Ryan Harris, a former South Australia coach and cricket player for Australia, expressed his displeasure with the way selectors treated Nathan McSweeney during the most recent home Test season. He feels the inexperienced batter was unjustly assessed after being thrown in the deep end against India’s elite attack.

On challenging Australian surfaces, the 25-year-old was given a surprise Test debut as a makeshift opener, pairing with Usman Khawaja to take on Jasprit Bumrah and India’s explosive pace attack. McSweeney, who usually bats third for South Australia, found it difficult to adjust to the new position and only managed 72 runs at an average of 14.40 in six innings before being benched for the Boxing Day Test in favor of Sam Konstas.

According to Harris, who has worked closely with McSweeney at the state level, the young hitter should have been given more time in the Test team since he was placed in an untenable situation.

Harris told SEN Sportsday, “There’s no doubt I just thought he was a bit harshly dealt with.” “He faced Bumrah, who is, in my opinion, the finest bowler in the world, at a really difficult point in the series. At the top, he had to confront it.

Although McSweeney had been overjoyed to make his Test debut, Harris said that the young batter was devastated by the suddenness of his dismissal. “To get the opportunity, he was absolutely delighted, but then on the other end of the scale in such a short time, he was absolutely shattered,” said Harris.

Nathan McSweeney was so depressed and disappointed, unlike anything I’ve ever seen in him. “I felt as though I was batting really well, he (Bumrah) was just too good for me,” he responded when you asked him how he was feeling.

Despite the setback, Harris urged McSweeney to concentrate on his strengths, especially his confidence in his own abilities despite his run-scoring struggles.

“The positive I took out of it, and I said to him straight away, was: ‘Well, there’s not many times when you get dropped and you actually feel like you’re batting well,’” recalled Harris.

Despite McSweeney’s dismissal in the middle of the series, Harris is still optimistic that the gifted right-hander will make a comeback to the Test team.

Even though he was broken, will he return? “He will, of course,” Harris said.

Although his participation in the Sri Lanka trip indicates that he is still in the selectors’ long-term plans, his immediate status with the Test team is still up in the air. Unless there is an unforeseen setback, McSweeney is unlikely to play in the second Test as Marnus Labuschagne is firmly established at No. 3.

“Seeing him on that Sri Lankan trip is fantastic. Unless anything occurs with Marnus, which I doubt will happen, I clearly don’t see him playing in that second Test,” Harris said.

Harris said that he was first annoyed that Konstas was chosen for the Boxing Day Test because he thought McSweeney ought to have had more time to adjust. He did concede, however, that the choices were correct in light of Konstas’ outstanding first performance.

“There was no doubt that there was probably a little bit of frustration that Konstas got picked in my mind right at that time (for Boxing Day), but what that kid showed and what he did on that stage was just phenomenal,” said Harris.