Time to right the wrongs of the past: Why Australia could hit the jackpot by giving Bancroft a chance?

Selecting Cameron Bancroft in the Australian Test squad for the upcoming series against India will not reopen old wounds but heal them.

The 31-year-old opening batsman is the player who has paid the highest price for the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town, even though he received the least punishment at the time.

His punishment for foolishly using sandpaper to rub the ball against South Africa was a nine-month ban, while Steve Smith and David Warner were suspended for a year.

Smith also lost the captaincy, but has received some occasional playing roles in recent years, while Warner was prevented from ever taking on a leadership role, even though he continued to speak out against it, the fact that he was never given one. There was no possibility of getting that honour. still.

Bancroft served his ban, being reinstated to the Test team relatively quickly for the 2019 Ashes tour and, like Warner, struggled to handle the swinging Dukes ball at the top of the order.

After scoring just 44 runs at an average of 11 in the two Test matches, he was selected as Australia’s second spin opener in the form of Marcus Harris and has not got a chance since.

Despite back-to-back Sheffield Shield seasons where he was not challenged as the best batsman in the wide brown land at first-class level, he still had to be cleared for the vacancy created in the team due to a stress fracture suffered by Cameron. There is no certainty. Green’s back.

He made an inauspicious start to his 2024-25 summer for WA when Queensland quick Michael Neser dismissed him without scoring first for a golden duck and then in a second dig, while Harris plundered a ton on the Junction Oval featherbed and the teenage prodigy Sam Konstas won. He became famous with a double century for NSW.

If form is indeed temporary and class permanent, then Bancroft should be recalled ahead of any suggestion of these two rivals, Queensland left-hander Matt Renshaw and another left-fielder plying his trade in the anonymity of the Shield ranks.

When Bancroft was repeatedly ignored by the selectors in recent summers there was speculation in Australian cricket circles that they did not want to escalate the situation by bringing him back into the dressing room.

Not because of their reckless actions on the field during a vicious series against the Proteas on that fateful day, where both sides engaged in ugly acts on and off the field.

But in an interview given in the 2021 off-season, he revealed that the knowledge of the sandpaper plan was more than just him and Warner as the main catalyst.

In response to a question about whether the bowlers knew, he responded with “It’s probably self-explanatory”, while also emphasizing that he takes full responsibility for his actions and that the responsibility rests with himself. .

Cameron Bancroft. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

Bowlers are extremely fastidious about the condition of the ball and it is hard to believe that they would not have been consulted before planning such a thing or would not have noticed a rougher surface than usual on one side of the ball . Due to this it was reverse swinging before the scheduled time.

And the four bowlers in the Australian attack that day will be none other than the record-breaking quartet that will sport the bright red Kookaburra that will be used at the Optus Stadium in Perth on November 22 – captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh… Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.

If Bancroft gets permission to open with Usman Khawaja, the sandpaper tape will be headline news for a day or two before everyone moves on to what’s really important – whether he can make the most of it Which will be his third and possibly final chance to establish that. Himself as a test opener.

In the best case scenario and Australia will have another 30-man master of their field who will provide credibility and runs against the new ball.

Before professionalism over the past three decades, Bancroft is at the age when many cricketers left the game because it was time to get a real job.

Since the 1990s, players such as Dean Jones, Darren Lehmann, Michael Bevan, Jamie Cox, Ed Cowan, Chris Rogers, Adam Voges and Khawaja have scored extensively in Shield cricket, showing that top-order batsmen have the upper hand in their careers. Best place for. They are often in their 30s, sometimes even later.

Usman Khawaja. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

This is the time when they know their limitations as deeply as their strengths so that they can avoid the difficulties of youth and impulse to score runs at a high rate.

Some people never make a comeback into the Test team while others get one last chance and usually perform well rather than poorly.

There are flaws in Bancroft’s game – his average of 26.23 in 10 Test matches is testament to this.

But in the five years since his last opportunity he has become a much more complete player.

The conservative nature of Australia’s selectors meant they missed the opportunity to give Bancroft or another young opener a chance to get into rhythm, while Warner played a long farewell tour despite poor form.

As exciting as it would be to see a player like Konstas rise rapidly to the top at the age of 19, throwing him against the lions of Jasprit Bumrah and co in an unofficial battle for global Test supremacy would also be a huge risk to his development. ,

His time will come sooner than most Test prospects, as Khawaja turns 38 in December and the team is in serious need of young players.

But when it comes to this Test series against a team that has beaten Australia on four consecutive occasions home and away, it is time for Australia to welcome Bancroft back.

He has already been punished more than enough for one indiscretion.