Are the Selectors Watching?

The games mightn't be over, and the selection of the team for the First Test against the Poms still a fortnight away, but some worrying signs have emerged in the last two days of two important Sheffield Shield matches.

In Adelaide, South Australia have made Western Australia follow on even though they lost most of the first day to rain. the Croweaters declared at 8/452 after they made Mitchell Johnson and his fellow bowlers look abysmal. Michael Klinger and fellow Victorian import Aiden Blizzard made runs, but it was the composed century by Callum Ferguson that must have made Greg Chappell sit up and take notice. Out of the game for over 12 months due to a knee injury, his first innings in a first class match on his return was this one, and from all reports it was chanceless 129. Ferguson is definitely at the front line when it comes to future Australian Test batsmen, and his chance may not be as far away as some say.
Western Australia were felled for only 295, of which Shaun Marsh scored 137. Michael Hussey was given leave from the Twenty20 match tonight to play this Shield game to find some form. His first ball duck has complicated matters no end. Marcus North needed runs despite his century in India and his 94 not out in the Ryobi Cup match last week. His 10 leaves his position vulnerable - if only the selection panel had the bottle to choose a replacement for him.
Meanwhile, in Brisbane, Usman Khawaja scored 60 in New South Wales first innings on the track that the First Test will be played. Following on from his big double hundred against South Australia two weeks ago, his name must be chiseling its way into Australia's middle order.

Surely it would be folly to take batsmen into the First Test who are palpably out of runs. And surely it is folly not to picked a young batsman while they are in red hot form. The past two days of first class cricket will have given our selectors a lot to think about.