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

[The Swans Blog]

Whilst I'd pass on Wade, Maxwell I would actually happily select myself and I'm sure I've said this many, many times. I'm only calling out the ludicrous hyperbole over him being overlooked, there are valid reasons either way.

As for Lead Boots you would make a good captain, hanging on with him and going down with the sinking ship is very brave.

Like I said, he's better than the alternatives, even if his form and technique is a bit s**t. He is arguably the best fielder in Australia, alongside Maxwell. When Ponting was making ducks for fun, he was persisted with because he offered a lot in the field.

 

[eth-dog]

Whilst I'd pass on Wade, Maxwell I would actually happily select myself and I'm sure I've said this many, many times. I'm only calling out the ludicrous hyperbole over him being overlooked, there are valid reasons either way.

As for Lead Boots you would make a good captain, hanging on with him and going down with the sinking ship is very brave.

Yes but you seem to be the only one who's going with the hyperbole. You never acknowledge that he's been ****ed around in messages in regards to selection as well. If they came out and said "We view Maxwell as a white ball player only and this has been communicated to him" there'd be absolutely no issue but they give him messages that imply he's a chance at playing test cricket (in regards to County, Australia A tour) and then go back on what they want from him come selection time.

 

[hawkman]

Based on the squad named the batting
order i would go with

Harris
Khawaja
Labuschagne
Burns
Pucovski
Head

Labuschagne batted 3 in the last test, should be given the SL series to see how he goes at it. Burns into solidify the middle order. Pucovski ahead of Head as i think Head would only work well as a number 6, don't think he should be batting any higher

 

[Pykie]

Whilst there’s the BBL and a market for it, it’ll always get protected. CA will never compromise the BBL. Fans and people these days can get anything instantly, it’s a generation of instant results. You want something, you can get it virtually instantaneously.

Sport is entertainment, and when people can be given their entertainment in 3 hours as opposed to 5 days, they’ll gravitate to that. That’s one issue.

The other is that every country had a T20 competition so why aren’t we putting up good Test Cricketers? Well selection is one issue but the other is a cross over between T20 skill Sets and long form game skill sets. Scheduling is a huge issue, SS has to coincide with the summer test season so perhaps BBL needs to find a place at the end of the season?

Or as professional cricketers, an actual 5 month season is probably pretty archaic.

Only the absolute elite will be getting a county gig, or playing IPL or touring with the national side in the Northern summers.

We need to seriously look at a 4 day domestic comp in the NT and North Queensland that supplements the scheduling issues for Sheffield shield cricket, we are lucky we have the option, given the size of the country, but we very rarely have winter cricket tours, despite it being completely possible.

We would only need to have 4 or 5 teams, so that the standard is at it's absolute maximum.

Even a full reshuffle of the Shield itself, so that the eventual Shield winner is decided from the overall winter/summer winner if it is still needs to be state based so as the incentive to play the winter season is still high.

Hell, throw in 2 tests a year against one of Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland from a winter modified test team, a further incentive for Aus players to play at home during winter as there's a chance for a Baggy Green at the end of it, it give's us a chance to ease in and try out new young players without throwing them to the wolves, juice up the pitches in North QLD, or prepare a few bunsens etc so we have a variety of conditions all around the country.

 

[Len Nicodemo]

Wade had a bit to say about it actually, and everything aside, it sounds like JL really is a bit of a s**t talker, much like Mark Waugh. Making it clear that weight of runs would contribute to selection, he hasn’t put his money where his mouth is.

It seems that CA is happy to have a head coach who will ‘tow the line’, I think JL lacks some substance.

 

[hawkman]

Or as professional cricketers, an actual 5 month season is probably pretty archaic.

Only the absolute elite will be getting a county gig, or playing IPL or touring with the national side in the Northern summers.

We need to seriously look at a 4 day domestic comp in the NT and North Queensland that supplements the scheduling issues for Sheffield shield cricket, we are lucky we have the option, given the size of the country, but we very rarely have winter cricket tours, despite it being completely possible.

We would only need to have 4 or 5 teams, so that the standard is at it's absolute maximum.

Even a full reshuffle of the Shield itself, so that the eventual Shield winner is decided from the overall winter/summer winner if it is still needs to be state based so as the incentive to play the winter season is still high.

Hell, throw in 2 tests a year against one of Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland from a winter modified test team, a further incentive for Aus players to play at home during winter as there's a chance for a Baggy Green at the end of it, it give's us a chance to ease in and try out new young players without throwing them to the wolves, juice up the pitches in North QLD, or prepare a few bunsens etc so we have a variety of conditions all around the country.

There is no money in it, so it will never happen

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Wade had a bit to say about it actually, and everything aside, it sounds like JL really is a bit of a s**t talker, much like Mark Waugh. Making it clear that weight of runs would contribute to selection, he hasn’t put his money where his mouth is.

It seems that CA is happy to have a head coach who will ‘tow the line’, I think JL lacks some substance.

Don’t rate JL at all although finally getting rid of the Marsh brothers should be applauded.

Let’s stop pretending that Wade is the second coming of Bradman! He averages 20 odd at test level. What a waste of time that is. Pump games into some youth.

 

[Scotland]

Wade had a bit to say about it actually, and everything aside, it sounds like JL really is a bit of a s**t talker, much like Mark Waugh. Making it clear that weight of runs would contribute to selection, he hasn’t put his money where his mouth is.

It seems that CA is happy to have a head coach who will ‘tow the line’, I think JL lacks some substance.

Once again, JL doesn't pick the side. He is one voice on the selection panel.

Problem is, either JL is full of s**t and and weight of runs at Shield level (for example) don't really matter, or he has one hand tied behind his back by CA and the rest of the selectors, or both. Either or, it's not a good outcome for Australian cricket.

 

[Agent93]

Problem is, either JL is full of s**t and and weight of runs at Shield level (for example) don't really matter, or he has one hand tied behind his back by CA and the rest of the selectors, or both. Either or, it's not a good outcome for Australian cricket.

JL's not the only one making hypocritical comments in the media. CA's communication has been shithouse, they know they want to try new players and if they came out and said as much most folks (excepting the Maxwell/Wade fanboys) would be accepting of that. Problem is they've tried to obfuscate their reasoning and it's come off cack-handed and now they all look bad.

 

[Caesar]

Thread needs more Spud Patrol.

 

[The Casey Cat]

I think you’ll find Hohns and Chappell have been a problem far longer than Langer and probably outrank him in the CA hierarchy. This is why the knee jerk reactions to Langer annoy me.

Yes I'm getting to be more sympathetic to Langer's plight.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

 

[Scotland]

Trevor Hohns is the chairman of selectors, ultimately who is and isn't picked lands on him.

As far as Langer goes I'm more concerned about how many of our set batsmen got out to dumb shots and how poor our bowling was. Cummins bowled something like 75% short of a length for the series. No wonder we didn't get single LBW from our 3 quicks.

 

[big_e]

Or as professional cricketers, an actual 5 month season is probably pretty archaic.

Domestic cricket season (start of JLT Cup to end of Shield Final) is actually longer than the AFL season (first game of round one to Grand Final Day).

 

[Scotland]

Smith and Warner obviously excluded we should be picking our best XI for all tests. We usually do it for all home tests but if there's a test away from the 6 regular venues the selectors get a bit funny. Ditto if we tour to Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. They like to pick roughies and play around with the structure of the side. Our last test in Bangladesh we played Maxwell and Cartwright at 5 and 6 then Agar, O'Keefe and Lyon in the same side.

I'm on board with squads of 14/15 players and taking players on tours for experience but tour matches are for development. All tests should be treated the same whether we are playing England for the Ashes or Ireland for a pint of Guinness.

 

[Len Nicodemo]

Trevor Hohns is the chairman of selectors, ultimately who is and isn't picked lands on him.

As far as Langer goes I'm more concerned about how many of our set batsmen got out to dumb shots and how poor our bowling was. Cummins bowled something like 75% short of a length for the series. No wonder we didn't get single LBW from our 3 quicks.

Our bowling has been pretty undisciplined at times. Cummins seems to use the short ball as his stock ball.

 

[StingBitten]

Back on selection, I reckon Turner is one season away from making a test debut. His stats are more impressive in the short-form, but he has the values and temperament for test cricket - calm as a hindu cow under pressure because he hits what's there to be hit.

He can bat at 6, his bowling potential is also a little untapped and might do more damage in 5-10 overs that others need with 20.

 

[weetert]

Don’t rate JL at all although finally getting rid of the Marsh brothers should be applauded.

Let’s stop pretending that Wade is the second coming of Bradman! He averages 20 odd at test level. What a waste of time that is. Pump games into some youth.

In fairness to Wade, he was in a fairly big form slump last time he was selected.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

In fairness to Wade, he was in a fairly big form slump last time he was selected.

The selectors won’t be in a rush to select a bloke averaging 20 odd. Just the way it is.

 

[Scotland]

Back on selection, I reckon Turner is one season away from making a test debut. His stats are more impressive in the short-form, but he has the values and temperament for test cricket - calm as a hindu cow under pressure because he hits what's there to be hit.

He can bat at 6, his bowling potential is also a little untapped and might do more damage in 5-10 overs that others need with 20.

Turner has 262 runs @ 29 this year after putting up 650 @ 36 last year and 742 @ 53 the year before.

The trajectory is going the wrong way. His best chance is to show some form in T20I/ODI and be noticed that way.

 

[Scotland]

Our bowling has been pretty undisciplined at times. Cummins seems to use the short ball as his stock ball.

It's the go to for all our quicks. Our batsmen are ordinary against full pitched bowling too. They are so used to playing at balls a couple of inches above the stumps that they are bamboozled by a full ball on leg stump which Kohli and Pujara flick off the pads for 4 9 times out of 10.

If we're going to learn anything from this recent tour AKA the Pujara series hopefully it is that batsmen don't have to play at balls that aren't going to hit the stumps. Sure you'll get wickets from batsmen attacking balls wide of off stump or fending at rising deliveries into the head/chest the 'should I/shouldn't I play at it' channel just outside off hasn't stopped being a thing.

 

[weetert]

The selectors won’t be in a rush to select a bloke averaging 20 odd. Just the way it is.

Yes but last time they picked him he was averaging mid 20s in the shield. He had no form whatsoever and naturally he failed in the test arena.

 

[frankrizzo]

It's the go to for all our quicks. Our batsmen are ordinary against full pitched bowling too. They are so used to playing at balls a couple of inches above the stumps that they are bamboozled by a full ball on leg stump which Kohli and Pujara flick off the pads for 4 9 times out of 10.

If we're going to learn anything from this recent tour AKA the Pujara series hopefully it is that batsmen don't have to play at balls that aren't going to hit the stumps. Sure you'll get wickets from batsmen attacking balls wide of off stump or fending at rising deliveries into the head/chest the 'should I/shouldn't I play at it' channel just outside off hasn't stopped being a thing.

It was a worry that the bowling coach and lyon said the bowlers basically ignored the plans to bowl fuller so they could bang it in short all day, paine came out and supported them days later but i think he is worried about losing the dressing room and those bowlers seem to have a lot of sway in this fractured and inexperienced team.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Yes but last time they picked him he was averaging mid 20s in the shield. He had no form whatsoever and naturally he failed in the test arena.

They have moved on and frankly rightly so. I wouldn’t be in any rush to bring Wade back. There are alternatives.

 

[The Speaker]

Our bowling has been pretty undisciplined at times. Cummins seems to use the short ball as his stock ball.

Because he takes wickets with it. Starc should be using it sparingly to get a surprise wicket, Hazlewood virtually not at all.

 

[Agent93]

bowling potential is also a little untapped

See also: has a bung shoulder.