Call or Fold… What to make of Pete’s rough hand?
Kenny Rogers forewarned gamblers from counting their money while sitting at the table, the same could be said about Test batsmen and their runs while still trying to forge a fledgling career.
12 months ago, Victorian captain Peter Handscomb made his Test debut through the turnstile of changes that occurred after “Humiliating Hobart” — Handscomb was one of five changes for that Test. Now he is the last of those five players left and seemingly under pressure to keep his spot in the Australian Test side for the upcoming Perth Test.
None of this will be new to Handscomb however, as he has openly known of an elite cricketer’s futility since his first innings as a rookie state player in 2011.
“Cricket is one of those games where it won’t take much to go the other way,” he said after a debut 71 against Queensland. “Hopefully I can keep it going as long as I can.”
Since then, Handscomb has been involved in three Sheffield Shield titles, including one as Man of the Match, and in those three successful campaigns he managed to amass a total of 1,841 runs at an average of 51.13 — more than anyone else in Australian domestic cricket.
Handscomb is no stranger to good luck and good timing either. His First Class high score of 215 came just days after the aforementioned Hobart Test and in front of Australian’s captain and second-in-charge, as well as a full contingent of Australian selectors.
He took his Test opportunity with both hands, and much like is crab-like batting form, was determined to never let go. After two 50s, two 100s and a furthermore three not out innings, Handscomb looked destined for greatness as (now ironically) praise came thick and fast for his unusual technique.
Australia’s ever-flattening pitches with their homogenised true bounce has produced a plethora of dominating batsmen. Those who load up their front foot and play with flare and abandon — David Warner is the poster boy of this brash and bullying style of batting. Handscomb is his antithesis.
Crab-like and diminutive at the crease, he almost hides in front of the stumps, like a homeless hermit crab desperately searching for shelter and security. When in form however, and once settled into his new ‘home’ at the crease, Handscomb can be almost impossible to remove.
To the ‘Ashes-Only’ casual observer, his current malaise could easily be explained by how far back in the crease he bats but surrendering deep in the crease is a tactic he developed with batting coach Greg Shipperd to help combat his tendency for being dismissed LBW and bowled. Ironically, the very mode of dismissal he has been trapped by two out of the three times he has batted this Ashes series.
The irony isn’t lost on Handscomb either: “I have batted deep in my crease for three years, I am not really that concerned. I batted deep last year and managed to hit balls on the stumps and made lots of runs,” Handscomb said after the Gabba Test. “Kyle Abbott was pretty good, Kagiso Rabada, good players, I am not concerned obviously I have got my plans, I just need to hit the ball, it’s as simple as that.”
“I knew way before [that England would attack his stumps], I know I get out LBW and bowled, that’s why I have tried to change a few things with my technique, that’s part of it, bat deep and all that to give myself more time, I knew the plans well before [Brisbane].”
And while during his second dig in Adelaide, Handscomb was at his ugliest — wandering all over the crease and still unable to make meaningful contact with the ball — batting ugly has been his moniker.
Criticisms of ‘unusual’ techniques are easy stories to write and quick sound bites to make, but dive a little deeper into Handscomb’s set up and his approach isn’t all that strange.
Early in his innings, he is a preferential back-foot player and scores heavily square of the wicket, as his deeper position gives him more time, allowing him to play the ball late. As he builds into his innings the bowlers usually chase him and meet him at his length. Which is ‘full’. Very full. Too full.
Once set, if bowlers attempt to hunt his stumps because of that perceived weakness, Handscomb is happy to load up the front foot and drive freely through covers or straight down the ground.
Furthermore to the spinners, the ‘crab’ becomes a scuttle-bug and will energetically dance down the pitch to deposit spinners over their heads or defend with purpose.
Handscomb with a Test average of 47.35, despite his recent run of outs, is far from a walking wicket but he is out of form.
But so is the rest of the Australian batting line up.
Australia’s dogged but desperate Tour of India saw the runs from the home “Summer of Cricket” dry up and instead the touring team adopted a ‘battle in the trenches’ mentality. In the four Test series only four centuries were made by Australian batsmen — Steve Smith accounted for three and late arrival, Glenn Maxwell, the other but that doesn’t mean Handscomb didn’t play a role.
His 72 runs from 200 balls in Ranchi, which was part of a 124 run partnership with Shaun Marsh saw: Australia past India’s mammoth first innings total of 603, the Test move safely into a draw and kept the series alive with a Test to play. It was ‘crabby’ counter-punching at its best.
It was a similar tale in Bangladesh. In the two Tests there were only two Australian centuries and both made by the same batsman, David Warner. Again however, Handscomb featured in a match saving innings — this time with David Warner.
Battling against the pitch, the heat, the humidity and (of course) the opposition, Handscomb crawled on his haunches to 82 from 185 deliveries and an adequate first innings lead after yet another Australia top order collapse on the sub-continent.
To simply run the ruler down the ledger of Handscomb’s last 15 innings and say, “he hasn’t made a century,” is to discount his temerity that prevented Australia’s mediocre overseas performances from being full-scale calamities of a similar nature to one in Hobart 2016 that brought about his inclusion into the Test side in the first place.
So how does Handscomb play this poorly dealt Ashes hand?
Despite my loud and constant distain for the Channel 9 commentary team, “Committee of Former Captains” regular Michael Clarke has probably offered the best advice.
“I think when someone bats differently and doesn’t perform you’re always going to go to technique… but I always thought as a player and now as a commentator, whatever you do to get yourself into the Australian Team, has worked to get you into that position,” Clarke said after Handscomb 1st innings dismissal in Adelaide
“That’s the way he’s played to get here. He’s scored Test match 100s, First Class double hundreds. I’d keep backing myself.”
As Shaun Marsh has proved this series, every batsmen is only one big knock away from solidifying their spot for the rest of this Ashes series, and while there is no significant difference between a match winning 82 and a match winning 102, the three digits undoubtedly look more impressive in the scorebook — and on the selector’s checklist.
There is no pertinent need for the selectors to make a rash change. Australia has won the opening Ashes Tests in convincing and commanding fashion, but ‘the beat’ needs to be written and as such the beat-up has commenced.
It started with Matt Renshaw’s omission from the initial Ashes squad, due to poor Shield form — a selection criteria never really enforced prior to this series for incumbent Test batsmen with healthy home form.
It progressed to Usman Khawaja — who’s ‘fatal weakness’ against off-spin was proven by the grand meta-analysis of one innings on an usually spin-biased Brisbane wicket — left the commanding ten-wicket win under “pressure” for his spot.
Now the cold front has moved to Handscomb and his ‘unusual’ technique. The introduction of Mitch Marsh to the Australian squad has excited the hype-beast that is 24-hour sports-news coverage, regardless of the fact that the current Australian XI that is more than capable of winning this Ashes series 5–0, weather permitting.
As Handscomb has always recognised throughout his cricket career however, nothing is guaranteed and he certainly won’t be counting his runs — as they’ll be time enough for counting when the batting’s done.
