*Official* Third Test at the WACA

[Ruckus]

Well my sources still say David Hussey is the man for Perth. For some reason Shaun Marsh is right up there too. I asked about White, long shot.

Who are you're sources?

 

[Redbacks]

Darren Pattinson has taken 15 wickets at 20.86 for Victoria this season so far. How long until he requalifies for Australia?

Horses for courses?

His younger brother is touted to be a potential test player for Aus iirc.

 

[Nate]

Why the Marsh hate? He's in exceptional form. This season in the Shield he made 137 and 89 against South Australia and then an 86 against Bollinger, Copeland, Clark and Hauritz when WA were crushed. Add in there his 132 in the Ryobi Cup. and I'd say he has a much better case than a few of the names mentioned in this thread.

Darshy

 

[morgieb]

Why the Marsh hate? He's in exceptional form. This season in the Shield he made 137 and 89 against South Australia and then an 86 against Bollinger, Copeland, Clark and Hauritz when WA were crushed. Add in there his 132 in the Ryobi Cup. and I'd say he has a much better case than a few of the names mentioned in this thread.

Darshy

Because half a season of form shouldn't see you in the Australian side. Especially given Hughes averages > 50.

 

[Prince EWS]

Why the Marsh hate? He's in exceptional form. This season in the Shield he made 137 and 89 against South Australia and then an 86 against Bollinger, Copeland, Clark and Hauritz when WA were crushed. Add in there his 132 in the Ryobi Cup. and I'd say he has a much better case than a few of the names mentioned in this thread.

Darshy

Averaging 89 when you've only played two games doesn't really prove much.

Marsh has been around the scene for eleven seasons now, and he's managed multiple Shield hundreds in one of them. One. To compound matters, that season was six years ago and in it he only passed 50 three times in 18 innings and for a North-like return of 569 runs @ 36. Khawaja on the other hand scored multiple (three) centuries in his first full season of Shield cricket and then backed it up with two in the next season as well. He's actually scored the same amount of First Class hundred as Marsh is less than half the time. You'd find similar numbers for Hughes and Smith. That's before we even touch on their averages, but I thought that was the easy and possibly deceiving way to approach it.

There's no doubt Marsh is currently in good form. The doubts (and there are major ones) are over whether he's actually a good player. He might perform well for one game but he gets a consistent run in the team I don't think he'll make any more of it than North did/has and his part-time spin is of a significantly worse standard.

 

[Ruckus]

Yeah the worst thing about selecting someone like Marsh is that he will inevitably prove to be a failure in the long-term just like Marcus North. Marsh is already 27 or something, so I don't see his record improving much on what it is now.

 

[pasag]

 

[andyc]

Smith with 4 wickets against SA in the Shield game, could well be the clincher if he scores runs.

And can we ban the wives for Perth please.

This team looks like it could do with spending some time together and buildiing some spirit.

Agree with this bottom part. Remember reading in Gilly's autobiography about how when he first joined the ODI squad it was just a really negative atmosphere, and that seems to be what's happening now; obviously a newbie like Doherty's pretty average to begin with, but coming into a situation like that makes it even harder for him to do well.

 

[Midwinter]

Hughes in for Katcih
Kwarjah or Marsh for North
Hauritz for Doherty
Need to pick one young quick out of Cameron, Copeland or George and its between Bollinger and Siddle to miss out.

Need to start rebuilding the team, not recycling the team

 

[Spark]

Siddle's only 26!

 

[Jayzamann]

Never thought I'd want Hauritz in the team as much as I do now. Dude looks like a horrible child actor but at least he's not horrible allthetime.

 

[vicleggie]

I didn't even see your post??? I thought it was a good idea myself. "Plain stupid" is your opinion, and I disagree. Seeing as though we don't have an exceptional specialist spinner, their role in the team is not that important. North can cover the 'lesser' aspects of spin bowling. The attack of this team at this stage will always be dependant on our quicks, and shouldn't rely on a spinner.

you have to basically win at the WACA to stay in the hunt for the ashes. conservative defensive mindsets like above are exactly what one SHOULDNT do. you need 20 wickets, and hauritz, altho in horrid form for aus the last few months, is more likely to do that than north. hes got a good record in aus WHEN BOWLING WELL, and he outbowled swann on some occasions in england. picking north as a spinner is ridiculous unless youve taken a fearful approach that youve already got no chance of winning the series.

england are the far superior team, but honestly you never know what will happen. broad is out, they may get complacent, who knows. aus needs to attack and try take 20 wickets, just coz they played like absolute rubbish the last 7 days of cricket doesnt necessarily mean theyl get walloped at the WACA

 

[andyc]

Smith with 4 wickets against SA in the Shield game, could well be the clincher if he scores runs.

... And out for 8.

Haury in as nightwatchman.

 

[TT Boy]

Watson's doing a bit of a Kallis just now, IMHO. Seems to give every impression of not much fancying bowling at all.

Might just be bad body language, but he really trudges back to him mark, is down on pace and the way he went after a few balls in the field conjures up images of an arthritic farmer's wife chasing kids from her orchard.

Kallis still bowls at 140kph. Watson bowls (filth) at around 120 clicks. Same body language but Kallis is still capable (best quick on show when RSA toured England in 08), Watson on the other hand looks like he is ready for the knackers’ yard.

 

[Athlai]

Haha man Australia having a **** load of top quality openers has seen a lot of high quality players miss out. Jaques sitting there with his Test average of 47 hasn't even been mentioned and it's fair enough.

Meanwhile New Zealand have probably never had an opener of these guys class barring one or two blokes from well before my day.

 

[Ruckus]

you have to basically win at the WACA to stay in the hunt for the ashes. conservative defensive mindsets like above are exactly what one SHOULDNT do. you need 20 wickets, and hauritz, altho in horrid form for aus the last few months, is more likely to do that than north. hes got a good record in aus WHEN BOWLING WELL, and he outbowled swann on some occasions in england. picking north as a spinner is ridiculous unless youve taken a fearful approach that youve already got no chance of winning the series.

That post was written before the defeat in this game, and was assuming North would be retained. It sounds as though maybe he won't be retained now, so I no longer advocate that team. At the same time though, I don't want Hauritz to come back either. In terms of being a strike bowler he is mediocre. He has been gone for a few matches, and nothing will change if he comes back. His record in Australia is only good because he faced piss weak batting line-ups, for a more accurate picture of his bowling in Australia look at his FC average.

 

[vicleggie]

That post was written before the defeat in this game, and was assuming North would be retained. It sounds as though maybe he won't be retained now, so I no longer advocate that team. At the same time though, I don't want Hauritz to come back either. In terms of being a strike bowler he is mediocre. He has been gone for a few matches, and nothing will change if he comes back. His record in Australia is only good because he faced piss weak batting line-ups, for a more accurate picture of his bowling in Australia look at his FC average.

i dont disagree hauritz isnt top class, but it seems as though a spinner is fairly important to bowl out a side.on these flat aussie decs (i think perth melb etc wont be too dissimilar to what weve had so far). if england didnt have swann, although their pacemen are better overall than australias, theyd still struggle to bowl aus out. i dont see how aus will take 20 wickets unless a spinner comes in and bowls well. ive seen hauritz bowl good spells, and i think a spinner is required if they want to take 20 wickets- i couldnt see jonson, harris , watson, hilf ripping out england on day 4 in the second innings.

understand why one wouldnt want haur intho- he bowled like a turd last time in the team

 

[TT Boy]

The WACA in recent years has been an absolute road. Hope a by-product of Australia's inability to get 10 wickets let alone 20 is that the rest of the series is played on more sporting wickets.

 

[Craig]

Not sure about Watson as an opener itbt. He's consistent enough in the amount of half centuries he's scored, but he hasn't been able to convert enough of them into centuries for mine. I think in time he will better off down the order, but I would leave him there for the time being, even moreso with Katich out.

 

[Ruckus]

i dont disagree hauritz isnt top class, but it seems as though a spinner is fairly important to bowl out a side.on these flat aussie decs (i think perth melb etc wont be too dissimilar to what weve had so far). if england didnt have swann, although their pacemen are better overall than australias, theyd still struggle to bowl aus out. i dont see how aus will take 20 wickets unless a spinner comes in and bowls well. ive seen hauritz bowl good spells, and i think a spinner is required if they want to take 20 wickets- i couldnt see jonson, harris , watson, hilf ripping out england on day 4 in the second innings.

understand why one wouldnt want haur intho- he bowled like a turd last time in the team

Hmmm. I just think seeing as though we don't actually have a genuinely good spinner at the moment, there is not much point in trying to pretend we do by allowing a mediocre spinner into the team. Rather we just have to accept one doesn't exist at this stage and try and play to out strengths - which is pace bowling. The performance of our quicks this game is no means representative of what they are capable of. A line-up of Harris, Bollinger and Siddle is really a very good attack, and I'm sure if the selectors settle on the same (or similiar) we will bounce back.