Stoinis hoping for Miller's luck

Marcus Stoinis, the latest to be burdened with the presumptive label of 'Australia’s next Test allrounder', happily concedes there is in imbalance in the relative merits of his dual skills.

Whether Stoinis formally adds to the lengthy list that stretches beyond 30 candidates since Keith Miller – the last Australian to truly fit that demanding criteria – retired more than 60 years ago, will be dictated by factors other than the Victorian’s undoubted talent.

The character of the pitch at Ranchi, where the third Test against India begins on Thursday, being prime among them given the need for a seam-bowling allrounder to replace injured Mitchell Marsh could be made redundant by another tailor-made spinners’ track.

But despite embarking on a rushed trip to Ranchi (325km inland from Kolkata) from Alice Springs where Victoria’s most recent Sheffield Shield game finished last Saturday, Stoinis is ready to lodge his credentials if needed.

The fact that off-spinner Glenn Maxwell and left-arm orthodox spinner Ashton Agar are also in the mix should Australia opt to stick with their preferred selection strategy of five bowlers only serves to underscore how glaringly vacant that allrounder’s position remains.

More than 30 players of wildly varying playing styles and pedigree have tried to wriggle into the gaping boots left behind when Miller - a flamboyant cricketer and fearless pilot who is said to have cheated death on more than one occasion during the Second World War, coining the phrase 'Miller's luck' - stepped out of them in 1956.

Image Id: 49BCAECED35A4CA4977D358EA1C59AC6 Image Caption: Keith Miller was Australia's last great Test allrounder // Getty

And only three have fitted the rough guidelines for genuine allrounder classification.

That being a batting average of at least 35 (with a minimum of one Test century), a bowling average no greater than 35 (with a least a five-for to their name) and a playing career that extends beyond 10 Test caps.

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Even then, Shane Watson might be considered the closest to textbook allowing for the fact the others – Doug Walters and Simon Katich – were specialist batters who dabbled a bit as bowlers when circumstances demanded or conditions suited.

And the scope of the search to find this most rare Test talent is revealed by numbers showing more than 10 players have been tried in this century alone, with names like Andrew Symonds, Andrew McDonald, Cameron White, Moises Henriques, James Faulkner, Steve Smith and – as recently as last January – Hilton Cartwright among those tried along with the younger Marsh.

With the exceptions of Faulkner and McDonald, that list is predominantly batters who dabbled in bowling and that is how 27-year-old Stoinis breaks down the two sides of his all-round game.

"Bowling is probably the second string, but it’s been the big improvement in my game as well," he said today after taking part in his first training session with an Australia Test squad at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association stadium in Ranchi.

"That’s the way it’s going, to ideally be a genuine allrounder, and the aim of the last couple of years has been to really push that."

Those who query Stoinis’s claims to the hugely difficult job of accomplished Test allrounder, in the same way they have doubted Watson and Marsh before him, point to the assumption he’s essentially a limited-overs cricketer.

A batter who can belt the ball cleanly and far, as demonstrated in his remarkable, unbeaten 146 from 117 balls in a seemingly hopeless cause against New Zealand at Eden Park six weeks ago.

And a bowler who can generate tidy pace and hit the bat hard, though his first-class bowling return of 33 wickets at not much less than 50 runs each suggests that if he plays in Ranchi he’s likely to do less work with the ball than did genuine seamer Marsh.

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Who bowled just five overs in two Tests before succumbing to injury.

However, Stoinis knows that success as an allrounder does not arrive without a double dose of hard work and he has invested much of that training time of late into his bowling with the red ball.

"In Twenty20 and one-day cricket it's been going really well, but really defining the role you’re going to have in red-ball cricket is quite different for an allrounder," he said of the bowling capabilities he might bring to a possible Test debut.

"You can bowl 10 overs in a one-dayer, but in red-ball games you might be coming on to bowl some donkey overs before the ball starts reversing, or whatever it is.

"So you have to define that role and figure out in that situation how you’re going to take a wicket.

"I definitely think red-ball cricket is a little bit more tactical for an allrounder as a bowler, whereas white ball they (batters) are going to come at you and you try to contain their scoring, and (bowlers) try and make them take a risk."

Stoinis is yet to play a match in Australia colours on home soil, and despite having performed in the Indian Premier League for Kings XI Punjab last year, his only experience comparable to Test cricket on the subcontinent was a recent Australia A tour here for both red- and white-ball matches.

And where the former West Australian turned Victorian found his bowling was quite well suited to pitches that more traditionally favour spinners, due to the variable bounce and the prospect of his off-cutters occasionally "grabbing" the abrasive wicket surface.

What he hasn’t experienced is the focus and ferocity of a Test match battle, though the innings he played at Auckland’s often intimidating home of rugby should hold him in reasonable stead should his name be added to Australia’s Test team sheet for Thursday.

"That was pretty hostile," Stoinis said of his player-of-the-match effort at Eden Park.

"And the crowd was into me early, but they came around.

"I’ve heard the Test matches here have been amazing, and the boys said the energy here has been unbelievable.

"So if nothing else you can draw on the energy, and that can revitalise you a bit and you can use that to your advantage."

Test Squads

India (for third and fourth Tests): Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandaran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund.

Australia: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O'Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade

Australia's schedule in India

Feb 23-27, First Test, Pune - Australia won by 333 runs.

Mar 4-8, Second Test, Bengaluru - India won by 75 runs.

Mar 16-20, Third Test, Ranchi

Mar 25-29, Fourth Test, Dharamsala