*Official* South Africa in Australia 2018

[Starfighter]

Nov 04, Sun
Australia vs South Africa, 1st ODIPerth Stadium, Perth
2:20 PM03:20 AM GMT / 11:20 AM LOCAL

Nov 09, Fri
Australia vs South Africa, 2nd ODIAdelaide Oval, Adelaide
2:20 PM03:20 AM GMT / 01:50 PM LOCAL

Nov 11, Sun
Australia vs South Africa, 3rd ODIBellerive Oval, Hobart
1:50 PM02:50 AM GMT / 01:50 PM LOCAL

Nov 17, Sat
Australia vs South Africa, Only T20ICarrara Oval, Queensland

 

[Starfighter]

May as well make one for this too even though I won't be watching any of it due to the cash head's fox sports ****.

Paine goes out as captain and keeper (thankfully), Finch is the new captain. Cummins returns (ugh, I don't rate him as a one-day bowler), Coulter-Nile, Lynn and Short in too.

Aaron Finch (capt), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Alex Carey (vc), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, D'Arcy Short, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

 

[Spark]

Be pleasantly surprised if we win a single game

Is the SA squad announced yet?

 

[StephenZA]

Proteas ODI squad: Faf du Plessis (Titans, capt), Farhaan Behardien (Titans), Quinton de Kock (Titans), Reeza Hendricks (Highveld Lions), Imran Tahir (Dolphins), Heinrich Klaasen (Titans), Aiden Markram (Titans), David Miller (Dolphins), Chris Morris (Titans), Lungisani Ngidi (Titans), Andile Phehlukwayo (Dolphins), Dwaine Pretorius Highveld Lions), Kagiso Rabada (Highveld Lions), Tabraiz Shamsi (Titans), Dale Steyn (Titans).

.

 

[stephen]

Titans the WA of SA cricket?

 

[Starfighter]

Some of those players are actually good tho

 

[Bolo]

2 posts in and the Gambhiring has already commenced. Both team suck at the moment. RSA probably suck slightly less. The result is meaningless, but I reckon its a big series for both of us. Lots to learn

I'm expecting some highly uncompetitive cricket

 

[Starfighter]

I remember the last one of these series faintly. SA were generally dire despite a theoretically good side and no one turned up any but the Canberra match. I'm expecting the same lack of crowd but the direst team is very contestable.

 

[StephenZA]

Is this going to become the who is more dire thread or Aus is so dire thread?

 

[harsh.ag]

Three simultaneously stickied threads with Australia involved. And this series seems needless.

 

[stephen]

Honestly I'm a bit sad that they announced Carey as the keeper for this series. Wade has been in incredible form with the bat this season, has a better record and is a seasoned international quality ODI player. The baby got dumped with the bath water when he got removed as ODI keeper.

This will likely be close to the final WC squad for Australia:

Warner
Finch (c)
Lynn
S Marsh
Smith
M Marsh
Maxwell
Head
Stoinis
Carey (wk)
Agar
Zampa
Starc
Hazlewood
Cummins
Coulter-Nile
Stanlake

That's a squad of 16 - 4 batters, 5 all rounders, 2 spinners, 5 quicks.

The best full strength side remains to be seen but I think will have these bones:

Warner
Finch (c)
Batter
Smith
M Marsh
All rounder
Carey
Starc
Cummins
Hazlewood
Zampa

Leaving
Head fighting Maxwell for the second all rounder spot (I think the selectors will see Stoinis as Marsh's backup)
And Head, S Marsh, Lynn and Maxwell fighting for the other batter spot.

Coulter-Nile, Stanlake and Agar providing bench strength only.

Smith to float up and down between 3 and 5 depending on whether Lynn and Head get selected, both of whom are better up the order. M Marsh to bat either 5 or 6.

If Marsh can't bowl then there's a small chance Stoinis will play ahead of him but I really think the selectors will find it hard to pick Stoinis after his recent stint in England being so bad.

There's an even smaller chance that M Marsh won't play and Australia play both Head and Maxwell to provide more spin options.

 

[stephen]

Squad of 17, rather. I'm counting Smith as an all rounder.

 

[StephenZA]

Three simultaneously stickied threads with Australia involved. And this series seems needless.

Think it may have been a favour for SA, Zim series and this was added as SA does not have a lot of LO cricket till WC. We need the practise.

 

[stephen]

Think it may have been a favour for SA, Zim series and this was added as SA does not have a lot of LO cricket till WC. We need the practise.

I'm pretty sure Australia only has this and the India ODIs before the world cup.

Our side is looking pretty ordinary right now so we can use all the practice we can get. Having said that, we've looked ordinary in bilateral series against the top two ODI sides right now so we're still in with a shot of making it to the business end of the tournament.

 

[Bolo]

If this was a ten match series and RSA win them all, I'd still back AUS at the WC. The next bit is a bit redundant, because you don't need to consider the strength of any other team to have a pretty clear picture of what will happen to RSA, but AUS have managed some amazing stuff in the time since the team went into decay. The way they constantly bring along a worthless player or two who somehow go beast just for the WC is something else

 

[Pup Clarke]

Not a chance Warner's going to the WC

 

[stephen]

Not a chance Warner's going to the WC

Not a chance he's not IMO.

Australia have won two out of our last 20 ODIs. If we want to progress past the group stages we need our strongest team and Warner is certainly in that.

Warner
Finch (c)
Lynn
Smith (7)
Maxwell (6)
M Marsh (5)
Wade
Starc (1)
Cummins (3)
Hazlewood (2)
Zampa (4)

That'd give Australia a huge amount of firepower at the top and bottom, anchored by Smith in the middle. In their day I'd back that side to beat any in the world.

 

[Pup Clarke]

I didn't phrase that correctly really. Meant to say don't think Warner should be in contention. Just blood someone else (Khawaja/Short?) and maybe let Warner get mentally ready for the Ashes later in the year?

EDIT: Really surprised to find that Short is 28! Definitely thought he was early 20s at most

 

[stephen]

The world cup is very important. We shouldn't save resources for other series. We should pick the best sides.

 

[NUFAN]

I dont like the schedule once again. 14 days to play 3 ODIs and 1 T20 is too long.

Pretty sure Sunday, Tues/Wed, Friday, Sunday would be possible or at least play an extra mid week T20 game FFS.