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Road to the 2015 Ashes in England

Tangles

Tangles

International Vice-Captain
Assuming Rogers is fine for Cardiff I'd go with:

Warner
Rogers
Smith
Clarke
Voges
Watson
Haddin
MJ
Harris
Haze
Lyon
 
Riggins

Riggins

International Captain
I have absolutely no ****ing idea which quick I'd drop for the first test. I'm leaning towards MJ but then I was vehemently against him playing in Brisbane.
 
Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Riggins said:
I have absolutely no ****ing idea which quick I'd drop for the first test. I'm leaning towards MJ but then I was vehemently against him playing in Brisbane.
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I think Johnson is probably the least likely to be good in the conditions, but the England batsmen will have lots of mental demons over what he did in Australia so I think he's got to play the first Test. If he's ineffective there I'd drop him, but I think he's pretty much first picked on psychological reasons alone.
 
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morgieb

morgieb

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Prince EWS said:
I think Johnson is probably the least likely to be good in the conditions, but the England batsmen will have lots of mental demons over what he did in Australia so I think he's got to play the first Test. If he's ineffective there I'd drop him for the next four, but I think he's pretty much first picked on psychological reasons alone.
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Yeah, this is probably my thinking at this stage.
 
Furball

Furball

Evil Scotsman
Prince EWS said:
I think Johnson is probably the least likely to be good in the conditions, but the England batsmen will have lots of mental demons over what he did in Australia so I think he's got to play the first Test. If he's ineffective there I'd drop him, but I think he's pretty much first picked on psychological reasons alone.
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Johnson will have mental demons of his own being back in England, a country where he's been frankly garbage in his career so far.

I don't think his style of bowling is at all suited to bowling in England either. If the selectors have any sense they'll give the new ball to Harris and Starc, with Hazlewood as first change.
 
harsh.ag

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yeah, but they can't drop Johnson, having built him up to a demigod for the majority of the last two years.
 
A

Antihippy

International Debutant
Might as well have a look at him first, but he did destroy england on an adelaide deck that shouldn't be for him either.
 
Gob

Gob

International Coach
mj is sort of different now. After almost a decade of trying, he has finally mastered how to deliver an upright seam position consistently so if he gets his pace back he should do well in England. Its all about the pace it has to be high 140s

and bring that ****ing handlebar back
 
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Spark

Spark

Global Moderator
harsh.ag said:
How bad a form is Johnson in that he couldn't do it against an improper team?
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What? Bowling (and cricket in general) doesn't work like that. It's not just sliding scale of good <---> bad. A bowler like Starc is perfectly placed to dominate against a weak side. It's whether he can do it against stronger sides, as Johnson has, and as he hasn't throughout his career (particularly if it doesn't swing).

It's not like Johnson was terrible anyway. Merely below his best.
 
D

Dan

Hall of Fame Member
...and it's not like Starc was that far superior to him anyway (10 @ 16 for Starc vs. 8 @ 19 for Johnson; and lets face it, both bowled some utter trash at times this series). Not to mention Johnson actually has a track record of good Test performances going back further than this series.

I'd call it a knee-jerk reaction, but it isn't even a reaction. It's getting funky for no reason whatsoever (unless we're assuming that Tests = ODIs, which I doubt anyone is because it's self-evidently stupid).

Mitchell Starc is a seriously talented bowler, yes. He's improving with the red ball, yes. His ceiling is higher than almost anyone in world cricket's, yes. But Johnson has 86 wickets at a sub-20 average since his recall, and has a pretty damn good track record against England since then; you don't drop him after another series averaging sub-20 for a guy who is still trying to translate potential/white ball success to Test cricket.

If he'd utterly sucked, it's a different story.

Starc's time will come, sooner rather than later. The first Ashes Test is not it. I'm sorry, but he's pretty clearly the #4.
 
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