Ashton Turner selection: A move destined for failure
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After March 10, 2019, Ashton Turner’s life would never be the same again. Not only had he played one of the best ODI innings of the year - if not the decade - but in the process, dismantled a team, a bowling attack, that no batsman had dared taking on in the past.
Not just on a personal level, but, the impact of the Western Australian’s knock reflected on the entire team, a team that was longing for confidence. A team that had won just 3 of its previous 15 ODIs, would then go on to win 14 of its next 15, all thanks to the bravery, courage, self-belief and phlegmatism of one young man. Ashton Turner’s 84* at Mohali played a bigger role in Australia’s rejuvenation more than anyone would have ever imagined.Â
It was that very night where he transformed from a fringe player who was merely filling-in for Stoinis to the finisher, the saviour, the reincarnation of Michael Bevan that Aussie cricket so badly needed. There was even a newspaper which had his picture on the front page, with the headline reading: “TURNER OF FORTUNE.” Hell, he even landed himself a lucrative IPL contract after being snapped up by the Rajasthan Royals. And frankly, you could understand the hype. It was not just the freakish nature of the knock that blew the opponent away, but it was the attributes that were witnessed and the skill that was on display which set Turner apart.Â
On a good yet sticky wicket, he hit the spinners straight, targeted India’s weakest link, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and casually finessed Bumrah’s balls to the boundary with minimal risk. The same was, of course, witnessed in the BBL prior to the series, but that’s like comparing apples and oranges. It was a knock that gave hope, not just for the team in that match, but for an entire country for the future.Â
But that’s all there is to the story. 318 days have passed since that mad night in Mohali and yet, that remains Turner’ sole contribution to Australian cricket. In the aftermath of the shock and frenzy of Mohali 2019, you could have never seen it coming. The Turner we saw in Bengaluru on Sunday - having had to scrap for four runs, almost giving away the impression that he’d forgotten how to bat, before being put out of his misery by Navdeep Saini - was not the Turner we knew, nor was he the one we expected him to become. It was the innings of a man who had hit rock bottom in terms of confidence, had self-doubts and didn’t want to be there. Split your screen into two and play the Mohali and the Bengaluru knocks side by side, you’d know what I’m talking about; the sheer juxtaposition of the two would be mind-boggling.Â
The blame, though, does not fall on Turner. What unfolded in this series was not surprising. You could see his failure coming from a long distance, for it was as obvious as Kohli guiding India home in a decider of a series whilst chasing. It is what happens when you pick a player based on emotion and nostalgia, rather than merit, turning a blind eye to form and confidence.
Turner’s downfall, in a way, begun from the very next match post the Mohali ODI: For starters, he was left out of the team for the Pakistan ODIs and in the four innings that followed his Punjab blitzkrieg, he could only manage scores of 20, 0, 0, 0 and 3. And after being subsequently left out of the World Cup squad, the Western Australian decided to undergo a shoulder reconstruction injury to fix a long-standing problem that’d been stopping him from both bowling and throwing. Little did he know, however, that he would return as a shadow of himself post the surgery.Â
In four innings post his surgery, in the Sheffield Shield, the 26-year-old returned scores of 3, 1, 6 and 4. And whilst he started off the Marsh Cup relatively well, with a fine 52, his form took a deep plunge, there, too, scoring just 83 runs in the 4 innings that followed. To put things into perspective, when Australia announced their ODI squad to face India on December 17th, there were 28 other batsmen who’d scored more runs - and picked more wickets - than Turner; there was no reason for them to pick him and it wasn’t justified.Â
Truth be spoken, it was a move that was set up for failure. The only way it was ever going to work out was if Turner, somehow, magically, found form in the Big Bash League (which ironically kicked-off the day the squad was announced) but he failed there, too, accumulating 83 runs in 5 innings at an average under 16. That the selectors thought they could rely on and get away with having a player whose confidence and form was floating at the nethermost depth, against the best side in the world, could only mean two things: either they are ignorant, or just deluded.
Throwing a batsman down on confidence, let alone form, in the line of fire and expecting them to get the job done is as good as expecting your barber to give you a good cut without speaking a word; it will never work out. It was also the very same reason why a certain KL Rahul, back in the Australia tour, looked like a farmer who was asked to bat after being given a new pair of white clothes. By picking Turner for the India series, the selectors laid out a red carpet of shame for the youngster to walk on and be publicly abashed.
Memories are what makes the sport special, but at 26 years of age, Ashton Turner must be making - and not cherishing - them. His career, at this point in time, is threatening to become a mere memory, and it is the collective responsibility of both the player and the management to ensure that it does not. Ashton might have played a key role in turning the fortunes of his country around, but he, now, is in desperate need of doing the same for his career.Â
