Ian Healy Urges Selector to Not Play Cameron Bancroft as a Wicket-Keeper in the Opening Ashes Test
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 03: Former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy looks on during an Australian nets session at The Gabba on November 3, 2015 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)

Former Australian wicket-keeper Ian Healy has urged the Australian selectors to not make a mistake of the past by giving the part-time wicket-keeper Cameron Bancroft the gloves for the opening Malegan Ashes Test scheduled to begin at the Gabba from 23rd November. The selectors met on Wednesday to pick the team, and without a doubt, Bancroft’s name will be discussed after an unbeaten 228 against South Australia this week. He has made a strong case for himself to get picked in the squad in recent times.

He is a premier opening batsman who has kept in his past two games for Western Australia, but Healy feels that a player who has kept in only 3 out of 66 first-class games doesn’t deserve to be Australia’s wicket-keeper. He insisted that Bancroft should instead play as a specialist batsman at No 6.

“I’d be very disappointed if Bancroft was the keeper,” Healy was quoted as saying by the Wide World of Sports. “I think he should be given the number six batting spot. Someone who’s kept in three games out of 66 first-class matches doesn’t deserve to be the Australian wicketkeeper.”

Healy mentioned the experiment which Australia tried in the mid-1980’s and gave that example as a warning that how a part-time wicket-keeper can have a disastrous effect on the whole team.

“(Making Phillips the keeper) wrecked the team in the 1980s,” Healy said. He also said that Philips was a reluctant keeper who played the role of a gloveman in 18 out of his 27 Tests.

“The bowlers weren’t getting the support from the keeper, they had no confidence that the keeper could do the job because Phillips had his hands full trying to do a job he wasn’t that familiar with. Please, let’s learn from the mistakes we made with Phillips and respect the wicketkeeping fraternity.”

The current Aussie fielding coach and a former Aussie wicket-keeper Brad Haddin said that Bancroft’s name could be there as a keeping option, but the Aussies should opt for the best-suited wicket-keeper for the Ashes.

“(Bancroft) has put his name up and got runs under pressure where he needed to,” Haddin told Melbourne’s SEN radio.

“I think his name could come up as maybe a No.6 batter and a keeper also. It will be interesting to see which way they go.

“I’m a traditionalist with this – I think first and foremost we should pick the best wicketkeeper and especially with the cartel of fast bowlers we’ve got at the moment and a world-class spinner in Nathan Lyon, we need the wicketkeeper to be taking all the chances,” Haddin further added.

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