Test Frank Worrell Trophy First Test West Indies v Australia June 25-29 2330hrs @ Kensington Oval, Barbados

[Gough]

West Indies from, Roston Chase (c), Jomel Warrican (vc), Kevlon Anderson, Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell, Keacy Carty, Justin Greaves, Shai Hope, Tevin Imlach, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Johann Layne, Mikyle Louis, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales
Australia from, Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

Confirmed changes for us from the WTC Final are Konstas and Inglis in for Marnus and Smith.

 

[Bedi]

Loving Inglis' selection. Our batting has been shit for a long while, so backing him to cement his spot as a reliable long-term option to steady what's too often been a sinking ship.

 

[PhatBoy]

God this could very easily go one extremely of two ways for us.

There is an XI in that West Indies squad that could be quite competitive albeit handicapped by the tremendous drag factor of the captain they insist on picking. Alternatively it is possible that they are going to squeeze in all of Brandon King and Shai Hope and Justin Greaves and Anderson Philip and it just goes **** up

 

[Westend]

Honestly if smudge is in a brace for 8 weeks with his finger don’t even consider him for this series . Reading on the CA website they are considering him batting with a splint for
The 2nd test is just stupid imo

Get him right for the shield games before the ashes he is too important to risk

 

[Gavin Excell]

Surprising by selectors to think of the future
I thought Marnus 14.7 average last 12 months would lock him in the team until 2031

 

[Marstermind]

Loving Inglis' selection. Our batting has been shit for a long while, so backing him to cement his spot as a reliable long-term option to steady what's too often a sinking ship.

The Smith injury is actually a selection plus. He'll be fine for the Ashes, but the batting has been a mess and some new blood is needed. Inglis gets a go in what should be a relatively soft series. The only problem with dropping Marnus is that it didn't happen sooner. Putting him in as an opener was plain silly. It'll be interesting to see how Konstas goes about it.

 

[JackOutback]

I like Inglis in the team, but I don't like that it seems Green will bat at 3 again. He's a number 4, maybe 5, that's where he will excel. Of course, Inglis isn't a number 3 either. Wonder if Head could step up, the argument against him being near the top of the order was that his form at 5 was good, but that's not quite so true any more.

 

[Bedi]

God this could very easily go one extremely of two ways for us.

There is an XI in that West Indies squad that could be quite competitive albeit handicapped by the tremendous drag factor of the captain they insist on picking. Alternatively it is possible that they are going to squeeze in all of Brandon King and Shai Hope and Justin Greaves and Anderson Philip and it just goes **** up

Shamar Joseph is going to be champing at the bit for this one.

 

[PhatBoy]

Shamar Joseph is going to be champing at the bit for this one.

Yep especially with the inexperienced batting line up. Fast and full Shamar, fast and full.

Seales to bowl the controlled stuff with Warrican, just tell the other two to take the handbrake off

 

[Blue Red and Gold]

Cant wait for Ussie to cash in again against a weaker attack on a spin friendly deck so he can leave our middle order exposed next home series...

 

[PhatBoy]

Cant wait for Ussie to cash in again against a weaker attack on a spin friendly deck so he can leave our middle order exposed next home series...

Barbados: most famously pace friendly deck in the west indies
Sabina Park: hosting a pink ball test and aside from Taijul Islam’s 5 wicket haul last match played there, has barely given up a wicket to spin across the last three matches it’s hosted - day ones
Grenada: the last match it hosted saw the Windies roll through England on the back of…. Kyle Mayers. He bowled at 125kph like Vernon Philander seaming and swinging the ball around corners.

The west indies has developed a reputation for spinning wickets but it also has about 10 test venues and based on all available recent evidence these are the three least spin friendly grounds they can pretty much produce and if that trend continues it’s the least likely venue Khawaja will get to fill his boots.


West Indies have also only picked one specialist spinner despite Gudakesh Motie being pretty much a fixture in their squad for a couple of years. Suggests they’re not going to be trying to turn out spinning wickets.

4 specialist quicks in the squad and 2 of the 3 all rounders are seamers as well.

 

[Westend]

I like Inglis in the team, but I don't like that it seems Green will bat at 3 again. He's a number 4, maybe 5, that's where he will excel. Of course, Inglis isn't a number 3 either. Wonder if Head could step up, the argument against him being near the top of the order was that his form at 5 was good, but that's not quite so true any more.

Yeah good point Jack and they still haven’t named the batting order

Green will bat 4 or 5 Inglis or head 3

 

[Westend]

Cant wait for Ussie to cash in again against a weaker attack on a spin friendly deck so he can leave our middle order exposed next home series...

Yup most likely will happen

 

[PhatBoy]

I’m not about to say something stupid like ‘West indies can/will win the series or even a test match’ here but this has a whiff of danger about it. Crash Craddock just briefly alluded to it on the Back Page the other night before that f**kwit Tony Squires interrupted him.

In all likelihood, Australia’s bowling and the ineptitude of the West Indian batting will ensure that any alarm bells for Australia will be alleviated and my boys will just crumble. Whatever Australia makes with the bat will PROBABLY be enough.

But there is the chance that a Brisbane scenario unfolds, given the batting issues Australia faces. If the West Indies scrape up 250-300 batting first in a test or two, suddenly that’s JUST a bit of pressure on a very inexperienced batting line up and a player like Travis Head becomes utterly crucial in a way he probably never has been before, Carey too. The West Indies are capable of some breathtakingly shit cricket. I’m under no illusions about that. But we do have some winning history in games no one expects us to do anything in - the Brisbane test, hell we won our most recent game after batting first and being 7-37.

The Aussies need to make sure they don’t just use this as a glorified practice

 

[Bedi]

I’m not about to say something stupid like ‘West indies can/will win the series or even a test match’ here but this has a whiff of danger about it. Crash Craddock just briefly alluded to it on the Back Page the other night before that f**kwit Tony Squires interrupted him.

In all likelihood, Australia’s bowling and the ineptitude of the West Indian batting will ensure that any alarm bells for Australia will be alleviated and my boys will just crumble. Whatever Australia makes with the bat will PROBABLY be enough.

But there is the chance that a Brisbane scenario unfolds, given the batting issues Australia faces. If the West Indies scrape up 250-300 batting first in a test or two, suddenly that’s JUST a bit of pressure on a very inexperienced batting line up and a player like Travis Head becomes utterly crucial in a way he probably never has been before, Carey too. The West Indies are capable of some breathtakingly shit cricket. I’m under no illusions about that. But we do have some winning history in games no one expects us to do anything in - the Brisbane test, hell we won our most recent game after batting first and being 7-37.

The Aussies need to make sure they don’t just use this as a glorified practice

Their last win too in Pakistan will instill some belief in this WI side, even if it was somewhat of an outlier of a series

 

[PhatBoy]

Their last win too in Pakistan will instill some belief in this WI side, even if it was somewhat of an outlier of a series

Absolutely, gives them confidence they can win from basically any position. Even the utmost optimist including myself had written that second test off basically by the end of the first hour; Warrican and Motie restored it with the bat, then with the ball, then Brathwaite with the bat again. Sammy makes some strange decisions and already I’m a bit worried about his ‘feels’ decisions as a coach but one thing he will do is make sure that they go into every series not just trying to improve or ‘work on something’ but thinking they should be aiming to win.

 

[western royboy]

I like Inglis in the team, but I don't like that it seems Green will bat at 3 again. He's a number 4, maybe 5, that's where he will excel. Of course, Inglis isn't a number 3 either. Wonder if Head could step up, the argument against him being near the top of the order was that his form at 5 was good, but that's not quite so true any more.

We’ve still got 4 batsmen in our top 6 who bat at 5 or below…I’m not sure that we’ve solved anything

 

[Westend]

At this stage I would rather Inglis at 3 than marnus greenie bats 4

 

[Black Diamond]

Why is McSweeney not in calculations?

Truly ridiculous to have debuted him last year.

 

[Moonwatcher]

Why is McSweeney not in calculations?

Truly ridiculous to have debuted him last year.

Didn't make a run for the redbacks after debuting

 

[ioppolo]

Josh Da Silva was actually dropped? Imlach must seriously be impressing selectors.

Who is this Johann Laynne fellow PhatBoy ?

 

[JackOutback]

We’ve still got 4 batsmen in our top 6 who bat at 5 or below…I’m not sure that we’ve solved anything

I think we have three, Green's a number 4, it's where he bats at FC level. But they may bat him at 3, which becomes 1 or 2 if we lose a wicket as quickly as we have been, which doesn't suit him.

 

[Marstermind]

Why is McSweeney not in calculations?

Truly ridiculous to have debuted him last year.

If you were generous, you could give him a few alibis in most of his innings.

• In Perth, he twice got pinned by a bowler who some have put forth as the best of all time, when the whole top order fell to Bumrah twice. He wasn't Robinson Crusoe
• In Adelaide, he batted well to get Australia to safety and well ahead of the game in the twilight session. He was also unbeaten in a tiny run chase to win the game
• In Brisbane, Bumrah got him again in the first innings, and the whole second innings was a bit of nonsense in an ambitious attempt to set a target before the rain came. That his 4 came from 20-odd balls when quick runs were required was probably worse than getting out cheaply in previous innings.

He certainly looked out of his depth, and Bumrah was simply too good for him, but hopefully he gets another go - probably when Khawaja is done?

 

[PhatBoy]

Josh Da Silva was actually dropped? Imlach must seriously be impressing selectors.

Who is this Johann Laynne fellow PhatBoy ?

Imlach is incumbent so had that going for him - JDS couldn’t have done much more in the domestic season by hitting 3 centuries in 7 matches: problem was, Imlach hit 3 of his own, and an 80.

Anderson Phillip is a bowling all rounder. I haven’t watched much of him, his record is good with the ball, he only played half the last season and did ok but didn’t set the world on fire, he’s played a handful of games for Lancs this season and done reasonably, and just took 5 in an unofficial test against SA ‘A’ earlier this month.

The season before last he was very impressive, took 30 wickets or something at less than 20. Apparently he bowls pretty rapidly, around 140 or something but yeah I haven’t really watched him for more than a few balls during a very brief look at a live feed here and there.

 

[FlowersByIrene]

Why is McSweeney not in calculations?

Truly ridiculous to have debuted him last year.

Shit cricketer is probably why