*Official* England in Australia (2 T20 & 7 ODIs)

[pup11]

As cited before, how can one question his mental toughness when the bloke was being raped by the media during the Bingle issue, and he responds with a well made hundred?

Its been all down hill for him post that hundred, so one can't say he has shown a great deal of mental toughness there.
Neither does flashing a smile at a fast bowler after getting pinned by him, pubilicly passing the blame of team's failure completly onto Ponting, or failing pretty much everytime in the face of adversity really doesn''t show him as someone with great character.
I think as a captain he is pretty good with his tactics and aggression, but as a leader he would only earn the respect of his team-mates and general Aussie public when he becomes someone who the team can depend on in tough times a sort player who can win games for his team pretty much on his own, he certainly has the ability its just a question of whether he has the temperament and character to put that ability to good use.

 

[Spark]

Its been all down hill for him post that hundred, so one can't say he has shown a great deal of mental toughness there.
Neither does flashing a smile at a fast bowler after getting pinned by him, pubilicly passing the blame of team's failure completly onto Ponting, or failing pretty much everytime in the face of adversity really show him as someone with great character.
I think as a captain he is pretty good with his tactics and aggression, but as a leader he would only earn the respect of his team-mates and general Aussie public when he becomes someone who the team can depend on in tough times a sort player who can win games for his team pretty much on his own, he certainly has the ability its just a question of whether he has the temperament and character to put that ability to good use.

Smiling at fast bowlers is exactly what JL did. I don't know too many tougher nuts than him.

 

[pup11]

Smiling at fast bowlers is exactly what JL did. I don't know too many tougher nuts than him.

Look mate.... JL wasn't a hugely gifted player he knew it and even his opponents knew it, but he made use of every ounce of his limited talent. After getting hit on the body JL would usually knuckle down in the middle and play a gritty knock; but someone like Clarke hardly shows those sort of qualities whenever going gets tough.

 

[Johnners]

As cited before, how can one question his mental toughness when the bloke was being raped by the media during the Bingle issue, and he responds with a well made hundred?

It's because it doesn't fit in with the national sport of Clarke bashing. People tend to forget, when trying to criticism him for everything under the sun, that he actually is a very good batsmen, and has shown plenty of times that he more than has the apparent "mental toughness" required to play international cricket. It's like that now he's in a form slump, people are feeling like their past criticisms are now coming to fruition, and that they were right all along.

 

[pup11]

It's because it doesn't fit in with the national sport of Clarke bashing. People tend to forget, when trying to criticism him for everything under the sun, that he actually is a very good batsmen, and has shown plenty of times that he more than has the apparent "mental toughness" required to play international cricket. It's like that now he's in a form slump, people are feeling like their past criticisms are now coming to fruition, and that they were right all along.

Even when he wasn't in his form slump, can you really see him put up partnership like the one we saw between Marsh-Dougeh, can you really see him bailing the side out of trouble when the rest of the batsman have failed.
The answer is a most obvious NO.... because there is only so much you can do when you have put pretty much every shot of yours in the cupboard.
People are forgetting that Clarke pretty much has changed his natural style of batting due to the pressure that was put on him from all corners, people might say that actually helped him improve as a batsman but that's certainly not true, because he is not even the pale shadow of the exciting player that he burst as on the international scene.

 

[Spark]

people might say that actually helped him improve as a batsman but that's certainly not true

Absolute rubbish. His 08/09 performances prove that.

 

[TumTum]

Yeah Clarke played a really top knock, personally thought he was going to get out for **** all. My regard for him grew that day a fair bit.

Before he got dumped, he actually posted for what his HS at Hobart, so I think that kinda was irrelevant and due to him being in good form.

 

[TumTum]

Even when he wasn't in his form slump, can you really see him put up partnership like the one we saw between Marsh-Dougeh, can you really see him bailing the side out of trouble when the rest of the batsman have failed.
The answer is a most obvious NO.... because there is only so much you can do when you have put pretty much every shot of yours in the cupboard.
People are forgetting that Clarke pretty much has changed his natural style of batting due to the pressure that was put on him from all corners, people might say that actually helped him improve as a batsman but that's certainly not true, because he is not even the pale shadow of the exciting player that he burst as on the international scene.

Obvious answer is YES. He's done it many times in '08/09 as Spark has said, including in 2009 Ashes where he was in a league of his own.

He was the most solid batsman in world cricket in that period, not only in absorbing pressure but rotating strike as soon as he got to the wicket. I have no idea what is happening to him now though, must be all mental because he doesn't look any different.

 

[Spark]

Without doubt he's much more pushy now.

Look at his last two shots in the last innings, in both cases he was reaching for the ball rather than waiting for it to come to him as he would in 08-09 (when he would be able to clip balls even outside off stump to square leg with ease), hence the aerial nature of both.

 

[howardj]

- He flew home from NZ because he was having a major issue with his fiance. He came back and made a hundred.
- He did do the BD breakfast. Probably a wrong move, but he was helping out charity for a friend.
- Tim Lane wouldn't know his arse from his face.
- How many people were in the change rooms with the Katich issue?

The only problem I have with Clarke's off field stuff is that he hangs around with Warne too much, who has the potential to instill counter-productive attitudes in people.

I think those things are important.

They go to priorities, and whether you think you're above the fray.

I am content to vigorously disagree on matters Pup.

 

[Burgey]

Without doubt he's much more pushy now.

Look at his last two shots in the last innings, in both cases he was reaching for the ball rather than waiting for it to come to him as he would in 08-09 (when he would be able to clip balls even outside off stump to square leg with ease), hence the aerial nature of both.

Not uncommon to want to feel bat on ball when you're out of nick tbf.

Trust me, I know

 

[Spark]

Not uncommon to want to feel bat on ball when you're out of nick tbf.

Trust me, I know

Yeah true but which one is the cause of which?

 

[Spark]

Swannyg66 @MClarke23 stop tweeting pup. Obsess about the game. Have no sense of humour. It's the only way forward for us all!

So it would seem.

 

[Spikey]

in retrospect clarke should have got swann to get smith a date for the ab medal. everyone would have loved it.

 

[Redbacks]

Ah Swanny WAG!

My only comment is Clarke should be finding Smith an technique not a girlfriend. Some of the recent analysis on The Drum also scraped the bottom of the analytical barrel.

 

[GIMH]

Swann is a legit legend isn't he

 

[Jono]

****ing love Swann. WAG

 

[pup11]

Absolute rubbish. His 08/09 performances prove that.

Clarke was a genuine match-winner prior to his test axing, but after that he has virtually become a supportive batsman at best. Yes... he scored a good amount of runs during that period, but for a batsman making that many runs he was more often than not on the losing side.
There is a preception that Clarke went out of the test team and improved his technique which is absolutely wrong, because all he did during that period was cut out most of his shots.
He had a problem where he played most of his aggressive shots uppishly and as a result got caught within the in-field pretty regularly, and this then later led to him getting axed from the test side, but working on playing these shots in a better way would have been more fesiable long term solution rather than just shunning them away for good.
Batting at slower pace or being a stone-waller is fine as long as that's your natural game but that is certainly not the case with Clarke, he from being a expansive strokeplayer has turned himself into a batsman with a pretty limited range. Opposition teams also work out these sort of things pretty quickly and even when he was scoring all those runs, I did say that teams would sooner rather than later find ways to suffocate him with his revamped style of play and that is what's pretty much happening atm.

 

[Spark]

How much of the 08/09 season did you watch? He was most definitely not just a supporting batsman during that season, especially with a floundering Hayden and Hussey above him.

What's happening at the moment is that Clarke has had his confidence badly hit by the way he started the test series due to some top-class bowling, and ever since has been so desperate to get bat on ball that he's playing at things he shouldn't be and pushing for the ball rather than letting it come to him. I really don't know where you've gotten this "he should revert to 04/05 type" thing from.

 

[Tom 1972]

But if we didn't have to post the 15 man squad until the last minute for the WC, and Clarke scratched another 60 runs off 100+ balls over the next four 1-dayers against England, would he still be selected by Hilditch & Co?

The answer is "yes".

He has a good record in 1-dayers over the past 12 months, 2 years whatever.

Couldn't give a rats arse about the off field stuff.

I'm actually more concerned about his future in Test cricket, if he continues to average 20-30 like he has done in 2010-2011, how long do we carry him?

He should have never been in the T20 side.