What demon's plague Usman?

[dan warna]

2 years ago he was the next best thing.

last year he was on the cusp of cementing a spot in the Australian batting order.

In a team crying out for a some stability with many places available and probably at least 2 more spots coming open in the next season or two, he fell over in a heap at the wrong time.

He probably seemed to me the MOST likely to get a test berth from the NSW young guns (smith, hughes and Usman). I really thought he had all the boxes ticked for being an opener.

Right now he seems on the garbage heap and his form is garbage. Is it mental? did CA screw up his career by sending mixed messages? Is he a crap batsman that over-performed for a couple of seasons?

I don't know what has gone wrong? It is Cam White syndrome? did CA dispatch people to 'talk to him' about his technique and what was expected from him?

In a team crying out for another generation of batsman, he could miss his opportunity.

Atm, looking at our batting line up, I see clarke, Warner and Watson as the only ones who will be guaranteed a spot in 2 years time.

cowan, marsh, hussey, punter and haddin while had an 'indian summer' all have question marks on them.

Hussey and punter due to age, these two will retire as all time greats soon. Haddin is rubbish, marsh's form has deserted him in all forms and Cowan is a grinder.

Usman has a gilt edged opportunity and despite his talent he's letting it slip by.

 

[Bomber Bears]

He's in rubbish form and at the end of the day it's up to him to turn that around, think he needs a break and recharge at this point followed by a hopefully productive season at Derbyshire.

I think he was pretty poorly handled in his time in the Australian team really, never allowed to settle in a role, and I suspect this is playing on him at present. Put in as Punter's replacement at three, next tour match comes down to him vs Marsh and he knocks a century which gets him a spot in the Aust side, at number six (with a view of a long term apprentichsip down there I guess). Doesnt make runs first test (not alone there), Punter goes home for birth of child. Marsh gets the spot at three and Ussie left at 6, Marsh makes ton and Ussie is on 15* or so when Australia declares, gets dropped next test.

Then its Marsh's back stuffing up, Khawaja back in the side at three, makes 65 in the second innings, top score in a record chase on that ground. First test in Brisbane he bats really well first innings, showing good temprement, hitting whats there but leaving what he doesnt have to play, before getting run out just after tea for 38. Down in Hobart he fails in a match where only Warner and Siddle made runs, yet still scored more than Punter or Huss in the second innings disaster, then dropped once more, amongst whispers of poor fielding (same excuse for Jaques getting dropped).

Pisses me off a bit because he just wasnt allowed to settle in the side at all, he just needed to break through for that big score which who knows, maybe Brisbane was that match. What it also said was the complete lack of acountability for some of the shit dished up by the senior guys across that SA/NZ series, where they preferred to sacrafice the young players to protect the older brigade.

And yeah, Punter and Huss went and cashed in against India, but whose to say what Khawaja would've done if he's not given that chance of an extended run. He couldnt have been worse than Marsh anyway.

Big fan of Khawaja and really hope he can turn it around and grab a spot.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

He had his chances, and blew them. If he'd converted some of those starts he'd still be in the team...but history shows he didn't.

Needs a big season over in England and then for NSW to be considered.

 

[dan warna]

Me too He seems to have the building blocks of a great opening batsman/ no.3 but...

I agree re: CA and hilditch.

Probably marginally worse for me watching khawaja's implosion this year than watching Cam White's implosion over the past 2 years as I've resigned myself to his form loss

 

[LosBeatles]

It was all this 'Aussie Ussie' cr@p when he first made his debut, trying to use him as a shining light to show the world how multi cultural we are. All the hype around his debut match was too much.

If he was just allowed to make his start to international cricket and get on with it he would been much better off. Instead channel 9 tried to make him into a Martin Luther King, uniting the races figure, which made his debut a lot tougher and messed up his head.

 

[adamj1300au]

maybe everyone has just over rated usman khawaja? hughes and smith both have better first class records than him, all three where given a chance at test level all have turned out duds so far!

time to do the dreaded thing and move on to 5 of the other states and give some of the talent there a go. let the khawaja, smith and hughes stay in the state system and prove them self

 

[Bomber Bears]

maybe everyone has just over rated usman khawaja? hughes and smith both have better first class records than him, all three where given a chance at test level all have turned out duds so far!

time to do the dreaded thing and move on to 5 of the other states and give some of the talent there a go. let the khawaja, smith and hughes stay in the state system and prove them self

I'd say for a while the only young batsmen scoring plenty of runs have been from NSW, so you can bitch all you want but it's up to those from other states to score runs. Fortunately the likes of Burns, Davis etc have been doing well this season.

Ussie's technique is what puts him apart from Hughes and Smith, which is why alot wanted him to do well because he has an even temprement and a solid (but not flawless) technique

 

[MisterMarcus]

Well he's had his chances but unfortunately for him, didn't make the most of them. Lots of gritty 15's and 20's that needed to be turned into big scores.

I'm not sure of all the talk of him being "stuffed around". He was only one of several players (e.g. Marsh) in competition for a spot, so the onus was on him to make runs and freeze the other contendors out. He never really did that.

There was certainly alot of hype (not his fault of course) and perhaps he felt under a bit of pressure to live up to it. Maybe the best thing for him is for the caravan to move on to Forrest and Bailey and others, and allow him to go about racking up a mountain of Shield runs in "peace".

 

[Wallaby]

Technique is over-rated in cricket. Obviously you need a good base, but there are more important things than a perfect technique.

Good eye, good reflexes, muscle speed, good decision making are all as important to a batsman as technique. And most important is the ability to concentrate and reproduce your technique and decision making again and again and again. The mental side is huge.

Usman's another young kid who had a good season, tried out tests and didn't make it. He might join the list like Hayden, Steve Waugh, Martyn, Ponting etc who got dropeed early in their career. Or that might have been his chance.

 

[Phone]

can't play off the front foot. was showing some positive signs in that aspect in the Vic match, but then he'd throw away a start. QLD are trying to get him and I think a move might suit him.

 

[King Elvis]

Bombers is right, and he never should've been dropped for Marsh.

 

[Team DJ]

I think he should open with Warner.
Cowan got rewarded for one summer for scoring a truck load of shield runs, but isnt good enough for any more then that.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

It was all this 'Aussie Ussie' cr@p when he first made his debut, trying to use him as a shining light to show the world how multi cultural we are. All the hype around his debut match was too much.

If he was just allowed to make his start to international cricket and get on with it he would been much better off. Instead channel 9 tried to make him into a Martin Luther King, uniting the races figure, which made his debut a lot tougher and messed up his head.

No young player coming into test cricket needed all that rubbish. The media carry on over his first innings at the SCG was embarrassing for all concerned.

He'll sort himself out and start getting runs again next season, I'm sure. I hope he can fly under the radar for now at Derbyshire.

 

[Phone]

the good news for usman is that the Tiflex ball that seamed and swung way too much have been phrased out of Div II cricket, so he probably shouldn't perform as badly as he did for Derbyshire last season

 

[R00StaR]

Technique is over-rated in cricket. Obviously you need a good base, but there are more important things than a perfect technique.

Good eye, good reflexes, muscle speed, good decision making are all as important to a batsman as technique. And most important is the ability to concentrate and reproduce your technique and decision making again and again and again. The mental side is huge.

Usman's another young kid who had a good season, tried out tests and didn't make it. He might join the list like Hayden, Steve Waugh, Martyn, Ponting etc who got dropeed early in their career. Or that might have been his chance.

Our coach used to put little signs out on the ground that you couldn't help but read while doing training drills. One said "90% of cricket is played above the shoulders".

While im still not sure i agree its that much, it sure is a shitload. Look at Marsh, one of the most talented batsmen ive ever seen, geez i still hope he can make it. It would be like watching a modern day David Gower in Aussie colours.

 

[BluesMan]

young and inexperienced demons maybe??

 

[Phone]

i wouldn't say technique is over-rated as much as people have a funny idea of good technique. All these people were going around saying Usman had a perfect technique. He doesn't. He's shit on the front foot, always has been, and he chokes the **** out of his bat. But I dunno know because he's shit at OD cricket people seem to think that's a sign he's got a perfect test match technique or something

 

[Bomber Bears]

He hits his shots crisply and moves his feet well and is very good off the back foot.

But yeah front foot play not great.

Interesting reading Steve Waughs autobiography though, the talk there about players who constanly have an axe over them (as Khawaja seemed to) alot just cannot settle into their natural game, maybe Khawaja's in the catagory.

He could almost benifit from a game or two opening in the ODI team, is one day form has been good of late (2 tons in three matches this year) so maybe that'd be a good idea? Bottom line I guess is he has to go out there and score runs again.

 

[Zeke]

The worst sin of current (and recent) selection panels is picking players out of form. It's the worst option for everyone.

It just didn't happen in decades past, but for the last 10 or so years we've been throwing spots and blokes who have performed, but aren't in great current form.

Timing is everything, if Usman had been given an opportunity when he was cherry ripe, he might still be in the side.

 

[peternorth]

it was a feel good story in a summer of discontent. needed something to give hope to the public after getting hammered by the poms.

 

[Black Diamond]

Plenty of people consider a gritty 20-30 a bad thing. I don't. It is really hard when you're out of form to get a start. He showed much more resolve doing that then Marsh did when out of touch.

 

[legend166]

There's still two spots opening up in the middle order over the next couple of years so he just need a good summer and he'll be right back in it.

 

[PykeDream]

He's 26 later this year, still plenty of time for him to forge a career with Hussey and Ponting retiring in the next year or two.

There'll be:
Warner
Cowan
Watson
Clarke

But there's still two spots available, Forrest is in the mix for one but few others are smashing the door down at a reasonable age. Not to mention the inevitable injuries that will probably make him hard to ignore at some point.

 

[Thommo 42]

Not sure how you can say Warner is a lock for the next 2 years at Test Level?

Check out what happened to Phil Hughes....

As for the suggestion Jacques was dropped due to poor fielding, what complete rubbish. Jacques scored a ton in his final test and then booked a risky back operation because he scould no longer even lie down in bed in any comfort. History will tell you he never really recovered properly and earnt his spot back - which is a great shame as I firmly believe he'd still be opening for Aus had his injury not intervened.

 

[dan warna]

Not sure how you can say Warner is a lock for the next 2 years at Test Level?

Check out what happened to Phil Hughes....

I'm hoping, that his last 3 ODI innings showed improved maturity.

IF he returns to throwing away his wicket to dumbass shots, then I'm off the Warner bandwagon.