You could speculate about whether Cricket Australia deliberately prefers to be opaque about player availability and team plans, or whether it just has a deficiency in communications, but once again the fitness of players and the makeup of the XI is left to be inferred from the selection in the larger squad of 14 players for the second Ashes Test in Brisbane.
Normally, a board naming an unchanged squad would not be much news. This time it is, thanks to the possible movement in either direction of Pat Cummins and Usman Khawaja, neither of which has now eventuated.
Cummins is the surprise for not being included, with the regular captain and fast-bowling leader deep into his recovery from the early signs of a stress fracture in his back. The only public acknowledgment of the situation was a cursory line with the squad release saying that “Pat Cummins will travel to Brisbane to continue his preparations”.
Suggestions from within CA support the view that this is all situation normal and that his recovery remains happily on track, as a likely addition to the team in the near future. In theory he could even join the Brisbane squad in coming days if he and management so chose. But still, something doesn’t gel about the claims.
Going back to when Cummins’ scans were ruled clear in October, starting the clock on his buildup to match fitness, all public commentary from the bowler himself as well as timelines from CA suggested that he would only narrowly miss the first Test, scheduled to train at nearly full tilt with the team during the match. As per coach Andrew McDonald: “He will be up and bowling in Perth, and people will be sitting there questioning why he’s not playing.”
Once Cummins got back to Sydney after watching his team’s raucous two-day win in the west, he was seen bowling in the New South Wales nets without any apparent limitations, and most notably, was using a pink Kookaburra ball in what one would assume was preparation for the day-night Test in Brisbane.
So, why the change in plans, well over a month since Cummins said that he would need four weeks to build up bowling loads, and with six days yet until the first ball in Brisbane? Not to mention eight further days of rest between Brisbane and the third Test in Adelaide. If the latter is Cummins’ destination, it will come more than seven weeks since he resumed bowling.
That in itself is fine: prognoses can change, medical staff can be conservative, players can be cautious. It’s just peculiar that in the middle of the most anticipated and closely followed Test series in Australia’s calendar, the governing body’s representatives don’t appear to consider it reasonable to share any information about the national captain’s fitness and availability or the changing nature of either. It’s a curiously dismissive attitude towards the public that provides the tax breaks that keep CA from even steeper annual deficits than the one recently announced.
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And if caution is the watchword with Cummins, the opposite applies with Khawaja’s back injury. He had spasms flare up in Perth during two paltry fielding innings, keeping Australia’s usual opener from doing that job with the bat in both innings, and from having any influence when he did appear down the order. Even if his symptoms have subsided, the fact that he’d not experienced them before surely leaves some risk that they might recur when the heat of a match resumes.
With Khawaja in the squad, that logically means that he is due to resume opening the batting, even though Travis Head made a record-setting century in his place in Perth. Khawaja wouldn’t be picked as a reserve or to bat down the order. But again, there’s no official information about this, just the selection.
This doesn’t mean that teams should have to give a whole XI when picking their squad, and plans can change. But some plans are firmer than others, and given the way Head’s whirlwind captured public attention, it would do no harm to confirm where those two players are due to line up. A bit of mystery in life is a good thing, but manufacturing it out of the broadly obvious is needless. If you’re in the business of winning over audiences, communication goes a long way.
