Why the selectors’ SOS to Renshaw is 10 years in the making

Townsville: Nearly a decade has passed since a 21-year-old Matt Renshaw was dropped from the Australian Test team with an average of 36.64 from 10 matches.

Save for Usman Khawaja (48.05), Travis Head (53.77) and David Warner (40.91), no one since has performed anywhere near as well in the opening role. Jake Weatherald became the latest casualty on Tuesday after he was dropped not only from the team but the squad entirely to make way for Renshaw’s return.

Only a few months have passed since Weatherald beat Renshaw to a Cricket Australia contract for this season, but the former’s struggles in Darwin were so acute across two innings that the selectors chose to make a clean break. It is difficult now to see Weatherald making the October tour of South Africa.

In addition to making two low scores in Darwin in the First Test, Weatherald looked jumpy and uneasy at the batting crease, having admitted that his fate would be out of his hands if he didn’t make a score in his hometown.

“You are required to make runs all the time when you’re out there, and I’ve got a good opportunity to play two games hopefully and make some runs,” Weatherald had said. “If I don’t do that, then, yeah, I put my fate in someone else’s hands and I haven’t done enough.

“It’s a challenge when people you respect say things about your batting, or your game. You’re naturally always looking for affirmation, and people to respect what you’re doing, but at the same time it’s a part of cricket.

“I understand now it’s just a part of the game I’m playing, but it’s a great challenge as well. That’s what makes Test cricket so hard – you’re in the spotlight, you need to do a lot of things, not just make runs. If you can do it all, it makes for a good career.”

Renshaw made his Test debut in Adelaide a decade ago and was harshly left out of the team the following year when he was replaced by Cameron Bancroft. Ironically, Renshaw’s last Tests in that initial stint with the team were in Australia’s previous series against Bangladesh in 2017.

Then-selection chair Trevor Hohns had suggested Renshaw would ultimately be a long-term player for Australia, but it has been a long and frustrating road back.

“The way Matthew is playing at the moment – we don’t consider it ideal to inject him into the first Test versus England,” Hohns said in 2017.

“Matthew is highly regarded by us a selection panel, and we certainly see him as a long-term player for Australia. We’d ideally like him to go back to Sheffield Shield cricket, re-evaluate the way he’s playing and belt the door down with runs and demand selection.”

Back then, there was a view that Renshaw was talented but lacking maturity, something that still seemed to be an issue when he was subjected to some hard training sessions and then swiftly discarded by then coach Justin Langer after a 2018 tour of the UAE.

Now married and a father, Renshaw has made sporadic appearances since while honing his game, but in recent times has been a consistent presence in white-ball squads and was the best-performing batter on the recent limited-overs tour of Bangladesh where the hosts beat Australia in the ODI series.

More recently, Renshaw was part of the extended 19-man training squad in Brisbane ahead of the Darwin Test. Skipper Pat Cummins had alluded to the likelihood of a batting change after the nine-wicket loss to Bangladesh.

“I think it’s a balance of it’s one Test, but it’s also a bit of a trend as well, so [we’re] trying to work out do you need to intervene now, or let it play out, and you think it’s the way forward,” Cummins said.

“That’s the question over the next couple of days – we’ll sit down and have a think, selectors will have a think, is there something there that’s going to take us forward, or is it starting to become a trend that we think needs to be changed?

“It’s pretty clear it’s not quite functioning as well as we’d like as a group, so I’m sure the batters will get together and talk – review some footage, review methods, their approaches to how they were this week. If we need to make some changes to our style, we’ve got a week or so and we better do it pretty quickly.”

Former Test opener and fellow Queenslander Matthew Hayden has been an outspoken advocate for Renshaw’s return to the top of the Test batting order.

“I want some experience at the top,” Hayden said on Seven. “I want to see Matt Renshaw, and I’ve been saying this for at least 12 months. I think he is match-fit … I think the selectors knew what he was, [and] now I want to see what he actually is.”

Unlike Weatherald, who was very visible in marketing for the Darwin Test, Renshaw is expected to keep a low profile before Saturday’s first ball as he reconnects with Test cricket.

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