The two newest additions to Australia's Test squad for the winter tour of the West Indies and England, Adam Voges and Fawad Ahmed, demanded selection through the dominance of this summer's Sheffield Shield runs and wickets tallies, Rod Marsh says.
The chief selector also offered his personal backing to the notion that Steve Smith's assured performances at No.3 in the one-day team this summer should see him replace Shane Watson in that position in the Test team.
"Personally — if you're not asking me as chairman of selectors — I would say yes," Rod Marsh said on Tuesday. "If you ask me as chairman of selectors I'll give you the stock-standard answer: captain set the batting order."
Australia could field up to three debutants in the tour: Voges, Ahmed and 29-year-old NSW wicketkeeper Peter Nevill, who was chosen as Brad Haddin's understudy. The 16 players will depart in mid-May for the tour, with Ryan Harris to join the squad in England once his wife has given birth to their first child.
If 35-year-old Voges was chosen to play in any of the seven Tests — two in the West Indies, five in England — he would be Australia's second-oldest debutant batsman in Test history, ranking only behind South Australian Arthur Richardson who was 36 years and 148 days when he debuted in 1924.
Western Australia captain Voges this season plundered 1358 runs at an average of 104.46. Marsh said selectors were swayed not just by the number of runs he made — the right-hander's average was the highest of anyone to have played more than seven matches in the shield season — but the way he compiled them.
"He had a magnificent shield season, there's absolutely no doubt about that. I looked at him on about four or five occasions - maybe more - this year and I thought 'I don't know how anyone is going to get this bloke out' - he was that dominant," Marsh said on Tuesday. "It wasn't only the fact he made 1300-odd runs. It was the way he made them. It was as good Sheffield Shield batting as I've ever seen - and I've seen some good stuff."
Marsh said Voges was elevated at the expense of Joe Burns, who averaged 36.5 in his two Tests against India and ranked sixth for shield runs with 793 at 52.87, due to "pure weight of runs" and his manner of doing so.
"You could just see 'Test player' written all over him. Everyone [on the selection panel] was the same. Mark Waugh saw him bat, Trevor Hohns saw him bat, I saw him bat. All the state coaches, all the state talent managers. Everyone said the same thing. Surely we can't all be wrong."
Victorian leg-spinner Ahmed has been rewarded for snaring 48 wickets at an average of 24.79, the most by a spinner in a decade. This included a shield-final record 8-89, a haul achieved in front of Australian selector and former leg-spinner Hohns. Ahmed was particularly accurate this season, with his performances good enough for him to trump WA's Ashton Agar, who debuted in the 2013 Ashes series, and NSW's Stephen O'Keefe, who was Australia's No.2 spinner for the series late last year in the United Arab Emirates against Pakistan.
As for Ahmed, Marsh said the way the 33-year-old performed was not just defined by statistics.
"Him being a leg-spinner, a wrist-spinner as opposed to a finger-spinner, probably also gave him a slight advantage because, believe it or not, Australia is always looking for leg-spinners. We've had a proud history of leg-spinning in this country and we want that to continue," he said.
"He doesn't bowl too much rubbish, and he creates a lot of pressure. He's able to have men around the bat in most instances, and he keeps on asking the batsmen questions. That's what good spinners do.
"You need to be able to remain 'on' as a leg-spinner. It's all very well coming in and ripping the ball but if you're bowling two full tosses and two long hops it's very hard for the captain to keep you on, because you're going for that many runs. He maintains good economy and he asks many questions of both left- and right-handed batsmen, which is very important remembering that England may have about seven left-handers in their line-up."
Workhorse paceman Peter Siddle will return to the squad for the two tours after falling out of favour this summer but responding with a dominant shield season. Nevertheless, the fact he was also dropped from the national contract list for the first time in six years, added weight to the theory his best chance of selection will come in the expected difficult bowling conditions in the West Indies.
The player who has overtaken Siddle in the pace and contract pecking order, Josh Hazlewood was lauded by Marsh ahead of his first Ashes tour.
"Personally, I think he [Hazlewood] will be a terrific bowler in England. I really think he's one guy that I'm looking forward to seeing bowl in England. I think he could be very, very good – [Glenn] McGrath-like," he said.
Selectors overlooked two of the key players for Australia in their triumphant World Cup campaign, James Faulkner and Glenn Maxwell. Marsh offered consolation to both, explaining it had been difficult to fit more than two incumbent all-rounders — Shane Watson and Mitch Marsh — in the squad and acknowledging both had had their shield opportunities curtailed because of their importance to Australia for overlapping limited-overs series.
"James desperately needs some red-ball cricket. It's not his fault that he's not played any red-ball cricket really. Glenn Maxwell is another who hasn't played much red-ball cricket. We're giving Glenn some [for Australia A] but we've also got hopeful plans, which I can't reveal right now, for Jimmy Faulkner.
"He'll be right. He's a hell of a good cricketer and he's a hard man to keep down. We certainly haven't forgotten him, put it that way."
The chairman also said he would "love to have" Maxwell playing in all formats for Australia and, like for Faulkner, indicated selectors had plans for him to help him achieve that.
Wicketkeeper Nevill was chosen after a season in which he scored 764 runs at an average of 76.4, including 235 not out in February in Hobart, and was typically neat with his glovework. Marsh said he had been "bashing the door down".
AUSTRALIA TEST SQUAD FOR WEST INDIES AND ASHES: Michael Clarke (c), Steve Smith (vc), Fawad Ahmed, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris (Ashes only), Josh Hazlewood, Mitch Johnson, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Peter Nevill, Chris Rogers, Peter Siddle, Mitch Starc, Adam Voges, David Warner, Shane Watson.
