Openers can only blame themselves for McSweeney’s selection: Tim Paine

When David Warner retired from international cricket, Australia fiddled with Steve Smith as the Test opener. However, following the failure of the move, they brought in South Australia’s Nathan McSweeney to open alongside Usman Khawaja for the first Test against India in Perth. It was a classic unconventional move, but the disastrous return by other opening candidates made it an easy decision for the Aussie selectors. 

As a matter of fact, McSweeney, who had never opened in first-class cricket before this month, primarily batting at No.3, No.4, and No.5 for South Australia and Queensland, has averaged 51.29 in first-class cricket this year, thus moving past other candidates like Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft, Matt Renshaw, and Sam Konstas. 

While Renshaw made his dissatisfaction clear following McSweeney’s selection, saying the decision selection has ‘hurt’ a lot of openers in the country, former Aussie skipper Tim Paine opined that openers around the country are to be blamed for it. As a matter of fact, Renshaw scored a Sheffield Shield century following a barren run in the first two games.

“He’s a lovely man, ‘Renners’, and it’s great to see him back in form, but the openers around the country can only blame themselves for Nathan McSweeney being given the opportunity,” Paine told SEN Tassie.

“Isn’t it a fascinating mental game though? As soon as that team is named, even in one game here, you have two openers come out smack huge hundreds.”

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