By David Green
Whilst it is sad to see the axe fall on Phillip Hughes after all the hilarity he has provided over the last 12 months, its welcome to see the call-up of Ed Cowan to the Australian squad for the Boxing Day Test against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Cowan provides a much-needed cerebral dimension to an otherwise illiterate (sorry, is that too strong?) Australian XI.
As his book ‘In The Firing Line’ ably demonstrates, Cowan really thinks about his sport and his own game in equal measure. He is one of the few cricketers playing the game today whose thoughts on the game provide a revealing and vivid insight into what it is to play cricket at first-class level. His book puts all the endless and tiresome ghost-written autobiographies of current players to shame.
His selection is a victory for the underdog and comes at a time when he is in the form of his life: in his last six first-class innings he has scored 134*, 145, 10, 65, 145* and 109 in the first innings of the tour match against the Indians. That’s 608 runs at 152. Unlike the rest of the Australian top-order, Cowan is also competent against the moving ball – surely a pre-requisite for a Test match opener.
The chairman of the Australian selection committee – John Inverarity - shares Cowan’s cerebral nature and intellect. Perhaps this increased IQ and sensible selection policy could be dangerous. At this rate Australia might manage to make the back-to-back Ashes contests in 2013 a close fight.
(David Green is the brain behind the irreverent The Reverse Sweep blog and also writes for a number of cricket publications and sites such as World Cricket Watch. You can follow him on Twitter also@TheReverseSweep. David was a decent schoolboy and club cricketer (and scored his maiden 100 the same week that Sachin Tendulkar scored his first Test ton) but not good enough to fulfil his childhood dream of emulating Douglas Jardine by winning the Ashes in Australia and annoying the locals into the bargain. He now lives with his wife and two young children in the South of France and will one day write the definitive biography of Hedley Verity)
Whilst it is sad to see the axe fall on Phillip Hughes after all the hilarity he has provided over the last 12 months, its welcome to see the call-up of Ed Cowan to the Australian squad for the Boxing Day Test against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Cowan provides a much-needed cerebral dimension to an otherwise illiterate (sorry, is that too strong?) Australian XI.
As his book ‘In The Firing Line’ ably demonstrates, Cowan really thinks about his sport and his own game in equal measure. He is one of the few cricketers playing the game today whose thoughts on the game provide a revealing and vivid insight into what it is to play cricket at first-class level. His book puts all the endless and tiresome ghost-written autobiographies of current players to shame.
His selection is a victory for the underdog and comes at a time when he is in the form of his life: in his last six first-class innings he has scored 134*, 145, 10, 65, 145* and 109 in the first innings of the tour match against the Indians. That’s 608 runs at 152. Unlike the rest of the Australian top-order, Cowan is also competent against the moving ball – surely a pre-requisite for a Test match opener.
The chairman of the Australian selection committee – John Inverarity - shares Cowan’s cerebral nature and intellect. Perhaps this increased IQ and sensible selection policy could be dangerous. At this rate Australia might manage to make the back-to-back Ashes contests in 2013 a close fight.
(David Green is the brain behind the irreverent The Reverse Sweep blog and also writes for a number of cricket publications and sites such as World Cricket Watch. You can follow him on Twitter also@TheReverseSweep. David was a decent schoolboy and club cricketer (and scored his maiden 100 the same week that Sachin Tendulkar scored his first Test ton) but not good enough to fulfil his childhood dream of emulating Douglas Jardine by winning the Ashes in Australia and annoying the locals into the bargain. He now lives with his wife and two young children in the South of France and will one day write the definitive biography of Hedley Verity)
