Captain Cummins has his say on Bancroft’s Test hopes

by Admin
October 18, 2024

Australian captain Pat Cummins has confirmed West Aussie Cam Bancroft is firmly in the mix to open the batting in the Test team this summer.

And now it feels Bancroft is as close to a recall to the team as he has been in five years.

Cummins confirmed to The Sunday Times this week Bancroft, who has not played since 2019, is one of the players being seriously considered.

Smith Smith will slide back in the order and selection chair George Bailey has strongly suggested they are on the hunt for an opener to draft in.

The 31-year-old will open the batting in WA’s Sheffield Shield clash with Tasmania at the WACA Ground on Sunday in another crucial audition for a position in the side to take on India this summer.

Then the spotlight truly turns on the openers in a two-match Australia A series that will also feature Marcus Harris and teenage sensation Sam Konstas.

But Bancroft’s remarkable past two summers, where he has dominated the shield’s run-scoring charts, comes with the backdrop of his time at the centre of Australian cricket’s sandpaper scandal and his return to the top of his game.

He was praised as “resilient” by opening partner Sam Whiteman. The red-ball captain is the most vocal of a group of State teammates right behind Bancroft’s push to return.

Since the 2018 sandpaper storm, Bancroft has been dropped again, snubbed time after time and missed a shield final victory after a shock bike crash.

Now momentum is building around him opening the batting with Usman Khawaja in November’s The West Test.

“Cam has been awesome in any kind of cricket he’s played over the last couple of years,” he has scored loads of runs.

“He has obviously already had a taste of Test cricket, so he knows he can score runs at that top level.

“He is definitely one of those names who is pushing for that opening batting spot, which we have got to try and fill and we know his consistency and form over the last couple of years puts him right near the top of that pack.”

Bailey confirmed last week Smith, who asked to open the batting last summer, has asked not to this time around — and it is widely understood that call came before Green was injured.

That’s less than 12 months after Australian cricket’s top dogs were adamant this was not an experiment and was where Smith wanted to stay.

It all comes as part of an unusual dance that also includes Khawaja telling the world he wants Travis Head to open the batting with him.

Travis Head bats for South Australia. Credit: Mark Evans/Getty Images

Bancroft made a rare pair in the first domestic game of the summer, dismissed twice by fellow Test aspirant Michael Neser. Bailey confirmed he had reached out to Bancroft and said there was “no harm done” to his hopes.

“I spoke to Cam after that game and sort of jokingly said to him maybe he’s in such good nick he might have played and missed at those as well,” he said.

“No harm done, he has certainly got credits in the bank, his consistency over a number of years has been phenomenal, as has a number of those other players I have mentioned.”

“A one-off game like that wasn’t going to have any impact.”

Mitch Marsh kept his cards close to his chest when asked this week about the prospect of his long-time teammate playing Test cricket again, but other WA veterans, including Whiteman and Hilton Cartwright have not shied away from pushing his case.

WA’s cricket boss Kade Harvey told The Sunday Times this week he backed Bancroft to “make a good fist of it” if he was picked to play for Australia again.

“He has been working away at that for a fair while and the move of Steve Smith up the order, everyone probably thought there was an opportunity there and now it looks clear that there is another crack at it,” he said.

“Now he just needs to keep doing what he has been doing, which is piling on the runs for us and showing his capability of playing at the next level, which he has shown before.

Cameron Bancroft of Western Australia. Credit: Paul Kane/Getty Images

“It’s a good chance for him to get into those games and put his case forward, but he has presented that case pretty strongly for the past couple of years.

“Hopefully, he takes those opportunities, and if he gets given a crack back at Test level, then I’m sure he’ll make a good fist of it.”

Adam Voges has always stressed turning West Aussie cricketers into Australian players is at the top of his to-do list and Harvey agreed it was a focus of their program.

“We are really fortunate in our domestic program we have got multiple ways to judge success. Whether that’s Cam getting back in the Test team or Cooper (Connolly) making his debut in the UK for Australia in the white-ball formats, or for any of our players,” he said.

“We’re not just about winning games of cricket, we’re about helping our players get to the next level.

“We’ve had a steady stream of that over the last little bit, and we’d love to see a Josh Inglis or a Lance Morris make a Test debut; that would be big for us as well.”

Bancroft will play in two first-class matches for Australia A, against India A, from October 21 in McKay and then at the MCG.

He could then return to WA’s side for a shield game starting two days after the MCG match.