Custom Bats Cricket Forum
General Cricket => World Cricket => Australia => Topic started by: awp on January 06, 2014, 10:35:56 AM
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OK, so Aussies, lets also not kid ourself, a very significant reason for the wins was that 1 batsman contributed and stayed with Haddin in the first innings of each test. I still cant believe that the exact same damn thing happened 5 tests in a row, its quite ridiculous really.
I am a fan and believer from the beginning in Warners batting (my 1 real talent is reading peoples ability strengths and weaknesses, made me a fortune.....) BUT there wasn't a lot of 1st innings runs in the 500 odd for the series. Watto.....1st innings? Captain? none were really big first innings men. frankly, I think first innings runs should be indexed when it comes to averages......anyway.
SA will NOT let us get to 350 from 5 for stuff all..........
time for some guys to step up in the first innings.......
Also, who at 6? I think Bailey is an outstanding young man....but ive never liked his batting. So.....#6? thoughts anyone?
I am completely biased in that I still believe S Marsh is the second best batsman in the country.....full stop. but how can he, or anyone else, get picked when the BBL3 is in full swing with no Sheffield shield fixtures prior to departure to SA?
should we take a punt? basically conduct rolling trials in the test arena?
do you know what - personally I'm leaning to batting marsh at 5 and smith at 6 IF marsh shows decent odi form.....he's still be better than bailey.....
OR
take a punt.........MAXWELL.......yes seriously. I think hes a freak with the ability to transcend short form cricket....
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Was wondering exactly the same with Bailey, probably the only aussie batsmen to not come out of this series with his place 100% nailed down
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Nick Maddinson looks a fine talent from limited watching of him could he be brought in.
youre dead right, he is, most certainly. As is Doolan.
I actually think that the 'bring in a 3 and move watto to 6' is the change the aussie selectors would make as opposed to a straight dump bailey and bring in a 6.
I guess it depends on who's around.
Ian Chappell is a pain.....a god awful pain....BUT....hes knows his stuff. re selection he did say aust picked the wrong team for the 5th test 'pick THE best team to win this match, with an eye to the next match/future.
there's no real power strikers (which I think is needed at 6) with test match techniques (apologies to Cameron white) but there is a few young guys who could bat 3, doolan, maddinison, s marsh..... I think only the latter could also bat 6
it will be interesting to see what happens. the SA tour will tell us whether we were good......or can be genuinely excellent.
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take a punt.........MAXWELL.......yes seriously. I think hes a freak with the ability to transcend short form cricket....
someone who refers to himself as the 'Big Show' should never be taken seriously within the Test arena, and I have it on good authority that he is a bell end
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If anyone comes in i think it would be Hughes had a strong domestic season
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someone who refers to himself as the 'Big Show' should never be taken seriously within the Test arena, and I have it on good authority that he is a bell end
hahaha bell end..........
you don't like 'the big show'? c'mon........stars have to have that cringe quality......its why I like KP!
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am pretty sure Maxwell doesn't like the "bigshow" tag. well that's what ponting said on bbl the other day.
he would add a spin option and is a great fielder.
with doolan combining for final test squad. does that mean marsh,Hughes and kawaja have blown it for good??
nick maddinson got done by tait in the bbl with short balls. he looked like he couldn't cope. what would he do with stern and morkel bowling short at him?
no calls for finch at 6?
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The XI that played in the Ashes will be on the plane to Sth Africa. I will be interested to see who else makes the touring party. I'd say no to Marsh, as talented as he is he's been poor in the Shield for a good 2 years. I know they selected Bailey off the back of ODI form but he hasn't been setting the world on fire in those formats either. If Shield form is anything to go by, Phil Hughes and Marcus North (was averaging over 90) have to be considered, but with Doolan making the squad for Sydney he looks to be to be the next specialist bat in line, even though he has averaged only 39 in the Shield this summer and a career FC average of around 37 aren't anywhere near the numbers of Hughes and North, but he's an attractive player, technically correct, and should do a solid job if picked.
If Bailey fails he won't see out the series and it's most likely career over. Doolan is a top-order player, so again you have an issue of where he bats. Do you put him at three and shift Watson to six? That could work, because even though Watto is a poor starter against spin, Tahir is pretty ordinary and shouldn't pose a serious threat, I dare say they will target him Swann-style and force Smith to bowl his pacemen more. Kallis also retiring robs him of that reliable 4th seam/stock bowler/partnership breaking option. Otherwise who else is there, if Doolan is the reserve bat, the only other option is to play Faulkner, with adds to the bowling depth but means you probably move Haddin up to six and Faulkner 7. That would be a bold move given Australia still has a suspect top six. If we are looking at a squad of 15, mine would be:
Clarke (c)
Warner
Rogers
Watson
Smith
Bailey
Haddin
Johnson
Harris
Siddle
Lyon
Doolan (seems groomed to be the next in line)
Pattinson (back from injury, not a bad reserve paceman)
Wade (Reserve WK. Heard whispers Nevill from NSW might be a smoky)
Faulkner (All-round option, especially if Watson breaks down)
PS: Finch? T20 God but can't buy a Shield run. He averaged 12 last year for Victoria!
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If anyone comes in i think it would be Hughes had a strong domestic season
extremely strong season.........batting at Adelaide
hes an incredible kid - gets dropped, works, improves, performs, gets picked........and round we go again..
there may be some justice in him playing in SA where he burst onto the scene and destroyed their attack.
Justin langer said at breaky a few months ago that hughes test record is miles better than his at the same age....
i
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Its a difficult balancing act for the Australian selectors I think - how much they pick their best available squad as of today to try and win the series, and how much they take into account the ageing profile of their team and look to manage the transition process better than, say, England have managed it recently.
For me, there is no doubt that they will retain ten of their test side in their squad - Bailey is the only one whose place is under serious threat (because whilst I note that Chris Rodgers tended to score heavily in the second dig but not int he first, he still scored heavily, which is something that Australia have struggled to do post Punter). That leaves, probably, six spaces in the touring party - two batsmen and two seamers plus a speculative pick.
Should Bailey survive? My call would be no - his first innings scores were 3,53,7,0,1 in the Ashes, which is probably enough evidence that he is just not quite good enough.
So two batsmen - I'd go for Maddinson (because Rodgers can't have that long left at the top of the order) and Marsh (who did well when he first came in to the side and could bat anywhere in the order). WHoever plays, I think Smith would be the best bet at six, possibly with Watson moving down to five.
As for the bowlers, Pattinson is more or less a certainty, with one of Bollinger and Coulter-Nile my guess, though on the South AFrican wickets you can bet they would love to have Bird available to them.
And the wild card? I wonder whether they might take a leg spinner of questionable nationality (no, not Adil Rashid...)
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Of course all of this presupposes that the rumours of HAddin's departure are untrue...
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You wait, Johnson will be dropped after the first test! Will go 1-200 and lose all form again. After all, his average is hugely inflated after taking 37 wickets against England in the Ashes! He's not a below 30's average bowler!
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I going to name a player I have never seen but used to be on lavers books
Is Chris Lynn anywhere close .
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I think this is a pretty good guess at what the squad will look like, taken from above - but I agree Hughes has been shoddily treated (although I remain pretty unimpressed with him technically)
Clarke (c)
Warner
Rogers
Watson
Smith
Bailey
Haddin
Johnson
Harris
Siddle
Lyon
Doolan (seems groomed to be the next in line)
Pattinson (back from injury, not a bad reserve paceman)
Wade (Reserve WK.)
Faulkner (All-round option, especially if Watson breaks down)
my challenge is that the starting line up have quite a few years on the clock - this has been mentioned by Vic on other threads - but are all of Rodgers, Harris, Watson, Clarke, Haddin and Johnson likely to make it to the 2015 ashes series?
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you're spot on.
its the best Australian team that can be put on the park. not necessarily a team being rebuilt.....everyones 30+ except smith
its a team for 2 years, not generational supremacy.......but i'll take it
please no wade.....he's in bairstows class as a gloveman, gime pain any day (so to speak)
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you're spot on.
its the best Australian team that can be put on the park. not necessarily a team being rebuilt.....everyones 30+ except smith
its a team for 2 years, not generational supremacy.......
Good to see that people are starting to calm down a bit after emotions (quite rightly) ran high in the aftermath of the cricket. Its a very good team that I think will do pretty well in SA, and for a few years yet. I hope Aus learn from England's mistakes however, and blood new players in time before something like Englands predicament occurs. I'm very much of the believe that cricket is stronger, the more competitive teams are, and needs strong Australian, Indian, South African, Pakistani team to improve viewing figures. The more decent teams the better, and if everyone learns from our monumental cluster f*ck that has been this tour, then jobs a good'un!
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you're spot on.
its the best Australian team that can be put on the park. not necessarily a team being rebuilt.....everyones 30+ except smith
its a team for 2 years, not generational supremacy.......but i'll take it
please no wade.....he's in bairstows class as a gloveman, gime pain any day (so to speak)
Paine has had precious little cricket the last few years, he's only just started to play a full season after a near career-ending finger injury, several operations before he got it right. I thought he played well the Tests he was in, but due to that injury he hasn't had a decent go at it since. Solid gloveman, not as dynamic with the bat as Wade, and we all know that pure glove work isn't enough these days. Chris Hartley of Queensland may be another, the Lehmann link with the Bulls could work in his favour.
Chris Lynn is a good prospect, a decent enough start to his FC career, averaging mid-40s, a really brutal striker of the ball and wouldn't be surprised if he got a look in the ODI side soon. Jordan Silk (Tas) has three first-class centuries in just 11 matches, technically correct right handed opener who can play long innings. Another name not many would've heard of is Cameron Bancroft of WA, only 21 but seen him bat a few times and is a neat player. For the 2015 Ashes it is highly likely there could be 4-5 changes from the Aussie XI for this series, so guys will be looked at, and hopefully some can stack up big numbers in the Shield and stake a claim.
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Good to see that people are starting to calm down a bit after emotions (quite rightly) ran high in the aftermath of the cricket. Its a very good team that I think will do pretty well in SA, and for a few years yet. I hope Aus learn from England's mistakes however, and blood new players in time before something like Englands predicament occurs. I'm very much of the believe that cricket is stronger, the more competitive teams are, and needs strong Australian, Indian, South African, Pakistani team to improve viewing figures. The more decent teams the better, and if everyone learns from our monumental cluster f*ck that has been this tour, then jobs a good'un!
I don't think anyone was getting carried away, I think the aussies on the site have made very realistic assessments.....but DID pretty PO'ed at some of the really dumb comments........
I don't think we need look further than our own backyard re bringing in transitional young players...... when the last group of champions called it a day after the '07 Ashes we were left with half a team.... it happens.....
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Paine has had precious little cricket the last few years, he's only just started to play a full season after a near career-ending finger injury, several operations before he got it right. I thought he played well the Tests he was in, but due to that injury he hasn't had a decent go at it since. Solid gloveman, not as dynamic with the bat as Wade, and we all know that pure glove work isn't enough these days. Chris Hartley of Queensland may be another, the Lehmann link with the Bulls could work in his favour.
Chris Lynn is a good prospect, a decent enough start to his FC career, averaging mid-40s, a really brutal striker of the ball and wouldn't be surprised if he got a look in the ODI side soon. Jordan Silk (Tas) has three first-class centuries in just 11 matches, technically correct right handed opener who can play long innings. Another name not many would've heard of is Cameron Bancroft of WA, only 21 but seen him bat a few times and is a neat player. For the 2015 Ashes it is highly likely there could be 4-5 changes from the Aussie XI for this series, so guys will be looked at, and hopefully some can stack up big numbers in the Shield and stake a claim.
When I was down under a few years back people told me Hartley was the best glove man in Australia but couldn't bat is that a fair assessment ??? My mates went as far to say he was world class I have never seen him.
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Paine has had precious little cricket the last few years, he's only just started to play a full season after a near career-ending finger injury, several operations before he got it right. I thought he played well the Tests he was in, but due to that injury he hasn't had a decent go at it since. Solid gloveman, not as dynamic with the bat as Wade, and we all know that pure glove work isn't enough these days. Chris Hartley of Queensland may be another, the Lehmann link with the Bulls could work in his favour.
Chris Lynn is a good prospect, a decent enough start to his FC career, averaging mid-40s, a really brutal striker of the ball and wouldn't be surprised if he got a look in the ODI side soon. Jordan Silk (Tas) has three first-class centuries in just 11 matches, technically correct right handed opener who can play long innings. Another name not many would've heard of is Cameron Bancroft of WA, only 21 but seen him bat a few times and is a neat player. For the 2015 Ashes it is highly likely there could be 4-5 changes from the Aussie XI for this series, so guys will be looked at, and hopefully some can stack up big numbers in the Shield and stake a claim.
yeah....paines broken digits just wouldn't heal would they, took forever. hes a guy that could legitimately open the batting in test matches, IMO anyway, he was that good. I haven't seen him bat recently but his keeping was always subime.
Hartley is very very good with the gloves.
we (over here in the west!) have got a few very very good kids that haven't had a game yet.........stay tuned
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Hoping there will be coverage of this on Sky Sports, sure to be a belting series and would love to watch it from a neutral perspective.
Don't rate Maxwell as a spinner either so couldn't see them picking him to fill that role, despite selecting him in India for it. Chuck the ball to Smith if needed an extra spin option.
Bring Doolan or Hhughes in at 3 or 6 and bat Watson at either 3 or 6
Isn't Nevill rated pretty highly with the gloves as well?
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Can I ask a question of our Aussie friends. What's happened to Ashton agar?
He had his test birth, not bad with bats but howling needed improvement(although I'd say much better than England's recent additions)
I then saw him opening for the scorchers with the bat in the t20 champions league.
He played 1 game for the scorchers before Xmas.(batted 6 and didn't bowl) and hasn't played since,
Is he injured? Or has he really gone off the boil?
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Bancroft wasn't he the captain of the Australia u19 side I remember him playing a bit on the style of Clarke ???
Sure it was him if it was he looked good with a massive lad
Opening the bowling Sindu!?? He looked good too
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its the best Australian team that can be put on the park. not necessarily a team being rebuilt.....everyones 30+ except smith
and the clubbie... :D
Anyway, lets not go back through that debate. The series with South Africa is a tough one for Australia; on paper, their bowling attacks are about the same strength now, in that the Yarpies big three pacemen are marginally better than the Australian ones, but they no longer have Kallis to perform the Watto role. The big difference is going to be that South Africa have Biff, Amla, De Villiers, Du Plessis et al to deal with the Aussie bowlers, whereas Australia's top order are still painfully fragile; that disconnect is something that Lehmann will need to address, whether by judicious changes or by confronting the YArpies head on and trying to crack their psyches.
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and the clubbie... :D
Anyway, lets not go back through that debate. The series with South Africa is a tough one for Australia; on paper, their bowling attacks are about the same strength now, in that the Yarpies big three pacemen are marginally better than the Australian ones, but they no longer have Kallis to perform the Watto role. The big difference is going to be that South Africa have Biff, Amla, De Villiers, Du Plessis et al to deal with the Aussie bowlers, whereas Australia's top order are still painfully fragile; that disconnect is something that Lehmann will need to address, whether by judicious changes or by confronting the YArpies head on and trying to crack their psyches.
agreed.. your last point is what aust have been ridiculously good at since sa readmittance......I dunno why, we just make em crack......
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agreed.. your last point is what aust have been ridiculously good at since sa readmittance......I dunno why, we just make em crack......
I think it is an issue with South African cricket as a whole, which even Biff's "forthright" leadership has not quite managed to fix, that they tend to choke up under pressure. For a long time Warne held them in thrall because three of their four man middle order might as well have been playing him with blindfolds on, but it has continued since, so the big challenge for them this time will be to get in the Yarpies face and put them under pressure/stress.
How successful this tactic will be I don't know - unlike ENgland, the Yarpies haven't played endless months of cricket to wear out bodies and only really have two guys at the tail end of careers. But its their biggest weapon.
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Im suprised Chris Lynn's name hasnt been mentioned yet, serious young talent with a lot of potential, higher than Doolan on Sheffield statistics also.
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Im suprised Chris Lynn's name hasnt been mentioned yet, serious young talent with a lot of potential, higher than Doolan on Sheffield statistics also.
Im a scorchers fan, so I still cant say his name out loud...... some ball striker isnt he!
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Im a scorchers fan, so I still cant say his name out loud...... some ball striker isnt he!
As a scorchers fan could you answer my question about agar?
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As a scorchers fan could you answer my question about agar?
Missed that one mate.....injured atm I think? Hasnt played the last couple bbl.
Pat Cummings played grade cricket last weekend and hopefully in the scorchers team vs hurricanes on 16th....
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Missed that one mate.....injured atm I think? Hasnt played the last couple bbl.
Pat Cummings played grade cricket last weekend and hopefully in the scorchers team vs hurricanes on 16th....
Cheers, I searched but found no answer, did wonder why he'd just vanished. Hopefully a few years of shield cricket, and I think he'll be a good edition to an aus side, make a strong batting line up.
Are any aussies worried about clarkes form? Was shown some statistics the other day, showing that since his century, he's actually scored less runs than cook! And we all know how much grief cooks getting for his form.
Has the stress of captaincy got to him?
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Agar played in the last Scorchers game that I watched, didn't bowl though
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Dependant on who replaces Kallis, McLaren or de Kock(as w/k)
Australia could have Watson as their thump card.
Steyn, Philander and Morkel are the best combo in world cricket. But without Kallis as the pressure release. There will be additional pressure on Robbie Peterson/JP Duminy to keep it tight.
Whilst I'd like McLaren to play, he's not favoured by many to get a second Test cap. de Kock is dynamic and the new golden boy of South African cricket.
As for Australia. I don't see why George Bailey should be axed. Yes he didn't get lots of runs, but will Doolan really be any better? Doubtful. His FC record is worst than Bailey's.
As for the extra players in the squad, assuming the same xi will play the first Test in SA.
I'd have:
James Pattinson, rapid and highly talented.
Phil Hughes, his FC record and record vs SA is excellent.
Marcus North, form player and scored a hundred on debut in SA.
Tim Paine/Peter Nevill both are better than Matthew Wade IMO.
James Faulkner, good all round cricketer.
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No problem with Clarke's form at all. Not a prolific series by his standards, but when the series was alive, he scored two centuries. He missed out in the "dead rubber" matches but so did Warner, but the damage already had been done.
I don't know enough about what's knocking around in first-class cricket in Sth Africa, but IMO the Proteas will be a weaker side without Kallis because of the dual role he played as a great batsman and handy seam option. Australia will try and exploit this by targeting the weak link of their attack, which will be the spinner, who Smith will try and get to bowl tight overs as a means of resting the quicks and rotating them at one end once the new ball wears off. If we can bully Peterson or Tahir, that will wreck their plans.
Our batting is far from perfect, and we will learn without doubt who is up to it and who isn't against real quality. The top three is crucial, they need to set solid platforms so that Clarke isn't continually at the crease at 2 for not many against a newish ball and Steyn/Morkel/Philander with their tails up. Our bowling has the ability to take 20 wickets, so when you have that, you are a chance against anyone. I see signs that we can expose Sth Africa. Alviro Pieresen is a solid player but nothing special, Amla hasn't been as prolific in recent times, no Kallis means Duminy or Du Plessis has to move to #4. De Villiers is their man. A player who can take a game away from you in a hurry, scores his runs quickly, in pressure situations, and a wonderful player of spin.
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To be a very strong team, consistently winning, any 3 of the top 6 must score heavily each innings.
Clarke did taper, winning hides sins of course. We need a lift from all the batsmen to seriously challenge SA.
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Bowling will be key I think for both sides big test for Australia top order I suspect there fragility might get exposed against stronger opposition this time. Australia bowling though is quality and I think with the Kallis loss and lack of genuine spinner it going to be a great and close series. Will Warner bully them has Smith got the ability will Tahir finally come to the fore will Johnson blow a weakened batting line up away can Rodgers keep going can Du Plessis bat at 4,Great series ahead and so many questions to be answered. I only know one thing it will be closer than the hades series.
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Bowling will be key I think for both sides big test for Australia top order I suspect there fragility might get exposed against stronger opposition this time. Australia bowling though is quality and I think with the Kallis loss and lack of genuine spinner it going to be a great and close series. Will Warner bully them has Smith got the ability will Tahir finally come to the fore will Johnson blow a weakened batting line up away can Rodgers keep going can Du Plessis bat at 4,Great series ahead and so many questions to be answered. I only know one thing it will be closer than the hades series.
Thats a perfect summary really.
Australia's success or otherwise may well rest with the top order, obviously theyre very aware of this, ill be fascinared to see how they go.
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Bancroft wasn't he the captain of the Australia u19 side I remember him playing a bit on the style of Clarke ???
Sure it was him if it was he looked good with a massive lad
Opening the bowling Sindu!?? He looked good too
You are thinking of Will Bosisto who averaged 273 in the u19 World Cup in 2012.
Also from that team Ashton Agar, Cam Bancroft and Travis Head all look likely to play test cricket at some point. Possibly Kurtis Patterson too.
That fast bowler you are talking about is Gurinder Sandhu who is playing FC cricket for NSW and looking promising.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/499660.html (http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/499660.html)
Patrick Cummins was also eligible to play for that team, but CA decided against using him.
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Sandhu is playing in the BBL as well
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This is in today's times newspaper..
Gideon Haigh
Published at 12:01AM, January 8 2014
How good a cricket team are Michael Clarke’s Australians? For the green and gold gathering at the Opera House yesterday, the answer was . . . well, absolutely ace. Those resisting the urge to get carried away have tended to more circumspect judgments, such as good enough, good but not great, good but yet to be tested.
One answer on which all can agree is: better than was thought six months back. But not perhaps utterly transformed. It seems long ago, but Australia played some excellent cricket last summer, and would have been still more formidable had they enjoyed the services of a fit Ryan Harris and Shane Watson.
In order to assess Australian success, then, you need to fathom the nature of their unsuccess — how and why they lost six consecutive Tests in India and England, five of them by colossal margins, from February to July.
The vague and self-serving explanations heard so far will solidify over time into the stuff of vague and self-serving autobiographies. Perhaps one day we’ll have a fuller picture; but perhaps we also won’t, because further and better particulars don’t really serve anyone’s interest.
Australia’s most obvious advance is in the fusion of Harris and Peter Siddle with the misunderestimated Mitchell Johnson and the misoverscrutinised Nathan Lyon.
Less obvious, perhaps, but little less fundamental has been the uniform excellence of Australia’s outcricket. How poorly English batsmen have rotated strike this summer, seldom truly challenging the ring with aggressive calling or daring an arm in the deep with an extra run. But that is partly a function of the Australians, notably David Warner, being nearly as intimidating in the field as with the ball.
In manpower terms, Australia’s balance is also improved. A year ago in Sydney, Australia fielded five batsmen, five bowlers and a batsman-keeper in Matthew Wade; this time round they had six batsmen, four bowlers and a keeper-batsman in Brad Haddin in the form of his life, with Watson and also Steve Smith available to bowl.
And if Watson still calls to mind Norman Mailer’s description of jungle rumbling George Foreman — “as slow as a man walking up a hill of pillows” — he has been highly economical, giving away just 2.55 runs an over. In Australia’s next destination, South Africa, where he took five for 17 in Cape Town in November 2011, he could be more useful still.
Amazing to say, even after ten consecutive Tests on both sides of the world, the Watson enigma persists, as lengthy and seemingly unresolvable as Lost.
Sage judges now hold that he would be better off supplanting George Bailey at No 6, handing on his No 3 spot to Alex Doolan.
This, however, may not be the time. Doolan has all the hallmarks of a fine player except perhaps the first-class record, which is no better or worse than his state captain Bailey’s: six hundreds and an average of 38 in 53 games, versus 14 hundreds and an average of 38 in 103 games. Doolan would also be being asked to start a top-order Test career against a razor-keen attack without a first-class innings in two months, with the possibility of some second XI cricket in the Futures League at the end of the month.
With an average of 26, Bailey has hardly made every post of his first series a winner. But his best innings in Adelaide was cut short by a fine catch on a day England otherwise dropped everything, and had a rough review not gone against him in Melbourne and had Clarke delayed his declaration until lunch on the fourth day in Perth he might now be being deemed a qualified success.
Critics and commentators will always wish for change — a cycle of new faces and climate of experimentation suit us. Decisions for selectors are less clear-cut, and must factor in time, place and chemistry.
Further argument for the status quo is also a matter of balance — the balance of personality. Duncan Fletcher once referred to a team’s “critical mass”, a sustainable ratio of “steady men” to “free spirits”: Fletcher put the ideal at eight-to-three, with a marked tailing off of results from six-to-five.
The exact arithmetic is less important than the sentiment, whose inference is that in changing a cricket team’s personnel you also tamper with its humours. An unconscious sense of this undergirded critique of the rotation policy, and Australia’s Ashes accomplishments have provided further evidence.
It has been success, of course, that has allowed Australia to play an unchanged XI this summer; but from what players were saying publicly before the fifth Test, an unchanged XI has contributed to success.
As a shrewd judge of the game summed it up for me in Perth, this side contains “a lot of sensible cricketers”. Bailey is one: to exclude him now, too, would also amount to writing off the investment of a whole series, which seems wasteful.
This debate invites another question: how reflective is the Australian cricket team of the overall strength of Australian cricket? A golden summer does not make a golden era: in Haddin, Harris and Chris Rogers especially, the team is continuing to draw on its inheritance.
Nor do there seem a host of players outside the XI clamouring for attention. James Pattinson and Jackson Bird have barely resumed cricket; Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins are still to do so.
How great it would be if right now there was a batsman ripping up records in the Sheffield Shield; instead they are busy stonking balls out of various Big Bash League parks. Slow bowling talent hardly abounds and the next best wicketkeeper is unclear. Cracks are being mortared, but remain some way from closed.
Looking around, of course, there is a lot of cracking going around. South Africa will represent a salutary challenge. But the standard of international cricket is at the moment far from healthy. How good a cricket team Clarke leads, then, might depend on whether the question is absolute or relative.
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Not fussed on Doolan at all. Hughes works hard, gets picked then gets dropped, scores runs back in shield then gets overlooked for someone averaging 38?! Bit stiff.
Like for like back up for Haddin is Hartley.
1. Rogers
2. Warner
3. Watson
4. Clarke
5. Smith
6. Hughes
7. Haddin
8. Johnson
9. Siddle
10. Harris
11. Lyon
12. Faulkner
13. S. Marsh
14. Hartley / Nevill
15. Pattinson
16. Starc (fit?)
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Rogers is playing really well but is getting on and when his form goes, he may struggle to retain his place. Add to that Warner's current struggle overseas, a replacement needs to be looked at integrating with the squad for the future. I don't know enough about the Aussie fringe players to be able to provide a named back up.
Would be hard to drop Bailey from the squad when he was part of the team that won 5-0.
Smith's technique is not the prettiest, but seems to work. As long as that continues, he should be fine.
Watson is always on the verge of being thrown out of the team by fans, yet seems to keep ticking over with runs and tight bowling.
Clarke seems to perform better when in strife or when others don't.
Haddin is also getting on, so they need to look at his successor closely and get integrated in the team.
Bowlers have shown the can bowl and stick to plans, As long as they stay fit.
Whatever happened to Hilfenhaus, he is still in top 20 in World or something?
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So Shaun marsh dropped out of the tour due to Injury.
Yet has appeared for the scorchers in the bbl final, looking as fit as a fiddle?
Is this controversial?
Did he fell he'd just be 12th man and is better elsewhere?
Or merely recovered quicker being in aus, and why not play if fit?
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Yeah, he looked perfectly fit to me running lots of 2s on a 'mild 30 degree day'...
Maybe he doesn't like carrying drinks?
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Seems Watto is out of the first test with a calf injury. Changes things for the Aussies, wonder who they will select as the replacement. If its like for like would be Henriques to fill the allrounder spot, but maybe they elect to go the extra batsman, be curious to see who they pick.
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Shaun Marsh flying out as a replacement.
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obviously a biblical healing has been performed on Marsh... considering two weeks ago he was too crocked to go to SA....
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I think marsh thought, "sod it, I ain't being drinks carrier, time to fain injury and finish the big bash"
Then has got lucky by Watsons injury after the final.
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I really enjoyed this article.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/a-straight-bat-cricket-blog/2013/oct/25/shaun-marsh-the-special-one (http://www.theguardian.com/sport/a-straight-bat-cricket-blog/2013/oct/25/shaun-marsh-the-special-one)
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So Shaun marsh dropped out of the tour due to Injury.
Yet has appeared for the scorchers in the bbl final, looking as fit as a fiddle?
Is this controversial?
Did he fell he'd just be 12th man and is better elsewhere?
Or merely recovered quicker being in aus, and why not play if fit?
Marshes calf has responded very quickly to treatment but they are hard to gauge in terms of recovery and it was a T20 not a test. Don't think we'll see him getting a late call up?
Wattos calf goes every 5 minutes! He's always available as long as he can open, bat 1st drop and not bowl.
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id heard marsh has been called up to replace watto in the squad for the 1st test
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Best re-tract that, looks like Marsh is heading to SA, I'd like to see him play.