Why Australia will miss Chris Rogers

If you were a cricket-loving Australian kid in the late 1980s, chances are you wanted to bat like Dean Jones. What an entertainer. When he came in, you knew the boundaries would flow. You'd copy him in the backyard, the quick backlift, the fast footwork, the zinc cream on the bottom lip. When Dean Jones batted, cricket was exciting.

How many Australian children copy Chris Rogers in the backyard now? Probably none, since Rogers himself doesn't have kids. But here's something to consider: in Test cricket, Jones was the slower scorer of the two. He made his runs at a strike-rate of 48.88, compared to 50.79 for Rogers. Only 41% of Jones' Test runs came in boundaries; for Rogers it is 53%.

Of course it is not that simple. These days boundaries are shorter and bats are bigger. There are matters of style to consider as well, and Jones revolutionised one-day cricket. But it illustrates the change in perception: Jones was the swashbuckler while David Boon and Mark Taylor plodded at 40 runs per hundred balls; Rogers is the barnacle who clings on while David Warner races at 75.

And therein lies the problem Australian cricket now faces with the retirement of Rogers. Barnacles are not sexy. They are so unsexy that there is no place for them in the sexiest new format of the game, not even at domestic level. Early last year, Rogers spoke of losing his contract with the Sydney Thunder, who lost 19 consecutive BBL matches from 2011 to 2014.

"I got cut by the Thunder. If you get cut by the Thunder, you're probably struggling," Rogers said. "Twenty20 - I don't know how people do it, to be honest. I'm probably best watching it on TV."

That is fine for a 37-year-old. But are there any emerging Australian cricketers who do not covet a BBL contract and the potential IPL riches that lie beyond? Of course it is possible to succeed in all formats, as men like Warner and Steven Smith have shown. But others like Rogers and Michael Clarke have eschewed T20 (or it has eschewed them) and the Test team has been better for it.

There are young openers whose games are suited to the long form. In 2013, Jordan Silk showed outstanding patience to score four first-class hundreds for Tasmania. Then in January 2014, he played in his first BBL campaign. He has not made a first-class century since. Maybe teams worked him out, maybe it is coincidence. Or maybe new habits learnt have hindered his development.

Cameron Bancroft was the third leading Sheffield Shield run scorer last summer, with 896 runs at 47.15. Last month he made 150 in a first-class match for Australia A in Chennai. He seems a throwback to the days of Boon and Taylor, a young opener who bides his time and scores in first-class cricket at a strike-rate of 39. He has played only one T20 in his career.

Bancroft will likely be told he needs to score faster. That is the modern Australian way. The bowlers must be express. The scoring must be quick. Positivity is the catchcry of Australian cricket. That is, we're positive they'll get caught and Australian cricket will cry over a 60 all-out. Men like Bancroft and Silk must be encouraged to play their own way.

In Test cricket the ball does not need to be chased. Rogers plays late, waits for the ball to come to him, or to see it in his scoring areas. He has struck only one six in his Test career, a top-edged hook off Stuart Broad in Cardiff last month.

This Ashes series he has continued to show his value. He has scored at least a half-century in each of the first four Tests, and is Australia's leading run-scorer. Rogers knows how to play the moving ball. Just as importantly, he knows how to leave it. His skills were developed in Australia, then mastered in England. He has played more County Championship games than Sheffield Shield matches.

Australia's coaches and administrators want more of their young batsmen to hone their games in county cricket, to help them play the moving ball and prepare for future Ashes campaigns. But you can't just send them there. Counties have to want them, and that will only happen if consistent runs are scored in Australia first.

The departure of Rogers might end the era of Australian Test cricketers born in the 1970s (if Adam Voges is moved on after the Oval Test), but his style of play must not be allowed to disappear with the passage of time. If Australian cricket is about to enter a 1980s-style rebuild, they could use a batting throwback to replace him.

But cricket-loving kids now want to bat like anyone except the unsexy Rogers. And that is a shame, because Australian cricket could use a Jones right now, or a Taylor, or a Boon. And Rogers scored faster than all of them.