***Official*** Australia in Sri Lanka

[stephen]

Good spinners are usually pretty thin on the ground I reckon. As mentioned during the 80s was pretty thin. Qadir, Shastri, Emburey, and Qasim were the only spinners to take 100 wickets in the decade.

The last 15 years have been a bit of a golden age for spin and correspondingly weak for pace.

Yeah we were really spoiled by having the two greatest spinners of all time in Warne and Murali and then having some very good "other" spinners around like MacGill, Harbhajan, Kumble and the like. Spin bowling was almost dead as an art form until Warne burst onto the scene.

Still, Peter Taylor was my favourite Aussie bowler as a kid (with McDermott my second favourite). The fact that he took wickets not by bowling fast but by spinning the ball was something I loved seeing.

 

[miscer]

lol this period is weak for all types of bowling. i mean really there's 1 atg fast bowler. in fact there's one atg bowler. swann would have to keep averaging 27-28 for a long time to join him on that list.

thanks to asif and amir also...

 

[adub]

Sri Lanka have cut their pool of players for the first Test back to 13 with quicks Shaminda Eranga and Dhammika Prasad as well as leg-spinner Seekkuge Prasanna missing out on the game.

Aussie spinners not bothering Sri Lanka

 

[Howe_zat]

Well that was a pointless distraction for three promising bowlers.

Hope Randiv plays over Mendis in the Tests. Sri Lanka shouldn't let the likes of Dussey and Marsh being clueless against Mendis tempt them into playing him in the long form.

 

[centurymaker]

Well that was a pointless distraction for three promising bowlers.

Hope Randiv plays over Mendis in the Tests. Sri Lanka shouldn't let the likes of Dussey and Marsh being clueless against Mendis tempt them into playing him in the long form.

True

 

[TT Boy]

Watson would have smashed Dhammika Prasad around so hard.

 

[Spark]

!!!

We actually picked more or less the right team for once! Confirmed off CA's twitter feed. Order may change, but the XI is:

Hughes
Watson
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Khawaja
Haddin
Johnson
Harris
Copeland
Lyon

And Beer is 12th man.

 

[GotSpin]

!!!

We actually picked more or less the right team for once! Confirmed off CA's twitter feed. Order may change, but the XI is:

Hughes
Watson
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Khawaja
Haddin
Johnson
Harris
Copeland
Lyon

And Beer is 12th man.

I have a boner

 

[Cevno]

Why pick a side and announce it publically one day in advance though?

Perhaps Srilanka would have been tempted to play Mendis(not saying it would be definately wrong) if they felt Marsh would play.

 

[Spark]

Why pick a side and announce it publically one day in advance though?

No idea, but Clarke said that he was going to pick the XI and announce it today. I think the idea was to have the XI knowing that they'd be playing overnight.

 

[four_or_six]

!!!

We actually picked more or less the right team for once! Confirmed off CA's twitter feed. Order may change, but the XI is:

Hughes
Watson
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Khawaja
Haddin
Johnson
Harris
Copeland
Lyon

And Beer is 12th man.

Must be the most inexperienced team in ages. Interesting stuff.

 

[Cevno]

No idea, but Clarke said that he was going to pick the XI and announce it today. I think the idea was to have the XI knowing that they'd be playing overnight.

Could help Srilanka prepare and choose their eleven better though. Even if you want to tell your players in advance tell them privately.

For example - Perhaps Srilanka would have been tempted to play Mendis(not saying it would be definately wrong ftr) if they felt Marsh would play?

 

[Spark]

Could help Srilanka prepare and choose their eleven better though. Even if you want to tell your players in advance tell them privately.

For example - Perhaps Srilanka would have been tempted to play Mendis(not saying it would be definately wrong ftr) if they felt Marsh would play?

Yeah that's fair. Dunno, it's a bit weird. Don't think it'll have very much impact in the SL camp though.

@four_or_six, Ponting's played 152 Tests, Clarke 69 and Muss 59 - but from there it goes down quickly with Johnson (42), Haddin (32) and Watto (27) being the only ones you could call "experienced" in any way.

 

[four_or_six]

Could help Srilanka prepare and choose their eleven better though. Even if you want to tell your players in advance tell them privately.

Hughes might tweet it still.

 

[GotSpin]

Must be the most inexperienced team in ages. Interesting stuff.

Still a pretty good side though. Wouldn't mind Dougeh instead of MJ and Hauritz for Lyon but I'm happy

 

[NUFAN]

Awesome, really excited about the playing XI.

Cevno, it would be a case of focusing on your own efforts and not worrying about the opposition - Mendis can still take wickets regardless of who's in the team.

Hopefully Harris and Copeland open the bowling together, surely they will.

 

[Prince EWS]

Still a pretty good side though. Wouldn't mind Dougeh instead of MJ and Hauritz for Lyon but I'm happy

Well Hauritz is injured. Dougeh isn't in the squad (although that itself was a selection blunder so it's not mitigating).

It's exactly the eleven I would've picked given the squad available, so I'm relatively happy. I would've shuffled the likely batting order a little but it's not a huge gripe really. I'm really pleased Lyon is in over Beer; I didn't think they'd go that way but it's a good move, especially given what the pitch is (apparently) like. With Copeland in the team we won't really need the spinner to tie up an end and bowl long, containing spells; we can just use him to attack and Lyon's by far the more likely of the two of actually take wickets on a turning track IMO.

 

[Spark]

Lemme guess, you'd have gone Khawaja-Clarke-Hussey as well?

Let's hope Pup can break his #4 mind block.

 

[Howe_zat]

Yeah that's fair. Dunno, it's a bit weird. Don't think it'll have very much impact in the SL camp though.

@four_or_six, Ponting's played 152 Tests, Clarke 69 and Muss 59 - but from there it goes down quickly with Johnson (42), Haddin (32) and Watto (27) being the only ones you could call "experienced" in any way.

That's half the side with a handful of matches between them. I wonder if Clarke prefers it that way, as it means gets to build his own side.

Still can't get my head around the Nathan Lyon selection. He has 14 FC wickets. 14.

 

[Prince EWS]

Lemme guess, you'd have gone Khawaja-Clarke-Hussey as well?

Let's hope Pup can break his #4 mind block.

Yeah, indeed. I actually would've been very tempted to put Khawaja at three and Ponting at four, but it would've no doubt got Ponting's nose out of joint and keeping him in good spirits with something to prove will be important post-captaincy so I would've gone Ponting-Khawaja-Clarke-Hussey-Haddin as you said.

It'll definitely be interesting to see how Khawaja goes at six though; I hope he's not binned forevermore if he struggles. While batting position preferences are often more mental than technical, there truly is a pretty big technical difference between opening the batting on Australian wickets - which is what he's done for the vast majority of his cricket development pre-FC-debut - and starting against spin batting six on a wicket that will no doubt be turning a bit. It's almost the equivalent of asking Suresh Raina to open the batting in Perth - I'm just hoping Khawaja has a bit more class and adaptability than Raina.