Rolling Ashes Squad Thread, now featuring Haddin XII v Hick XII beginning p. 147

[VirgilHilts]

Good luck Pucovski. Anyone who fronts up about mental health issues is alright by me.

 

[The Casey Cat]

Outs are good. Ins and the reasoning for overlooking Wade and Maxwell are absolute nonsense. Hohns appears to be as big a problem as G Chappell and Langer.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/crick...a/news-story/a88afed3e9f91cbd6b10728121878077

 

[Marshland]

Yet Pucovski and the state administration decided to continue to play him in his big innings despite the fact he had told them he clearly wasn’t feeling right that morning. Picking him for Australia at this time is negligent. There is no chance in the world that he’s mentally ready for this pressure.

"I'm feeling really good, as good as I have felt in a really long time," Pucovski said in Melbourne. "I've met some people along the way who have helped me turn things around. There is probably no better time to get exciting news like I have in the last 24 hours. It's not every day you get called up to represent your country, so it's been a very exciting couple of days.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/25718927/will-pucovski-digests-whirlwind-test-call-up

His own words.

 

[TBoyleSuperstar]

Coming in behind the likes of Jake Doran and Beau Webster isn't a good look. Tassie should have him batting higher when he's not pretending to keep wicket. But that is probably why they have him at six, to not shuffle the order too much between Paine being available and not.
As it is, he's coming in against a fairly new ball more often than not in the first innings. At least in Hobart games.

I would have (reluctantly) had him in, due to the lack of options, but can understand leaving him out. Renshaw is the pick that has me angry, it just smacks of picking in hope for England instead of picking to beat Sri Lanka.

Re wade, might just be how the state want it. Have Doran and Webster a chance up the order, keeping wade lower in the event of quick wickets. Might just be for team balance. I mean no one expected wade to even be in the test equation at the start of the summer

 

[TBoyleSuperstar]

One thing with the ins, renshaw and burns are both openers. Now Harris is just about certain to play, leaving one openers spot.
Khawaja opened in the last test and seems better there than at 3.
Labuschagne has said he wants to bat 3, and was entrusted with 3 in the last test and with 38, didn't disgrace himself.
How are we shoe-horning 5 blokes into 3 positions?
Burns down the order maybe?

 

[Caesar]

Wouldn’t you think that he and the people he is working with have the best understanding of where he is at?

No young cricketer is ever going to say no to a debut in the Australian Test team.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Other than all rounders who was the last aussie number 6 who batted 6 for his state. Batsmen have always pushed to bat higher at state level if they thought they were a chance

So your argument is that we shouldn't bat someone in his normal position because we don't usually bat people in their normal position?

That's worked fantastically for us recently (see: Aaron Finch.)

 

[archibald]

I would have had Burns and Renshaw, would hold fire on Pucovski. But they are my ‘gut feels’. My point is simply that the inconsistent selection method hasn’t changed, just the faces.

Burns and Renshaw have been recalled maybe on 3 occasions. The Marshes were verging on double digits so there is a difference

 

[Unknown Identity]

We simply don't have the depth to cover 2 world top 5 bats.
It doesn't matter which combination we go with, Most of the ins will fall short of the mark.

Fast forward 6 months and this team looks pretty solid.

Warner
Harris
Khawaja
Smith
Head
Pucovski/Labuschagne
Paine
Cummins
Starc
Lyon
Hazlewood

Head will have more experience by the time Warner and Smith return and he certainly hasn't disgraced himself (Apart from his first knock hasn't been dismissed in single digits since), using the number 6 spot to continue to develop youth instead of the token all rounder that never seems to work for us.

 

[Gough]

Direct quote from Hohns, "We're also very mindful of the Big Bash that is going on and not disrupting the franchises by taking away too many of their players." What the actual f***???!! All that ails cricket at the moment surmised in a sentence.

 

[Unknown Identity]

Direct quote from Hohns, "We're also very mindful of the Big Bash that is going on and not disrupting the franchises by taking away too many of their players." What the actual f***???!! All that ails cricket at the moment surmised in a sentence.

 

[SportsCentre]

Direct quote from Hohns, "We're also very mindful of the Big Bash that is going on and not disrupting the franchises by taking away too many of their players." What the actual f***???!! All that ails cricket at the moment surmised in a sentence.

Yep, spoken with $ in the eyes.
Test cricket isn't a feeder to anybody. How does our lot not see that?

 

[Len Nicodemo]

One thing with the ins, renshaw and burns are both openers. Now Harris is just about certain to play, leaving one openers spot.
Khawaja opened in the last test and seems better there than at 3.
Labuschagne has said he wants to bat 3, and was entrusted with 3 in the last test and with 38, didn't disgrace himself.
How are we shoe-horning 5 blokes into 3 positions?
Burns down the order maybe?

I think based on your point they'll leave one of Renshaw or Burns out. On form i'd be playing Burns, but i think they'll leave him out and opt for Renshaw. Harris is a lock, as is Khawaja. I think it'll be;
Harris
Renshaw
Khawaja
Labuschagne
Pucovski
Head

 

[The Swans Blog]

Yet Pucovski and the state administration decided to continue to play him in his big innings despite the fact he had told them he clearly wasn’t feeling right that morning. Picking him for Australia at this time is negligent. There is no chance in the world that he’s mentally ready for this pressure.

It's unlikely he'll even bat, let alone play. Being in the squad is a good thing.

 

[The Swans Blog]

Don't know why anyone would ever suggest playing Pucovski over Burns, that's just insane. Batting line up will most likely be:
Renshaw
Burns
Harris
Khawaja
Head
Labushagne
Paine
then 8 - 11 bowlers

Any combination of the top 3 really, although Harris looks like he has the technique to bat anywhere from 1 to 4.

 

[Stopher]

Direct quote from Hohns, "We're also very mindful of the Big Bash that is going on and not disrupting the franchises by taking away too many of their players." What the actual f***???!! All that ails cricket at the moment surmised in a sentence.

Please tell me he was referring to the ODI team and not the Test team?? Although in a World Cup year, that's still an absolute ******* joke!

 

[bird_man]

Burns and Renshaw have been recalled maybe on 3 occasions. The Marshes were verging on double digits so there is a difference

Burns and Renshaw were both dumped one test after being recalled too.

 

[bird_man]

Direct quote from Hohns, "We're also very mindful of the Big Bash that is going on and not disrupting the franchises by taking away too many of their players." What the actual f***???!! All that ails cricket at the moment surmised in a sentence.

Wow. I did not hear that. Shows what an absolute joke our selectors are.

 

[Blue bunker]

Don't know why anyone would ever suggest playing Pucovski over Burns, that's just insane. Batting line up will most likely be:
Renshaw
Burns
Harris
Khawaja
Head
Labushagne
Paine

When you put that batting line up down on paper no wonder they can't make runs.

 

[legend166]

Direct quote from Hohns, "We're also very mindful of the Big Bash that is going on and not disrupting the franchises by taking away too many of their players." What the actual f***???!! All that ails cricket at the moment surmised in a sentence.

To be fair I think what he means by this is not picking some 15 man squad when they know they aren't going to play a bunch of the guys. They're not basing their selection on the 11 based on not wanting to take players away from the Big Bash.

 

[Len Nicodemo]

Direct quote from Hohns, "We're also very mindful of the Big Bash that is going on and not disrupting the franchises by taking away too many of their players." What the actual f***???!! All that ails cricket at the moment surmised in a sentence.

To be fair, every other nation has a T20 team and competition. India have the IPL and they are the no.1 test cricketing nation, so where is the buck stopping? Well it’s not all T20 but it doesn’t help.

The issue is a segregation between T20 and Test Cricket. People are still assuming you can be a pro in both. You can’t. I heard Gideon Haigh say he’d have Jake Weatherald as a potential test opener based on BBL ‘form’ and the fact he looks ‘organised’. Now that’s a head Journalist, and that’s everything wrong with Cricket right now. Solutions;

1. Shield fixture should run alongside tests. Must have a concurrent second tier competition to move players if required for the national team.
2. CA needs to identify T20 players v Long Form game players. There’s a gross difference in skill set and it’s shown. I watched Chris Lynn in ODI cricket get worked over in about 3 balls by Dale Steyn. There’s just no competitive comparison.
3. Pick form shield players who have banked runs and have earnt it, I.e Wade, Patterson, Maxwell, Hughes.
4. Overhaul the selection panel and move on Hohns. He has proven to be agenda based and biased.

 

[Bad Horse]

Direct quote from Hohns, "We're also very mindful of the Big Bash that is going on and not disrupting the franchises by taking away too many of their players." What the actual f***???!! All that ails cricket at the moment surmised in a sentence.

Either Hohns has it wrong and should be sacked immediately for making that statement, or if he is operating correctly according to his direction from CA, then everyone in CA should be sacked now. Today.

 

[Len Nicodemo]

So your argument is that we shouldn't bat someone in his normal position because we don't usually bat people in their normal position?

That's worked fantastically for us recently (see: Aaron Finch.)

Exactly. There’s no reason Wade couldn’t have been placed at 6. He batted at 7 as wicket keeper batsman so batting at 6 as a specialist batsman is appropriate.

 

[Len Nicodemo]

We simply don't have the depth to cover 2 world top 5 bats.
It doesn't matter which combination we go with, Most of the ins will fall short of the mark.

Fast forward 6 months and this team looks pretty solid.

Warner
Harris
Khawaja
Smith
Head
Pucovski/Labuschagne
Paine
Cummins
Starc
Lyon
Hazlewood

Head will have more experience by the time Warner and Smith return and he certainly hasn't disgraced himself (Apart from his first knock hasn't been dismissed in single digits since), using the number 6 spot to continue to develop youth instead of the token all rounder that never seems to work for us.

You don’t need a token all rounder when you’ve got Maxwell, Patterson, Hughes all averaging 45+ since 2015 and Wade averaging 63 this season.

Technically if you absolutely have to pick an all rounder (and this should’ve been considered on Boxing Day) CA should’ve selected Henriques or Neser with current shield averages of 42 and 52 respectively, but we went with the guy who averages 9.9 in his last 13 tests?

 

[Len Nicodemo]

Other than all rounders who was the last aussie number 6 who batted 6 for his state. Batsmen have always pushed to bat higher at state level if they thought they were a chance

Who cares? He is in form as thoroughly deserves his chance. Even by that logic you’ve got Patterson and Hughes as the best options right now.