“Cricket means the world to me, and I’ve put my heart and soul into developing my game as an opening batter.” An earnest Cameron Bancroft had said this a few days ago, in the hope of getting his big shot at redemption in Test cricket.
With David Warner retiring, there had been huge calls from all corners that Cameron Bancroft should be the next in line to replace Warner as the Australian Test opener.
And why not? Bancroft has been the most prolific batsman, let alone opener, in Sheffield Shield in recent times.
Over the last two seasons, he has amassed 1457 runs at an average of 58, helping Western Australia win consecutive Shield titles in 2022 and 2023. The second-best opener in Sheffield Shield since 2021 is closer to the third-best opener than he is to Bancroft.
Highest Sheffield Shield batting average among openers since January 2021:
50.72 – Cameron Bancroft
38.70 – Matthew Renshaw
37.68 – Marcus Harris
Bancroft played the last of his 10 Test matches in the 2019 Ashes – when David Warner was persisted with while he was dropped despite both starting that series with low scores – and he averaged 26 in those games. That was five years ago, and, as he asserted in his remark ahead of the Australian squad announcement for the West Indies series, he has grown leaps and bounds from there, as indicated in his recent numbers.
Yet, the Australian selectors didn’t pick him in the squad and selected Marcus Harris as the spare batter. Even in case of an injury to the new opener Steve Smith or regular Usman Khawaja, it would be Harris who would get the position and not Bancroft, with Chief Selector George Bailey saying that he has selected the best 7 Test batters in the country.
Do the comments of Cameron Bancroft about Pat Cummins and bowlers have affected his selection?
While Bancroft’s role in the Sandpaper scandal in 2018 is long forgiven and forgotten – he was apparently coaxed by Warner to do what he did, and also served a 9-month ban – it seems that his comments from the 2021 interview about the Australian bowlers, including the now captain Pat Cummins, that they ‘must have known’ of his ball-tampering actions being done has caused a lot of stir.
That interview, and his comments, were such a bombshell, that the Aussie bowlers, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, issued a statement in response to Bancroft, asking to “end to the rumour-mongering and innuendo”.
Selection is never an easy task but the oversight of Cameron Bancroft is shocking.
His first class numbers are so compelling against his peers it feels there is another agenda which I hope was communicated to him honestly! #Bancroft— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket) January 9, 2024
Chief selector George Bailey has assuredly, and “Categorically”, denied that neither Cameron Bancroft’s involvement in the Sandpapergate scandal not his comments about the bowlers have influenced his non-selection.
Argumentatively, it is a safe call that the selectors have made about getting Steve Smith as an opener which then allowed Cameron Green – who is “too good to be on the bench” – to get in the starting XI. However, the selection of Marcus Harris in the squad over Cameron Bancroft seems unfair and too harsh on the right-hander.
The 31-year-old still has a significant amount of time to, at some point and when the opportunity presents, to have a Test career that was expected of him when he first burst onto the scene.
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