Rotated bowlers not always keen to toe party line

Starc’s form may cause Pattinson to question his omission, writes Isabelle Westbury at Old Trafford

Squad rotation is an increasingly referenced phenomenon in modern sport. Cricket, with its many formats, lucrative domestic leagues and uniquely awkward toll on the bodies of its athletes, seems particularly suited to the need to strategically rest its players. We play for each other; all for one team and one team for all. It could almost be a line from The Communist Manifesto.

And, like Communism, it sounds utopian – in theory. As Mitchell Starc tore in during the first over of his second spell, already with 12 off the over, team unity can surely not have been further from his mind. Shane Warne offered a few cutting comments on commentary. The crowd burst into ironic cheers. This was not one for all, this was one for one.

This, in reality, is the reason Starc has only entered the Ashes series in the fourth Test. Leading World Cup wicket-taker he may be, but his recent red-ball returns did not merit his place in the side. Yet, despite the evidence to hand, the party line persists.

“It’s great to have a really strong mix of fast bowlers who can all play in different conditions. It’s actually a great thing for them, as well, because we can now prolong their careers for a few years. That’s the way we’ve sold it to them,” Tim Paine explained pre-series, on the intention to rest some of Australia’s more celebrated names.

Both Starc and Josh Hazlewood, omitted from the first Test, have outwardly been exemplary team figures, “copping it on the chin, running drinks and training their backsides off ”. Which is great – until the truth hidden by this thin veil seeps out, and team unity is, in fact, damaged far more.

Hazlewood revealed that he was so upset about missing the World Cup he could not watch his team-mates on television. James Pattinson, in public happy to play “even two” of these five Ashes Tests, is privately seething at his omission at Old Trafford.

“I can see it from both perspectives,” Glenn Mcgrath told The Daily Telegraph. “But none of it to me was about prolonging my career. In Test matches, I did not want to be rested or rotated. All I thought about was that game that I was in, doing everything possible to perform at my best. At the end of your career, you think if you’ve been rested out of 20 matches, that’s 20 more matches you could have played.”

So how long do Justin Langer and Paine persist with the line that everyone is happy with self-sacrifice in pursuit of the common cause? As Ben Stokes smoked it to all parts at Headingley, batting prowess was the main factor – but a failure by Australia’s bowlers to exploit the new ball contributed, too.

This was no doubt a factor in Starc’s return, but none of it was mentioned. Manchester offered a true pitch, we were told, which suits the tall bowler, needs a left-arm seamer to create foot-holes for Nathan Lyon. No words on form were spoken.

Pat Cummins has bowled consistently well. So on day two he bowled more overs than any other Australian seamer. He is also the only one to have played every Test. Difficult to imagine Hazlewood, either, with four of England’s top five wickets, being rotated any time soon.

It is not just Australia, either. England tiptoed around Chris Woakes’s omission. Even Moeen Ali was said to need a rest, suffering from World Cup fatigue. Every individual, of course, reacts in different ways to criticism. However, sometimes it might be worth hearing, out loud and public from the coach or captain, what they really think, not what a player wants them to think.