Test The Ashes First Test November 21-25 1300hrs @ Perth Stadium

[JackOutback]

Anyone having a go at Weatherald after one innings can get in the bin

Obviously never paid attention to Shield cricket in their lives

My instinct is Shield batter not up to international standard but you reward form and he deserves a crack. My gut feel is Renshaw the most likely to make but I’ve been wrong before (thought Smith was no chance of making it).

 

[Australian Randall]

This is the worst attack they are likely to face and england barely last 30 overs
Not good enough from both

Lyon is going to be an irrelevance here
our batting is piss poor

 

[greening22]

cooked

Must be another West Australian

Interestingly I heard part of a podcast with Michael Vaughan in relation to this 1st Test. OK. He made the point that the one batsman that England did not want to play against - and especially opening - in this match is Mitchell Marsh & especially in light of what he did against the English attack during the 2023 Ashes in the UK. I wonder if the Australian selectors could potentially be considering that approach going forward. Anyway goodnight & good luck.

 

[Lunchtime]

He looked horribly out of nick today. Even shots he got through the infield had barely any timing, usually when he hits them they stay hit.

It's tough though because he's the kind that can turn it round in an instant, and he's just about the only bloke in the country who can score quickly and freely against world class bowling. We basically need him to fight through this form trough.

Travis' problem is he wants to feel bat on ball too soon and too often - the need to score and score quickly. No need to do that and no need to have that mindset either. Learning to leave the ball and not having to play at every ball helps too

 

[Snarls Barkley]

When does Travis start coming under some pressure

When he hasn't been Australia's leading runscorer in two of the last three series

I'm not as phased with his recent T20I slump as you are

 

[Lunchtime]

Interestingly I heard part of a podcast with Michael Vaughan in relation to this 1st Test. OK. He made the point that the one batsman that England did not want to play against - and especially opening - in this match is Mitchell Marsh & especially in light of what he did against the English attack during the 2023 Ashes in the UK. I wonder if the Australian selectors could potentially be considering that approach going forward. Anyway goodnight & good luck.

Mitch Marsh should be no where near the Test team. He simply is not good enough consistently for Test cricket and he has had enough opportunities at Test cricket as well.

 

[Lunchtime]

Starc bowled a couple of good bowls but mainly it just left arm across the body.
He's not wasim akram

Exactly.

 

[Lunchtime]

sad Mitch Marsh didn't get a spot, but at least he can't be blamed for this debacle

A player who averages 28.53 with the bat and scores a 50+ score every 6.6 innings and averages 40.41 with the ball....not good enough for Test cricket and has had plenty of opportunities in Test cricket.

No thanks.

 

[big_e]

When does Travis start coming under some pressure

Love it when a cricket reporter's research consists of a glance at the player's Cricinfo profile...

 

[revo333]

My instinct is Shield batter not up to international standard but you reward form and he deserves a crack. My gut feel is Renshaw the most likely to make but I’ve been wrong before (thought Smith was no chance of making it).

I think if Renshaw was that good he would have certified himself in the team already.

 

[RookiePick]

I didn’t get to watch much of the Aussie innings after about the 8-10 over mark, I was driving. But listened to when they were 6-down and the overwhelming consensus from every ABC commentator, even Lehmann who is loathe to praise the Poms - even when their batting works he won’t give it a rap for example - was that it was just basically relentless and yeah they did actually draw a comparison to going back to probably Ambrose, Marshall, Patterson, Bishop or Walsh for the last time an Australian team had to deal with this on home shores for an extended period. It was disciplined and sustained.

They were good at keeping it where they wanted but the lines and lengths wouldn't have troubled batsmen who weren't glued to the crease. The number of times they hit our top order blokes was.somethimg else. Just no idea how to get out of the way of aggressive bowling it seems.

Next to nothing was threatening the stumps but we had to play at almost everything they sent down. Zero discipline from our bats and zero intent to force the English bowlers from their plans.

Well done England but it's fair to say our batting was also insipid.

 

[dumb]

Going off today and disrupting the top 6 was the final straw.

I don't care how bad your tummy ache is.

back in my day we played through it when we shit in our pants

 

[Lunchtime]

There is no much hardness on any of the comps that sit below international level anymore. What we would give for someone like Katich that you knew was going to dig in albeit even if it was ugly to bat some time. Those players don’t and won’t make it anymore because of the focus on “talent pathways”

Real quick bowling is the greatest examination of a batsman, technically, mentally and anatomically. Plenty failed today.

Focus on "Talent Pathways"???

Talent pathways have been around for years and years and years and years....its called Premier cricket in each state/territory, followed by the national underage championships, then 2nd XI state cricket followed by First-Class cricket.

The problem I think is T20 cricket. Play enough of it (T20) and it becomes muscle memory - see ball....hit ball. Lots of batters don't want to put a price on their wicket.

In terms of preperation: I remember in the golden era of Australian cricket (1990s/early to mid 2000s)....visiting teams to Australia would play a state team. It was a tour natch but still a First-Class match. It provided a few positives:

1. Visiting team played against a quality state team.

2. State team playing against an international team.

3. Good warm up for visiting team.....red ball cricket.

These types of games don't happen anymore and its a shame. A terrible shame. Same with Australia when playing overseas - they would play against a state/county team....a tour match (First-Class match), red ball cricket.

 

[Lunchtime]

Why were we incapable of hitting the boundary with so many shots today whereas the Poms shots were rocketing to and over the boundary with great regularity. Poor old Boland was brought back to earth today. That was a shocker.

No surprise about Boland....the carry on from the media and a lot of fans has been a bit over the top since his debut. Good bowler....yes...but he isn't anything really special. Just a line and length bowler and pretty predictable as well.

 

[Scotland]

A player who averages 28.53 with the bat and scores a 50+ score every 6.6 innings and averages 40.41 with the ball....not good enough for Test cricket and has had plenty of opportunities in Test cricket.

No thanks.

He can bowl and has made Ashes 100s.

Do I think he should be in the team? No, but he's in the conversation because the cupboard is bare.

We opened today with a debutant and a guy who wasn't guaranteed a spot a few weeks ago that was meant to be at first drop. Weatherald couldn't keep out a full one but either could Crawley and he's played 60 tests. Hopefully we can at least open with our openers next innings.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

He wasn't marnus was picked ahead of Webster

and webbie is having a poor season with the bat

Marcus doesnt bat 6 and bowl overs. Green was absolutely picked over Webster and its a bad call.

 

[Lunchtime]

He can bowl and has made Ashes 100s.

Do I think he should be in the team? No, but he's in the conversation because the cupboard is bare.

We opened today with a debutant and a guy who wasn't guaranteed a spot a few weeks ago that was meant to be at first drop. Weatherald couldn't keep out a full one but either could Crawley and he's played 60 tests. Hopefully we can at least open with our openers next innings.

The cupboard is bare because the depth is poor. Currently and past 10 to 15 years Sheffield Shield cricket hasn't been strong.

 

[Scotland]

No surprise about Boland....the carry on from the media and a lot of fans has been a bit over the top since his debut. Good bowler....yes...but he isn't anything really special. Just a line and length bowler and pretty predictable as well.

He's a Tim Kelly. For the early part of his career he was the back up to Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc. Now it's just Starc and a debutant so he has more responsibility. He might be up to it but he doesn't have 50-100 tests of experience behind him.

He's also the type of bowler Bazball targets. Even Hazelwood got carted by Stokes in England because he kept targeting the same line and length when Stokes had his eye in.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I'm already dreading the prospect of facing these guys under lights against the pink ball.

If they bat halfway decent in the pink ball test we are stuffed for that game.

 

[Westend]

Marcus doesnt bat 6 and bowl overs. Green was absolutely picked over Webster and its a bad call.

No its not webbie is in terrible form with the bat

 

[Topkent]

Since last summer we’ve basically turned Marsh into Green/Webster (an upgrade either way) and Cummins into Doggett (significant downgrade).

But at the same time the opposition no longer has Jasprit Bumrah.

So not sure how we’ve gone from a 3-1 win against India to “getting pumped” by England. Especially given India themselves just drew 2-2 against England with Bumrah injured for the first two tests.

You were saying?

Thought I replied but I'll still say what I thought cause Im looking right. Our batting is ****ing horrible, absolutely atrocious. Khawaja is gonna retire after this series. Lab sucks, Weatherald lol and Stokes is a much better test player than Green right now.

Facing a much much better bowling attack in Australian conditions. Poms will continue to roll through the worst batting line up we've had in decades.

 

[Scotland]

The cupboard is bare because the depth is poor. Currently and past 10 to 15 years Sheffield Shield cricket hasn't been strong.

And the selectors aren't consistent.

Konstas, McSweeney, Harris, Bancroft etc. have come and gone. With someone like Weatherald he's on a pair and you just don't know if the selectors will persist with him for 10 tests or he will be dropped next week.

We could pick Inglis as a batsman. He's done plenty in limited overs cricket and made 100 on debut as a fill in. But do they want a little nugget batsman who is going to attack? Or do they want another Khawaja who will see off the new ball?

Alex Carey averages about 40 at FC level with 9 100s outside tests. Which is fine for our #7 but other than Green who else in contention for a top 6 spot even averages 40? It's dire.

 

[Scotland]

The worst thing about the day's play is 3 batsmen and the keeper getting starts and not going on with it. We can't control what England do and if their batsmen want to hole out because they would rather score at a run a ball than win matches that's their prerogative, but when conditions are tough for batting and they have 3 genuine quicks steaming in you can't be grinding out 20, 30, 40 balls then giving away your wicket.

For the first time in a long time (ever?) they have the pace advantage. They score quickly, they bowl fast. The MO is pretty simple and effective. Our strategy has to be to grind their bowlers down. Bowling 40 overs in half a day then putting their feet up is so much easier for them than spending 3 sessions in the field while we nurdle our way to 250. The way the game was going we should have been starting day 2 at 4-6 down, not 9. Dumb cricket.

 

[Donnie Darko]

I guess the groundsmen just figured that a fast pitch would do the job for Australia. In the past tours the theory worked.
Englands selectors couldnt quite figure out that the bowlers who do well in England (like Broad and Jimmy) dont do much in Australia . But this time England has a bowling unit that can do well on these pitches.

If this match was the last tour , Australia would have piled up about 350 runs and won easily.
That isnt going to happen this time. On top of the fact that the AUS team is badly aged and reaching the end.

 

[squirtle004]

This match will be the huge reality check the selectors miss.