Nate
You'll Never Walk Alone
Hilditch has essentially said that Doherty will definitely play. He will.
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*Official* First Test at the Gabba
- Thread starter James
- Start date
sifter132
School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Michael Clarke in doubt for the first Test | The Australian
In this article it's mentioned that Dougie might be on the bench. I'm officially worried if Siddle and Smith replace Clarke and Bollinger...Please be fit guys. In that case there might even be a 4th quick bowler played (Harris? Cameron? Copeland?) with Smith and North the main spinners. Reason being...article also mentions Watson having a potential twinge as well. Along with Clarke's back and Katich's shoulder scare for NSW the other day, the backup bowling perhaps won't be all it could be.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Haha yeah, he made it as obvious as possible. "If a spinner plays, it'll be Doherty." .... "We'll be picking a spinner."
outbreak
First Class Debutant
Either their looking for early excuses or Smith and others may get a game.
Concerns grow over Clarke's fitness | Fox Sports
Concerns grow over Clarke's fitness | Fox Sports
Ruckus
International Captain
Lets have a worst case team scenario:
Watson
Katich
Ponting
Hussey
North
Haddin
Smith
Johnson
Hilfenhaus
Doherty
Siddle
Given that could be the case if the selectors are stupid enough to give preference to Siddle over Bollinger, and Clarke is not fit enough, how do you think that team would go? Personally, I think if that's the team playing, we are royally ****ed.
Watson
Katich
Ponting
Hussey
North
Haddin
Smith
Johnson
Hilfenhaus
Doherty
Siddle
Given that could be the case if the selectors are stupid enough to give preference to Siddle over Bollinger, and Clarke is not fit enough, how do you think that team would go? Personally, I think if that's the team playing, we are royally ****ed.
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Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Athlai to confirm.
Ruckus
International Captain
The bowling is still alright, but the batting looks pretty damn fragile. I mean I could easily envisage Hussey, North, Haddin and Smith and Johnson all bombing out at the same time and essentially losing us the game. The problem with that middle order is there are no really gritty batsmen - Hussey used to play that role, but it's quite possible he will continue his bad form, North is literally hit or miss (the latter being more likely), Haddin is one-dimensional and bad at saving an innings, Smith is simply inexperienced, and Johnson is basically a slogger. There is no balance in that line-up at all. Clarke's presence would make a massive difference, so fingers crossed...
howardj
International Coach
DragonPunk
School Boy/Girl Captain
That worst case scenario team isn't bad, besides having no Dougeh 
and having Siddle.
and having Siddle.
pup11
International Coach
Pretty sure we can bring in a replacement if it becomes clear that a player from the squad won't be able to play in the test.
Though I've a feeling both Bollinger and Clarke are going to rush themselves into this game, and we would be taking a huge punt if they do that, also read somewhere that Watson too isn't fully fit.
So...there you go it surely doesn't look good for us atm, unsettled team, out of form batsmen and injured key players.
pup11
International Coach
In the case of Hussey and North it might be true, but people like Hodge, Rogers, Jacques, Dussey, McDonald would disagree with this theory.
The thing is these days favoritism plays a big part in who gets picked and who doesn't, in the Australian team. Now that's nothing new and happens everywhere around the world, but when the players you are backing aren't that good or aren't performing and the players who you are continuously ignoring are consistently doing well, then the motives of the people who are running the show certainly become questionable.
Selection should be an answerable job IMO, and like players if selectors can't do their job properly then they too should be shown the door.