‘Brilliant’ knock sheds new light on Renshaw’s baffling exile
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Matt Renshaw’s rollercoaster career at Test level has continued, but the question needs to be asked – why has it taken this long?
After debuting at just 20 years of age a decade ago, Renshaw felt like a long-term prospect at the top of the Australian batting order.
Australia’s Matt Renshaw celebrates his century on day two. AP Photo/Themba Hadebe
Renshaw scored a maiden Test century in early 2017 but by the end of that year, was replaced by Cameron Bancroft in the team.
His recall a few months later coincided with the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa, where he was parachuted back in to replace Bancroft.
They were hardly ideal circumstances and Renshaw was back out of the Aussie team again before hew knew it, leading to a four-year hiatus that briefly ended in 2023 when he was picked and dropped again during the tour of India.
It made for poetic scenes when Renshaw scored his second ton against the Proteas over the weekend, but under far different circumstances.
It was a fantastic moment for Renshaw, who admitted he didn’t know if the opportunity to raise his bat and helmet in the Test arena would come again.
When he was overlooked for Jake Weatherald – an older player with an almost identical first-class record – it felt like Renshaw’s ship had sailed.
Renshaw earned a reprieve when the Weatherald experiment failed, but at 30 years of age and with so much experience under his belt at first-class level, it’s a fair time to ask why Australian selectors didn’t persist with him when he first broke through.
If he received as many chances and the type of prolonged backing as maligned former opener Marcus Harris or even Marnus Labuschagne in recent times, would Renshaw have turned it around and found the type of form he showed in Durban?
We can’t jump in a time machine to find out, but the class and talent has always been there with Renshaw and it’s safe to assume he might have figured it out.
The plaudits for Renshaw have come thick and fast after his game-turning 190 in difficult circumstances against the Proteas in the series opener.
But the other burning question now centres around where Renshaw actually fits in the Aussie lineup moving forward and what the long-term plan is?
Nic Maddinson’s baffling selection as an opener, despite not playing first-class cricket for 18 months, didn’t pay off in the first innings against South Africa, but he trotted out and showed far more intent on Sunday night (AEDT) in the second dig and is expected to be given another chance in the second Test.
Cameron Green, who is out injured, is still to come back into the side, while there have been calls for Travis Head to shift back to the No.5 spot.
Travis Head. Getty Images
Beau Webster and Labuschagne are no guarantees of surviving past this tour, while the likes of Sam Konstas, Nathan McSweeney, Sam Harper, Josh Inglis and Jason Sangha remain in the mix for a Test batting spot over the next 12 months.
Mark Waugh believes there is no bad option when it comes to Renshaw’s position and he can easily fill anywhere from opener to the middle-order if required.
“Brilliant innings, by the way. Just a fantastic innings on a number of fronts,” Waugh said on Fox Cricket after Renshaw’s century.
“I think in the second Test, he’ll bat five. They’ll give Maddinson another Test, so that won’t change. Maddinson will open in the second Test. No doubt about that.
“I think he [Renshaw] can equally bat well in both spots, to be honest. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer either, just quietly.”
Kerry O’Keeffe said the selectors will push forward with Maddinson for now, despite his poor first innings knock and criticism around the decision.
“It wasn’t a one-off thing with Maddinson. They’re going to persevere ... they think he can do a job from the top of the order,” he said.
Maddinson and Head will resume on day four against the Proteas, with the visitors holding a 139-run lead in the first Test.
