Nathan McSweeney has no Sheffield Shield experience as an opener yet is in contention to be picked there in the first Test against India
Australia’s selectors could hand Nathan McSweeney the hardest challenge of any debutant opener in almost 50 years, if they opt to blood the rookie in the first Test against India.
Selectors are poised to name their squad for the Perth Test in coming days, with McSweeney emerging as the front-runner to fill the vacant spot at the top of the order despite having never opened in Sheffield Shield cricket.
Officials will wait until at least after the first innings of Australia A’s match against India A before naming their squad, giving Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Sam Konstas all one last chance to impress.
But for now McSweeney is the clear favourite to take the injured Cameron Green’s spot in the XI, as the form man of the first part of the Australian summer.
There remains some chance he could come into the side and bat at No.3, with Pat Cummins indicating on Sunday it was possible Marnus Labuschagne could open.
The other option would be to open with McSweeney, with the 25-year-old’s only previous experience against the new ball being when his side has lost early wickets.
Selectors could potentially show their hand and open with McSweeney in the tour match on Thursday, pushing Harris or Konstas down the order.
Even still, McSweeney’s ride to the top would be incredibly rare.
Not since Victorian Richie Robinson opened in the first Test of the 1977 Ashes has an Australian been picked as an opener without having done so for their state.
In the years since, the likes of Aaron Finch and Geoff Marsh have been picked as openers for the Test team while batting in the middle order in the Shield.
But they at least had previous experience in the role earlier in their career.
Robinson, in contrast, had not opened in any of his 47 Shield matches before his Test debut, and only had limited experience doing so against counties earlier on the 1977 tour.
He opened on Test debut at Lord’s, made scores of 11 and 4, was dropped down to No.6 for the next Test and never picked again after his third.
A similar challenge could now await McSweeney, who has batted everywhere from No.3 to No.7 in his 33 first-class games.
But after scoring 541 runs in red-ball cricket at an average of 90.16 this summer, the right-hander believes he is ready.
“I think I am playing pretty well at the moment,” McSweeney said on Sunday, after top-scoring in both innings against India A in Mackay.Â
“I am really confident in my game and I am progressing and playing some of the best innings I have played.Â
“Hopefully I can continue to learn and get better. If the opportunity comes, I feel like I am ready. If it doesn’t, hopefully I can get the call one day.”
Australia will bring in a new set of quicks for the A match at the MCG, headlined by Scott Boland and Michael Neser.
Meanwhile, India will play KL Rahul and Dhruv Jurel, in a bid to give them match time ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Rahul was dropped during India’s 3-0 loss to New Zealand at home, but could open in the first Test in Perth if Rohit Sharma misses for personal reasons.
“He’s obviously a world-class player, but he is someone we can hopefully get on top of pretty early and stay on top of him for most of the summer,” Boland said of Rahul.
NRMA Insurance Men’s Test Series v India
Australia squad: TBC
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed
First Test: November 22-26: Perth Stadium, 1.20pm AEDT
Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)
Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT
Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT
Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT
