A look back at some of the unluckiest players dropped from Australia’s Test team
With Jake Weatherald and Brendan Doggett basking in the glow of the news they would debut in the opening Ashes Test on Friday, the outcome was not as good for Beau Webster.
Webster was squeezed out of the side with Marnus Labuschagne returning to the line-up, finding himself in the unlucky position of being dropped despite not under-performing.
He’s not the first to be on the wrong end of the selection, and we’ve decided to look back at a handful who suffered a similar fate to the allrounder.
Beau Webster
Having not missed a Test since debuting in Sydney in January, the call to leave Webster out was far from straightforward for Australia.
“(It was) very tricky,” captain Steve Smith said on Thursday.
“He came into international cricket and lit it up immediately. It’s a really tough one on him.
“But I think Marnus, when he’s batting at his best at number three it makes us a very, very good cricket side.”
Webster’s seven Tests have seen him face some of toughest batting conditions all over the world, from England to Sri Lanka and the Caribbean.
He top-scored in the World Test Championship final with 72 out of Australia’s 212, was one of only three Aussies to pass 50 in Barbados and hit the winning runs with a clutch 39no in a tense chase on debut against India.
With a batting average of 34.63 and a bowling average of 23.25 to go with six wins and a loss at the top level, Webster had proved to be a valuable contributor to the Aussie side.
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Scott Boland
After his lights-out Ashes series debut, where he captured 19 wickets at 9.55, Boland found himself on the sidelines as Australia went to Sri Lanka and opted for two spinners on the turning tracks of Galle.
But when he returned to the XI the following summer for Tests against West Indies and South Africa, he had six matches to his name and 28 wickets at an average of 12.21.
Scott Boland Ranks his six wickets on debut
Instead of rounding out the summer with a berth in the Sydney Test, Boland was replaced by spinner Ashton Agar with the Aussies looking ahead to that year’s tour of India.
Since his debut, Boland has played 14 of a possible 41 matches.
Phil Jaques
NSW champion Jaques crashed over 16,000 runs in his first-class career but featured in only 11 Tests for Australia. After getting first crack as Matthew Hayden’s opening partner following Justin Langer’s retirement, he hit centuries in back-to-back matches against Sri Lanka early in the 2007-08 season.
On the tour to West Indies in the middle of 2008, Simon Katich opened with Jaques as Hayden missed with injury, and Jaques hit 108 in the second innings of the third and final Test in Barbados.
But that would be Jaques’ final innings in the Test arena. Hayden returned for the subsequent tour of India and Katich was preferred, ending Jaques career less than a year after those back-to-back tons.
From The Vault: Jaques’ maiden Test ton
Shaun Marsh
Marsh was dropped seven times across his Test career, but one occasion stands out above the rest.
Australia’s thrashing of West Indies in Hobart was set up by a massive partnership between Adam Voges (269no) and Marsh 182, with their 449-run stand ensuring the Aussies only had to bat once.
From the Vault: SOS goes big at Bellerive
Come the next Test in Melbourne though, Marsh’s name wasn’t on the team sheet.
Usman Khawaja was considered the side’s long-term No.3 and was returning from injury, which forced Marsh out of the XI.
In a consolation for Marsh, he would play another 21 Tests, including a starring role in Australia’s convincing 2017-18 Ashes series victory.
Brad Hodge
In his third Test, Hodge cracked an unbeaten double-century against South Africa at the WACA Ground.
After five Tests, he found himself out of the Australian side.
Hodge closed out the 2005-06 home summer with scores of 6 and 27no in Sydney and only two months later found himself dropped for the opening Test of the tour to South Africa.
Hodge salutes for his double-century in Perth in 2005 // Getty
Damien Martyn was brought back into the XI and by the time the Ashes rolled around the following summer, Michael Clarke was back in form and returned to the side as well.
Hodge would play another Test match two years later on a tour of the Caribbean, but he would finish his career with six caps and a batting average of 55.88.
Jason Gillespie
Gillespie only earned a shock recall to the Australian squad to tour Bangladesh in 2006 after Michael Kasprowicz and Shaun Tait picked up injuries in the preceding tour to South Africa.
The 30-year-old played both Tests, picking up eight wickets at an average of 11.25.
But the most impressive performance came with the bat as Gillespie peeling off 201no as nightwatchman in the second match in Chittagong.
By the time the next series rolled around, the home Ashes in 2006-07, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Stuart Clark were preferred and Gillespie’s time in the Baggy Green was done.
