We compare George Bailey's first-class and one-day international batting records George Bailey in action for Tasmania last week. AUSTRALIA's selectors were faced with a hefty conundrum when weighing up the merits of picking George Bailey for the first Ashes Test. Namely, are they going to get red ball George Bailey or white ball George Bailey? Make no mistake - for the past few years, those two characters have been completely different beasts. One has been a struggler, a man battling for runs of any kind and looking grossly out of nick. The other has been a world-beater, leading from the front as a one-man wrecking ball against some of the best bowlers in the world. The selectors decided to take the plunge, revealing at the squad announcement in Brisbane on Tuesday that Bailey made the cut. A brief look at the stats shows just how much of a contrast there has been between Bailey's fortunes in one-day and Twenty20 cricket and his results in the first-class game. Former Test paceman Stuart Clark shares his thoughts on who will be named in Australia's Ashes squad on Tuesday. The 31-year-old averages a remarkable 54.96 in one-day internationals. To put that in context, of all the batsmen in the history of ODI cricket to have played at least 20 matches, Bailey has the second highest average (Netherlands batsman Ryan ten Doeschate is first). That puts Bailey ahead of the likes of Bevan, Dhoni, Amla, Hussey, Trott and Richards. The Tasmanian is coming off a record series in India in which he belted 478 runs in six matches at the ridiculous average of 95.60. Quite simply, he was unstoppable. But just a few months earlier and against bowlers of a lower pedigree, Bailey was very much a stoppable force. In 14 innings during last summer's Sheffield Shield competition, he could only manage 256 runs at a tail-ender's average of 18.28. Yes, the Hobart pitch was notoriously bowler-friendly but that didn't stop fellow Tasmanians Ricky Ponting and Alex Doolan from dominating the batting charts. Bailey then embarked on a stint in county cricket with Shane Warne's old club Hampshire, and only fared slightly better than he did in the Shield. 263 runs at an average of 37.57 can't be considered a failure, but are hardly the kind of numbers that bash down the Test selectors' door. The last time Bailey had a truly outstanding first-class season was back in 2011-2012, when he hit three hundreds for the Tigers on his way to an average of 55.69. That was the only summer in Bailey's decade-long career in which he averaged more than 45, apart from 2010 when he had an anomalous average of 130 after playing just two matches. These Jekyll & Hyde performances have led to the laid-back lad from Launceston becoming one of the more controversial figures in Australian cricket. After being widely ridiculed for being a 'nobody' who was picked in Australia's T20 and ODI squads due to his leadership abilities, Bailey is now earning praise from high quarters. "I think he's done enough now over a pretty long career in first-class cricket," former Australia captain Allan Border said. He's in form and I think he's matured as a player. He's ready for an elevation to Test ranks so he'd be my pick for the first Test match. Bailey's remarkable run of form even prompted the great Shane Warne to admit he was wrong, no mean feat by anyone's standards. "I put my hand up to say I was wrong about George Bailey," Warne said earlier this month. But some cricketing greats don't see, like changing their opinion of Bailey any time soon. Chief among those is former Australia captain Ian Chappell, who launched a stinging attack on Bailey's Test credentials in his column for News Corp Australia. "A selector has to look past the number of runs and see the batsmanship," Chappell wrote. Bailey, despite his mountain of runs in one day cricket, is a batsman who's restricted through the cover region, can be stifled by good spinners and is troubled by well-directed short-pitched bowling. Despite this, it appears Bailey has the inside running for the No.6 spot next week, with captain Michael Clarke - the man Bailey stood in for as skipper during the tour of India - praising the Tasmanian's abilities and saying he hoped the pair could bat alongside each other this summer. But perhaps the best summary of Bailey's Test credentials comes from the man himself. "I feel like, in terms of my game, I know it as well as I ever have," Bailey said.