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North.

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to be honest I thought going into the Pakistan series that it was our strongest bowling lineup in a while with Bollinger, Hilf and Johnno. But for a lot of the time they really struggled din the second Test didn't they? They definitely have some work to do.
 
Blue Dimension said:
to be honest I thought going into the Pakistan series that it was our strongest bowling lineup in a while with Bollinger, Hilf and Johnno. But for a lot of the time they really struggled din the second Test didn't they? They definitely have some work to do.
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Our three front-liners were hardly cutting it up at Lords either. Mitch bowled well for the first innings, but you can forget about him after that.

Bolly hasn't played against decent batting teams, still, in test cricket and he wasn't exactly at his best by any means in this series. We don't have one excellent bowler in the line-up for the others to work off and you need at least one.

It makes it tough when MJ bowls his frequent garbage as well as it makes it look like the Aussies are just waving the white flag.
 
King Elvis said:
I love Ponting, and I back him to the hilt, but somebody needs to take the decision away from him, and move him down the order.

He's a ****ing legend, but he's like Atlas; he'll carry the world on his shoulders because he thinks he has to.

He loves playing for Australia, he's mentally tough and he has balls the size of small planets; but it shouldn't be up to him to be our main man anymore.

It's about time somebody else took some responsibility, let Ponting go down the order where he doesn't have to be the immortal he once was. We need him in the side for the next couple of years, because the absolutely moronic selectors haven't brought new blood into the team anywhere near enough.
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I totally agree and I made a mention of this point on SEN 1116 on Monday with Daniel Harford!!

Ever since the 2007 World Cup, the Australian selectors have not done any forward planning and we have paid the price for sticking with Hussey, North, Katich and Hayden (for 1 or 2 series too long). Gilly retired at the right time because he had the honesty and values to put his hand up for the long term future of Australian cricket.

The selectors have blooded in Siddle, Bollinger, Hilfenhauss, Harris, Hazzlewood, MacKay and George over the past 18 months.

However, they have not done anything with the batting. The only valid selection decision was the gamble of using Shane Watson as an opening batsman and the selection of Phil Hughes for the 2009 South African test series!!

The selectors have not got the courage to make the tough decisions in an era of professional cricket. The selectors have to tell Ponting to drop himself down to the number 4 position to prolong his captaincy career. Hence, the selectors can look at Aaron Finch, Usman K, Stephen Smith and Phil Hughes.

Gee, the selectors have to look at the long term future of Australian test cricket. Ponting wants to play on until the 2013 Ashes series and I think he will make it. However, the likes of Hussey, North and Katich must be dropped for young talent.

Gee, I don't care if we lose the Ashes this summer if we blood in young players with the main goal of getting the little urn back in 2013!! The selectors are looking at the long term picture instead of adopting the English policy of picking players. Gee, have not the selectors become very English in their selections since Steve Waugh was captain of Australia?

This is my TEST XI with the mind of getting the Ashes back in 2013

Usman Khawaja
Shane Watson
Aaron Finch
Ricky Ponting (CAPTAIN)
Michael Clarke
Stephen Smith
Tim Paine
Nathan Hauritz
Doug Bollinger
Peter Siddle
Josh Hazzlewood

Usman Khawaja has an improved batting technique than Phil Hughes. I would look at Usman Khawaja as Simon Katich's replacement at the top of the order.

I would leave Shane Watson in the opening batting slot and use Aaron Finch at number 3.

I think Ricky's captaincy is borne with too much conservatism and caution. He knows he has not got Warne, McGrath and Gilly to win a match, but he has to play attacking cricket with flair!!!

Picking youngsters who have flair is the first step. If they fail, who cares!! At least they will gain experience!!

I am looking into my crystal ball and I can tell you that Australian cricket is heading into a dark period in the next 12 months unless the selectors make the tough decisions!!

THE GOVERNOR
 
why are people leaving hughes out of their teams when thinking about the future? he is averaging over 50 in tests, just under 60 in FC and is only 21 :confused:
 

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J Selwood14 said:
why are people leaving hughes out of their teams when thinking about the future? he is averaging over 50 in tests, just under 60 in FC and is only 21 :confused:
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Phil Hughes has a techical fault with his batting technique!!

He is vunlerable against good quality fast bowling!!

He needs to spend an off season with Greg Chappell at the Cricket Academy in Brisbane to iron out a few technical deficiencies or look at ways to improve the mental aspect of his game whilst maintaining his current batting technique.

THE GOVERNOR
 
Doodlesweaver said:
Our three front-liners were hardly cutting it up at Lords either. Mitch bowled well for the first innings, but you can forget about him after that.

Bolly hasn't played against decent batting teams, still, in test cricket and he wasn't exactly at his best by any means in this series. We don't have one excellent bowler in the line-up for the others to work off and you need at least one.

It makes it tough when MJ bowls his frequent garbage as well as it makes it look like the Aussies are just waving the white flag.
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I think you'd find that they had the rough end of the stick in the first Test. Didn't have the luxury of bowling in the optimum bowling conditions that Pakistan had on the first day. However I will agree they were a little below par but I wouldn't say that far below. I thought it was our batsman who really struggled in the first Test more so than the bowlers.

Very harsh on Bollinger who has been amazing over the past 6-12 months. Has bowled like a demon for Australia in recent times. Didn't have the greatest two tests but he wasn't bad either. Had catches dropped off him a couple of times. Lets not forget that he dominated the English batting lineup in the ODI's as well. It's just a blip on the radar for him and I'd back him to come back strongly and dominate England in the Ashes.

Hilfenhaus will only get better with the more bowling he gets under his belt.

Johnson is Australia's version of Harmison. Superb on his day, deplorable when not on song. He is the worry imo and was the main reason why our attack struggled so much. 2-3 wickets for the series is no way good enough for a frontline bowler.
 
Blue Dimension said:
I think you'd find that they had the rough end of the stick in the first Test. Didn't have the luxury of bowling in the optimum bowling conditions that Pakistan had on the first day. However I will agree they were a little below par but I wouldn't say that far below. I thought it was our batsman who really struggled in the first Test more so than the bowlers.

Very harsh on Bollinger who has been amazing over the past 6-12 months. Has bowled like a demon for Australia in recent times. Didn't have the greatest two tests but he wasn't bad either. Had catches dropped off him a couple of times. Lets not forget that he dominated the English batting lineup in the ODI's as well. It's just a blip on the radar for him and I'd back him to come back strongly and dominate England in the Ashes.

Hilfenhaus will only get better with the more bowling he gets under his belt.

Johnson is Australia's version of Harmison. Superb on his day, deplorable when not on song. He is the worry imo and was the main reason why our attack struggled so much. 2-3 wickets for the series is no way good enough for a frontline bowler.
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Bolly bowled too short a lot of the time. And he was almost as bad as MJ at the SCG in Jan as well in the first session, second day after that collapse. He bowled too short considering the conditions were still overcast.

And he hasn't played against a good quality batting attack yet in test cricket. The West Indies were injury hit, the Pakistan team like to implode and the Kiwis can never get their best bats on the park.

I like Bolly and I would rather see him as a first pick in the Ashes than Johnson by all means. He's not like Johnson, he can control what he is doing. I'm rarely disappointed in Johnson when bowls a pile of short, wide crap as I think it's a bonus when he bowls well. But I've seen Bolly bowl enough good and consistent sessions not to see that he is able to adapt his line and lengths. I don't know what was wrong with him. He may have had trouble with the Dukes ball.
 
The Governor said:
Gee, I don't care if we lose the Ashes this summer if we blood in young players with the main goal of getting the little urn back in 2013!! The selectors are looking at the long term picture instead of adopting the English policy of picking players. Gee, have not the selectors become very English in their selections since Steve Waugh was captain of Australia?

This is my TEST XI with the mind of getting the Ashes back in 2013

Usman Khawaja
Shane Watson
Aaron Finch
Ricky Ponting (CAPTAIN)
Michael Clarke
Stephen Smith
Tim Paine
Nathan Hauritz
Doug Bollinger
Peter Siddle
Josh Hazzlewood

Usman Khawaja has an improved batting technique than Phil Hughes. I would look at Usman Khawaja as Simon Katich's replacement at the top of the order.

I would leave Shane Watson in the opening batting slot and use Aaron Finch at number 3.

Picking youngsters who have flair is the first step. If they fail, who cares!! At least they will gain experience!!

I am looking into my crystal ball and I can tell you that Australian cricket is heading into a dark period in the next 12 months unless the selectors make the tough decisions!!

THE GOVERNOR
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I think it's a bit absurd to say "it's ok to lose this home Ashes series as long as we win them back in 2013". We should be aiming for both.

The process does need to start now however, and it starts with dropping North for the home test series. However, I dont think North should necessarily be replaced by Smith. The selectors need to make this a smart decision, and they need to pick the young batsman they think is going to be a great test bat. If that's Khawaja, so be it. That player needs to be told "we think you're a test standard batsman, and the number six spot is yours for the Ashes series at home".

After the Ashes, one of either Hussey, Katich or Ponting should retire. If they all have belter series', this may not happen, but I suspect Ponting might call it a day if we win the Ashes.

Following that, the other two will go as form fails them. I would like to see Katich dropped down the order to six when Hussey retires, and see Hughes bought in to open.

Looking ahead to 2013, I would see the side as something like:

Hughes
Khawaja
Watson
Clarke
Smith
Katich (C)
Paine
Hauritz
Siddle
Hilfenhaus
Bollinger

No MJ in England any more!
 
so north has slipped below phil hughes in the icc rankings, with hughes playing 2 tests in the past 7 months.
i know the system can be a bit dodgy, just an interesting little fact.
 

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Escobar123 said:
Failed yet again...
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absolutely pathetic that this guy is still getting a game, he'll probably make a meaningless 50 in second innings that will keep him in team for next 5 games. To think Hodge got dropped after making double. North has obviously doing something to the selectors and Ponting to stay in team
;););)
 
unstable punt said:
absolutely pathetic that this guy is still getting a game, he'll probably make a meaningless 50 in second innings that will keep him in team for next 5 games. To think Hodge got dropped after making double. North has obviously doing something to the selectors and Ponting to stay in team
;););)
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but hodgey got dropped after a handfuul of low scores in the shield.
North was gunning it in the shield last summer, yeah?:rolleyes:
 
saint_larry said:
but hodgey got dropped after a handfuul of low scores in the shield.
North was gunning it in the shield last summer, yeah?:rolleyes:
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Quite frankly I don't even want him back in the Warriors. Without him, they'll have to try and develop on a spin bowler instead of pretending that North is good enough.
 
How on earth do they rebuild this side and mount a serious challenge for the Ashes whilst wasting a position in the first XI with this guy?
 
I don't know what everyone's so surprised about. We all knew when he somehow got picked for the NZ tour that he wouldn't be dropped before the Ashes regardless of how badly he played. It's pretty ridiculous. If you take out his ton against NZ he's averaged 21 since the beginning of the Australian summer.

The person who's benefiting the most from him being in the side is Hussey. Thanks to North stinking it up so badly against all comers, nobody's too fussed about the fact that Huss has averaged 33 against the other top 3 countries in the last 2 years.
 

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What really grinds my gears is that Symonds, who is a better player than North (at least he has gears) isn't getting a gig.

I liked north, but surely he's a cooked goose. Elvis is right, either he hits or misses, you can't have that kind of strike rate in key middle order positions. He has no ability to knuckle down and score scores in crucial moments.

Might as well play another bowler, or put Hughes at the top of the order and push Watson down. Anything is better than this guy.

I'm not a fan of Johnson either but he's a better bat than Harmison by some distance, and he has a better average by about 29 to 32. He'll be good enough in a home ashes and I think he should be given another chance in England.

Oh and questions have to be asked about Hussey, two centuries in two years and he can't live off his fat stores forever. Our middle order is so weak and it isn't the first time lately that a good top order performance has been followed by a collapse. Meh.
 
courtjester said:
I think it's a bit absurd to say "it's ok to lose this home Ashes series as long as we win them back in 2013". We should be aiming for both.

The process does need to start now however, and it starts with dropping North for the home test series. However, I dont think North should necessarily be replaced by Smith. The selectors need to make this a smart decision, and they need to pick the young batsman they think is going to be a great test bat. If that's Khawaja, so be it. That player needs to be told "we think you're a test standard batsman, and the number six spot is yours for the Ashes series at home".

After the Ashes, one of either Hussey, Katich or Ponting should retire. If they all have belter series', this may not happen, but I suspect Ponting might call it a day if we win the Ashes.

Following that, the other two will go as form fails them. I would like to see Katich dropped down the order to six when Hussey retires, and see Hughes bought in to open.

Looking ahead to 2013, I would see the side as something like:

Hughes
Khawaja
Watson
Clarke
Smith
Katich (C)
Paine
Hauritz
Siddle
Hilfenhaus
Bollinger

No MJ in England any more!
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MJ will be there, Clarke will be captain and maybe Hughes in the mix-whether it's middle order or opening.
 

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