One Day Selection Madness

I confess that I am a little mystified as to the way the Selection panel have gone about picking our team for the one day games against Sri Lanka next week.

OK, their decision to give Xavier Doherty a game is to be applauded. he has arguably been the best spinner in domestic one day cricket over the past two to three seasons, and his figures demanded attention. Whether he succeeds or not is irrelevant - he deserves his chance. John Hastings is another to emerge in the last twelve months, a strong-actioned fast medium bowler who also doesn't mind hitting the ball hard when he gets his chance to bat. Both are good selections.

The area that worries me is the casting aside of the two young gun batsmen, David Warner and Callum Ferguson. The selectors would not doubt suggest I would find it difficult to leave out any of what they consider to be the top order - Watson, Marsh, Ponting, Clarke, White, Hussey and Haddin. Fair point... if they were all in form and all contributing regularly. But they aren't, and surely changes need to be made. Warner has started spectacularly in the T20 rubbish, and his explosion at the top of the order is something Australia could use to their advantage. Ferguson, before his knee injury that robbed him of 12 months, was the finisher in the middle order, and doing it in style. Both are also excellent fieldsmen.

In my mind, replacing Marsh - who did not take his opportunities last summer - and Hussey - who is probably running out of chances - would add a freshness to the batting that isn't always apparent at the moment. With Haddin and Steve Smith and Mitchell Johnson stalking the lower order, it should be viable to put on a good total in all games under most conditions.

We'll soon see how the selected team performs, and get a glimpse of the chances we have of winning a fourth consecutive World Cup.

The full squad is: Ricky Ponting (c), Michael Clarke (vc), Xavier Doherty, Brad Haddin, John Hastings, Nathan Hauritz, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh, Clint McKay, Peter Siddle, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Shane Watson and Cameron White.