T20 XI.
Our women's XI this year is a combined white-ball side; performances and stats from ODIs, T20Is, the WBBL, the CPL and the Hundred were considered in compiling it.
Alyssa Healy, who made a world-record 170 in the 50-over World Cup final in April, would be the first pick in most XIs. Close second would be the other batter who dazzled in the final - if England had a realistic chance of overcoming Australia's 356, it was only because of how Nat Sciver, who made 1600 runs in 2022, fought back with an unbeaten 148.
Healy bats at No. 3 in our XI, below openers Smriti Mandhana and Beth Mooney; the latter was the leading run-scorer of this season's WBBL. At No. 4 is Laura Wolvaardt, who scored over 400 runs for WBBL winners Adelaide Strikers and topped the Hundred's run-scoring charts with 286 runs for Northern Superchargers.
There are plenty of bowling options in the XI: Sciver, who took 25 wickets at an economy of 5.6 from 42 white-ball matches in the year, can support fast bowlers Shabnim Ismail and Renuka Singh, while Amelia Kerr can chip in with legspin to go with the left-arm slows of Sophie Ecclestone, currently the No. 1-ranked bowler in ODIs and T20Is, and the offspin of allrounder Deepti Sharma.
The team is led by India captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who scored over 1600 runs in the year.
McSweeney and Brown shine as Heat win run-fest
Sixers fall narrowly short despite Vince, Silk, Kerr cameos
Brisbane Heat 224 for 5 (McSweeney 84, Brown 62) beat Sydney Sixers 209 (Silk 41, Vince 41, Neser 3-41) by 15 runs
Josh Brown makes his own bats and he can wield them too after lighting up the Gabba to inspire the Brisbane Heat's 15-run win over the Sydney Sixers with a whirlwind half-century.
The match had a sensational finish when Heat allrounder Michael Neser caught Sixers' Jordan Silk (41 off 23 balls) in the 19th over just inside the boundary rope, threw it in the air, went outside the field of play and then tossed it up again while airborne. He then completed the catch inside the boundary rope - all within the rules - as Sixers got close to achieving a BBL record run chase.
The 29-year-old Brown earlier produced his whirlwind innings to score 62 off just 23 balls in the Heat's 224 for 5.
Sixers made a gallant response in their pursuit on a night of pure batting entertainment but fell short to be all out from the final delivery.
What is a fair catch?
33.2.1 A catch will be fair only if, in every case, either the ball, at any time, or any fielder in contact with the ball, is not grounded beyond the boundary before the catch is completed.
33.2.2 Furthermore, a catch will be fair if:
33.2.2.4 a fielder catches the ball after it has crossed the boundary in the air, provided that the conditions in 33.2.1 are met.
19.5.2 A fielder who is not in contact with the ground is considered to be grounded beyond the boundary if his/her final contact with the ground, before his/her first contact with the ball after it has been delivered by the bowler, was not entirely within the boundary.
Heat needed something special to get their season moving and Brown provided it in front of 23,689 fans while using a Cooper Cricket bat. He brought up his fifty in just 19 deliveries, the equal fifth fastest in Heat history in just his second BBL game.
Brown cleared the boundary six times with an assortment of scintillating strokes, including one lofted cover drive off Jackson Bird that had class written all over it. He works with Cooper Cricket founder Rod Grey. He has crafted hundreds of Cooper bats himself, and repaired thousands.
"That is my full-time job outside of cricket," Brown told Fox Cricket after his knock. "I make my own bats. It is pretty fun I do most of the repairs for the [Heat] boys."
Brown has been in scintillating form for his Brisbane club side Norths this season, but said he didn't know he was any good at cricket until he was 24. T20 franchises around the world will no doubt be making further enquiries about him. "I just found my new favourite player," Adam Gilchrist said in commentary.
Allrounder Nathan McSweeney (84 off 51 balls) kept Brown's momentum going with a superbly paced maiden BBL half-century to lift the Heat to their best score in their BBL history.
Sixers openers Josh Philippe and James Vince took a club record 54 runs off the four overs of the power play in pursuit. Silk and allrounder Hayden Kerr added 54 in 26 balls for the sixth wicket but the brilliant stumping of Kerr by Jimmy Peirson off spinner Matt Kuhnemann proved crucial.
Neser's catch to dismiss Silk was the decisive moment in the run chase after he took 3 for 41 with the ball.
Nic Maddinson suffers serious knee injury as Melbourne Renegades lose four in a row
Scorchers cruise to victory and stay atop after Tye bags three wickets and Inglis and Bancroft control the chase
Perth Scorchers 156 for 5 (Inglis 47, Bancroft 46, K Richardson 2-21) beat Melbourne Renegades 155 for 6 (Finch 65, Tye 3-32) by five wickets
Nic Maddinson's suspected serious knee injury has compounded Melbourne Renegades' woes after they suffered a fourth consecutive BBL defeat. Renegades copped a five-wicket loss to the red-hot Perth Scorchers at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, continuing their slide after a positive 3-0 start to the season.
Aaron Finch's 65 off 48 had given the home side a sniff, steering them to 155 for 6 from their 20 overs, with Scorchers quick AJ Tye taking 3 for 32 to restrict the hosts. But Josh Inglis and Cameron Bancroft got Scorchers over the line in a controlled chase.
Scorchers reached the target with two balls to spare, despite the efforts of Renegades quick Kane Richardson. It was Scorchers' fourth straight win, firming up their spot at the top of the table.
Maddinson's slump continued when he was out for a first-ball duck, giving him a total of just three runs in his last five innings. His day got worse when he injured his knee while fielding during the second over of Scorchers' chase, twisting his left leg as he turned to throw the ball.
The 31-year-old immediately slumped to the turf and was assessed for several minutes before being driven off the field. Renegades are yet to determine the full extent of the injury, with Maddinson set to be sent for scans.
Wicketkeeper Peter Handscomb also failed to see out the match, substituted off after 16 overs as he struggled with the effects of the soaring temperature.
Import opener Faf du Plessis and Bancroft gave Scorchers a solid platform in their chase.
Richardson was on a hat-trick when he removed Adam Lyth with the last ball of one over and du Plessis with the first of another, but he could not complete the feat.
Bancroft was brilliantly run out by Will Sutherland, but Inglis took the reins and put his side on the brink of victory.
There was late drama when Inglis unsuccessfully reviewed an lbw decision and was given out before Nick Hobson hit the winning run off Sutherland.
Earlier, Finch became the second player to reach 3000 career runs in the BBL, joining all-time leading scorer Chris Lynn. Tye was the pick of Scorchers' bowlers claiming the key wickets of Finch, Handscomb and Mackenzie Harvey. Jason Behrendorff also bowled superbly claiming 1 for 17 from four overs.
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