onedaywinners... said:

Sorry lads I often only spend my time on the Socceroos threads on here!

Definitely a good hard look in the mirror needed by this ageing Aussie team. I don't think it's necessary to panic and make wholesale changes. If it was a 3 test series you may want to change a couple.

If it was me I'd be looking Marnus and Jake in the eyes and telling them 'if you don't ton up in this test you may never play test cricket again. What are you gonna do about it?!?'.

Agree that Bangladesh played a COMPLETE and BRILLIANT test match and they should be celebrated for how well they executed their skills away from home against a formidable opponent.

Can this great Aussie side respond in the second test?? If they don't then heads will most definitely roll.

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Great to have you back posting about cricket, ODW.

Agree we in Aus, particularly the Aussie media, should be shedding light on the good performance of Bangladesh, and how much they have improved. They are proving to be a tough opponent.

Aside from the fact the Bangladesh played well, the Austalian team is old and some players seem to be past their best.

We don't want to be in the position where most of the side retires or is dropped at the same time.

IMO pick 2 players who are the biggest problem and give 2 young guys a shot. 6 months later do the same thing.

Replacing 4 players per year may result in 8-10 players getting some test experience.

If a veteran player hits top form in the shield, they can always bring him back in.

There may be some early evidence that the standard of test cricket is improving and there are fewer lopsided contests or easy games.

Competitive international sport isn't meant to be easy.

Hounddog said:

Aside from the fact the Bangladesh played well, the Austalian team is old and some players seem to be past their best.

We don't want to be in the position where most of the side retires or is dropped at the same time.

IMO pick 2 players who are the biggest problem and give 2 young guys a shot. 6 months later do the same thing.

Replacing 4 players per year may result in 8-10 players getting some test experience.

If a veteran player hits top form in the shield, they can always being him back in.

There may be some early evidence that the standard of test cricket is improving and there are fewer lopsided contests or easy games.

Competitive international sport isn't meant to be easy.

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Good post, Hounddog.

Good to see you posting again about cricket!

Aussie A Tour of India squad: (probables)

Peter Handscomb, Fergus O’Neill Sam Konstas, Campbell Kellaway, Ollie Peake, Liam Hatcher, Joel Davies, Jack Edwards, Ben Dwarshuis, Josh Philippe, Aaron Hardie, Todd Murphy and Corey Rocchiccioli.

Hatcher are they kidding. One good season after yrs of mediocrity. Dwarshuis is 32, has played 10 FC games @39, how is this seen as international red ball standard. Where are our next genners, Campbell Thompson, Charlie Anderson, Mahli Beardman, Callum Vidler? Thompson specially, no reward for his demolition of the Bangladesh touring team?

Isn't Pete Handscomb a bit long in the tooth and Ollie Peake on spec/potential surely as his red ball figures dont stack up to being ready for international cricket. Kellaway hasnt exactly set the world on fire either, 44 @31 with only three tons and a moderate conversion rate at best.

My biggest question if this is the actual squad, is where are the Premiers? Liam Scott had an outstanding season and imho has a higher ceiling than Jack Edwards as an all rounder, while Jason Sangha is imho our best player of spin, up there with Handscomb and Philippe.

Plaudits tho picking my spin choices in Joel Davies and Rocco as they have the opportunity to ursurp incumbents Lyon and Kuhnemann to tour India next New Year.

I dont rate this squad any more than 5 out of 10 selectors. George Bailey and panel, you too are past your best, time to move on fellars.

LFC said:

WTF going on Richie !

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Like I said LFC, Aussies were rusty, underdone, not red ball ready, too much hit and giggle stuff leading into the Test. I blame the selectors as they prioritise white ball over red ball.

Hats off to the Bangers as they took down our pants and smacked our bums good and proper. I dont expect a repeat performance tho by the tourists in Mackay.

onedaywinners... said:

If it was me I'd be looking Marnus and Jake in the eyes and telling them 'if you don't ton up in this test you may never play test cricket again. What are you gonna do about it?!?'.

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Marnus survived the chop @onedaywinners, Weathers not so lucky. Marnus is now hanging onto his career by the skin of his teeth.

Good to see you posting, keep it up for our big series against Saffers, Indians and Poms over next 12 mths.

Richie said:

Marnus survived the chop @onedaywinners, Weathers not so lucky. Marnus is now hanging onto his career by the skin of his teeth.

Good to see you posting, keep it up for our big series against Saffers, Indians and Poms over next 12 mths.

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Not sure about you Rich but I really don't like the dropping of just Weatherald on his own. For me you need to drop both Marn and Jake or neither and you give them the test to bat for their careers.

Reason being if Jake was to ton up in the next test you'd hope here we go he's away! But if Marn tons up you still wouldn't be confident he wouldn't nick off for low scores in South Africa.

A bloody big match in shaping how the careers end of some of our current greats of the game starting on Sat!! Series on the line and for the most part this next stage of Australian test cricket!

Also hope Renshaw at the very least gets this test and the SA series to make the opening spot he's own. I think he's ready.

Richie said:

Aussie A Tour of India squad: (probables)

Peter Handscomb, Fergus O’Neill Sam Konstas, Campbell Kellaway, Ollie Peake, Liam Hatcher, Joel Davies, Jack Edwards, Ben Dwarshuis, Josh Philippe, Aaron Hardie, Todd Murphy and Corey Rocchiccioli.

Hatcher are they kidding. One good season after yrs of mediocrity. Dwarshuis is 32, has played 10 FC games @39, how is this seen as international red ball standard. Where are our next genners, Campbell Thompson, Charlie Anderson, Mahli Beardman, Callum Vidler? Thompson specially, no reward for his demolition of the Bangladesh touring team?

Isn't Pete Handscomb a bit long in the tooth and Ollie Peake on spec/potential surely as his red ball figures dont stack up to being ready for international cricket. Kellaway hasnt exactly set the world on fire either, 44 @31 with only three tons and a moderate conversion rate at best.

My biggest question if this is the actual squad, is where are the Premiers? Liam Scott had an outstanding season and imho has a higher ceiling than Jack Edwards as an all rounder, while Jason Sangha is imho our best player of spin, up there with Handscomb and Philippe.

Plaudits tho picking my spin choices in Joel Davies and Rocco as they have the opportunity to ursurp Lyon and Kuhnemann as Indian tourists in the New Year. Cant rate this any more than 5 out of 10 selectors. George Bailey and panel, you too are past are best, time to move on fellars.

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Good points raised by you, Baggers.

Liam Hatcher is old. Or looks it.

Agree about Liam Scott. Why isn’t he going?

Also, agree about Handscomb being too old.

onedaywinners... said:

Not sure about you Rich but I really don't like the dropping of just Weatherald on his own. For me you need to drop both Marn and Jake or neither and you give them the test to bat for their careers.

Reason being if Jake was to ton up in the next test you'd hope here we go he's away! But if Marn tons up you still wouldn't be confident he wouldn't nick off for low scores in South Africa.

A bloody big match in shaping how the careers end of some of our current greats of the game starting on Sat!! Series on the line and for the most part this next stage of Australian test cricket!

Also hope Renshaw at the very least gets this test and the SA series to make the opening spot he's own. I think he's ready.

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Labu is a pretty good fielder. Plus he bowls wrist spin and medium pace. Would these factors have helped prolong his career?

At age 21 I thought Renners looked like a long term Test prospect.

Richie said:

Like I said LFC, Aussies were rusty, underdone, not red ball ready, too much hit and giggle stuff leading into the Test. I blame the selectors as they prioritise white ball over red ball.

Hats off to the Bangers as they took down our pants and smacked our bums good and proper. I dont expect a repeat performance tho by the tourists in Mackay.

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Like the humour in the last sentence!

Ha ha!

onedaywinners... said:

Not sure about you Rich but I really don't like the dropping of just Weatherald on his own. For me you need to drop both Marn and Jake or neither and you give them the test to bat for their careers.

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Tend to agree. Dead set Aussie cricket is being run by the asylum's inmates at present. Weathers is more likely to peel off a scintillating century, like Head has done at times as I see little difference in technique between the two. If anything Weathers has the better one.

onedaywinners... said:

Also hope Renshaw at the very least gets this test and the SA series to make the opening spot he's own. I think he's ready.

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Is now 30, so yes he is as ready as he'll evr be. Averages under @40 FC which isnt all that good but he does have an exceptional conversion rate, 26-24, so once in he usually goes on with it. His main problem is seeing off first 50 balls as his record on consistency is clearly in the negative file, having passed 50 runs only 50 times from 234 innings. Pressure on him to deliver in Mackay will be huge as he attempts to resurrect his stalled Test career.

Richie said:

Tend to agree. Dead set Aussie cricket is being run by the asylum's inmates at present. Weathers is more likely to peel off a scintillating century, like Head has done at times as I see little difference in technique between the two. If anything Weathers has the better one.

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Surely we have some young batsmen impressing at shield level?

I prefer at least one solid opening bat who is reliable and hard to dismiss.

I think Renshaw deserves another shot, but why aren't we seeing more young players make their debut?

A young guy getting a few tests then getting dropped (a), coming back a few years later as a much better player (b) was a very common pattern.

There is no (b) wjth out (a), and sometimes a young guy nails it from day 1.

Young guys are also often excellent in the field, and fast to the ball.

IMO Australian fielding standards are dropping, and we used to have more young guys in the test team.

Hounddog said:

Surely we have some young batsmen impressing at shield level?

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Good to see a new name on the cricket thread @Hounddog.

Sam Konstas (5) was the only youngster in the top 10 ranked bats from last season. You have to go down to Liam Scott (12) to find he next youngest, then the other under 25s like Konstas, Kellerway (15) , Salzman (26) Shaw (27), Peake (36), Goodwin (42), Weibgen (53), Dixon (64) All these guys played 5 or more shield matches. The fact is Aussie cricket is not producing the kind of red ball batting talent it did last generation. We have to blame too much emphasis on limited overs formats for this.

It can't be under stated the impact on the Aussie spicy decks over the past season or two. I mean even test level batters are getting obliterated on these pitches.

There was a somewhat interesting article on how the Aus setup is viewing these differing stats now in this context:

My take is that the impact of short form cricket actually is more to do with the batters coming into red ball games and trying to bat COMPLETELY differently rather than just treating it mostly the same with the caveat that there is no limited overs to bat. I mean at the end of the day you've still got a bat and they've still got a ball. The over complication in the mind is the real battle of batting.

Richie said:

Good to see a new name on the cricket thread @Hounddog.

Sam Konstas (5) was the only youngster in the top 10 ranked bats from last season. You have to go down to Liam Scott (12) to find he next youngest, then the other under 25s like Konstas. Kellerway (15) , Salzman (26) Shaw (27), Peake (36), Goodwin (42), Weibgen (53), Dixon (64) All these guys played 5 or more matches. The fact is Aussie cricket is not producing the kind of red ball batting talent it did last generation. We have to blame too much emphasis on limited overs formats for this.

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Richie, I get your summary regards to all the pyjama type cricket played but couldn't you question the mind factor lacking regards to being patient playing the red ball game ?
All these guys/kids idols have been the past magic test cricketers of the last 15/20yrs for eg. let alone hearing of the greats us ol codgers grew up with.

As discussed not seeing many young ones given a go having a ageing squad - we all talked about this post Ashes recently as well.
I sometimes wonder IF CA is partly to blame not encouraging or putting their neck out on debuting more young players in fear of loss's and the commercial/SMedia lash backs that are rife today.
Lets face its all about the revenue now and pecking order.
We have a lot of pressure period to perform let alone win every game tbh no matter what/who/when.

Or is it a fact we arn't producing period ?
I certainly don't see the cricket nets filled after school like I used to back int he day ??? nor do I see Shield cricket as prestigious or visible as it once was as well.
Just some random thoughts

Quicky said:

View attachment 9002

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To be fair it’s not like they’re playing great teams in cricket. Their last five T20Is were against Croatia (five), Finland, the Isle of Man, Luxembourg and Bulgaria. They don’t play tests.

I need to see a Croatian cricket Jersey with the red and white squares.