Chief Cricket Australia selector George Bailey has clapped back at Ed Cowan after the former Test opener branded the selection of Nathan McSweeney for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener a “guess”.

Bailey also admitted it must have felt “hollow” for genuine openers such as Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft and Sam Konstas to lose out to McSweeney, South Australia’s No.3, ahead of the Perth Test, beginning on November 22.

After an underwhelming four-way bat-off in the first of two Australia A matches, selectors bumped McSweeney from No.4 to the top of the order for the second game, in which he made scores of 14 from 30 balls and 25 from 69.

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Batting at No.4 in the first Australia A match, the 25-year-old had registered scores of 39 from 131 and 88 not out from 178, producing the hosts’ top two scores of the game.

Harris, a former Test opener, made 74 in Australia A’s first innings against India A at the MCG, but it wasn’t convincing enough for the selectors, who picked McSweeney to open with Usman Khawaja in the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy match.

Speaking on his ABC Grandstand Cricket Podcast with Corbin Middlemas, Cowan was critical of how McSweeney had performed in the Sheffield Shield when arriving in the middle inside the first 10 overs.

“He has two scores over 50 — 53 and 67 against NSW. Here are his other scores: 22, 32, 10, 0, 12, 48, 36, 15, 20, 25, 11, 0, 7 and 0,” Cowan said on the podcast.

“I feel slight vindication in many respects suggesting that he’s not an opening batter and the Australian selectors were looking for a data point this week.

“We said if he’s going to open for Australia he needs to open this week [for Australia A against India A at the MCG]. They were begging for a data point.

“You know what they got? They got an open blade. Because that was money for jam [McSweeney’s dismissals opening the batting for Australia A] behind the wickets in both innings. Forty-five degree bat, caught at second slip [in the first innings], caught behind [in the second innings]. The data would suggest at the moment in his career, he doesn’t have the technique nor the temperament to do it.

“And do you know what a selection, when the data doesn’t support your point of view, is?

“It’s a guess. It’s a guess.”

Cowan then noted that “guesses sometimes pay off”, but followed up by saying “that’s called luck”.

“And if they don’t [pay off], they actually dilute the players’ confidence, as in the whole playing group in first-class cricket right through, as to the confidence as to what it takes and what they need to do to get selected,” Cowan said.

Bailey was prompted for a reply by Gerard Whateley on SEN radio on Wednesday.

“I’d like to think it’s a little more than a guess, Gerard. I guess we could all run our fingers down the list of leading run-scorers or leading wicket-takers and just work our way through the top, but that’s not necessarily how cricket teams work,” Bailey said.

“We like his [McSweeney’s] technique, temperament, we think he’s got the game to succeed at Test level.

“Conscious that it’s unlikely that that will be linear here. I don’t think there’s many people that go through their Test career where that is.

“But we think he can succeed, and I also think he complements the team and that’s an important factor, too; the balance of what you want your make-up of your XI to look like.”

After Whateley detailed McSweeney’s lean Sheffield Shield record from heading out to bat inside the first 10 overs, Bailey continued his defence.

“The point was that in our minds it won’t be a major adjustment for him [stepping up from No.3], and certainly talking to Nathan, the way he prepares to go and play for South Australia when he does bat at three, is that it’s a very similar mindset and a very similar way that he’ll approach it,” Bailey said.

“So we think he’s got the game that will succeed at Test level.”

Harris has chalked up first-class scores this summer of 143, 52, 26, 16, 17, 36, 74 and 0, while Bancroft, another discarded Test opener, has posted scores of 0, 0, 8, 2, 0, 16, 3 and 0.

Bancroft was the leading run-scorer of the 2022-23 Sheffield Shield season and the second-top run-scorer of the last Shield summer, but suffered a horrendous form slump when industrial-sized runs mattered most.

Konstas, the 19-year-old NSW prodigy, has strung together first-class scores this summer of 152, 105, 2, 43, 0, 16, 3 and 73 not out.

“I imagine when you do chat to them [the overlooked specialist openers] that initially it does feel hollow and that they would be disappointed,” Bailey said.

“But we do value Shield cricket.

“We’re always looking for how that top order works together.

“There’s been a couple of circumstances where we’ve looked for and utilised players who haven’t traditionally opened, but that’s not to say it’s a template for the future.”