Durban: Pat Cummins has hinted that Matt Renshaw may be on the move back up the order following his match-winning turn at number five in Durban, as the victorious tourists stressed their desire for a flexible batting line-up.
With 190, 82 and a pair of wickets in South Africa’s fourth innings, Renshaw was the outstanding contributor to one of Australia’s finest contemporary wins overseas against the team that upset them in last year’s World Test Championship final at Lord’s.
Cummins, who lauded Renshaw’s batting as a blueprint for the rest of the top six, suggested it was possible that the left-hander could move back up the top for the second Test in Gqeberha from Sunday, with Travis Head and the recalled Nic Maddinson also capable of shuffling around.
Head, who vigorously defended his role as an opener before the Test, had another quiet match with the bat, and has tailed off in performance since the first three Ashes Tests.
“We’re always big on how the order functions as a whole,” Cummins said. “Seeing the way that he played spin in the one-day series led me to the thought [that] he would look pretty good at number five.
“Give us a few days, we’ll look at the conditions of the next Test and whether that’s still the case. I mean, it’s got to be pretty compelling to move him from there. But we’ve seen Travis Head down at number five as well, [he] can do a job.
“We’re always working out the six batters or seven plus Kez [Alex Carey]. How’s that going to function as a whole? So if anything, I still think he can be a great opener, and now he’s got another string to his bow.”
Cummins talked through how he came to decide that Renshaw should move down to number five this week, in consultation with tour selectors Andrew McDonald and George Bailey.
“So particularly between me and Ron, and you know, George as a selector as well, we kind of nut out what we think is going to be the best batting order,” he said. “We’re pretty certain that, yeah, we like Marnus at three, Smithy at four, and then the six and seven felt pretty locked up.
“So I think bringing Maddo [Maddinson] in, we really like the idea of bringing that flexibility. That unlocks a lot – Trav back to number five, Renners down at number five, even Maddo himself at number five. We haven’t had that option the last few years where we feel like we’ve got plenty of options at the top. You know we’re very big on that flexibility.
“I know you’re sick of us talking about it, but why not next week have different openers with the conditions somewhat different, or swapping out the batting orders between innings? I think having the structure that we do now with a few guys that can open, that’s really unlocked it.”
Maddinson worked his way into the game after a 33-ball duck on day one, cracking 48 from 38 balls in the second innings then being one of six spinners called upon by Cummins as the victory was completed by a yawning 214-run margin.
“It was good to see him get a bit of time out there in the middle in the second innings. I mean, open the batting day one as a Test batter, that’s as hard a test as you’re going to get really. So, yeah, we didn’t read into that too far,” Cummins said.
“He was great around the group. Bowled a few handy overs at the end, but yeah … kudos again to the selectors of whenever you’re presented with a problem, it’s how do they go about solving it. I think George and Ronnie [McDonald] and Dods [Tony Dodemaide] keep finding ways to solve them.”
Cummins also spoke about Steve Smith’s recovery from a potential concussion to take a fifth sharp catch for the match at slip. Had he entered concussion protocols, Smith may have been ruled out of the next Test and potentially the whole series.
“Yeah, he just manufactured a couple of wickets, he’s just so good to have in the cordon there,” Cummins said of Smith. “So it was good news this morning when he woke up and told Marnus to get out of his way. He was going to go back there.
“I think he just took a couple [of] hours just to make sure he was kind of okay, and then woke up this morning, passed all his tests, was feeling really good, and obviously desperate to get back out there. So that’s great, a huge relief.
“It’s always nice having him out there – feels like anything that gets nicked behind, he’s going to make sure he grabs it.”
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.
