It's been the season of bolters and don't be surprised if it continues into the white-ball phase of the international summer. Mark down the name Billy Stanlake in your black book. Chances are you won't have heard much about the giant young quick from Queensland but you will in the years to come – or maybe even as early as this month's one-day series against Pakistan. The 22-year-old is impressing many in Australian cricket and stands to benefit from the raft of injuries that have hit the country's fast bowlers. James Pattinson, John Hastings, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Jason Behrendorff are all in the casualty ward, which leaves the cupboard bare especially if selectors give Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood a well-deserved break after playing all six Tests. Stanlake has only played two first-class matches and four domestic one-dayers so a promotion into national colours would be a bolt from the blue. At a towering 204 centimetres, Stanlake has proven a handful for batsmen in the Big Bash League for the Adelaide Strikers with his steep bounce, and he's not short of pace either with an ability to push into the high 140km/h.
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Big bucks for Renshaw's lid
Matt Renshaw's helmet was left worse for wear after a Mohammad Amire bouncer roughed him up just before he reached his maiden Test hundred in Sydney. That hasn't made the lid any less valuable, though, it seems. Australian coach Darren Lehmann took the dented helmet along to the Jane McGrath Day high tea at the SCG on Thursday where it was auctioned for $4000.
Honours for skipper, rookie
He's only been in the Australian team for six weeks or so but Peter Handscomb's deeds against South Africa and Pakistan have been enough to see him named the emerging player of the year award by the Australian Cricket Media Association at a dinner at the SCG. Past winners include David Warner (2012), Steve Smith (2013), Josh Hazlewood (2014) and despite being in his mid-30s, Adam Voges (2015). Smith has won no shortage of gongs since and picked up yet another on Thursday when announced as the McGilvray medallist – the ABC cricketer of the year – for the third year in a row. "It's been a difficult year I think for this team. We haven't the results we would have liked earlier in the year but I must say I am proud of the way the boys have been able to turn it around in the last couple of weeks," Smith said. "We have played some good cricket and got the results we are after, so it's been pleasing to have contributed to some of those wins as well."
Four-test spectacle in SA
They have a habit of contesting absorbing series over there so it makes sense that Australia's tour to South Africa early next year will include four Tests, as was announced on Thursday. It will be the first time in nearly 50 years that the two nations will square off in a four-Test series. They played three against each other here this summer, but given Australia's recovery in Adelaide and their performances, it would have been interesting to see how they would have fared over four. The Tests in 2018 will be played in Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Johannesburg in March and April.
