Australian Test Selection Thread 2017 - 2018

[SeamUp]

Travis Head and Henriques are outside shots too

And Kurtis Patterson I guess.

But he is probably pushing Khawaja/Handscomb more in terms of position.

 

[Second Spitter]

You know I don't think picking Bancroft is such a bad idea. The bloke is in the form of his life. He's still young and has a future. It's not like the other keeping options are doing all that well with bat or gloves.

People are okay for Handscomb and Renshaw to come into the team on the basis of one round of Shield, but are afraid to pick Bancroft on the basis of 3 rounds of Shield including against the Oz pace attack.

 

[Spikey]

minor point but the way I recall it Handscomb was almost certainly getting picked anyway, and then hit a 200.

 

[Burgey]

I reckon if Bancroft plays he won’t keep but will open. They’ll want Cartwright at six for a few spare overs and keep Nev at seven. Mind you if Bancroft kept you couldn’t complain on form, though I dunno how good his keeping is.

 

[Gob]

Not sure what Twatto adds that they can't get out of an other opener, but yeah Bad Hands for sure.

Bat at 6 and do the all rounder roll

 

[Top_Cat]

minor point but the way I recall it Handscomb was almost certainly getting picked anyway, and then hit a 200.

Yeah that was probably the most impressive part of Handscombe. Bloke was making runs and then, when the pressure of selection was applied, was the only guy that round who went and spanked some poor team.

 

[burr]

I'd go with Bancroft. May as well take a punt. Why should all these other decidedly average keeper/batsmen get a spot when they've done nought to earn it such as Nevill. Who I am not a fan of.

Batting and keeping in general very troublesome. I'd forgotten how enormous Haddin was in the last Ashes in Aus. We're not going to get that this time and could be deciding factor. England have a great lower order and tail.

 

[Gob]

This attack needs a seem bowling all rounder who can deliver 10 solid overs a day. I'm glad that Pat Cummins has stringed together number of games but still if he plays all five tests he'll double his career tally of games which is a testimony to his injury troubled past. Starc has also suffered number of injuries in recent times and Haze is returning from one so the sharing of work load is utmost important. Plus both Cummins and Starc are better of short spells.

Still not sure who should occupy the two spots at 6 and 7.Need of a fast bowling all rounder rules Maxwell out and i don't rate Cartwright neither with the bat nor ball.Playing Bancroft as the keeper may not be the worst move after all seeing that he is keeping for WA. That will immensely strengthen the low order and will allow a genuine bowling alrounder at #7. Is Mitchell Marsh bowling? As much as we all like to stick the foot on his batting short comings, he was a genuinely good fifth bowler and no 7 looks more suited to his game.

 

[Tangles]

I reckon if Bancroft plays he won’t keep but will open. They’ll want Cartwright at six for a few spare overs and keep Nev at seven. Mind you if Bancroft kept you couldn’t complain on form, though I dunno how good his keeping is.

His keeping can't be worse than when Wade was first selected.

 

[Burgey]

True, but do we want to be worrying about that again?

 

[Red]

I wouldn't mind seeing Bancroft around at all, but I think we should stick with Renshaw. If we are gonna pick guys with only 12 FC games, there's got to be a reason, and there was with Renshaw. The selectors clearly see him as the right sort of opener to compliment Warner, as well as a decade plus prospect to provide stability to the team (plus he's a brilliant slipper which is a factor with our pace attack).

On the keeper, just pick Nev. Best keeper around plus a guy who's proven to be able to make runs in FC cricket. It's not even complicated IMO.

 

[Burgey]

Can people who’ve seen Bancroft keep a bit actually provide some feedback on how he goes? Isn’t he only keeping for WA because Whiteman is injured or something?

 

[Gnske]

Can people who’ve seen Bancroft keep a bit actually provide some feedback on how he goes? Isn’t he only keeping for WA because Whiteman is injured or something?

I honestly thought it was just because WA have so many middle order options that Inglis would just look unseemly being included in place of someone else.

 

[Justo]

I wouldn't mind seeing Bancroft around at all, but I think we should stick with Renshaw. If we are gonna pick guys with only 12 FC games, there's got to be a reason, and there was with Renshaw. The selectors clearly see him as the right sort of opener to compliment Warner, as well as a decade plus prospect to provide stability to the team (plus he's a brilliant slipper which is a factor with our pace attack).

On the keeper, just pick Nev. Best keeper around plus a guy who's proven to be able to make runs in FC cricket. It's not even complicated IMO.

This IMO. Bancroft's doing well but at Test level Renshaw's only struggled with the Bangladesh series and was our second leading run scorer in India. If he struggles in the first two games we can look at Bancroft for the WACA (or w/e the ground will be). It's a good thing that we finally have some guys in the wings scoring runs but they don't need to be selected straight away.

For the keeper Nev has been the most consistent in the Shield for years with both keeping and batting. If the selectors weren't so tunnel visioned they could have potentially gone with Hartley instead of Wade last year (or even earlier) and potentially got a few years out of him before having to make a decision but really they should just stick to the numbers and go with the most consistent guy. If he stinks up the Ashes then at least he's had a decent run and they can then look at someone new to move forward with after another full shield season.

 

[Second Spitter]

Australia's most successful periods in the last 30 years have coincided with having Clang and Bad Hands as wicket-keepers. (Lets be honest, Clang doesn't get picked in ATG XI's because of his keeping prowess, although he curiously got better as he went along).

The era of "neat and tidy glovemen" died with Heals.

 

[Burgey]

I take it you're referring to Gilchrist?

 

[Second Spitter]

Yes. Clang is Gilchrist. (As in the sound the ball makes hitting "Iron Gloves") A nickname that probably originates from the Queensland Premier Cricket scene......cos I've never heard it used elsewhere.

 

[Burgey]

Gilchrist was a fine keeper imo. He wasn’t as good a glove man as Healy but he was tidy and rarely made blunders. I mean, wade makes him look like Jack Blackham in comparison, but I thought he rarely let Australia down with the gloves in his career

 

[Red]

Yeh dont buy the myth that Gilchrist wasn't a good keeper.

Keeping to a leggie is probably the hardest keeping job, and he kept to both Warne and MacGill over almost 100 tests. And he was good at it.

Dont think for a moment that Warne in particular would have put up with Gilly being not good enough. But Gilly never stunk it up.

 

[mr_mister]

From my indoor experience I'd say keeping up to the stumps against a medium pacer is harder than keeping to spin. You're literally guessing where to place your gloves