Mark Taylor believes Ashton Agar’s tour of India has been so disastrous that he won’t get another run in the baggy green.
The 29-year-old’s Test career appears to be in tatters after he went from being Australia’s second-choice spinner to being fourth in the pecking order at best in just over a month.
Supposedly in preparation for the tour of India, Agar was selected alongside Nathan Lyon for the New Year’s Test against South Africa.
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But Todd Murphy joined Lyon in the Australian XI for the first Test of the Indian tour and, when Mitchell Swepson flew home after the series-opener to attend the birth of his child, Matthew Kuhnemann was rushed to the subcontinent.
Agar was then snubbed for the second Test as Australia opted for Lyon, Murphy and Kuhnemann.
The selectors’ shunning of Agar has left Taylor concerned.
“I don’t know what his future is as a Test player. They picked him for the Sydney Test, which I thought was a good selection because they were thinking about the series in India. But then they didn’t pick him in India. So I don’t see what sort of future he has left,” Taylor told Wide World of Sports.
“If they’re not picking him in India, I’m not sure how they can pick him again.
“It’s particularly worrying for Ashton Agar if he does harbour hopes of playing Test cricket again. If he was younger you’d say, ‘Well, he can come back from this’, but right now I’m struggling to see how he can put this behind him and play Test cricket again.
“He’s been around for a long time now … He’s not a spring chicken.
“I’ve got no doubt now that the selectors will be looking at the development of Matthew Kuhnemann as a left-arm spinner, so I don’t know where that leaves Agar.”
Agar has never been widely considered a brilliant spinner, rather a mercurial cricketer who’s handy with the ball, can hit quick low-order runs and is a magnificent fielder.
His greatest exploit as a Test cricketer remains the rapid-fire 98 he scored at No.11 on debut in England in 2013.
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He’s taken only nine wickets at 52 from nine Tests, and 157 scalps at 42.21 from 64 first-class games.
“The biggest problem for Ashton Agar is his red-ball record,” Taylor said.
“His first-class bowling average is 42, and your red-ball form over a period of years suggests the type of bowler you’ll be at Test level.
“If you’re 21 years old and averaging 42 it’s a lot different to being 29 years old like Agar and averaging 42.”
Taylor said it would have been smarter of the selectors to blood Kuhnemann in the Sydney Test, rather than recalling Agar but discarding him in India.
“That would have been a better punt to take,” Taylor said.
India will aim to take a 3-0 series lead in the third Test at Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore, beginning next Wednesday.
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