Cricket 2013

[AF.]

Another collapse by Australia. Where's Hussey when you need him?

Haddin, Smith and Hughes need to go. Simple.

 

[Wrestling with Shadows]

Another collapse by Australia. Where's Hussey when you need him?

Bossin' it in 20/20 as usual.

Honestly, watching the Aussie bowling, I was thinking Gilchrist would be a better bowling option than what you guys have going at the moment but Roots performance however really buried Australia in this test.

And I'm not even a test match fan, only a 20/20 fan xD!

 

[Troy]

Well that was a thrashing, batsmen yet again let down the bowlers and the fielders weren't much help either. Still annoyed at Haddin not going for two easy catches, keeper should dive for everything that is between him and the first slip. Nice to see DRS fail again with Agar's dismissal. We were thoroughly outplayed all test but still it would be nice if the umpires could actually make the correct decisions with all the technology available to them.

I don't really know what the team should be next test, we need some stability so continuing to chop and change the order isn't really helping. Would like to see Watson dropped for being an idiot but it probably won't happen, tempting to drop him and bring in Wade as a specialist batsman. Hughes needs to be given a stable batting position, he has been used at three and then now this series he has been 6, 5 and 4. Put him in one spot and leave him there. Agar should be dropped, carrying injuries and has been ineffective with the ball. No reason to burn him out at 19 years old. Bring back Lyon, who should never have been dropped in the first place after doing so well in India. As for the other three bowlers I am tempted to bring Bird in because he should excel in these conditions but I can't see any other pace bowler being dropped.

 

[Dale]

Why was Starc dropped Troy, I thought he looked a decent bowler to be honest with the left arm and swinging it back in.

 

[AF.]

Bossin' it in 20/20 as usual.

Honestly, watching the Aussie bowling, I was thinking Gilchrist would be a better bowling option than what you guys have going at the moment but Roots performance however really buried Australia in this test.

And I'm not even a test match fan, only a 20/20 fan xD!

The bowlers aren't the problem. They've been doing a good job with the ball and an even better job in the tail. It is the top order that needs to be assessed and re-evaluated.

 

[AF.]

Well that was a thrashing, batsmen yet again let down the bowlers and the fielders weren't much help either. Still annoyed at Haddin not going for two easy catches, keeper should dive for everything that is between him and the first slip. Nice to see DRS fail again with Agar's dismissal. We were thoroughly outplayed all test but still it would be nice if the umpires could actually make the correct decisions with all the technology available to them.

I don't really know what the team should be next test, we need some stability so continuing to chop and change the order isn't really helping. Would like to see Watson dropped for being an idiot but it probably won't happen, tempting to drop him and bring in Wade as a specialist batsman. Hughes needs to be given a stable batting position, he has been used at three and then now this series he has been 6, 5 and 4. Put him in one spot and leave him there. Agar should be dropped, carrying injuries and has been ineffective with the ball. No reason to burn him out at 19 years old. Bring back Lyon, who should never have been dropped in the first place after doing so well in India. As for the other three bowlers I am tempted to bring Bird in because he should excel in these conditions but I can't see any other pace bowler being dropped.

Hughes needs to drop to 6. Smith and Haddin out. Wade and Katich in. You can't drop Watson, he is too effective as a medium pacer and can really fire with the bat when he gets going. He's just out of form at the moment, and I have a feeling he'll be back to his old self soon he just needs a kick up the ass.

No changes to the bowlers, give Agar another game. He is too handy with the bat and a promising youngster. No point bringing in Lyon now. May as well keep him rested for the next series in Aus. I guess you could probably rotate between Harris-Starc-Pattinson. Siddle is cemented in the side no matter what.

Batting order for next test should be:
Katich
Rogers
Khawaja
Watson
Clarke
Hughes
Wade
Agar
Pattinson
Siddle
Harris

Katich gets his final hoorah. Aus likes the two left handed openers, Rogers/Katich will complement each other well. Watson's been batting too high, could either have him at 4 or 7 swap with Wade. Khawaja has the right mindset and will be a regular in the side even if he isn't putting up huge numbers.

 

[AZUCAR!]

I honestly see this as being a 5-0 whitewash. I can't see Australia winning a Test in this series.

 

[Troy]

Why was Starc dropped Troy, I thought he looked a decent bowler to be honest with the left arm and swinging it back in.

Basically Ryan Harris when fit, which to be honest isn't that often, is our best bowler. His bowling style also suited the slopes of Lords perfectly so he had to get a game. Siddle probably would have been dropped but he took 8 wickets at Trent Bridge so he had to stay. Pattinson has been our best bowler in recent series and is more consistent than Starc so he got the nod over him. Starc unfortunately is a bit similar to Johnson where when he is on he is a great bowler but when he is off he is terrible.

Hughes needs to drop to 6. Smith and Haddin out. Wade and Katich in. You can't drop Watson, he is too effective as a medium pacer and can really fire with the bat when he gets going. He's just out of form at the moment, and I have a feeling he'll be back to his old self soon he just needs a kick up the ass.

No changes to the bowlers, give Agar another game. He is too handy with the bat and a promising youngster. No point bringing in Lyon now. May as well keep him rested for the next series in Aus. I guess you could probably rotate between Harris-Starc-Pattinson. Siddle is cemented in the side no matter what.

Katich gets his final hoorah. Aus likes the two left handed openers, Rogers/Katich will complement each other well. Watson's been batting too high, could either have him at 4 or 7 swap with Wade. Khawaja has the right mindset and will be a regular in the side even if he isn't putting up huge numbers.

Smith has to stay, looked solid in India against spin when the rest of the line up looked terrible and looked good at Trent Bridge. Plus it is handy to have an allrounder that can take the ball away from the bat. Watson has to go, he campaigned to get the opening spot back and still has that fatal flaw in his batting style by stepping too far forward opening him up for LBW. He has played 43 tests and only has two centuries and in the past three years has averaged 25 with the bat with only 21 wickets in 17 tests during that time. He is a senior player that has to stand up yet time and time again fails in test cricket.

I still don't agree with Lyon's axing from the first test so I want him back. Plus Agar is meant to be carrying a hip injury so they may as well rest him.

I honestly see this as being a 5-0 whitewash. I can't see Australia winning a Test in this series.

I can't see it being 5-0, we batted terribly in the first test and were only a dozen runs away from winning. If our batting clicks it will be a much closer contest.

Unfortunately James Pattinson has been ruled out for the series due to injury again. We just can't keep our top pace bowlers fit and healthy for the past few years. Will miss not just his aggressive bowling but his batting as well. Bird should come into the team as his bowling style is perfect for English conditions but I can see them choosing Faulkner because of how strong his batting is.

 

[Troy]

Warner hit 193 in an Australia A match in South Africa over night. Will probably get put straight back into the team even though he had two failures against Zimbabwe A on the same tour. Tour match starting soon and because of players overseas, injuries and resting players we only have 10 players. Had to pick Ashton Turner and Travis Head who are currently at the Hampshire academy. Turner is a spinner and Head is a top order batsman from SA. Couldn't hurt to try them.

With the way our batting has gone so far this series I think that we should steal an idea from the great Sir Donald Bradman, reverse the batting order Send numbers 10 and 11 in first to face off the new ball and then the openers can come in at the end to top up the score.

 

[AF.]

I trust Agar and Pattinson to do a decent job if they ever were to face the new ball. That isn't a bad idea at all. Surprised it isn't used more often.

 

[Troy]

If I remember right Bradman once used it when poor weather made the pitch extremely difficult to bat on. Used the tail to bat out the day to protect the batsmen, the next day the weather was better and the pitch was better and Bradman scored 270*. Worked very well for him. We need some clever captaincy like that to get our batting order to work.

In all seriousness it would be nice if we had a balanced batting order. Hughes alone has changed batting position seven times since the start of the Indian series. Look in an order and stick with it rather than changing it not just every test but every innings. Clarke bats best at five so he should stay there and build the order around him.

Have you heard the rumour that Clarke might retire after the home Ashes series? He is 33 and his back issues hamper him every day so he thinks that that would be a good time to bow out. Would be a big loss as he has been our only decent batsman lately and there are no decent captaincy candidates either.

 

[Dale]

Bowing out after possibly winning the Ashes back on home soil would be a great sendoff no doubt, but would he want to do the same on a possible back-to-back ashes defeat?

 

[Troy]

The perfect scenario would be that home Ashes win, if it was back to back loses I think it would depend on how bad the back is. Preferably he would give up T20 and ODI cricket first and play only test cricket to prolong his career but I don't know if he would be willing to do that. It may also depend on how strong the team is looking, if he knew that there was a decent replacement for him as captain and in the batting lineup he may feel more comfortable walking away.

 

[AF.]

Have you heard the rumour that Clarke might retire after the home Ashes series? He is 33 and his back issues hamper him every day so he thinks that that would be a good time to bow out. Would be a big loss as he has been our only decent batsman lately and there are no decent captaincy candidates either.

It almost seems as though he's too young to retire, but he has been around a while in hindsight. Right now would be the absolute worst time for him to leave. He is by far our best player, and a top 5 batsmen in the world at the moment. There will be a massive gap to fill if he does decide to retire. We're still hurting from Hussey and Ponting's retirement.

I think Siddle should take the reigns for something different. He seems to motivate the team better than anybody and while it is unconventional to have a fast pace bowler as the captain it might be something worth looking in to. Otherwise you would have to stick it to someone young who has a solidified spot in the team, and the only person you could consider having a solidified spot in the team at the moment is Siddle.

 

[Troy]

It almost seems as though he's too young to retire, but he has been around a while in hindsight. Right now would be the absolute worst time for him to leave. He is by far our best player, and a top 5 batsmen in the world at the moment. There will be a massive gap to fill if he does decide to retire. We're still hurting from Hussey and Ponting's retirement.

I think Siddle should take the reigns for something different. He seems to motivate the team better than anybody and while it is unconventional to have a fast pace bowler as the captain it might be something worth looking in to. Otherwise you would have to stick it to someone young who has a solidified spot in the team, and the only person you could consider having a solidified spot in the team at the moment is Siddle.

It would be a huge loss if he does go. Hussey retiring out of the blue has really hurt us, we needed his experience to counter all the young batsmen that we have in the team. Unfortunately our other experienced batsman in Watson and Haddin haven't really helped Clarke that much.

Siddle is the only player basically guaranteed a game besides Clarke but he doesn't seem that bright and I don't know how he would go juggling captaincy as well as his bowling. I have no issue with a bowler being made captain but I don't think Siddle is the right guy. As crazy as it sounds if Clarke does retire soon I see them bringing in Bailey as captain.