With a series win in the bag, injuries to consider and a looming visit to India, the hosts have the freedom, scope and necessity
Sydney is a place for experiments. Attending your first Mardi Gras parade, fomenting the Rum Rebellion, paying $4m for a dilapidated single-front terrace house: it’s all about opening your eyes with something that you may never have anticipated. There will be experiments for the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground this week, then. The Australian men have already won the series against South Africa, so they have the freedom. They are missing two first-choice players through injury, so they have the scope. And they are eyeing a difficult visit to India in a month’s time, so they have the necessity.
Missing Cameron Green with a broken finger, the first decision is about structure: whether an all-rounder is needed for bowling support. So far in a decent sample size of Green’s 18 Tests, there is nothing compelling in the numbers: when playing alongside him, Patrick Cummins has a small improvement across the key metrics of average, strike rate and economy rate; Josh Hazlewood improves his average and economy rate but worsens his strike rate; while Mitchell Starc is more economical but slips on the wicket-taking measures. The variations are within a small margin for error.
If nothing else, Green’s 23 wickets from 18 matches have meant less work for the main quicks to do. Having a genuine top-six bat who can also contribute with the ball is ideal, but is still more luxury than necessity. Australian teams have historically got by well with their principal four bowlers and a bit of part-time spin.
Still, they will likely make fifth bowler Ashton Agar, whose batting cannot replace Green’s at six, but who could bat seven with a promotion for wicketkeeper and Melbourne century-maker Alex Carey. That choice won’t be about Sydney, rather preparation for India, where the spinning all-rounder and left-arm orthodox option will be wanted. It’s the same process that saw Steve O’Keefe picked as second spinner for Sydney against Pakistan in 2017, before taking 12 for 70 in Pune a month later to set up a rare Australian match win in India. Agar also played two Tests in 2017 in Bangladesh and, considering he has played a total of 17 first-class matches in six seasons since then thanks to Australian white-ball duties, he could use the run.
If Australia go conventional with a specialist bat at six, it will be Matthew Renshaw, whose previous Test career was as an opener but who has played plenty of middle-order innings for Queensland since. He has a stack of runs lately and was on that 2017 India tour, batting well and having vivid memories of needing to escape the field in a hygiene emergency. Australian coach Andrew McDonald said that he had considered moving Usman Khawaja down the order to bring in Marcus Harris at the top, but that he wanted to maintain Khawaja’s pairing with David Warner.
There is also the matter of Lance Morris, the Western Australian rocket-launcher who has been firing away in the nets for the past few weeks. With Starc out injured and Hazlewood recovered, they would normally perform a straight swap, but the Australians are increasingly excited about Morris and want to see what he can do. Super-fast bowlers are like avocados: you have to use them when they’re ripe. Often they don’t last. Sydney may be a match for Scott Boland to sit out – a little unfair given he has bowled superbly again, but three Tests out of five this summer is probably a lot more than he was expecting.
South Africa will need changes, too. Theunis de Bruyn was brought in for one Test batting at No 3 and will now go home for the birth of his child, taking his average of 19.5 with him. Rassie van der Dussen could come back in a do-si-do, or reserve keeper Heinrich Klaasen, but South Africa would be well advised to pick both. Captain Dean Elgar has insisted on keeping his formation five bowlers, but given his team’s batting frailty, reinforcement is needed.
Incumbent wicketkeeper Kyle Verreyne has been his team’s best with the bat, and Klaasen is a similar type of player. He has good recent first-class returns and barely been given a chance at Test level. In the bowling ranks, Lungi Ngidi has been out of sorts, and doing without him for a match would not be a great loss. Spinner Keshav Maharaj has also been lacklustre with his bowling and offered little with his usually useful batting, so a swap for Simon Harmer might be the due.
Of course, both spinners could play if the pitch is indeed a flashback to the era when Sydney used to turn. All reports are that the dry surfaces this season have been conducive to it. But usually the talk is often more potent than the turf, so visiting sides need to be careful. There is rain around and green grass on the pitch a day out. Either way it will affect one combatant more than the other. South Africa have no choice but to pick the right team for right now. Australia have the luxury of picking partly for the future.
