The Ashes are here and Australia still haven’t found an opener. But mess isn’t all of selectors’ making
Maybe David Warner was right, and the Australian selectors really did have to put up with the mediocrity of his declining years because there was no-one better.
Equally, letting Warner go on and on when Australia could have been cultivating new top-order batsmen might have been the selectorial chicken that was always going to come home to roost in the 2025-26 Ashes.
The evidence, unfortunately for Australia, supports both arguments. Neither one matters now. The Ashes has arrived and the top-order will consist of a 38-year-old converted first-drop and … and who?
Before we look nervously forward, let’s look despairingly back.
In the 15 Test matches since Warner took his chosen bow, Usman Khawaja has changed partners like a square dancer: six swapsies. He took four turns around the floor with Steve Smith (average partnership 21.75), three with Nathan McSweeney (19.8), two with Sam Konstas (39.25), two with Travis Head (54, when Head was a horse for a Sri Lankan course), one with Marnus Labuschagne (20) and finally back with Konstas for another three (18.3). During that time, Australia has lost its first wicket, on average, with 26 runs on the board.
For what it’s worth, the average opening stand in Warner’s last 15 Test matches was 34.2. There were days when Australia being none for 100 at lunch on the first day of an Ashes series felt a bit boring. This summer, only optimists are forecasting one for 34 by drinks.
Credit: Simon Letch
The names of Khawaja’s dance partners, post-Warner, say as much as their figures. Smith, McSweeney, Head and Labuschagne were all playing out of position (as was Khawaja when he returned to the Test team four years ago). Only Konstas was an opener, though he did everything possible not to look like one. He was lumped with the unrealistic expectations of Australian magical thinking. If Bradman, Ponting, Walters and Steve Waugh were good enough for Test cricket when barely drinking age … yup.
Since they started watching the Sheffield Shield again around 2024, the selectors must have been wondering what kind of game this was and where all the openers had gone. They awarded Marcus Harris a central contract just before his batting position, and his stats, dropped down the Victorian order. Jake Weatherald has been consistent, but his career average is, like his age, in the 30s. At his big audition this week he made a third-ball duck and 12. The urgers keep saying Konstas is one innings away when he looks more like he’s three years away. Henry Hunt, Campbell Kellaway, McSweeney – one of them is looking great one week, out cheaply to a Jackson Bird or a Matthew Kelly the next.
