“We measure in terms of percentage of runs [of the team’s total] and their impact in games,” McDonald told Cricinfo during Australia’s training camp in Brisbane last week.

“We’ve been challenged by the conditions that we play in, and that’s no excuse. The players always want to perform at a higher level. Yeah, they want to average 50 if that’s the benchmark. But I think in recent times, people have seen some of the conditions that we’ve played in, and you’ve even seen greats of the game decline in terms of their averages.

“The great Indian players have been challenged in the conditions they’re playing, so the averages have come down. But the percentage of runs [individuals score] have somewhat maintained.”

McDonald and his coaching staff, with the help of team data analyst Tom Body, have done a deep dive into some alternate metrics to try and assess batting contributions.

The database runs deeper into individual series and matches and includes opposition players. McDonald acknowledged it isn’t perfect and is predicated on his team winning. All the metrics become irrelevant if Australia are not winning games. But he hoped it highlights how different the conditions are and how differently the Tests are being played given bowlers are dominating the era.

“Some of our players that aren’t averaging what the outside think they should, if you get some context in that, they’re still contributing to the team in a way that we’re winning games of cricket, and this team’s been able to win a lot of games at cricket across the journey,” McDonald said.

“Albeit they haven’t made the contributions that even the players themselves would say that they wanted, it’s still functioning at a decent level. And there’s always going to be players under the pump externally. But I suppose we value different things internally, and the function of the team has been a pretty high performing team across the journey.

“Sometimes that gets lost in, I suppose, the critiquing of certain individuals, and it feels a little bit like there’s always one under the pump. And then if that person gets runs, then it shifts onto someone else. So it feels like that’s a narrative that’s thrown on the outside, as opposed to okay, well, how is our team performing against the opponent? What’s our win percentage? It stacks up pretty well historically, really.”

A similar lens is being applied to Sheffield Shield batting. Cricket Australia’s coaches met with state coaches in Brisbane in late July to discuss a multitude of topics with the quality of domestic batting talent and the challenge of Shield pitches being among them. McDonald thinks the quality beneath Australia’s Test squad is there despite the selectors backing the incumbents.

“I think they’re there, and I think sometimes not enough recognition is given to the quality of our Shield and domestic set-up,” McDonald said. “They’ve been challenged as well in terms of the scores and the average totals across the board, and it’s been well documented.

“Spin overs have dropped, and seam bowlers are averaging under 20, and batters are averaging mid-30s. And there’s some relativity to that, isn’t there? If you looked at, I’m just going to pluck a year, but let’s say it’s somewhere around 2005 or something like that, domestic batters might have been averaging 50, and bowlers are averaging 30. So there’s a 20-run difference in that. So I think they’ve been challenged.”

Again, the numbers stack up. From 2021 to 2026 no Shield player has averaged above 50 (with 500 runs minimum) and only 10 averaged above 40 including current Test squad members Green (who has the highest average at 48.63), Carey (47.37), Webster (46.41), Josh Inglis (42.45), Weatherald (40.32) and Labuschagne (40.13). Meanwhile the four leading seamers in the period averaged under 22 (with more than 100 wickets), with Scott Boland taking 132 wickets at 16.78.

From 2005-2010, the last time Australia transitioned from a generational Test team to a group of new faces, 10 Shield batters averaged over 50 (with 500 runs minimum), with all 10 playing Test cricket, including four over 63 which were Michael Clarke (103.16), Simon Katich (75.70), Darren Lehmann (64.48) and Phil Hughes (63.23). Two of Australia’s current domestic coaches in Victoria’s Chris Rogers and New South Wales’ Brad Haddin also averaged over 52 while McDonald averaged 46.31 for Victoria.

Meanwhile only six seamers took 100 wickets in the period with Doug Bollinger (24.65) the only one to average under 25. McDonald averaged 28.76 with the ball while South Australia’s current two-time Shield winning coach Ryan Harris took 80 wickets at 31.33 in the period before bagging 113 at 23.52 in 27 Test matches from 2010-15.

“[The current Shield batters] haven’t got the runs that potentially previous generations have, but put a bit of context around that,” McDonald said. “I think there’s a broader discussion going around the surfaces that we’re playing and the state of the game. That’s not for coaches to lean into. Our job is to solve the problems that present with the conditions that are there, the opponent that’s there.

“But I think the players are there. I’ve got confidence in that. There’s a list of good young batters there, and hopefully you’ll see some of those names, in particular we’ve got an Australia A tour to India, some of those names will come to light during that series, and we’ve had some really good performances in Australia A games.

“There’s been some heavy runs made in those, and maybe that’s just a reflection of the surfaces that they’re playing on there compared to their own states.

“I think the talent’s there. The domestic competition is strong, and most of the rest of the world acknowledges that our domestic system’s strong as well. Sometimes we don’t internally acknowledge that within Australia.”