Matt Renshaw: Australia’s young opener has a penchant for anchoring innings
In the first Test against Pakistan, Matt Renshaw scored 71 — highest in his short career — but played a key role as he first built a 70-run opening stand with David Warner, and then a 76-run partnership with Steve Smith. His 184 in the third Test on Wednesday has more or less sealed his spot as Australia’s first-choice Test opener.
He’s British by birth, his family had relocated from New Zealand around 10 years back, and, at present, he’s in the Australian national cricket team.Ideally, there should be a mini Ashes and Tasmanian derby going all at once in the dressing room but such has been Matt Renshaw’s prolific career, that the selectors threw the hat on him to partner David Warner in the top of the order.
And Renshaw’s (184) on in third Test against Pakistan in Sydney on Wednesday, has vindicated the faith the Australian selectors have put on the batsman. (SCORECARD)
Matt Renshaw joined Queensland in the rookie list for the 2014-15 season and was impressive with the bat from the early days. In the era of power-hitting and T20 fanaticism, Renshaw’s game is more traditional in nature. He likes to play the anchoring role, letting others hit around the park.
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Playing for the national Under-19 team in the first one-dayer against England in 2015, Renshaw hit an unbeaten 69 as Australia U-19 beat England U-19 by eight wickets at Gosforth, Newcastle. Four months later, Renshaw became the youngest player to register a first-class century for Queensland, scoring 170 in 395 balls on a challenging pitch in Mackay.
The season turned out to be a breakthrough one for Renshaw who ended as the highest run-getter for Queensland — with 738 runs at an average of 43.41. He went on to score 94 against South Africa A, and had scores of 108 and 50 in the first Shield match of the 2016-17 season.
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It earned him a place in the squad for the third Test against South Africa where he had scores of 10 and 34* in the two innings as Australia won the game by seven wickets. It also ended Australia’s run of five consecutive Test losses, including a series whitewash against Sri Lanka.
In the first Test against Pakistan, Renshaw scored 71 — highest in his short career — but played a key role as he first built a 70-run opening stand with David Warner, and then a 76-run partnership with Smith.
Given he’s still into his early days of international cricket, Smith should be highly impressed with the maturity that Renshaw has displayed so far and given that this team is far from the invincible one of the early 2000s, the young left-hander has a huge opportunity to cement his position in the side.