{"id":157432,"date":"2021-11-08T20:35:38","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T21:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=157432"},"modified":"2021-11-09T03:05:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T03:05:55","slug":"little-known-opener-a-shock-pick-for-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=157432","title":{"rendered":"Little-known opener a shock pick for Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Test<\/a> bowler Kerry O'Keeffe said he'd opt for a shock selection alongside David Warner<\/a> for the Ashes<\/a>, naming South Australia's Jack Carder as the other opening batter for the Brisbane Test.<\/p>\n

The ongoing concussion issues surrounding Will Pucovski<\/a> mean that second opener spot is up in the air – O'Keeffe opting for 25-year-old Carder over the likes of Marcus Harris, who struggled in his most recent outing for Victoria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"If I was a selector and the first six in Brisbane, I'd go: David Warner, Jake Carder, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Cameron Green, Mitchell Marsh," O'Keeffe said on Fox Sports.<\/p>\n

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Carder would certainly be a left-field pick – although his form at Shield level has been decent. The 25-year-old made scores of 18, 37 and 68 batting at first drop for South Australia, and two innings of 1 and 79 after moving up to open the batting.<\/p>\n

"Jake Carder is an opener for Australia just waiting to be selected," O'Keeffe said.<\/p>\n

Further down the order, the former leg spinner opted for a repreive to Mitch Marsh rather than going with Travis Head.<\/p>\n

\"Taylor<\/p>\n

"I think there's more upside to Mitch Marsh, at 30, than there might be to Travis Head," he said.<\/p>\n

Marsh is lacking first class innings this season, but has impressed for Australia at the T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of candidates for the last couple of available spots in that top six. Warner, Smith, Labuschagne and Green seem nailed on selections, with Carder, Head, Marsh, Harris, and others including Usman Khawaja, vying for those last two spots (assuming Pucovski can't play).<\/p>\n

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Skipper Tim Paine provided little clarity on the situation last week, saying it was very much still up in the air<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"The pleasing thing in the last couple of Shield games or the start of the Shield season has been the guys that you would like, or that have been talked about to be in the frame for those opening spots or that number five\/six spot, have all been scoring runs and making George Bailey's job more difficult," Paine said on SEN Radio.<\/p>\n

The first Test begins at the Gabba on December 8.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Test bowler Kerry O'Keeffe said he'd opt for a shock selection alongside David Warner for the Ashes, naming South Australia's Jack Carder as the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157434,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157432\/revisions\/157434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}