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Lance Morris’ selection or otherwise in the Australian Test side is a litmus test of the selectors’ ability to make tough decisions, according to former skipper Ian Chappell.
Morris has been on the fringes of earning a baggy green for the better part of the past 12 months, having terrified batters at Sheffield Shield level for the past several seasons.
Chappell said the time is more than right to give him a chance at Test level, and selectors should have pulled the trigger on the 25-year-old speed demon for the Adelaide Test against the West Indies last summer.
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In the lead up to that Test, both Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins were ruled out, but selectors instead chose Michael Neser to play just his second Test, alongside Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc.
The fourth quick role was filled by Cameron Green.
“That to me was an opportunity to pick Lance Morris and they didn’t take it,” he told Wide World of Sports.
“It’s fine to shake batsman up at Sheffield Shield level, but you’ve got to find out if they can do it at Test level, and that to me was the opportunity to find out if Morris could do it at Test level and they didn’t pick him.
“You have some tough decisions to make both as a captain and as a selector, and it’s your measure of your selectorial ability if you make those tough decisions, and I was disappointed they didn’t make it then.”
Chappell suggested now Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins are all fit, Morris will struggle once again to get a game.
“But, they’ve got a lot of Tests so they’re going to have to shuffle the bowlers around a bit,” he said.
“I just hope at some point they don’t just pick Morris in a squad — they actually pick him in the team and find out what he can do.”
But in his column for the West Australian, former Test quick Mitchell Johnson said Morris must be picked for the first Test in Perth.
“This summer is a great opportunity to blood some young or performing players, especially when it’s against two teams in Pakistan and the West Indies who have struggled in Australia for a decent period of time,” Johnson wrote.
“(Morris) should be the first of those. With Perth likely to present a fast and bouncy pitch, there would be no better place for the young tearaway to steam in for his Test debut.”
Johnson also used his column to predict this would be a summer of “dramatic change” for the Australian side.
Although much of the public debate has been surrounding David Warner and whether or not he should be given the opportunity of a swansong before his red ball retirement after the Sydney Test, Johnson pointed out successors needed to be scouted for about three-quarters of the side, as eight of the likely starting XI are aged 32 or older.
“At 29, Marnus Labuschagne is the youngest player in the expected line-up,” he wrote.
“It’s funny remembering back to when I was injured at 30 and trying to get myself back into the team. I was hearing plenty of noise that 30 was too old as a fast bowler and that it was an age when you have peaked or are starting to slide out of your best form.
“It’s the building of the future that Australia must be looking at.”
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