Test The Ashes Second Test December 4-8 1430hrs @ The Gabba

[Bucking Beads]

‘Most’ being because India has a huge population that think Kohli is better with absolutely no legitimate reason for it.

Smith is 1 for me. That's clear. Root is 2 and Kohli is 3 although if we include other formats you could easily have Kohli at 1 given his ODI record. Purely test cricket my ratings stand. Kohli has the greatest peak of the 3.

 

[Sonny Hayes]

Smith is 1 for me. That's clear. Root is 2 and Kohli is 3 although if we include other formats you could easily have Kohli at 1 given his ODI record. Purely test cricket my ratings stand. Kohli has the greatest peak of the 3.

All forms it is unarguable that it is Kohli

Test it is unarguable it is smith and kohli is clearly behind both smith and root.

Test peak smith was also in my opinion the highest of any of them.

 

[Bucking Beads]

All forms it is unarguable that it is Kohli

Test it is unarguable it is smith and kohli is clearly behind both smith and root.

Test peak smith was also in my opinion the highest of any of them.

Chat GPT has put Williamson at 2 in the test rankings ahead of Root with Kohli at 4 . Love me some AI.

 

[Black Diamond]

Kuhnemann would have been good option on this pitch, and at a ground he has a bit of experience at. His flatter deliveries would stifle them.

Anyway, despite many stupid elements of today (pushing the field right back early, bowling junk to the 10th wicket), the game is balanced. England's score is good but not great or game winning by any measure.

Let's see how our batsmen go.

 

[MisterMarcus]

Imagine an English crowd showing the respect we showed Root last night if the shoe was on the other foot.

Eh, if it was someone they 'liked'/admired/respected and had no issues with, I think they'd be very generous.

If it was Carey or Smith I don't imagine it would be a warm welcome, but someone like Head or Green or Labs would get a decent response I think.

 

[Black Diamond]

Further on the spinner issue, we have basically left out our number one spinner in favour of our 4th, 5th and 6th best fast bowlers.

There is a reason those fast bowlers (including Boland who quite a few on this forum seem to think is equal to Hazlewood) are not selected other than for injury or rest.

 

[PhatBoy]

Smith is 1 for me. That's clear. Root is 2 and Kohli is 3 although if we include other formats you could easily have Kohli at 1 given his ODI record. Purely test cricket my ratings stand. Kohli has the greatest peak of the 3.

Smith has every right to be the top in test cricket, his record shows that.
I don’t think either before or after yesterday you could say the same about Kohli. His peak was amazing, absolutely and he played some classic innings here. But he made 3 centuries in 5 years and it killed him.

That he is still a force of nature in odi cricket is amazing and I doubt he will ever be surpassed in that format

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

In test cricket

Smith
Williamson
Root
Kohli

Williamson and Root are very close though

 

[Freezin]

Lyon's dummy spit to the media is pathetic.

Totally agree, he's a senior player, who should know, and act better. Yeah he is disappointed, and yeah it might be the wrong decision in hindsight ...but if Eng had been bowled out for 260, then no one would be talking about it......just came to bite, when Archer came in.....but seriously some of these professionals are pretty clueless at times.

 

[Bedi]

From November 2024

Joe Root 'a rung below' Smith and Kohli, says Darren Lehmann

England batter Joe Root needs to score a century in Australia to be considered an all-time great, says Darren Lehmann.

www.bbc.com

Root's lack of runs in Australia was one of the main narratives going into the series, and it was def led by Lehmann who made world headlines with those comments. Would be feeling rather sheepish now

 

[Bedi]

That Inglis run out of Stokes!

 

[PhatBoy]

In test cricket

Smith
Williamson
Root
Kohli

Williamson and Root are very close though

I don’t think there’s a sound argument you can make for Williamson with so many holes in his record and who’s away record in general, already inferior to Joe Root’s, is boosted by his record against the weaker countries.

I think he is a beautiful player and watching him on some day one NZ pitches play the ball under his eyes when everyone else is pushing at it and nicking off with hard hands is a borderline privilege as a cricket lover, but he just has not done it nearly enough in other tough conditions to earn that sort of praise. Root had one ‘hole’ in his record and it wasn’t because he had never been able to make runs here it was because he had never been able to convert them into a big score/s.

Well Williamson HAS made a hundred in England but he passes 50 once every 5 innings there - compare that to Root who does it once every 3 innings here.
Williamson averages 30 in England. Root averages almost 40 in Australia - and that’s the ‘hole’ in his record.
Williamson averages 33 in India. Root averages 45 there.
Williamson averages 21 in SA. Root averages 50 there.
Williamson averages 29 in SL. Root averages 60 there.

Williamson has 3 test hundreds and 780 runs in total at 70 in Bangladesh/Zimbabwe. Root has no hundreds in either - he’s never played in Zimbabwe, and averaged 20 in his only series in Bangladesh. Remove those figures from Williamson’s away record and he averages 39.4 outside NZ and 65 in NZ.
Remove Root’s tour of Bangladesh and he jumps to 48 - that’s before considering whereabouts away from home (India, SA, Australia etc) they have made their runs. The only place Williamson ‘gets’ him of any real note is Australia itself and that could change within 3 games.

 

[PhatBoy]

Root's lack of runs in Australia was one of the main narratives going into the series, and it was def led by Lehmann who made world headlines with those comments. Would be feeling rather sheepish now

And Hogg. ‘He will not succeed his technique won’t work.’

 

[Nicho50]

60 runs in the context of the game is huge and worth way more than just a chance at a couple wickets last night

I would argue getting to bowl with the new ball at Head and Weatherald last night is worth more than 60 runs. They could have gotten perhaps 20 more then had a crack.

Now they have to bowl at the openers in the daytime who would much prefer that.

England will have to bowl extremely well to make a dent into the Aussie top order early days otherwise its fill your boots for Smudge and go with a soft pink ball.

The best thing Australia can do is get as close to 300 as they can and make England bat tonight.

 

[PhatBoy]

I would argue getting to bowl with the new ball at Head and Weatherald last night is worth more than 60 runs. They could have gotten perhaps 20 more then had a crack.

Now they have to bowl at the openers in the daytime who would much prefer that.

England will have to bowl extremely well to make a dent into the Aussie top order early days otherwise its fill your boots for Smudge and go with a soft pink ball.

The best thing Australia can do is get as close to 300 as they can and make England bat tonight.

The pink ball still swings in the daytime you realise when it’s new. Ask Ben Duckett

 

[Nicho50]

The pink ball still swings in the daytime you realise when it’s new. Ask Ben Duckett

Statistics show the easiest time to bat is in the daylight time. There is no doubt England have a good chance of bowling well early but the hardest time to bat in these matches is night time with a brand new ball.

They could have made 280 and had Australia 2-3 down last night and be well ahead of the game.

Don't get me wrong its a good score they have but I feel like they should have had a crack with the new ball when they had the chance.

 

[PhatBoy]

Statistics show the easiest time to bat is in the daylight time. There is no doubt England have a good chance of bowling well early but the hardest time to bat in these matches is night time with a brand new ball.

They could have made 280 and had Australia 2-3 down last night and be well ahead of the game.

Don't get me wrong its a good score they have but I feel like they should have had a crack with the new ball when they had the chance.

Of course it is.

They also show that boosting your score by an extra 20 per cent is a huge advantage in low-to-moderate scoring games which pink ball matches often are.

Declare early and take no wickets, you start the next day with an even older ball, not under lights.

People talk about it as though it’s a given that if you ‘have 20-30 minutes at them you’ll pick up 2 wickets.’ It isn’t. What’s just as likely to happen is you’ll pick up none, and concede 20 runs off the target.

It’s two day night home tests since Cummins declared behind the West Indies with a wicket in hand to try the same and it may have cost Australia the game in the end.

 

[Nicho50]

Of course it is.

They also show that boosting your score by an extra 20 per cent is a huge advantage in low-to-moderate scoring games which pink ball matches often are.

Declare early and take no wickets, you start the next day with an even older ball, not under lights.

People talk about it as though it’s a given that if you ‘have 20-30 minutes at them you’ll pick up 2 wickets.’ It isn’t. What’s just as likely to happen is you’ll pick up none, and concede 20 runs off the target.

It’s two day night home tests since Cummins declared behind the West Indies with a wicket in hand to try the same and it may have cost Australia the game in the end.

Given Weatherald is in his second test and Head opening if I was them I would have had a crack with Archer but anyway each to their own. See what happens today its going to be prime batting conditions so hopefully the Aussie go large.

 

[kickazz]

Yeah look if they pissed about chewing up overs not scoring then that would have made the Aussies pretty happy about not batting at night, and a speculative declaration would have been worth considering.

But they had a crack and put on some decent runs. When in doubt that is always the best strategy near the end of an innings.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Not convinced Smith is a great captain

 

[jannissary]

Not convinced Smith is a great captain

i'm not convinced that he knows what he's doing in the field. so many questionable decisions being made by him.

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Gabba has been the hgihest scoring shield track this summer - it's why you've had Marnus and Renshaw posting the big runs. It's also why leaving out Lyon was such an odd decision.

I thought they’d played few at AB field, which was a bit of a road?

 

[sr36]

I thought they’d played few at AB field, which was a bit of a road?

Youre probably right. I might be dumbly assuming they were all Gabba.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Gabba has been the highest scoring shield track this summer - it's why you've had Marnus and Renshaw posting the big runs. It's also why leaving out Lyon was such an odd decision.

I rarely comment on selection, but I've always held the belief that you must always go into a Test match with a spinner. I think people get sucked in by this "mystery" of the pink ball. Green needs to make runs in this Test because he's really not cutting it as a 5th bowling option.

 

[WeightOfTheWorld]

Im a mad Australian fan.

But we are cooked.

Outside of Starc, none of our bowling attacked looked threatening at all. I can't see how we take 20 wickets for a reasonable score to be honest - barring England throwing away their wickets.

If England had batted with a iota of common sense since the Ashes started, they would be short odds to be a few days from going 2-0 up. If Neser and Doggett are our next best bowlers then we are in for some hard times in the years ahead.

I have loaded up on England to win the Ashes @ $3.00 before the series; and again @ $6 after the first test.

I'm very confident on this bet, have pretty much decided what I will do with my winnings.