By Adrian Meredith
MELBOURNE, Australia (TheSportsNEXT) November 10, 2012: Australia looked flat on day 1 of their cricket summer as South African batsmen made their bowlers look ordinary on first day of the Brisbane Test at Gabba on Friday and the home side missed services of all-rounder Shane Watson dearly.
But the question is does Australia have enough quality all-rounders in their stockpile of cricketers?
Following is the list of some of the best all-rounders in Australian cricket prepared by Adrian Meredith:
Shane Watson averages 37.54 batting and 28.91 bowling in tests, 41.48 and 28.82 in ODIs (with a strike rate of 88.27!) and 30.62 and 20.42 in T20s (with a strike rate of 148.48!). Domestically he averages 44.42 batting and 27.60 bowling in FC, 38.95 (SR 84.86) and 30.95 in ODDs and 33.42 (SR 145.16) and 22.63 in T20Ds! He is one of the best all-rounders in the world, and is comfortably the best all-rounder in Australian history - the next best is Richie Benaud. He is probably at his best in the ODI format, though his strike rate of 148.48 in T20s suggests that he is pretty darn dangerous in T20s too; but he is still very good in tests - averaging 9 points higher batting than bowling. His FC average of 44.42 suggests that his current test batting average of 37.54 is going to go up and he could end up with an average closer to 50 than 40. His main problem is that he suffers from injury a lot. His bowling can get poor at times; but if he is used as a shock bowler he can be deadly dangerous, bowling great yorkers and bouncers. He is also very good as a death bowler or power play bowler in ODIs - though not so good as an opening bowler. The injuries always come from his bowling though so his bowling workload has to be managed carefully. On a couple of occasions he left test matches early in the match, costing Australia the match, and he also batted poorly when batting lower down the order - but bats well batting up the order or opening.
Daniel Christian averages 20.83 (SR 86.80) batting and 31.05 bowling in ODIs and 6.00 batting and 24.00 bowling in T20Is. He is yet to play a test match; but probably should have in the current test - if not before! He averages 29.75 batting and 34.80 bowling in FC, 34.68 (SR 99.10) batting and 31.57 bowling in ODDs, and 20.40 (SR 132.29) batting and 25.36 bowling in T20Ds. His numbers are slightly worse, comparing batting to bowling, in all but his One Day Domestic figures, where he not only has a +3.23 comparison but strikes at an incredible 99.10 - incredible for a top order batsman! He has played a few times for Australia and has been involved in man of the match performances batting with the tail, or a few times has bowled Australia to victory too. His numbers don't yet look amazing at international level but they do look solid. His bowling is gentle medium pace, which on some tracks is going to be belted all around; but in other conditions it is deadly dangerous. My suspicion is that Brisbane, Adelaide and especially Hobart are going to be pitches that ideally suit his bowling, and the fact that South Africa wouldn't have seen much of his type of bowling would have made them very vulnerable. A very accurate bowler and reliable batsman, he plays a similar role to Watson, batting in the top order and is used as a shock bowler. He doesn't break down with injuries much though, making him the perfect backup for Watson. The selectors promised to put him in the side the next time Watson got injured; but for reasons only known to them, they went against their promise!
James Faulkner has only played one international match, a T20, where he didn't bat and bowled 2 overs for 18 runs without taking a wicket. Australia still won though. Otherwise, he averages 26.05 batting and 22.93 bowling in FC, 24.88 (SR 79.66) batting and 33.94 bowling in ODDs, 14.22 (SR 109.40) batting and 25.78 bowling in T20s. He is a powerful bowling unit, with a FC bowling average of 22.93, giving him one of the best bowling averages of any bowlers in Australia - a lot better than the likes of Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle - who are out playing in the test match! But his ODD and T20 records suggest that perhaps his FC record is inflated a bit - he may not be quite as good as that, ditto for his batting average of 26.05 in FC. He definitely fits the category of "bowling all rounder" though and in Australia's current set up there is no room for one of those. He could play opposite a batting all-rounder though, or play purely as a bowler, batting at number 8, with a bit of batting about him. At 22 years of age, if he keeps it up he looks certain to play many games for Australia in all 3 formats. He is a left armer too - though he is listed as medium pace - but I think he is a bit faster than that.
Andrew McDonald averages 21.40 batting and 33.33 bowling in his 4 test matches. Did you realise that he played test match cricket, and actually did quite well? He was largely responsible for Australia getting the number 1 ranking back from South Africa some 3 years ago - then was dumped in favour of Marcus North. What a mistake that was! At FC level he averages 39.76 batting and 28.64 bowling, a +11.12 rating - possibly the most impressive of anyone other than Watson! He averages 30.47 (SR 83.24) batting and 39.83 bowling in ODDs and 34.22 (SR 126.76) batting and 23.54 bowling in T20s. Oddly, he is +11.12 in FC, -9.36 in ODDs and +10.68 in T20s! In other words, he is great at both FC and T20s but sucks at one dayers! Why? Anyway, he has been in fantastic form since his test debut, especially at FC level, scoring centuries galore and taking wickets galore, but every time when he was just about to get a call up to the national team he got injured. He has batted as high as 4 for his state but often bats as low as 8 or 9 - usually he bats at 6 or 7 though. Interestingly, his FC batting average is better than Rob Quiney's, but he backs it up with a bowling average that is better than both Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle. Makes you wonder what the hell the selectors were thinking, doesn't it? Especially given that Rob Quiney and Andrew McDonald both play for the same state of Victoria - and are both about the same age!
Glenn Maxwell averages 41.33 (SR 113.76) batting and has taken 0 wickets in 10.4 overs at an economy of 5.70 in his 4 ODIs. He averages 13.00 (SR 102.63) batting and 45.00 bowling in his 7 T20Is. He averages 46.57 batting and 38.52 bowling at FC level. He averages 34.84 (SR 123.77) batting and 52.22 bowling at ODD level. He averages 20.90 (SR 140.26) batting and 35.81 bowling at T20 level. The fact that he averages a fair bit more than Rob Quiney and Ed Cowan - both in the test side as batsmen - and also bowls a bit - suggests that he, like McDonald, should have been ahead of them both purely as batsmen, let alone their bowling. Maxwell is a spin bowler, unlike most of the other all-rounders going around. He is new to the state set up, in only his 2nd full season, with about 1/2 a season before that behind him, so could get a lot better to surpass Watson or get a lot worse to be forgotten about. For now, though, he looks like a batsman who bowls a bit. Unfortunately, his bowling was ripped apart at international level - but his batting wasn't. He will nonetheless need to improve his bowling to be given another chance at international level. If he can keep up his FC batting average of 46.57 he could play in a test match purely as a batsman though.
Mitchell Marsh scored 8 not out off 5 balls in his only ODI, when he also took 1/19 from 4 overs, an economy of 4.75. He averages 24.50 (SR 140.00) batting and 41.00 bowling in his 3 T20Is. He averages 21.05 batting and 27.67 bowling at FC level. He averages 35.85 (SR 83.75) batting and 24.60 bowling at ODD level. He averages 35.80 (SR 115.98) batting and 23.94 bowling at T20 level. So he is -6.62 at FC, +11.25 at OD and +11.86 at T20 level - pretty impressive! His FC numbers leave a bit to be desired; but that is put down to a bit of frustration on his part. He has been in a fair bit of disciplinary trouble lately, not only turning up drunk to training but also in trouble in the recent CLT20, which has seen him pushed out of the Australian international set up; but he is just such an incredible talent that he can't be left out for too long. I suspect that his FC batting average will end up closer to 40 than 20, and may even get up to 50, by which time he will be given a test debut; but right now, largely due to disciplinary issues, he is a fair way out of the Australian team. He is a very canny bowler who knows how to trick batsmen out. He took a T20 hat trick at just 17 years of age in his first bowling performance at state level - a pretty impressive performance! He later captained the Australian Under 19 team to a Under 19 World Cup victory and is a good chance to end up being an Australian test captain at some time in the future - so long as he stops drinking, of course. His bowling is listed as medium pace but he can be a bit quicker than that.
Moises Henriques averages 9.00 (SR 60.00) batting and 84.00 bowling in his 2 ODIs, and averages 1.00 (SR 50.00) batting and didn't bowl in his only T20I. The stats look terrible but he only played 3 international matches, and perhaps those figures will improve in the future. He averages 31.07 batting and 27.67 bowling at FC level, 25.34 (SR 80.92) batting and 41.60 bowling at ODD level, and 21.20 (SR 123.74) batting and 28.97 bowling at T20 level. He is +3.40 in FC but a woeful -16.26 at OD level and still -7.77 at T20 level. While he has made his international debut and has potential, his figures suggest that right now he is a fair way from international level. He is only 25 years of age though and has a fair bit of time to improve - and he did have a fantastic CLT20. He is a fast medium bowler and a very good fielder who is versatile and is something of a favourite overseas, largely because of his performance in CLT20 and IPL. It remains a mystery why he got his international debut but it should act as incentive in case in the future he may genuinely deserve it.
Luke Butterworth averages 28.52 batting and 23.67 bowling at FC level, 22.74 (SR 80.34) batting and 37.22 bowling at ODD level, and 11.00 (SR 84.61) batting and 38.80 bowling at T20 level - not surprisingly he has only played 9 T20 games! His FC record is best, with +4.85, but with -14.48 at ODD and -27.80 at T20 levels, he is a fair way off international level. But purely as a bowler his bowling average at FC level is better than both Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus, and he could almost play test cricket purely as a bowler. At 29 years of age he has only played a smattering of games for his state, largely due to his inconsistency. He still isn't a regular at state level and he will most likely never play an international match. Just the same, a player that averages 28.52 batting and 23.67 bowling isn't the worst to have that is outside of the team! Think of Australia's all-rounder stocks in the past - if this was 20 years ago he'd be making his test debut!
There are also the likes of Steve Smith and Cameron White who were previously known as all-rounders but nowadays are mostly just batsmen. There is also Steve O'Keefe who at one stage was known as an all-rounder but is now mostly a bowler.
Pretty talented lot there! Makes you wonder why they chose to replace Shane Watson with a batsman - especially an ordinary one - when there was this kind of choices available in the all-rounder stakes. Of note, the oldest of these all-rounder options is only 31!
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