1st Test Australia v West Indies 30/11-4/12 1250hrs @ Perth Stadium

[Gough]

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner
West Indies Probable: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Nkrumah Bonner, Jermaine Blackwood, Kyle Mayers, Roston Chase, Jason Holder, Joshua Da Silva (wk), Alzarri Joseph, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales.

First test of the summer brings us warm weather in Perth and a green bouncy pitch, bring it on.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

We better bat first Least the test may go 4 days

 

[outabounds]

I honestly do not remember a test series in Australia that I could care less about. We will surely smash them inside and it all does not add up to anything like competitive cricket. I hope I am wrong and they put up some sort of fight but its hard to see them making many runs against us.

 

[InTheWings]

A Wednesday start and a green pitch... hopefully it is still going on the weekend. I am hoping to get there!

 

[big_e]

Something like the 15th time I'll attend the first day.

Looking forward to it.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

A Wednesday start and a green pitch... hopefully it is still going on the weekend. I am hoping to get there!

they would have shaved off a lot of that grass, don't believe the photos from yesterday

 

[SSwans2011]

I'm on Khawaja average watch this summer. If he can have a big summer, he could very well push his average towards 50, which would be an unbelievable story after returning to the team with an average of 40 at the age of 35.

Would also love to see Green score his first ton, and Cummins to dominate and shut up all the Langer simps.

 

[PhatBoy]

Normally hate seeing WI bowl first but I think it’s our best chance of having an impact, even allowing for our actually decent bowling attack, allowing australia to potentially bundle us out for less than 200 and then knowing how good Australia’s batting is at home, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Bowl first, have Roach and probably Seales make a dent early on and actually put Australia under some pressure.

For those ragging on the WI, I get it - our record against Australia is diabolical in the last 20 years. Australia hasn’t seen anything close to the best of the WI. But this IS a side who beat England last time out, who is undefeated in its last 5 tests, and has 6 wins and 4 draws from its last 15.

It’s taken a step towards improvement and that first step is improvement at home. Remains to be seen whether we can consistently be competitive on the road. A 1-0 series loss here or 2 competitive losses would be a satisfactory result.

 

[dogs105]

I love watching the Windies!!!!

Watched them stuff us in 84/85 (so many greats), then 88/89 (Curtly). 1991 Tour over there. Tim May's knock in Adelaide 1992/93. Winning over there in 1995.

 

[SSwans2011]

Normally hate seeing WI bowl first but I think it’s our best chance of having an impact, even allowing for our actually decent bowling attack, allowing australia to potentially bundle us out for less than 200 and then knowing how good Australia’s batting is at home, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Bowl first, have Roach and probably Seales make a dent early on and actually put Australia under some pressure.

For those ragging on the WI, I get it - our record against Australia is diabolical in the last 20 years. Australia hasn’t seen anything close to the best of the WI. But this IS a side who beat England last time out, who is undefeated in its last 5 tests, and has 6 wins and 4 draws from its last 15.

It’s taken a step towards improvement and that first step is improvement at home. Remains to be seen whether we can consistently be competitive on the road. A 1-0 series loss here or 2 competitive losses would be a satisfactory result.

West Indies Test cricket is certainly in a much better spot than last time they toured. Especially looking forward to seeing how the bowling line-up fares this time around.

 

[Around the Wicket]

I hope Australia bat first and Warner makes 200.

 

[Slysh]

I hope Australia bat first and Warner makes 200.

Always fun watching him make big runs so i can enjoy the miserable campaigners that whine the entire time.

 

[PhatBoy]

West Indies Test cricket is certainly in a much better spot than last time they toured. Especially looking forward to seeing how the bowling line-up fares this time around.

Absolutely. There’s something there that probably hasn’t been at various times over the last 12 years and that is hope for the future. It’s not just the odd one off encouraging performance it’s more and more blocks of 3-4 of them.

 

[PhatBoy]

I hope Australia bat first and Warner makes 200.

Would be a first against his nemesis

 

[Slysh]

I swear cricket seems to bring out the biggest sooks among Australian sports fans.

ODI's - 'Nah dead format, they are all meaningless games who cares'

T20's - 'Nah hit and giggle format, not real cricket

Tests against anyone that isn't India or England 'Eurgh i don't care about this series at all, we'll smash em and it will be boring'

 

[Sammo360]

West Indies Test cricket is certainly in a much better spot than last time they toured. Especially looking forward to seeing how the bowling line-up fares this time around.

Who remembers Rajendra Chandrinka? lol

Still, they have Blackwood and Chase... Is there no one else? What happened to Darren Bravo?

I would have Cornwall playing ahead of Chase. he would have generated some interest in this series.

 

[SSwans2011]

Absolutely. There’s something there that probably hasn’t been at various times over the last 12 years and that is hope for the future. It’s not just the odd one off encouraging performance it’s more and more blocks of 3-4 of them.

The problem is the casual Australian fan doesn't know this, so anything less that complete domination will be treated as an abject failure unfortunately, rather than people just being able to treat the Windies' improvement as an exciting and great thing for cricket.

 

[Around the Wicket]

Always fun watching him make big runs so i can enjoy the miserable campaigners that whine the entire time.

When Warner retires which IMO strong chance he announces in end of this summer, it'll be a BIG void to fill.

 

[PhatBoy]

Who remembers Rajendra Chandrinka? lol

Still, they have Blackwood and Chase... Is there no one else? What happened to Darren Bravo?

I would have Cornwall playing ahead of Chase. he would have generated some interest in this series.

I was friends with a guy from Guyana on Facebook via a fan page who went to school with Chandrika and he said as a teenager he was an absolutely exceptional cricketer and had a lot of buzz about him but with every level he stepped up he seemed to cope less and less and that was highlighted by his brief and unspectacular test career

 

[PhatBoy]

The problem is the casual Australian fan doesn't know this, so anything less that complete domination will be treated as an abject failure unfortunately, rather than people just being able to treat the Windies' improvement as an exciting and great thing for cricket.

Exactly right. No matter what state Australian and to an extent South African cricket has been in, they are two sides that the Windies have simply imploded against for a long time now so it’s assumed that they’re just hopeless full stop.

That’s not the case: against every other side we have had good periods, Pakistan and England especially we have had some really good results against both home and away, Sri Lanka we generally don’t have an issue with at home at least and even India when they do tour, we tend to bowl well against but struggle with the bat. I can only remember one series at home and one away in the last decade against India - possibly two at home. Winning in Bangladesh was actually a big thing given that both Australia and England could only manage draws there against lesser Bangladesh teams in their last respective visits.

 

[Zevon]

Exactly right. No matter what state Australian and to an extent South African cricket has been in, they are two sides that the Windies have simply imploded against for a long time now so it’s assumed that they’re just hopeless full stop.

I think it’s probably a good thing that most of this West Indies side won’t have played a test against Australia before; fewer mental inhibitions and a clean slate to work with. Sad that these two sides play such little test cricket against each other these days (last test was well over 6 years ago ) but it might help the West Indies on this occasion.

 

[PhatBoy]

I think it’s probably a good thing that most of this West Indies side won’t have played a test against Australia before; fewer mental inhibitions and a clean slate to work with. Sad that these two sides play such little test cricket against each other these days (last test was well over 6 years ago ) but it might help the West Indies on this occasion.

Completely agree. And Brathwaite actually did have some success here last time, Holder has made some runs here and while Roach has a dire record in Australia he’s a much better bowler now

 

[corbies]

The problem is the casual Australian fan doesn't know this, so anything less that complete domination will be treated as an abject failure unfortunately, rather than people just being able to treat the Windies' improvement as an exciting and great thing for cricket.

The blokes paid to commentate on the match don't know this so what chance is the casual fan.

 

[PhatBoy]

The blokes paid to commentate on the match don't know this so what chance is the casual fan.

Did you listen to much of the commentary in the PMXI game?

It was like the guys in the box had never actually heard of guys that have 40+ tests under their belt.

‘Did you know that Roston Chase has five test centuries? So he’s no mug with the bat.’ That was very very typical of the standard

 

[philreich]

First home Test without Warnie behind the microphone .