***Official*** Australia in South Africa 2013/14

[Spark]

inbox24 logic: David Hussey got dropped from the state team two months ago but apparently smashing around county attacks years back is more important.

Doolan, Hughes, North. Those are the three contenders for the #6 spot for mine. The top five remains the same.

 

[kykweer.proteas]

Kallis is a big gap. I was in support of replacing him with a batsman. but having a bowler is more important if we want to keep Robbie P. Duminy does a good job of covering that fifth bowler role, but by how his batting has been going we might as well replace him with a fifth bowler, preferably a left arm seamer, maybe even parnell?

The Proteas is going to have an interesting XI selected with the guarantee that a lot of people wont be happy with whatever they go for.

1&2 Smith and Alviro likely to open. Alviro did a good enough job vs india to know his place is safe.

3 Amla

4 Faf, but I think the long term idea couple of years ago was to have Elgar here, but Faf in the form of his life

5 AB

6 philander at this stage for me is a better batting prospect at 6 then JP

7 Duminy

8 Robin

9 would like Abott but they will go for kleinveldt.

10 Steyn

11 Morkel


Either way if we get out cheaply. The hindsight couches will say we are a batsman short. If we can't take twenty wickets, then we will apparently be a bowler short.

Top six absolutely have to perform, looking at you JP!

 

[kykweer.proteas]

How I wish CSA wasnt such knobs to Johan Botha.

My team has six bowlers in it though and that is very rare in test cricket these days, so I think Id rather go with

Smith
Alviro
amla
elgar
ab
faf
philander
jp
steyn
kleinveld/abott
morkel

 

[inbox24]

I agree completely inbox. What are your opinions on Brad Hodge?

Brad Hodge was probably not as good as Michael Hussey but he should have played around the same number of test matches given that they were able to be in and around the fringes of the our great team in that 05/06 period. Would have been a solid number 4 and a good replacement for Damien Martyn, or more likely Andrew Symonds after he left.

inbox24 logic: David Hussey got dropped from the state team two months ago but apparently smashing around county attacks years back is more important.

There's a difference between form and class. Yes Hussey is probably out of form at the moment but Ponting, Tendulkar... all batsmen are and have been out of form at some point. But you back them to come good eventually and that's where the selectors have no idea is that they can't differentiate form and class. Guys like Doolan are "in form" (if you can call average 40 'in form') but long term they are bad bets because their state average shows that they will only revert to averaging 35 batting in the middle order.

 

[Daemon]

How I wish CSA wasnt such knobs to Johan Botha.

My team has six bowlers in it though and that is very rare in test cricket these days, so I think Id rather go with

Smith
Alviro
amla
elgar
ab
faf
philander
jp
steyn
kleinveld/abott
morkel

Duminy batting below Philander?

 

[kykweer.proteas]

Duminy batting below Philander?

They are fooling no one by batting duminy at six.

 

[Spark]

Brad Hodge was probably not as good as Michael Hussey but he should have played around the same number of test matches given that they were able to be in and around the fringes of the our great team in that 05/06 period. Would have been a solid number 4 and a good replacement for Damien Martyn, or more likely Andrew Symonds after he left.



There's a difference between form and class. Yes Hussey is probably out of form at the moment but Ponting, Tendulkar... all batsmen are and have been out of form at some point. But you back them to come good eventually and that's where the selectors have no idea is that they can't differentiate form and class. Guys like Doolan are "in form" (if you can call average 40 'in form') but long term they are bad bets because their state average shows that they will only revert to averaging 35 batting in the middle order.

So you're willing to throw him against the best pace attack in the world, against the moving, bouncing ball which anyone who has actually watched him in FC cricket can tell you he is not good at playing when anyone decent turns up, and gambling on him suddenly finding form?

Christ, I'd rather Andrew Hilditch.

 

[dermo]

David Hussey is better than any international batsman England have produced in the last 10 years. He averages (correction averages 50) at state level and 40s at one day domestic level. He has been a victim of a lack of foresight and lottery selections from the selectors who have not given him a chance at test level and not an extended run in ODIs.

At the same time even North was given a decent chance to prove himself even though he averages only 40 in at first class level and exhibited absolutely no confidence or technique when he played. Yes, you can't just pick players based on numbers but if these numbers mean absolutely zero then why even keep scores, just let them go out there and swing the bat and if they look good enter them into the random number generator and do a lottery pick. We had one of the best first class systems in the world arguably and that served us so well through the 90s and early 00s and could produced 2 or 3 World XIs and squandered all of that talent, work, time and investment with the wrong guy picking players. A bunch of "part time selectors" getting paid 40 grand a year to pick players worth ten times more than that. Ridiculous

If the Australian selectors were actually competent they could have remained number 1 in the world for the past 6-7 years with a batting lineup containing:

Ponting, Clarke, Hodge, Katich, Hussey, Hussey, Watson (batting lower down), Jaques (who was cut short by injury), Hughes (who still has a lot of potential for the future although needs to work on his play against spin), Rogers

Instead they ****ed it up trying to find the next superstar picking players based "feeling". These are players with proven records who all would have played 100 tests if they played for other countries. The saddest part of all of this is that this is not even 20/20 hindsight, this was all known about 4-5 years ago when they could have changed things and righted wrongs, but they kept banging their head against a brick wall with dumb selections and picking players based solely on age.

agree completely, look no further than australia's recent poor results in test cricket and david hussey's outstanding start to the first class season for proof

 

[inbox24]

So you're willing to throw him against the best pace attack in the world, against the moving, bouncing ball which anyone who has actually watched him in FC cricket can tell you he is not good at playing when anyone decent turns up, and gambling on him suddenly finding form?

Christ, I'd rather Andrew Hilditch.

Yes, because he will do better than some bloke who averages 15 less runs than him at state level and looked all at sea against a pretty mediocre English bowling attack in mostly flattish and non swinging conditions. If you're saying that Hussey should not play tests then fine, give me the name of another player (besides Phil Hughes) who should take the place of Bailey in South Africa? All your options will average less than Hussey, and none will have done better than him at international cricket despite his short international career so far. They're only picking Doolan because of some isolated big scores and the fact that he spoke played with Ponting a couple of times in shield cricket. If that's the case then it's quite sad because guys like Ponting actually had to score runs to make the team.

 

[inbox24]

agree completely, look no further than australia's recent poor results in test cricket and david hussey's outstanding start to the first class season for proof

Um, you have to look beyond just the results, but look at WHY Australia has won this series. It certainly hasn't been due to the batting prowess of Bailey. Mostly it has been the other batsmen rescuing us and the bowlers blowing them away. When the time comes for Haddin to have a few low scores, you really need your number 6 to stand up and there's no way Bailey will get you a century on a seaming wicket against Steyn, Morkel, Philander and Abbott.

 

[Spark]

Yes, because he will do better than some bloke who averages 15 less runs than him at state level and looked all at sea against a pretty mediocre English bowling attack in mostly flattish and non swinging conditions. If you're saying that Hussey should not play tests then fine, give me the name of another player (besides Phil Hughes) who should take the place of Bailey in South Africa? All your options will average less than Hussey, and none will have done better than him at international cricket despite his short international career so far. They're only picking Doolan because of some isolated big scores and the fact that he spoke played with Ponting a couple of times in shield cricket. If that's the case then it's quite sad because guys like Ponting actually had to score runs to make the team.

Cricket is not played on a computer or a spreadsheet. I have confidence that the names I've picked will score more runs that David Hussey in South Africa. A lot of confidence.

That doesn't mean they'll do particularly well. But it does mean that I think Dussey would be rank awful against Steyn and Philander.

 

[dermo]

Um, you have to look beyond just the results, but look at WHY Australia has won this series. It certainly hasn't been due to the batting prowess of Bailey. Mostly it has been the other batsmen rescuing us and the bowlers blowing them away. When the time comes for Haddin to have a few low scores, you really need your number 6 to stand up and there's no way Bailey will get you a century on a seaming wicket against Steyn, Morkel, Philander and Abbott.

im not saying bailey will but david hussey sure won't

if he is the batting giant that you say he is would you please explain why he was dropped from the victorian team?

 

[Daemon]

They are fooling no one by batting duminy at six.

In that lineup he'd be 7..

 

[inbox24]

im not saying bailey will but david hussey sure won't

if he is the batting giant that you say he is would you please explain why he was dropped from the victorian team?

Obviously I can't be for sure, but they are try to blood Maxwell for state cricket. If you look at the lineup they feel they've already got enough batsmen (Rogers, Maxwell, White, Wade, Handscomb, Quiney, Finch, Christian) to move long term with and feel that Hussey is just taking up a spot and won't be playing for Australia anytime soon whereas in their minds these other guys still have a chance to play for their country. Effectively they've given up on him because they know that the national selectors have given up on him.

 

[Ruckus]

Irrespective of his weaknesses, with a record like that, Dussey has to have some pretty valuable general qualities as a batsmen - e.g. he can score runs consistently, has an ability to convert runs into big scores etc. The problem is if he has some fairly glaring weaknesses in his game not exploited at domestic level, he would require a lengthy period of readjustment in his game similar to what most young players who are introduced to test cricket go through. And at 36+ years old, there's not enough time for it to pay off in the longer term. I mostly agree in sentiment to what inbox said about more players needing to be picked based off class rather than merely form, but someone like Dussey should have probably been trialled in test cricket much earlier. Now isn't the time.

 

[Rasimione]

Peterson
Smith
Amla
Du Plessis
De Villiers
Duminy
Mclaren
Philander
Peterson
Steyn
Morkel.

That team for mine will be the likely one unless Abbott replaces Robbie P.

 

[theegyptian]

Play one of Duminy and Peterson and then bring in the best batsman and best bowler for the two spaces vacated. Playing Duminy and Peterson is stupid imo now you no longer have Kallis.

Peterson, Smith, Amla, Faf, AB, X. Duminy, Philander, x, Steyn, Morkel.

 

[Spikey]

it would be crazy to remove the gloves from AB.

 

[Unomaas]

Lets not beat around the bush...since coming back from injury, JP's batting has been crap. He's pushing and prodding at balls that should be left and every time we've sent him in to bat at 3/4 in ODI's....he has failed miserably! But you can't deny that JP brings some history to the Aus/SA clash given his debut in Aus in 2008/2009. The scars of that 166 innings will not have left the aus cricketing public and having him come in at 7 would be daunting.

Elgar's batting stocks have recently increased especially with his double hundred against Aus-A (even though it was a road). He has also score runs this summer in the Sunfoil series (scored a hundred). His part time leg breaks are more than handy especially with JK having retired.

In terms of balancing the team, JP and Elgar as a package bring alot to the table. They will also be the 2 batsmen under the most pressure to perform. There are 2 guys namely Quentin de **** and Stiaan van Zyl knocking very loudly for a batting spot in the Saffa team.

Alot of people saying that we should play Robbie P but Centurion doesn't spin...in fact, its a spinners graveyard. The last time I saw someone spin it at Centurion was Shane Warne and that man can spin a ball on anything. I personally think the series is gonna be won at Centurion. St Georges will most probably fizzle out to a draw (unless someone bowls really well) and you don't want to chase the series at Newlands because SA has a bad record against Aus at Newlands.

That's why I've been saying lets all have a good ole fast bowling fire fight at Centurion! I would back our bowlers against the Aus batters and I would back our batters to score more runs (marginally) than the Aussie batters. In fact, I would say that all of us (Saffa and Aussie) want to see timber flying with Steyn and his crazy eyes bulling the Aus batters and MJ and his mo bowling rockets and skittling out Saffa batters like 10 pin bowling!

 

[Garson007]

Peterson
Smith
Du Plessis
Amla
De Villiers
Elgar
Duminy
Philander
Abbott
Steyn
Morkel