Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the Aussies have a top range of Shield batsmen knocking down the door to the test side as we have always had.
Some real quality batsmen played very few tests thanks to Waughs Ponting etc. shame we don’t have the back up quality like Law, Hodge, Siddons, Lehmann, Love to name a few.
Bowling back up looks OK.
Whilst the focus is on Marnus and Smith, it’s Uzzie that I feel should go. You don’t get much better at 38 and it just proves the lack of batsmen coming through.
Any way last time I checked you need 20 wickets to win a test. It looked easy there for a while on day 1.
I thought I heard a stat the other day that the Aussies haven’t come back from 1-0 down at home to win a series for more than 50 years. Probably because we always won the first one at the Gabba. So let’s go to Perth ffs.
The great Australian sides of the past would have found a way to integrate atleast one more quick while letting go of Starc.
India were content enough seeing off Hazlewood who’s the pick of the bowlers. As great as Cummins is , he’s easier to play than Hazlewood (atleast for Indians)
Starc will be a big handful in the day nighter but I don’t think he’s especially troubled the Indians in the other matches in the past two series.
Yes does bowl some great deliveries but I always get the feeling his stats skew towards his dismissals of tailenders.
We need cool heads now. Not reactive decision making. I’m not even saying get rid of marnus ( though I wouldn’t disagree if they swapped him out). I’m saying change the order a bit so that we aren’t putting a guy in poor form to come in at 3 at the same time as trying to blood an opener… Against India.
As for Uzzie, that’s a pretty bloody harsh call on him. He isn’t in the form of his life, but he’s had some pretty chunky scores since the start of the last Ashes:
Pretty even first day between NZ/Eng. Bashir getting 4 wickets on day one was a pleasant surprise, out of the norm for a spinner to do that in NZ. Judging by the highlights a few of them gifted their wickets away, but England were unlucky with a couple of chances and nobody heard the Ravindra edge early in his innings. Woakes again ineffectual away from home, at some point they have to stop persisting with that selection.
Just can’t give a player of Brook’s quality that many chances, comically bad fielding by NZ with that one wonder grab by Phillips being the exception. Decent enough tail for England that they should be eyeing a 100+ lead.
