Agree with everything said here. On the topic of Burns though, while his technique looks great and everything about him seems geared to future success, he's had a pretty lean run lately. IMO if he went big in England during the off-season and backed that up in the Ryobi it'd be a two horse race for the #6 slot, with Bailey. Now, I can't see him in the Test side until next summer.This is probably marketed to a less cricket educated audience, but anyway:
7 Shield Players You (and the selectors) Should be Watching | Spreading the Ashes
Fawad seems like a top bloke, but I'm not happy to have seen WA give him 5. Hoping Lyon doesn't get axed - again - because of this.WA suiciding on Ahmed
Haven't seen the banner, but the coverage isn't exactly 360degree
Yeah it's definitely not a great surface but I reckon it's probably the best they could've come up with a Shield game at Blacktown and as you said doesn't overly favour either the batsmen or the bowlers. Given no-one watches these games bar the 20 people who show up and the 25 who post in this thread, providing an entertaining contest is secondary to providing an even contest here.Blacktown is still pretty dead, but Dougeh has shown that if you bend your back you can get something, and Clarke (along with Henry, Doolan and Smitteh to a lesser extent) have shown if you're patient you can make runs without ever being really in. Good testing conditions without favouring bat or ball overly.