Could Brendan Doggett have been used better by Australia?

Brendan Doggett’s state coach, Ryan Harris, has admitted that he would like to see the fast bowler have a change in the way that he is being used by Australia.

Having shown plenty of consistency in the Sheffield Shield which resulted in various call-ups to the national team, the Queenslander, who now represents South Australia domestically made his debut for the Test side in Perth, with Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood being ruled out with injury for the series so far.

Mitchell Starc has done most of the damage for Australia on the bowling front, Doggett has done well in his first two Tests with the right armer having taken seven wickets at an average of 30.

While his performances has been good so far, Harris, who played 27 Test matches for Australia himself, expressed the view that Doggett can bowl the short ball well but thinks that there should have been more variation in his bowling plan for the Perth Test.

“Pretty good, I guess I was a little bit disappointed with the tactics around bowling short all the time,” Harris explained on SEN Breakfast.

“He does that for us (South Australia) quite well, but not every time he bowls.

“And that’s just a team thing, and he’ll do whatever he has to for the team. He’ll do it very well because he is a great team man.

“But I guess it was a baptism of fire in terms of coming in and saying, ‘We want you to bowl short, you know, every spell he bowled’ and he did it okay, but he was a little expensive (in runs), but that’s what’s going to happen when you’re doing that."

But when he was able to do more than just bowl short balls as he did at the Gabba, Harris thought Doggett demonstrated his full skillset.

“In Brisbane, he was able to bowl a more traditional Brendan Doggett way…although his pace looked a bit down, I thought he bowled really well,” he continued.

“He was able to control the run rate and economy, and he did his job well. He’s a guy that has been working so hard in the background, a little bit older, but when the opportunity has come, he’s worked really hard for it.”

With Cummins having been selected into the 15-man squad for the third Test alongside the expectation that Nathan Lyon will be re-selected into the starting XI, it means only one of Scott Boland, Michael Neser, or Doggett will keep their spot in the team.

Australia will reveal its team for the Adelaide Test in the coming days.

That will take place at Adelaide Oval on December 17 with SEN’s LIVE coverage beginning from 9am AEDT on the SEN app and through its radio network.