Renshaw learns hard lesson
A SHATTERED Matt Renshaw believes he could have fired in the first Test against England as the fallen Queensland opener comes to terms with his Ashes axing.
Renshaw said he would cop his demotion on the chin, but had a genuine belief he would have handled an Ashes baptism at the Gabba starting Thursday.
Renshaw has had a wretched start to the summer, scoring 70 runs at 11.66 in three Sheffield Shield fixtures, but says he could have stepped up against England.
“Obviously I didn’t have the runs on the board but I’ve done well in the past for Australia,” said Renshaw, whose 10-Test career has yielded 623 runs at 36.65.
“It’s hard to answer whether I deserved to be picked. But if they picked me for the first Test, who knows, maybe I would have done the job. They didn’t pick me, so I have to accept that.
“I was pretty hopeful [of selection] but you can never take anything for granted.
“It’s a lesson — I need to score more runs next time. “I’m pretty disappointed to be honest. “The selectors called me. We had a chat. They said I simply didn’t score enough runs, which is fair enough.
“I’ve been feeling good but I just haven’t been getting runs on the board. When someone [Bancroft] scores 200, then they deserve to be in the side. There’s no hard feelings towards Cameron, I wish him all the best. With me not scoring enough runs the spot was going to come up.”