1)
The youth policy - part 1. Ponting has essentially lost his spot in the XI to David Hussey (of course both could play with Watson injured). Forrest is really the reserve batsman, not in the starting XI. so his status isn't quite so relevant. If the 2015 World Cup is the goal as Inverarity claims, is it really forward looking to drop your 37 year old (Ponting) for a guy who's 35 in a few months (D.Hussey)?
2)
The youth policy - part 2. If 2015 is the goal, then why has Ryan Harris come back into the squad in place of Mitchell Starc? Harris was unlucky at times in the first couple of ODIs, but in general his bowling was no better than Starc's was. Arguably worse. Given Harris' constant injury risk and age, I would have thought there would be little to gain from giving him more ODIs at this point in his career as compared to Starc. Going by the 'old players need to perform' hypothesis that seemed to be in vogue for Ponting, why has it not applied to Harris? Similarly, Brett Lee was rushed back into the squad despite knowing he would be pushing the pain barrier. Lee can't be in the 2015 plans either and there are a few young bowlers around Australia that I'm sure the selectors would like to see at some point eg. McDermott, Coulter-Nile, Faulkner. Now Lee proved the other night that he can still bowl very well, so his individual selection really isn't in question, but I maintain that the selectors are mixing their messages a bit here.
3)
The captaincy. It's a little baffling how Ponting can be ELEVATED to the captaincy a mere two games before he is dropped for good. For starters, how does that make David Warner's vice-captaincy look? Essentially, he's been overlooked for the captaincy for a dead man walking . It was hard to be a supporter of Warner's premature elevation to vice-captaincy anyway, but Ponting's appointment and then quick turfing proves Warner as VC really is a sham.
It also makes it equally baffling that a mere week before he was dropped, Ponting's praises were being sung lustily by the Cricket Australia team as they announced him temporary leader. Did they really not decide to drop him until this week? Was it based on Watson's fitness? Either way, he'll be now on record as having played his last game as captain. How often has a captain been dropped mid series? Better yet, how often has a captain (or even a mere player) been dropped after a 110 run win over the world champs?
4)
The precedent. With Ponting dropped mid series for bad form, will that not make every other senior player feel nervous? How is Mike Hussey going to feel when he puts 3 or 4 bad scores together in a row? Ponting, a legend of Aussie cricket and still one of the best fieldsmen in the team got 5 poor innings. On that logic, Hussey should probably get less than 5 innings before he gets dropped. Surely good selection policy says that players with promise, talent, AND established class get the chance to turn their form around in a series. See Shaun Marsh in the Test series for example. See Dave Warner in this current series, clearly out of touch, but deserves more opportunities. It's easy to think Ponting should have been afforded a similar courtesy, given he's Australia's leading run scorer of all time, his recent Test series, and his productive 2011 in ODIs (average of 40, S/R of 80).
Ponting has faced a mere 66 balls this series. Is 66 balls enough to say a player is done? Why didn't the selectors make a similar decision when Ponting scratched around Hobart against NZ in a Test earlier in the summer? Is the competition for ODI spots that much stronger than the Test side? Is Peter Forrest so much better than Usman Khawaja? Interesting questions to me. Australia lost in Hobart, whereas they are on top of the CB series table. Strikes me as strange to drop him now, but not after that Test loss.
5)
The indecision. Brad Haddin was apparently rested for the first 3 ODIs, but it has since become clear that he was dropped. Haddin spilled the beans on this in interviews he had with the media, and Steve Waugh publically questioned the selectors in the following week or two. Then last week we finally hear from the selectors that Haddin in fact HAS been dropped. This smacks of indecision. They have essentially trialled Wade in the first 3 ODIs, probably hoping that Haddin found some runs in the Shield or his club game, and they could have easily made the swap back to Haddin. However once Haddin showed no improvement and Wade did well, they decided to put a line through Haddin's name. That's some hardcore fence-sitting. Or maybe it's slightly better, a communication breakdown, but neither of those are good for selectors. It's not just been Haddin vs Wade either. Mitchell Marsh and Dan Christian have been fighting for the all-rounder spot since the T20Is began. The selectors seem unsure of how to get Marsh into international cricket, giving him 2 games off to play for WA to get him some action. Couple that with the imminent return of the #1 all-rounder Watson, and one wonders what Marsh was actually going to do in the Aussie XI.
I was a definite fan of the new Aussie selection panel in their first month or two. Cowan and Warner deserved and were given shots in the Test side. Pattinson and Hilfenhaus too. Yet this last couple of weeks has me scratching my head a little bit (and I haven't even mentioned George Bailey
). Here's to hoping that things are a bit clearer going forward.
I can see the other side of the coin, despite my negativity. In fact, looking at all those things I talked about in isolation and they really aren't big deals, it's just when I thought of them all together that I sensed some trouble.
