Shaun Marsh is the last person I'd pick. Injury prone, rubbish, not young enough to have excuses and not advanced enough to be a a guiding senior player. I'd much sooner have players who have removed themselves from selection contention, like Ponting or Hussey.
Faulkner is very talented. I think as a limited overs 7 he's fine, but looking towards Test matches, he has to make the big scores. That's what put Henriques on the map this season, it's why Johnson got to bat at 7 in Sydney. I don't think it's beyond him, but it may not be worth rushing into it.
Two things I notice from this season. One, wickets might have been a bit easy to come by and two, there's also a lot of players at the moment that really need 2 more seasons; hard not to argue that the two are somehow connected.
But it also highlights anyone worth noticing. Burns didn't have a greatly consistent season, but he did he get the hundreds. Nic Maddinson is another; not the greatest stats overall, but the kid can iron out a first class bowling attack. Doolan too of course and you could probably bank on Cosgrove at this point. They might go with one of the older ones. Silk might be a bit of a hurried choice, but I can't say it would hurt. I think there's a need to either pick oldies or a couple of players in this current Test squad. At least one of Khawaja, Smith and Hughes, if not two, could stand to make the tour.
With pace they're spoilt for choice, so I won't even go into it. Keepers could be interesting, especially if they want two. Haddin and Wade were the only keepers to bat well in the summer, but if I was going for gloves, Ludeman was very slick. Sam Whiteman and Pete Handscomb definitely fall into that 'two more seasons' kind of area, but I do like Handscomb's play against spin, so that might be worth earmarking.
The other area is spin. On paper, O'Keefe has the most wickets, but Ashton Agar and Fawad Ahmed showed what a spinner is all about with big hauls in the 3rd innings. Adam Zampa also looked really good when O'Keefe was injured. And if Jon Holland was fit, that wouldn't suck either. Pick all the spinners! They did send a good number of spinners last time to England and they probably will again. It really can't hurt. The only problem is the misfortune such as befell Holland, given the opportunity but wiped out when needed. The more players that get opportunities, the better for that.
No doubt Silk is turning more heads after 'that catch' and now some good scores.
