JEEPERS KEEPERS! AUSTRALIA'S INDECISION IS AN AREA ENGLAND CAN EXPLOIT

Could this be the Achilles’ heel that the tourists have been looking for?

Australia’s indecision about their best wicketkeeper for this series could be an area England can exploit.

The hosts’ strength is their pace bowling, even without James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile, and while it is not their greatest batting line-up ever, Steve Smith and David Warner are wonderful players.

Behind the stumps the selectors cannot seem to decide between Tim Paine, Matthew Wade, Peter Nevill and Cameron Bancroft, however.

Could this be the Achilles’ heel that the tourists have been looking for?

Australia have had some wonderful, imposing stumpers over the years.

There was Bert Oldfield, the ex-New South Wales gloveman. What guts he had. He was buried for hours during the bombardment of Polygon Wood near Ypres at the end of World War One and was clinging to life when rescued. Fifteen years later his skull was fractured when he top-edged Harold Larwood in the Bodyline series in 1932/33.

Wally Grout’s footwork, "swoop" and aggression was noted by Sir Don Bradman. In a Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia at Brisbane in 1960 he took eight catches in an innings, setting a world record. Australia never lost a series in which he played.

^{Tim Paine is set to be named in the Australia squad, reports say}

Rod Marsh was fired in the kilns of the great Aussie hardmen. He started shakily, earning the nickname ‘Iron Gloves’, but he was quick on his feet and became one of the greats. His partnership with Dennis Lillee was deadly. I cannot even begin to imagine how imposing a presence he must have been behind the stumps, breathing down your neck (although he insists the legendary “your wife, my kids” sledge was apocryphal). He could bat too.

Then there was a bit of a hole, and it became an area that the all-conquering England teams of 1985 and 1986/87 exploited. Wayne Phillips and Tim Zoehrer were good batsmen, but the glovework did not stand out.

Australia soon fixed that. There was the brilliant Ian Healy, who kept so wonderfully to that famous leg-spinner. “Well bowled Shane!” was heard time and time again behind the stumps. He had a facetious sense of humour, once sledging Nasser Hussain about the size of his nose. His batting could turn matches. He averaged 27 over 119 Tests. He struck a century at Old Trafford in 1993, and his counter-attacking 134 saved Australia and stunned England at Brisbane in 1994/95.

Brad Haddin was not dissimilar to Healy, and he reserved his best performances for the English. Three of his Test centuries came against them, at Cardiff (2009), The Gabba (2010/11) and Adelaide (2013/14). In 2013 he set a new record for the most dismissals by a wicketkeeper in a Test series with 29 dismissals, all caught. Then 18 months later his total of 493 runs broke the record for most runs in a series by an Australian keeper.

But perhaps best of all was Adam Gilchrist. He was one of the greatest, attacking batsmen in Test history, and his keeping was fit for purpose. His 102 not out at Perth in 2006/07 must have left England feeling like they had been hit by a whirlwind. At least they should not have to contend with anything like that this time.

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