North.

[King Elvis]

I like this guy, but why is he still in the side?

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/north-exposure-20100714-10b3a.html

The left-hander's dismissal for a third-ball duck on the first day of the match continued his record of failing to pass 10 in more than half of his innings at Test level. North's 25 innings since his promotion to the Australian team in the summer of 2008-09 have produced a total of 945 runs, although 797 of those runs - 84.3 per cent - have come from eight innings. In the remaining 17 innings he has scored 148 runs at an average of 8.7.

He's a 70% chance to score less than 10 when he strides out to bat, which makes him a massive liability and puts pressure on all of those around him.

He isn't a Ponting, Hussey or Katich, he hasn't got a ton of credits in the bank to carry him through a poor patch of form.

This is going to come back and bite us on the arse, right now is the time we should be playing Khawaja, Hughes or Klinger, to see if they're up to it. Otherwise, we'll be half way through the Ashes discussing who to bring in for North, and fretting because none of those guys have been given the chance to prove they're well and truly up to it.

But we know North isn't.

 

[djrossie16]

To me he's like a "poor mans" Brian Lara with his batting style. I think we need a fighter that far down in the order. We have too many attacking batsman like North Haddin and now Paine. We need another Katich

 

[Hu$tler]

He has a huge chance to score a ton when it matters right now

 

[Goldencats]

He has a huge chance to score a ton when it matters right now

and still fails surely next test is his last chance

 

[Doodlesweaver]

and still fails surely next test is his last chance

Problem is, can Khawaja play spin?

Can any of our young batsmen play spin? I'd like to know where they learnt if they can.

Marcus North was one of the leading spin bowlers in Sheffield Shield cricket last year. Shows how cruddy the standard is.

Series before this North had a ton and an 80. I think he'll be at least on the tour to India. I'll be really surprised if he isn't as launching Khawaja on to the world stage on turners in India is just mean.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

and still fails surely next test is his last chance

One of the stupidest things I've seen from the Aus team (even though it came off by some miracle) was sending Mitchell Johnson, whose batting form is even lamer than North's, out to protect North.

Despite the fact that Johnson did a sterling job under difficult conditions, it just shows how up shit creek we are going to be against decent teams.

 

[Cousin Jed]

Every team uses the old night watchmen these days

 

[jimmy_clement#8]

Problem is, can Khawaja play spin?

Can any of our young batsmen play spin? I'd like to know where they learnt if they can.

Marcus North was one of the leading spin bowlers in Sheffield Shield cricket last year. Shows how cruddy the standard is.

Series before this North had a ton and an 80. I think he'll be at least on the tour to India. I'll be really surprised if he isn't as launching Khawaja on to the world stage on turners in India is just mean.

Khawaja isn't great against spin. And that's probably flattering.

 

[HSSB]

I thought the exact same thing, poor summer and he's still put in the team, wtf?

 

[Phone]

Have you guys forgotten he pretty much dominated during the NZ tour? He probably shouldn't have been in the team for that tour, but he deserved his place for this tour.

 

[Goldencats]

Have you guys forgotten he pretty much dominated during the NZ tour? He probably shouldn't have been in the team for that tour, but he deserved his place for this tour.

As I have said, you practically have to have broken a leg to get out the current side, according to the selectors one good score in every 6 innings is good enough to keep you in the side, despite the other 5 being scores below 20

A trademark of Australian sides in the past is that they crave consistency, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore, it's more of a case that the selectors don't hae enough faith in our younger brigade who are the cornerstone of the future of Australian cricket

 

[Caesar]

I think we all knew that after no significant changes to the side were made for the first Test of the Australian summer, this was probably going to be the batting order we carried into the Ashes series.

Quite simply we all know that the selectors are very conservative about changing the team, and the 18 months between the Ashes have been so full of uniformly rubbish teams that it's been pretty much impossible for any halfway decent batsmen not to make enough runs to keep him in the side.

 

[Kram]

Picked up a couple of wickets

edit - another one, brilliance from Katich.

 

[rhaz]

**** sake. He has this annoying habit of popping up with handy runs or wickets right when he is most likely about to be dropped.

 

[Monocle]

4 Wickets is a very handy contribution.

 

[360noscope]

North is a very handy player indeed.

 

[Jimpson]

Greatest allrounder since Sobers

 

[Kim Hagdorn]

What a gun.

 

[lemmon]

Bowling hand grenades

 

[Monocle]

6 for.

All over...................... great effort MN.

 

[King Elvis]

Meh, his job is to make runs.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

Problem is, can Khawaja play spin?

Can any of our young batsmen play spin? I'd like to know where they learnt if they can.

Marcus North was one of the leading spin bowlers in Sheffield Shield cricket last year. Shows how cruddy the standard is.

Can't believe I wrote this tosh. What was I thinking? The man is a bowling GENIUS.

Well, I wasn't expecting us to get the Ashes back anyway.

 

[Xtreme]

Life imitating art

He's a handy spinner (much more effective that Hauritz, Clarke, White etc) in International Cricket 2010 on the 360 and Ashes 2009.

 

[crownie]

Meh, his job is to make runs.

i think if you are being bowled your job is to take wickets

 

[Axel.]

Bowling hand grenades

This.