Pecking order reshuffled as selectors back rising stars

After taking five wickets in the opening Test of Australia's tour of Sri Lanka last year, Mitchell Swepson was justifiably buoyant about an upcoming series that some players see as being even bigger than the Ashes.

"I've obviously got one eye on India," Swepson told reporters in Galle. "That's definitely a goal of mine, and a goal of this group is to get a series win over there. It'd be amazing."

Ashton Agar, who had been a strong chance of playing in Sri Lanka had he not suffered a side strain, was similarly hopeful of his prospects.

"I'd love to play a Test match over in India, I love watching cricket over there," Agar said in July. "Ever since I was a kid, I've watched I reckon every Test series they've had over there because I've looked up to a lot of their players, so to play one of them would be huge."

So as coach Andrew McDonald and the rest of the team's brains trust squinted through Delhi's thick haze on Friday, they must have wondered how they ended up jotting down three frontline spinners on their team sheet – for just the third time this century – with none of them being Swepson or Agar.

In their stead, the two bowlers picked to back up mainstay Nathan Lyon were both not even their state team's first-choice spinners at the beginning of this season.

For arguably their most important Test since the previous Border-Gavaskar series in 2020-21, it marks one of the bolder gambles taken by an Australian selection panel.

Of course, neither Todd Murphy nor Matthew Kuhnemann have come completely out of the blue.

Image Id: CDC21CF6BCE0469AA64D20318E898F96 Image Caption: Matthew Kuhnemann with Baggy Green cap No.466 // Getty

Murphy's impressive returns in first-class cricket, even as he remained behind Jon Holland at Victoria, saw him go on the Australia A tour of Sri Lanka last year and then stay on as a net bowler for the ensuing Test series.

Kuhnemann, the long-time back-up to Swepson in Queensland, was also kept on to bowl in Galle after earning praise during his maiden ODI series in the preceding weeks when he was a late call-up following Agar's injury.

Murphy, picked ahead of both Agar and Swepson in Nagpur last week, then justified his rapid progression into the Test fold by snaring the second best figures by an Australian spinner on debut.

When Swepson then flew home to Brisbane for the birth of his first child, Kuhnemann was suddenly in the mix for Delhi with pacemen Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, along with allrounder Cameron Green, all unavailable.

In the end, the anticipated turning conditions saw Kuhnemann win out over paceman Scott Boland, who had bowled tremendously in Nagpur but ultimately went wicketless.

Still, there are questions over why neither Swepson nor Agar have been involved in this series so far after being groomed for the best part of six years to play significant roles in Tests on the spin-friendly subcontinent.

Swepson was unavailable in Delhi but was ready in Nagpur, only to find himself overlooked in favour of Murphy.

That was despite the leg-spinner having played four Tests in Pakistan and Sri Lanka last year and having gone on Australia's last tour of India in 2017. Since the beginning of the 2019-20 summer, the only spinners with more Sheffield Shield wickets than Swepson are Lyon and Holland, while the Queensland leggie has a better bowling average than both of them over that period.

The call was vindicated given Murphy's composed debut, though McDonald admitted playing two specialist off-spinners against a right-hander heavy India top order had been a discussion point at the selection table.

"The question for us was, was it too similar with two spinners operating in tandem spinning the ball the same way? Did we use enough angles over and around (the wicket) at certain times?" McDonald said after their innings defeat in Nagpur.

Cummins however suggested Murphy was "a little bit different to Nathan – a bit flatter, bowls more square seamers as well as getting up and over them. He walked straight in and looked like he belonged at this level."

Agar too was overlooked when he might have expected to play in Nagpur given he was an incumbent after earning a recall for the Sydney Test last month.

Instead, he has watched as Kuhnemann has leapfrogged him in the pecking order despite the 26-year-old having not been in the country for more than a week.

Including the SCG Test, Agar has played just seven first-class games in three years among his national short-form commitments. He has taken 17 wickets at 50.65 over that period, during which time he has become one of the country's best white-ball bowlers.

Selector Tony Dodemaide conceded Agar's "red-ball game is not quite where he wants it to be" and that Kuhnemann "has impressed us in the nets. We just feel his style at the moment is more suited to these conditions (than Agar's)."

Kuhnemann, who received his Baggy Green before play from fellow Queenslander Marnus Labuschagne, showed promising signs in the four overs he sent down before stumps after opening the bowling.

The Gold Coast product who closely observed how first-Test player of the match Ravindra Jadeja had bowled in Nagpur troubled the Indian openers in the final session and will have the chance to further validate his surprise call-up on day two.

"I was very nervous for Matthew – he's from my home state of Queensland, I've captained him a lot," Bulls skipper and Australia opener Usman Khawaja said at the close of play.

"He's a terrific young player, a terrific young person and he's a competitor. That's one thing I love about him, he loves being in the contest.

"He would have been nervous but you couldn't really tell, he was on his mark straightaway. It was a great start for him, he looked like he was in the game, he created a few half-chances.

"I'm looking forward to seeing him bowl tomorrow."

Border-Gavaskar Qantas Tour of India 2023

February 9-13: India won by an innings and 132 runs

February 17-21: Second Test, Delhi, 3pm AEDT

March 1-5: Third Test, Indore, 3pm AEDT

March 9-13: Fourth Test, Ahmedabad, 3pm AEDT

All matches will be broadcast live and exclusive on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

India squad: (for the first two Tests) Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav