Andrew McDonald comes in, and logic takes a holiday
If you want a Victorian perspective on what this means, go here.
For Ausralia it means the panic button has been pressed.
It’s not that Andrew McDonald isn’t a good cricketer, he is.
Just that his selection has a mad sense of panic all over it, the selectors no longer believe 4 bowlers are enough for Australia.
They probably don’t believe 5 is enough, but that is as far as they are going to stretch it.
Ashley Noffke must be confused, again, first he missed out to Siddle in India, Geeves in Darwin and now to McDonald in Sydney.
It’s probably payback for all the damage he has caused to people down south over the years.
I would have picked him, because he is a bowling all rounder, and he is going to be more useful than McDonald where Australia really need him.
But they haven’t, which means they don’t think the batting is any better.
McDonald is a handy batsman, not as good as Haddin though, in general he gets starts and then gives them away.
In 44 first class matches he has only 2 hundreds, which sounds shithouse, but throw in a playful 15 half centuries.
It shows he can bat, but he has trouble committing to the relationship.
His bowling is slightly better than Roy’s medium pace.
His first class bowling record is pretty good, an average of 30, and he does pick up wickets fairly easily, but he is just a medium pacer who swings it, and his record is improved by playing at the swing friendly MCG with a good bowling attack around him.
The big problem with his selection is it breaks the unofficial Australian rule. McDonald is not good enough to play as a batsmen or a bowler.
He is what I like to call a South African all rounder.
South Africa played heaps of them in the 90’s.
Guys who could bat a bit, bowl a bit, but had no place in test cricket.
McDonald probably has the talent to make it as a batsmen, but 44 matches for 2 hundreds is not a test batsmen, it’s not even close.
Noffke is a proper bowler, he could easily play as a bowler only, even without his batting, but he has been overlooked by someone with a lot of ability, but no real performances on the board.
Although i still say that there is a chance that the wrong player could have been selected.
cricketwithballs
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