James Hopes believes the current national wicketkeeping dilemma “stinks” of selectors waiting for Tim Paine and has nudged Queensland team-mate Chris Hartley into the spotlight.
Just two hours after Hartley was named Bulls captain in place of the injured Hopes, the former Australian one-day allrounder rated Hartley as the best pure gloveman in the country.
Hopes on Friday said the highly-reliable and consistent Hartley, 29, deserved to be in Test calculations with Brad Haddin and Matthew Wade for his `keeping skills alone.
“I’d be surprised if Harts’ name hasn’t been talked about for Test cricket because his credentials are too good not to.
“He’s constantly scoring runs in Shield cricket and he is in my opinion the best keeper.
“That might be a biased opinion but from what I see he is the guy that makes the least mistakes.”
Wade’s one-day selection ahead of out-of-form Test gloveman Haddin followed by his impressive 72 off 43 balls as an opener in Wednesday night’s Twenty20 success over India has the young Victorian poised for a Test debut.
While Hartley is a proven `keeper to the quicks and spinners, averages a creditable 31 with the bat in 71 first-class matches and has represented Australia A, he’s been overlooked in favour of more explosive batsmen like Haddin and Wade.
Hopes put that down to the modern-day “Adam Gilchrist-curse” of Australian teams wanting a swashbuckling `keeper who can hold his own spot as a batsman.
While the 33-year-old allrounder, who played 84 ODIs for Australia, still sees Haddin as the best “keeper-batsman”, he believes the national panel’s reluctance to drop him entirely suggests injured Tasmanian Paine remains their prime choice.
“It stinks of them waiting for Tim Paine at the moment,” Hopes said.
“Matthew Wade is making a compelling case with sheer weight of runs.
“Hadds has gone through a slump and he’s still around so are they waiting for Tim Paine to come back? That’s what I’m thinking.”
“I’ve been on a few tours with Painey, he’s a tempting prospect worth waiting for.
“But if (Wade) keeps making every post a winner well he’ll be a hard person to leave out of the team.”
Hopes’ lingering knee injury and the absence of new Australia one-day batsman Peter Forrest has thrust Hartley into the Queensland captaincy for the Bulls’ top-of-the-table Shield clash with Western Australia, starting on Monday at the Gabba.
A sixth outright victory for the season will all but assure the Bulls (30) hosting rights for next month’s Shield final as WA (20) loom as their main challenger.
Queensland: Chris Hartley (capt), Cameron Boyce, Ryan Broad, Joe Burns, Ben Cutting, Luke Feldman, Matthew Gale, Chris Lynn, Alister McDermott, Michael Neser, Nathan Reardon, Andrew Robinson, Wade Townsend (12th man to be named)
