Australia’s bowlers rescued the first Test against West Indies in Barbados, so the team will be relieved to welcome back blue-chip batter Steve Smith for the second Test in Grenada. In London a fortnight ago, a fielding mishap looked like it had caused Smith’s finger a horrific break, but instead the injury was a dislocation, and it has settled well enough for him to come safely through a net session in New York City. Smith will rejoin the team in Barbados on Sunday, with a final fitness check the day before the next fixture starting on 3 July.
Australian coach Andrew McDonald confirmed that Smith will slot straight back in at his preferred No 4 spot when available, which will mean that Josh Inglis has to make way after filling in and returning a rare failure with the bat in Australian colours. There are no other spots available, after McDonald backed Sam Konstas to open and Cameron Green at No 3, while praising the work in Bridgetown of Travis Head at No 5 and Beau Webster at No 6.
He was, though, straightforward about the shortcomings of his 19-year-old opening bat, after Konstas made three and five in the first Test across two scattershot innings. “The players are their harshest critics, really, when all’s said and done,” McDonald said the day after the win was completed on the third evening with a dramatic late West Indies collapse.
“He’s debriefing now, we’ve had some conversations around potentially if you’re in that situation again, what does that look like, and that’s what experience is. It felt like he was stuck at times, and he was overaggressive, and then underplayed, and it’s really that balance and tempo.
“The ball darting back on the lower side is a battle for most batters. He’s been on the record around working on his technique in the winter, and some small adjustments, and how they play out in training versus under extreme pressure is always a different sort of pattern. He’s working on it. He knows his deficiencies, but from a batting perspective I encourage all players to learn to play with their deficiencies. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a perfect technique.
Konstas is a teenager thrown into Test cricket after a handful of first-class games, so it’s interesting to note the contrast with all-rounder Webster, who at 31 years old has had the time to develop his game across 11 seasons and over 100 first-class outings. According to Webster’s comments after play, that has given him a belief in his method that a few bad results can’t shake, and although his career is five Tests old, his composure and calm at the crease have been notable. In such a short span, Australia have already come to depend on him.
Webster has played those five matches in four countries, with a home debut, two Sri Lanka matches, the World Test Championship final in London, and now Barbados. Only the 1980s New Zealand batter Phil Horne, whose career of four matches spanned four countries, has done something similar. But wherever Webster has gone, he has adjusted. His 57 and 39 not out against India in Sydney were matchwinning in a low-scoring game, as was his 63 in Bridgetown. Two weeks earlier he top scored at Lord’s against South Africa with 72 in another faltering innings, although Australia lost, while in Sri Lanka he made useful runs and contributed wickets in two wins. Bowling seam and spin adds to his versatility.
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McDonald said that Webster’s success, plucked from the Sheffield Shield at a later stage after years of improvement, should give heart to experienced players like Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft, who were still regularly “in the conversation” between selectors and coach. For the time being, though, the opening spot they covet remains with the youthful experiment that is Konstas, while Smith’s return may see the same selectors send Marnus Labuschagne home to play for Australia A in Darwin against Sri Lanka A from 13 July, as the former No 3 looks to get back into run-scoring rhythm. Wherever those runs come from, Australia need some, because as they learned to their cost in London, relying on bowling rescues can only work so much of the time.