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Summer of Cricket thread

Talent wise, the Pom team matched up well.

Fitness, preparation, training, selection and strategy is where they lost the series.

By the end of the series, these areas started to improve, and they learned some valuable lessons.

For tne next ashes series in the UK, accurate pace and spin bowling will probably be the key.

While many of the Pom bowlers had pace, only Tongue and Stokes were consistently accurate. Loose bowling and dropped catches were additional reasons why they lost.

We might get one more ashes series out of Starc, Cummins, Boland and Neser.

We need an accurate spinner for the next series and I would like to see both Green and Webster stay in the squad.

Pom batsmen sometimes scored quickly, but attacking accurate bowling is higher risk.

Test cricket will never be like short form games, because sometimes accurate bowling in the right areas builds pressure and does plenty, attacking it is high risk.

In addition to the bowling issues we need to find a solid reliable opening partner for Head. Preferably a tall right hander with a solid defence, good at leaving the ball, and a calm unflustered personality.
Konstas looks to be a decent option long term.

Another ripper I’ve just seen in the NSW second eleven, is Riley Kingsell, a right handed opener. Richie knows all about him!

I’ve met him as a sight screen attendant on the boundary. Classy batter with good technique.
 
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Thompson and Anderson
They were to play a CA game (YT) against the Poms first X1 but they pulled out with the Lions playing instead. Both performed well. Anderson 20, is very much in the Hazlewood mold while Thompson 21, is a left arm swing bowler. Anderson, Beardman and Vidler played in same U19s team against the U19 Poms (Junior Ashes) in '24 think it was. Full replay is also on YT.
 
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They were to play a CA game against the Poms first X1 but they pulled out with the Lions playing instead. Both performed well. Anderson 20, is very much in the Hazlewood mold while Thompson 21, is a left arm swing bowler. Anderson, Beardman and Vidler played in same U19s team against the U19 Poms in '24 think it was.
Good to read this!

Thanks for posting!
 
A forum is just a place to express opinions.

We can agree to disagree about Usman. I’ve acknowledged he has been a very good batter aged 34-37.

He has also been a thorn in Tas’s side in the Shield. Probably, when he should have been playing Test cricket.

Green’s young age and relative inexperience works well for him.

Just move on.
Agree. Opinions are valid. Discussion is valid. Doesn't mean opinions can't be wrong.

I'm not saying you are, just think we shouldn't glaze players if they didn't deserve it.

Uzzie was shit this series and if he chose not to retire, I'd be calling for him to be dropped.
 
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Webster scored 71 and I think the next result was an increase in the Australian lead by 100.

If we played a specalist spinner we might have been chasing an additional 100 runs.

The big unknown is how many additional wickets a specalist spinner might have taken.

England's part time spinners were also reasonably effective.

If either side had a spinner proven to be as good as Warne or Lyon, they would have played.

The dilema for selectors is how to develop spinners, i think that they can include a specalist spinner if they omit a batsman or an all-rounder, but often the additional batting depth is handy.

So i am execting pitch conditions to be a factor, and specialist spinners not being an automatic selection in some matches.

The pendulim swings, spinners will have more impact when they do play, because conditions will suit and batsmen will be less familiar with spin.
 
The dilema for selectors is how to develop spinners, i think that they can include a specialist spinner if they omit a batsman or an all-rounder, but often the additional batting depth is handy.
Name me a slow bowler from the modern Test era who could also bat. The obvious one that springs to mind is Richie Benaud, but are there any others. Peter Sleep could also bat but he only played 14 Tests, while Terry Jenner and Bruce Yardley were no more than handy with the willow.

Have noticed over the past two yrs a new trend creeping in with more emerging specialist spinners being adept at batting too, cricketers such as Joel Davies, Raf MacMillan, Ethan Jamieson, Cameron Frendo, Zed Hollick and there are a couple of 18yr olds, Aryan Sharma and Will Malaczuc (s) in the just picked Aussie U19 WC squad. Perhaps this is due to their junior coaches insisting they contribute with the bat or the player themselves wanting to add batting to his skillset to enhance his chances of selection in a dog eat dog world for spinners.
 
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The Big Bash is on ATM.

I'm an exception, but I boycott watching it even living a short walk from Hobart Hurricanes ground.

Why?

Half the HH team seem like our opponents in the Shield. They don't live here.

Tassie players play for other franchises.

I hate the blaring music in between balls, so one cannot talk to your mates next to you.

I think T20 is killing Shield and second eleven red ball cricket.

At the same time I acknowledge 95% of current cricket fans love franchise T20!
 
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Half the HH team seem like our opponents in the Shield. They don't live here.
I can associate with that DC. Hearing that this year there is to be a revamped World T20 Club Championships, which disbanded in 2014. From memory Aussie teams were mainly composed of home grown players. The Sydney Sixers won it one yr and the whole team comprised all Blues players.
 
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The Big Bash is on ATM.

I'm an exception, but I boycott watching it even living a short walk from Hobart Hurricanes ground.

Why?

Half the HH team seem like our opponents in the Shield. They don't live here.

Tassie players play for other franchises.

I hate the blaring music in between balls, so one cannot talk to your mates next to you.

I think T20 is killing Shield and second eleven red ball cricket.

At the same time I acknowledge 95% of current cricket fans love franchise T20!
this shows the changing of the gaurd/gens ol D and some of us here.
I can't stand or watch any of this BB kind of stuff for years - the last ODS I enjoyed was way back in the pioneering days of Packer pyjama 50over now that was epic days but I degress showing my age.

Hence enjoying the Ashs so much just passed, putting aside all the debates of selections etcetc it was riverting viewing (always is when your winning) but this is cricket for me - I will hardly watch any limited over barring the WC.
 

another example of how england talks about our cricket culture the way we talk about some country's football culture
A good article with the narrative being Australias passion for cricket. For instance compare with England, our modern or revamped Test stadiums, all larger with longer boundaries and none with less than 40k crowd capacity.
 
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but this is cricket for me
For sure mate, the only pure form of cricket. The only form that draws a small boy unable to access a cricket ground to stand and watch fragments of a game thru the gaps in the gate. Like I once did and prob countless other little boys have done, so did Ussie and betting The Don would have done likewise.
 
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Has the big bash regained popularity? Wasn't it losing people a few years ago?
When I talk to the two leaders of Cricket Tas, T20 is booming in places like the US and Canada.

Cricket is growing in popularity:

1. Because of the Indian diaspora.

2. T20 short format.

This is what I’ve been told by senior cricket execs.
 
FOX CRICKET LOOKS INTO THE CRYSTAL BALL... ASHES 2029:
Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Jhye Richardson, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Sam Konstas, Campbell Kellaway, Ollie Peake, Oliver Patterson, Mahli Beardman, Xavier Bartlett, Callum Vidler, Cooper Connolly, Harry Dixon, Matt Renshaw.

My crystal ball has Morris, Philippe (w/k), Roccochioli , Hardie, Haskett, Anderson, Ward , McSweeney in the squad for those penciled thru.
My bolters are lefty quick Cam Thompson, Louis Smith (r/a), Raf MacMillan (ob), Riley Kingsell (bat), Ryan Hicks/Zac Curtain (w/k).
 
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ATM it is peak T20 season.

In Cricket Tas Members about 40-50 of us are red ball cricket tragics. The rest love BBL.

It seems like there isn’t much support for BBL on here?

Am I correct?

Nobody is reporting much on all the T20 games being played.
 
Not even close. I put Watson in the third tier all round class. Green has potential to be Tier 1 whereas Watson may have had Tier 2 potential but lacked consistency. Only 4 centuries from 59 matches. I do rate his bowling tho, was better than a bits and pieces bowler for mine.
Why the shock DC?
 
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