Bancroft must be living on the edge

SAM MORSHEAD: Friday marked another failure for the Australia opener. Stuart Broad’s 399th Test match victim, he was bowled playing down the wrong line for a duck on a more-than-decent batting surface.

^{Australia batsman Cameron Bancroft has been struggling for form}

Cameron Bancroft must be on borrowed time.

Friday marked another failure for the Australia opener. Stuart Broad’s 399th Test match victim, he was bowled playing down the wrong line for a duck on a more-than-decent batting surface at the SCG.

It continued the trend of an unconvincing first series in Baggy Green.

With the exception of the second innings in Brisbane, during which Bancroft made an unbeaten 82, the Western Australian’s best performance came during the post-match press conference at the Gabba as he chuckled his way through an explanation of Jonny Bairstow’s headbutt-that-never-was.

Since then, the laughter has become rather more awkward as the grim reality of life at elite level sunk in.

Bancroft averages less than 26 at the top of the order, passing 27 just once. He has four scores of 10 and below. His stats are worse than those of both Mark Stoneman and James Vince. Yet, in a winning side, his record has got away with relatively little scrutiny.

Prior to the start of the Ashes, a lot of emphasis was placed on Bancroft’s mental temperament at the crease and his stubbornness with bat in hand. He had enjoyed a phenomenal start to the Sheffield Shield season, including a pair of composed half-centuries against the Australian full-strength bowling attack of New South Wales.

^{Cameron Bancroft is bowled by Stuart Broad}

At times - that knock in Brisbane and the first session in Melbourne, for example - he has hung around long enough to give credence to the claim that he has the necessary grittiness.

But mindset only takes a batsman so far.

Bancroft’s issues have not come from wild shots in the manner, for instance, of England’s Vince, but he’s still been far too easy for the tourists to dislodge.

All bar one of his dismissals have come to deliveries of a good length and in a variety of ways - caught behind on the drive, trapped lbw on the crease and clean bowled. Too many snicks in his armour have been quickly turned into gaping holes.

On Friday, to a delivery that did a little but nothing dramatic, his front foot slipped onto its outstep as he tried to drive Broad down the ground.

In Melbourne, he completely lost his shape against the short ball.

Bancroft’s head might famously be the heaviest of any of his team-mates - both at state and Test level - but even that hasn’t been able to help him weigh anchor at the top of the order.

Much like Stoneman, the 25-year-old has got himself set on multiple occasions - 26 and 27 at Melbourne, 25 in Perth - but failed to make a sizeable impact.

Surely the selectors will return to Matt Renshaw, somewhat harshly dropped, for the South Africa series.