Fawad Ahmed

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Dan Cooper said:
While you were watching the highlight package, did you notice Ahmed's first wicket yesterday was WA opening batsman Marcus North. The same Marcus North who played about 20 Tests for Australia as a top order batsman and has made 34 first class hundreds.
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the same marcus north who got a howler lbw ?

he bowled well though, cleaned up the tail and middle order. he needs to rectify these shoddy starts, if he drops 5 long hops on his first 2 overs in a test match in brisbane, i doubt he would be able to handle the pressure of the big stage and get it all back together and finish strongly.

he could well be the imran tahir of australia if he keeps bowling those 4 balls
 
Parquet Court said:
the same marcus north who got a howler lbw ?

he bowled well though, cleaned up the tail and middle order. he needs to rectify these shoddy starts, if he drops 5 long hops on his first 2 overs in a test match in brisbane, i doubt he would be able to handle the pressure of the big stage and get it all back together and finish strongly.

he could well be the imran tahir of australia if he keeps bowling those 4 balls
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What the guy who took a five for and a three for in his most recent test and ODI?
 

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If the selectors are also worried about long hops and 4 balls all i can say is don't pick a leggie then.

Mortal leggies even decent test standard ones bowl some rubbish in basically every innings, ahmed is not going to come in and take 4 wickets a match at a sub 28 average while keeping things tight.

I personally would go with lyon, a 25 year old traditional offie with returns of 80+ test wickets@33 is doing well in my book but it's clear that clarke and boof just don't rate him

Just have to hope the expectations on ahmed are a little more realistic than they have been for lyon.
 
frankrizzo said:
If the selectors are also worried about long hops and 4 balls all i can say is don't pick a leggie then.

Mortal leggies even decent test standard ones bowl some rubbish in basically every innings, ahmed is not going to come in and take 4 wickets a match at a sub 28 average while keeping things tight.

I personally would go with lyon, a 25 year old traditional offie with returns of 80+ test wickets@33 is doing well in my book but it's clear that clarke and boof just don't rate him

Just have to hope the expectations on ahmed are a little more realistic than they have been for lyon.
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The problem with Lyon is that he seems to drop his head and bowl very defensively.
When he was selected it was because he was an aggressive spinner for Adelaide who wasn't afraid to attack.

Last summer against South Africa he dropped the ball- especially in Adelaide. We're hundreds of runs in front, South Africa weren't trying to win, Patto was injured and all Lyon tried to do was bowl his overs as quickly as possible and get Siddle bowling.
 
He has been dumped from the side twice since that match and come back solidly both times, he does have 20 wickets in his last 4 test matches and that is knowing full well that clarke and mickey and now boof think very little of him.
 
I do accept that lyon is unlikely to hold his spot this summer but i also feel that if he is dumped with those test figures then i do have to wonder what sort of figures ahmed will need to produce to satisfy people.

The expectations on all our spinners are still unrealistic, a hangover from having a never to be repeated freak in warne, bowling spin on our pitches is brutal work as the many highly credentialed foreign spinners who have flopped here would no doubt attest to.
 
Parquet Court said:
the same marcus north who got a howler lbw ?

he bowled well though, cleaned up the tail and middle order. he needs to rectify these shoddy starts, if he drops 5 long hops on his first 2 overs in a test match in brisbane, i doubt he would be able to handle the pressure of the big stage and get it all back together and finish strongly.

he could well be the imran tahir of australia if he keeps bowling those 4 balls
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Only the very best leggies don't bowl occasional long-hops, particularly early on before they find their length.

We have just been spoilt by having the greatest leg spinner of all-time Shane Warne do what most leggies could never do, by landing nearly ever single ball he bowled where it was intended.

Look back to leggies like Jim Higgs, who took many wickets for Australia but could be all over the shop early on.

Bowling accurate leggies is the hardest gig in cricket.
 
Dan Cooper said:
Only the very best leggies don't bowl occasional long-hops, particularly early on before they find their length.

We have just been spoilt by having the greatest leg spinner of all-time Shane Warne do what most leggies could never do, by landing nearly ever single ball he bowled where it was intended.

Look back to leggies like Jim Higgs, who took many wickets for Australia but could be all over the shop early on.

Bowling accurate leggies is the hardest gig in cricket.
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Agree, along with wicket keeping it is the hardest art form to master in cricket.

All I'm concerned about is that he will dish a lot of these early at the gabba and once you do that in a pressure cooker environment, its hard to get your confidence back.
 
If he's the real deal it will wash off him, leggies know they are going to bowl some filth and occasionally get destroyed it's just their lot in life if they are that rattled by a bad over or two i don't think they could survive test cricket.
 
Dan Cooper said:
Only the very best leggies don't bowl occasional long-hops, particularly early on before they find their length.
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As good as MacGill was even he was bad for that, usually bowled an ordinary to bad delivery every over or 2 which gave the batsman a look in to put away.
 

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Parquet Court said:
Agree, along with wicket keeping it is the hardest art form to master in cricket.

All I'm concerned about is that he will dish a lot of these early at the gabba and once you do that in a pressure cooker environment, its hard to get your confidence back.
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That reminds me of a story a South African told me about a young Saffer facing Australia on debut in a tight one-dayer (he doesn't remember who it was). The Aussie commentator wondered how he'd go in a pressure situation and the South African commentator said, 'Well, he's been shot ...'

Wouldn't worry too much about his mental toughness. Great to see him taking wickets. All you can ask at this stage is that we have players doing well in the Shield and putting pressure on - if he gets the gig good luck to him.
 
frankrizzo said:
If he's the real deal it will wash off him, leggies know they are going to bowl some filth and occasionally get destroyed it's just their lot in life if they are that rattled by a bad over or two i don't think they could survive test cricket.
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As a leggie myself I don't think you could even get to premier cricket level without having that self confidence to know that there will be bad days, and even on good days, things can go wrong.

I reckon at 31 he's got a good handle on his craft and is ready for test cricket IMO, having said that though, Lyon is clearly the man.

Bowling with lots of verve, getting a good amount of work on the ball, and bowling good attacking lines.

I'm very eager to see what he can do if given a good selection run
 
Gough said:
I like Ahmed and I like leggies. But in light of the Ponting/Clarke brouhaha, I wonder whether the selector's willingness to discard Lyon for the latest flavour of the month, may indicate that Lyon has chosen the wrong faction of the team to enjoy any sort of decent career with Clarke as captain?
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The first version of the Hussey boat story to circulate did have him and Watto backing Hussey over Clarke.
 
The Reaper said:
The first version of the Hussey boat story to circulate did have him and Watto backing Hussey over Clarke.
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Despite him still being fairly young, I think Lyon has a far more old school approach to the game, 85 wickets @ 33 is historically pretty good for an Aussie off spinner too. He deserves first crack against the Poms.
 
Gough said:
I like Ahmed and I like leggies. But in light of the Ponting/Clarke brouhaha, I wonder whether the selector's willingness to discard Lyon for the latest flavour of the month, may indicate that Lyon has chosen the wrong faction of the team to enjoy any sort of decent career with Clarke as captain?
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Clarke has already demonstrated his lack of faith in Lyon by not bowling him a couple of times in Tests when he appeared the logical choice - provided you had confidence in him of course.
 
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