Ed Cowan has scored hundreds against the touring Indians and New Zealanders this summer. He should play in the Boxing Day Test
Brydon Coverdale20-Dec-2011Three weeks ago, Ed Cowan wrote in his ESPNcricinfo column that cricket needs more meaningful statistics than runs and averages. “The days of average being the leading indicator of a player’s value to a team’s success,” Cowan wrote, “must surely be numbered”.In his past eight innings across all formats, Cowan has averaged 96, with four centuries. On Tuesday night, Australia’s selectors debated all the permutations and combinations available to them for the Boxing Day Test. He’d better hope they hadn’t read his piece. The inclusion of Cowan should have been high on the agenda of John Inverarity and his panel.As a group of Australia’s Test batsmen met in Melbourne for a batting camp, necessitated by their poor collective form against New Zealand, Cowan was in Canberra scoring 109 against the Indians. He made his runs against the same attack, more or less, that Australia’s Test team will face on Boxing Day, and in an innings where the next best score was 38.It was not a one-off. Cowan has been more productive in the past month than Santa’s elves. In a tour match against the New Zealanders in Brisbane, he made 145. The attack he faced was made up of Doug Bracewell, Chris Martin, Trent Boult and Tim Southee – the same quartet that bowled New Zealand to a historic Test victory in Hobart a fortnight later.His past two Sheffield Shield games have brought him unbeaten centuries. At a time when Australia’s Test batting line-up is faltering, Cowan cannot be ignored. At 29, he is mature enough, skilful enough, and in-form enough for Test cricket. The question is not whether he should play at the MCG, but how to squeeze him into the side.As things stood on Tuesday night, the selectors must have felt like a group of Donald Rumsfelds, talking about known knowns and known unknowns. Could Shaun Marsh be risked with his dodgy back? If Shane Watson, returning from a hamstring injury, can’t bowl, is he worth his place in the side? Does Daniel Christian need to play to offer a fifth bowling option?For the time being, the selectors appear wedded to the idea of Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey retaining their positions. Michael Clarke and David Warner are in no danger. Marsh might not be rushed back having played no cricket since the Cape Town Test. That leaves Usman Khawaja vulnerable, after six Tests in which he has shown promise but failed to secure his spot with a stand-out score, and Watson’s position up in the air.Whatever the selectors decide to do with Watson in this Test, it has become apparent that while his bowling load remains heavy, he is not a long-term opening option. Even if he cannot bowl in Melbourne, it would make sense to move him down the order and install Cowan and Warner as an opening combination for the future. Watson could get used to his new role before adding bowling to the equation.That is if the selectors can justify picking Watson at less than 100% fitness, for if his hamstring won’t let him bowl, can he bat and run between the wickets for a full day? He did not bat on the first day of the batting camp in Melbourne, and if there is any doubt, or if the selectors want a fifth bowling option, then Christian should play. Either way, the Cowan-Warner opening combination makes sense.Australia’s batting problems will not be completely fixed during a three-day batting camp. Bringing in a batsman who is in form is the logical thing to do, as was the case with Warner against New Zealand. He scored his hundred in tough conditions at Bellerive Oval, where Cowan has been based for the past three summers. Cowan has made six first-class hundreds in 18 matches there.Maybe Cowan and Warner can be an opening pair for the future, maybe not. But there’s only one way to find out. And with both men in form, Boxing Day is the perfect time to give them a chance.
