Unpopular Cricket Opinions

[Scotland]

Very true. It would be like India without Kohli and Pujara. Ppl can say oh but Smith might have got a duck but in all likelihood it’d be 2-0 down and basically over already.

The opposite would hold too if Australia were touring India and it was the other way around, in all likelihood.

I'd like to see Australia vs India on neutral ground. Maybe England or NZ which are the least like Indian/Australian conditions.

We're very poor in Indian conditions. We won in 2004/5 with an incredible team and have lost the next 5 series with a 1W 3D 10L record. This current side would be absolute cannon fodder.

 

[DIG]

Nah, no chance of that happening...

3-1?

 

[frankrizzo]

We seem to like batting in nz, many thought the kiwis would beat us a few years back but we scored plenty of runs, few months later we were awful in SL and then at home vs SA.

I would give most teams the edge over us in england, india play swing and bowl swing better than us.

 

[Oaktree]

Mitchell Johnson shouldn't be talking about Virat Kohli in the media.

He clearly doesn't like him and is getting a platform to showcase this under the guise of a 'media expert.'

 

[weetert]

I find the Pakistanis/Indians that flood the Australian cricket FB/twitter pages hilarious. They come up with some gold.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

Boxing Day is only noteworthy because of the size and antics of the crowd.

The MCG's pitches are s**t and there hasn't been a halfway memorable Boxing Day moment since Warne's 700th wicket.

 

[Richard Pryor]

I find the Pakistanis/Indians that flood the Australian cricket FB/twitter pages hilarious. They come up with some gold.

I love that no matter the two teams in a cricket video on youtube there's a decent chance there will be a massive India v Pakistan shitfight in the comments.

 

[PhatBoy]

Boxing Day is only noteworthy because of the size and antics of the crowd.

The MCG's pitches are s**t and there hasn't been a halfway memorable Boxing Day moment since Warne's 700th wicket.

Depends who you support. Steyn and duminy’s test was pretty good

 

[peternorth]

The term batters is s**t.

 

[big_e]

Boxing Day is only noteworthy because of the size and antics of the crowd.

The MCG's pitches are s**t and there hasn't been a halfway memorable Boxing Day moment since Warne's 700th wicket.

Would love to see how many they get if the first day of the MCG test was a work day in mid-November.

 

[weetert]

First Class statistics shouldn't include test matches.

 

[Demosthenes]

First Class statistics shouldn't include test matches.

You'd have to change the name to second-class then.

 

[Stopher]

The media blowing up every little thing said so far is boring already. It reminds me a little of that twat Ben Horne attempting the campaign against using Broad's name a few years back.

 

[PhatBoy]

The media blowing up every little thing said so far is boring already. It reminds me a little of that twat Ben Horne attempting the campaign against using Broad's name a few years back.

Yeah tend to agree. The back and forth with Paine and Kohli was a) awesome and b) a LOT tamer than exchanges of previous years.

 

[Wolfs]

The media blowing up every little thing said so far is boring already. It reminds me a little of that twat Ben Horne attempting the campaign against using Broad's name a few years back.

Well they have to sell ad space and click bait does it.

 

[Stopher]

Well they have to sell ad space and click bait does it.

In one. It's a sad reality of sports journalism in 2018.

 

[Wallaby]

Boxing Day is only noteworthy because of the size and antics of the crowd.

The MCG's pitches are s**t and there hasn't been a halfway memorable Boxing Day moment since Warne's 700th wicket.

I think the Test vs England in 2013 when the Poms had a lead of 50 in the first innings and were 0/60 in the 2nd (so basically 0/100), and then went on to be beaten by 8 wickets was one of the most dramatic turn-arounds in cricket history. Amazing match.

Certainly more memorable than a run-of-the-mill dismissal on the first day of a test match in a series that had already been decided. Just because Warne's wicket ticked over the odometer to '00's, doesn't make it a significant cricket moment in the match. The Channel 9 memorabilia department probably loved it.

 

[Stopher]

I think the Test vs England in 2013 when the Poms had a lead of 50 in the first innings and were 0/60 in the 2nd (so basically 0/100), and then went on to be beaten by 8 wickets was one of the most dramatic turn-arounds in cricket history. Amazing match.

Certainly more memorable than a run-of-the-mill dismissal on the first day of a test match in a series that had already been decided. Just because Warne's wicket ticked over the odometer to '00's, doesn't make it a significant cricket moment in the match. The Channel 9 memorabilia department probably loved it.

Mitch Johnson run out changed that game completely.

 

[Ishikawa]

Mitchell Johnson shouldn't be talking about Virat Kohli in the media.

He clearly doesn't like him and is getting a platform to showcase this under the guise of a 'media expert.'

He's learnt perfectly from Chappell and Warney as how to sustain a career in the media then!

I do agree though, you're retired now don't see the need to carry on with (predominantly on-field) grudges.

Not sure why people big up Bancroft like he's an established test player.

I would fancy Ishant and Bumrah shaping it away against Warner mainly because the wickets in the first two matches have been bowling friendly and Warner has always been vulnerable in such conditions. On flat tracks though, Warner would overcome that challenge.

But yeah Smith is a class player and a big miss. He wouldn't have averaged 100 like last time around because our bowling has improved much from 4 years ago, but he definitely could have made match winning contributions. Anyway we're just speculating here.

Bancroft was making a pretty reasonable fist of it though, was our leading scorer in South Africa even when all the supposed stars were there. With everything going so well in the Ashes he kind of became the punching bag, but in the majority of instances gave us a steady start meaning the likes of Anderson never got his tail up with early wickets. Harris looks to be made of the right stuff too, but I think he certainly has a future at international level.

 

[Park cricketer]

Bancroft was making a pretty reasonable fist of it though, was our leading scorer in South Africa even when all the supposed stars were there. With everything going so well in the Ashes he kind of became the punching bag, but in the majority of instances gave us a steady start meaning the likes of Anderson never got his tail up with early wickets. Harris looks to be made of the right stuff too, but I think he certainly has a future at international level.

Yeah I remember him getting a lot of 20s but failing to kick on in the last Ashes series. It's fair to say he was finding his feet in test cricket before he was banned. People group Bancroft a lot with Warner and Smith to insinuate his presence (along with the other two) would've made this series less of a contest than it is, while I don't think you can say with conviction that Bancroft would have performed any better or worse than what Harris has done this series (who has actually given a good account of himself for a rookie opener this series).

 

[royboy2]

Boxing Day is only noteworthy because of the size and antics of the crowd.

The MCG's pitches are s**t and there hasn't been a halfway memorable Boxing Day moment since Warne's 700th wicket.

Australia 98 all out, Boxing Day 2010

 

[Damon_3388]

Don't know if this is necessarily unpopular in hindsight (given how well Adam Gilchrist's career turned out), and I know he was a great gloveman, and had a good synergy with Warne, etc., but the idea that Ian Healy was hard done by to be dropped from the Test side when he was in 1999 is ridiculous. He was 35 years old, and averaged just 8.94 with the bat over his last 20 Test innings (0 hundreds, 0 fifties, 1 not-out). Perfect time to make a change.

 

[revo333]

Don't know if this is necessarily unpopular in hindsight (given how well Adam Gilchrist's career turned out), and I know he was a great gloveman, and had a good synergy with Warne, etc., but the idea that Ian Healy was hard done by to be dropped from the Test side when he was in 1999 is ridiculous. He was 35 years old, and averaged just 8.94 with the bat over his last 20 Test innings (0 hundreds, 0 fifties, 1 not-out). Perfect time to make a change.

I think it was the GABBA crowd that were the only ones that had a problem with it.

In the 90's a few players went on a few years too long.

Now they don't have the patience to give new players a few years to earn their spot.

 

[peternorth]

The BBL uniforms are s**t. What's with team logos descending from teh waist into the pants region?

 

[Oaktree]

As a cricketing contest, The Ashes are overrated and oversimplify test cricket for Australians.

The Pakistan series in the UAE now seems like it never happened.