Australia took a gamble by picking McSweeney, who is not a specialist opener, to bat at the top of the order against the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. From three Tests, McSweeney has made 72 runs at 14.4.
Selectors were adamant McSweeney’s game would hold up as an opening batsman but his axing shows a lack of faith.
Former Test opener Ed Cowan said before the series that statistics indicated McSweeney, traditionally a No.3 and No.4, struggled against the new ball.
“The data would suggest that at the moment in his career, he doesn’t have the technique nor the temperament to do it,” Cowan said on the ABC’s Grandstand Cricket Podcast. “You know what a selection, when the data doesn’t support your point of view, is? It’s a guess. Guesses sometimes pay off but that’s called luck, and if they don’t, they actually dilute the players’ confidence [across the country] … as to what it takes to get selected.”
In response before the series, head selector George Bailey said: “I’d like to think it’s a little more than a guess. We could all run our fingers down the list of leading run-scorers … but that’s not necessarily how cricket teams work. It’s how they fit together.
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“The point was, in our minds, that it won’t be a major adjustment for him. Talking to Nathan, the way he prepares to go and play for South Australia, when he does bat at No.3, is it’s a very similar mindset and very similar way he’ll approach it. We think he’s got the game that will succeed at Test level.”
Josh Inglis has also been in the Australia’s squad as a spare batsman and could come into calculations for the MCG Test.
Scott Boland is expected to replace the injured Josh Hazlewood in the XI, while Queensland paceman Xavier Bartlett is being touted as a potential bolter in the squad.
More to come
