Australia’s top performers at the Gabba against Pakistan have changed, in varying degrees, from the players they had once been
Brydon Coverdale in Brisbane15-Dec-2016To evolve is a good thing. Had humans not evolved from apes, none of us would be here. There would have been no Leonardo da Vinci, no Shakespeare, no exploration of our galaxy beyond Earth. There would also have been no , but you can’t win them all. On the whole, survival of the fittest gets the job done.So it is in cricket too. From slow under-arm bowling in the 19th century to Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding in the 1970s, from timeless Tests through one-day internationals to Twenty20, the game has evolved, and survived. And 26,343 people watched it continue to evolve on Thursday, the first day and night of pink-ball Test cricket at the Gabba.Evolution was evident also in the players. Six years ago at the home of cricket, Steven Smith made his Test debut against this same opposition. Back then he played as a legspinner and batted at No.8. Only Azhar Ali and Mohammad Amir remain from the Pakistan XI that faced Smith in his first Test at Lord’s, and on the first day in Brisbane they saw him complete his 16th Test century.Smith is the No.1-ranked batsman in Test cricket, and now the owner of a Test hundred against every opposition except those that he hasn’t met – Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. He had some good fortune – dropped on 53, caught behind on 97, though Pakistan failed to appeal – but good fortune does not account for 4421 Test runs at an average of 58.94.When he started, Smith had more moving parts than a one-man band. He has tightened his technique considerably, and now relies as much on his brain as his eye. As a batsman he is a great success. As a captain, his evolution continues. His task is to lead Australia out of their recent dark age and into a renaissance.He must do so with a new-look team. Five changes in last month’s Adelaide Test represented an evolutionary jump, and Australia continued with that group in Brisbane – the first time in more than a year that they had used the same XI in consecutive Tests. Of the three Adelaide debutants, only Nic Maddinson is yet to prove himself at Test level. His chance will come on day two in Brisbane.Peter Handscomb impressed with a half-century in Adelaide and brought up another at the Gabba. Brad Haddin recently observed that while coaching Handscomb with Australia A this year, the batsman asked to be taken out of his comfort zone with difficult net drills. Handscomb actively seeks to evolve as a batsman, and in consequence is hard to fluster at the crease.By stumps, Handscomb was on 64 and had combined with Smith for a 137-run partnership. He had built significantly on the work done by fellow Adelaide debutant, Matt Renshaw, who scored 71 and was part of a 70-run opening stand with David Warner and then a 76-run third-wicket partnership with Smith.Matt Renshaw, who was born in 1996 and could not have known cricket before T20, does not have a Big Bash League deal•Associated PressRenshaw is what biologists call an atavism. In simple terms, an evolutionary throwback. He would recall little of life before Twenty20 – he was born in 1996 while T20 began in 2003 – yet idolises Alastair Cook and places on his wicket a price, almost as high as Bill Lawry did. He was at the inaugural T20 international in 2005 as a spectator, yet has never played elite T20 himself.Renshaw is remarkable for a 20-year-old in that he doesn’t have a Big Bash League deal and doesn’t care. Until he was called into Australia’s Test side, he expected December-January to be his golf season. Instead he ended up on the world stage proving his long-form credentials. In Adelaide, Renshaw scored slowly, but steered Australia to victory. Here, he showed he can change gears.Against the new ball, Renshaw was happy to leave anything outside off stump, and waited for his scoring opportunities to come when the bowlers went too straight: nearly two-thirds of his runs came through the leg side. And yet he was willing to use his feet and drive the spinners down the ground, in the air, reckoning it a safe scoring opportunity if executed well.His final tally was 71 from 125 balls, including nine boundaries. It was as if Renshaw had evolved in the fortnight between Adelaide and Brisbane. It should not be forgotten that this was just his 15th first-class match. He is still learning, but has an outstanding base from which to work. His development will be fascinating to watch.Given that Renshaw is a Queenslander, perhaps the most remarkable absentees from the 26,343-strong crowd were his parents. They had been at his debut in Adelaide, but on Thursday chose his sister’s graduation over his first Test appearance at home. Still, the crowd figure was a record day-one attendance for a non-Ashes Test at the Gabba.Among them, Garry Sobers and Alan Davidson watched Test cricket under lights with a pink ball. It looked different, but was fundamentally the same game they had played. Fifty-six years ago this week, they played in Test cricket’s first tied match at this very ground. Before that memorable series between Australia and West Indies, the health of Test cricket was waning. Sometimes, it needs rejuvenation. Or, like teams and individuals, a touch of evolution.
