On early evidence, the introduction of Beau Webster to the Test team looks like the right move.

I’m not sure where the notion of his replacing Mitchell Marsh as being “difficult” comes from. It wasn’t quite the no-brainer of Sam Konstas’ selection, but it was straightforward. His catching, bowling and batting, especially, have been well up to the standard.

There was no luck behind Webster’s baggy green. He earned the all-rounder’s spot through consistent and exceptional performances in the Sheffield Shield. So good was his performance with bat and ball in the 2023-24 season that he bested the record of one of world cricket’s all-time great all-rounders, Sir Garfield Sobers: that of taking 30 wickets and 900 runs. In his last first-class match, in late November at the SCG, he played a significant role in Tasmania’s win, with 110 runs and five wickets plus a couple of catches in the slips.

His evolution as a top-class player has taken time – 93 first-class games for more than 5000 runs and 148 wickets since his debut in February 2014. He sent down off-breaks back then, but was canny enough to work out that Australian pitches have become well-watered lawns – his home patch at Bellerive the exemplar. Spinning pitches, including that at the SCG, are as rare as interest rate drops these days. Seam up was the way to go, and Beau went with the flow.

His batting average equals his bowling average – a rule of thumb that indicates a genuine all-rounder. Webster’s road to the baggy green has been the opposite to that of Konstas, and there are plenty of Websters growing in the Sheffield Shield despite widespread accusations of the competition’s mediocrity. As a state selector, I watch every ball of NSW games and as many in the other games as possible via the excellent Cricket Australia livestreaming........

© WA Today