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[Manormanic]

selling his Aussie kit for beer money?

[fros23]

After seeing the aussies dominate for pretty much my entire life I can't say I'm unhappy seeing them struggle now.  10 years ago most of this squad wouldn't be good enough for the Aussie A team let alone the test match squad.

The likes of Stuart Law, Martin Love and Brad Hodge must be wishing they were playing in this era as they would all be getting over 50 caps.

Mike Hussey had to score thousands and thousands of first class runs at a big average before he got a chance in the test side.  If the roles were reversed I can't see the likes of Cowan Maxwell and co being able to score like that.  I think it just shows how far the Aussies have fallen in the last 10 years.

[Manormanic]

At first I confess I took a malicious delight in Australian travails - it comes from seeing highlights of Gatting's series downunder as a wee nipper in 86/87 and then spending near on two decades watching our lads being treated like net bowler by sometimes smug, supercilious Aussies.

Now, it actually makes me sad.  Sure, its fun to rip into Nathan Lyon - but I suspect he'd be happy to accept the ribbing on grounds of getting a seemingly ongoing Test career that his talent in no way merits - and to josh with one or twoof the more vocal Aussie posters on here and a few mates in Sydney.  And its nice to look at the Ashes as a warm up for a three test classic in Bangladesh too (only kidding....)

But...like the great English side of the late 50s/60s and the even better West Indian side of the 70s/80s, you expect there to be a trough at some point, often a quite deep one - and you also want it to be relatively brief for the good fo the game as a whole; it was sad to watch the West Indies reduced to losing in New Zealand its becoming sad to watch the Australians blunder around like comedy characters behind incompetent selectors, especially when some good kids careers are going to be badly affectde as a result.

[Binsy]

For the sake of Test cricket, we need a strong Aussie side. Just like we need a strong Indian side and a resurgent West Indies,

[Number4]

Why is it though that selectors can't see what everyone is can?

[charlie15]

The word is O'Keefe has a line through his name, though, because he is a chirpy, confident lad not afraid to speak his mind. The suggestion is that kind of personality doesn't suit the team culture.
 If the underlined is true...then questions have to be asked about this new metrosexual environment thats being created in the test team. it was no secret that the majority of the late 90s early 00s test team hated each other - but they still managed winning streaks that will never be matched.

If the underlined is true Australian Cricket as we know it is well and truely dead!

[charlie15]

Tendulkar clearly wasn't happy about being dismissed by Lyon in the 80s! Lovely 6s he hit in the second innings

I wouldn't be happy being dismissed by Lyon and I'm poo!

[goodarmcindy]

If the underlined is true Australian Cricket as we know it is well and truely dead!

I can't see that. Mickey Arthur is the sort of coach who can handle 'big' personalities, though it might be more down to the team image that Michael Clarke is trying to establish, I suppose.

With a lot of the old guard gone, Clarke has been given licence to remould the team the way he wants it, which may possibly be without 'big' characters. Give it five years and I'm sure Ed Cowan will write a book ripping the lid of this era of Aus cricket, should make for good reading!

[mickyp]

I wouldn't write the Aussies off just yet, either in this series or the Ashes - remember that we bounced back after a pasting in the first test where we made the mistake of only playing one spinner. They've got the spine of a decent side, and India seem to be trying even harder than they did against England to make sure conditions aren't in their favour.

[alba caerulea]

The difference being that Australia don't have one good spinner let alone two very good ones

Clarke and Hussey have dragged them through many games in the last 12 months, the rest of the batting order has been suspect and/or inconsistent

If they win the series from here then hats off to them but I can't see how they will take 20 wickets in India

[Vic Nicholas]

At first I confess I took a malicious delight in Australian travails - it comes from seeing highlights of Gatting's series downunder as a wee nipper in 86/87 and then spending near on two decades watching our lads being treated like net bowler by sometimes smug, supercilious Aussies.

Now, it actually makes me sad.  Sure, its fun to rip into Nathan Lyon - but I suspect he'd be happy to accept the ribbing on grounds of getting a seemingly ongoing Test career that his talent in no way merits - and to josh with one or twoof the more vocal Aussie posters on here and a few mates in Sydney.  And its nice to look at the Ashes as a warm up for a three test classic in Bangladesh too (only kidding....)


But...like the great English side of the late 50s/60s and the even better West Indian side of the 70s/80s, you expect there to be a trough at some point, often a quite deep one - and you also want it to be relatively brief for the good fo the game as a whole; it was sad to watch the West Indies reduced to losing in New Zealand its becoming sad to watch the Australians blunder around like comedy characters behind incompetent selectors, especially when some good kids careers are going to be badly affectde as a result.

Melodramatic.

If we beat SA in the home summer (and we should have), we would now be sitting at #1 in the test rankings.

For all our "bumbling" incompetent players, we still haven't fallen as far as the Windies or England circa 1989-2003.

Yeah, this is a very ordinary Australian side, but with the calibre of young quicks coming through and some promising young batsmen (cf Burns, Maddinson, Patterson), we will be competitive at the least.

Only a decent spinner completely eludes us.

[Manormanic]

And you well know that if the current Australian side had reached #1 it would completely devalue the rankings - they are no better than fourth in the world at the moment, and that with a number of sides ina similar state of flux as old guards are replaced. 

[charlie15]

I wouldn't write the Aussies off just yet, either in this series or the Ashes - remember that we bounced back after a pasting in the first test where we made the mistake of only playing one spinner. They've got the spine of a decent side, and India seem to be trying even harder than they did against England to make sure conditions aren't in their favour.

The differnce is we could bring in Monty to supplement Swann, who have the Aussies got that can come even close to those two?

The Aussies will need to play to their strengths and bat first with the aim of scoring big, which will mean Warner, Cowan, Watson et al stepping up to the plate, and then rely on their quicks bowling out India cheaply and following on.  Can they do it...  I've learnt never to bet against Australia when the chips are down in sport, but this will be a huge ask.

[mickyp]

Agree that their spin cupboard is looking bare, which will seriously hamper them in this series, but that's not going to be as big a factor come the summer. Let's see how the rest of the series pans out, they might pick themselves up of the floor.

[Binsy]

Will be interesting to see the Aussie's team selection in the morning. Siddle was ineffective in the last but can bowl longer spells - will he make way for Doherty? While Henriques impressed with the bat, is he reliable / effective enough with the ball to balance the side out?