Andrew McDonald: I'm no Jacques Kallis
ANDREW McDonald has the chance to measure himself against South Africa's Jacques Kallis, the allrounder he most admires, when he makes his Test debut at the SCG today.
Kallis, 33, is the only player to have scored more than 9500 runs and taken 250 wickets in Test cricket.
But the Victorian yesterday refused to categorise himself in the Kallis mould.
"I don't think I'm like too many allrounders," McDonald said.
"I think every allrounder is different in his facets, depending on whether they're a batting allrounder or a bowling allrounder.
"But obviously the one to look up to is probably Jacques Kallis, he's got a fantastic record.
"He's had a fair time in the series so far. He's one of the key allrounders in world cricket, along with Andrew Flintoff when he's fully fit.
'But to compare allrounders with allrounders I think is pretty difficult."
However, like Kallis, the 194cm Victorian is a medium-fast right-hand bowler who can move the ball off the seam and is a quality batsman.
McDonald, 27, has made four half-centuries for Victoria and scored 324 runs at an average of 46.28 this summer.
He has also taken 15 Sheffield Shield wickets, at an average 23.93.
"I'm not going to put myself into any category. I'm not sure where I'm batting yet . . . hopefully maybe in the top six or seven.
"For Victoria I bat at five or six, so I'd like to say my batting holds myself in the team and my bowling is a bonus."
Proteas skipper Graeme Smith said he was surprised by McDonald's selection, as was the Victorian, who admitted he never expected to be called up for Test duty this summer.
"We've obviously watched a little bit of domestic cricket since we've been here and from that perspective I don't think any of us expected him to play," Smith said of McDonald.
"We didn't really know that he was in the reckoning, but he's here, he's an allrounder and he's going to be playing tomorrow.
"It will be interesting to see how it goes.
"But we've got a few interesting challenges ahead of us in this game, a few unknown factors going into the match.
"He's one of them, (Doug) Bollinger's the other, so we've got to make sure we really meet those challenges on the field in the next five days."
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