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Make no mistake: this Test series - starting against the Windies
today in Brisvegas - is trés important. Australia comes
into the game off the back of monumental victory over a dormant
World XI in one Test and an Ashes defeat. The selectors have opted
for Nathan Bracken; the steamy, overcast conditions in the Queensland
capital probably more behind his selection than Bracken's actual
ability with the nut. They've also opted for Mike Hussey, with
opener Justin Langer out with a broken rib. Hmmmmmmmmm...
Hussey's appearance is long overdue, probably too overdue to ensure
he'll be there for years to come. Please let him score runs, ye
cricket gods above. The Australian selectors make a habit of this.
They give a player who's long overdue for selection a go when
a mainstay is injured. Sometimes fail knowing this is their belated
- and probably only - chance. Then they become a trivia question.
"Who with the initials MH played one Test for Australia in
2005?" Hussey was unlucky not to have the position of Matthew
Hayden, who he will partner in this Test. Hayden has since smashed
bowlers all over the joint, as we know he can. Against an enigmatic
Windies bowling attack, on his home track at the 'Gabba, he's
likely to smash them down Vulcher Street. Hussey is the stop gap
but he deserves to be more, somehow. Let's hope for his sake that
he isn't a Trivial Pursuit: 2010 Edition question.
Swingman Bracken has be handed a role, leg-spinner Stuart MacGill
has not. Incredible. Yeah, rightio, sure. Bracken has a great
Gabba record and there's going to be more swing than those parties
where husbands and wives play swappsies for two hours (Inside
Sport understands). But Bracken has earned his place on the
basis of a weather forecast. If anyone saw him bowl in the one-dayers
against the World XI, they would surely ask what this correspondent
thinks: um, can this fella bowl at an international level?
If the sun comes out and dries that Gabba deck out then surely
MacGill should have been picked. Surely. Anyone? He has every
right to feel peeved. You sense that all the speculation that
has constantly buzzed about him not fitting into the culture of
the Aussie side has merit. Or, perhaps, it has something to do
with the suits at Cricket Australia. Let's float this one, because
it's been rumoured for some time now... His decision not to tour
Zimbabwe on moral grounds last year got plenty of noses out of
joint with cricket officialdom. Just how many will probably become
more evident as the summer lingers.
Doubts about the middle order, questions about Michael Clarke
batting at No.4, Australia's first real Test series since the
Ashes... Who said this Test series would be a snooze?
Click your way to our Comebacks
page and tell us.
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