*Official* India Tour of Australia 2018/19

[Midwinter]

25 run in the hour after lunch
106 for the day so far.

Why I am happy that Paine is out there, rotating the strike and getting behind the ball.

 

[TimAngas]

You know you're reaching West Indies level of test batting when your best batsmen has 1 FC ton.

 

[quincywagstaff]

The baffling catapulting of Labuschagne into the Test team for UAE (and Neser and Doggett, especially Doggett) would indicate not

The selectors just suck. I mean Peter Siddle is the back up bowler wtf is with that

Yeah, how is Siddle anywhere near the Test side? His time is well past and it's not like he showed anything contrary in the UAE.

 

[stephen]

119 more runs to avoid the follow on feels like such a long way away.

 

[morgieb]

Yeah 300ish runs at 42 this season. No tons.

Meanwhile, the current top order:

1. Finch -- 50 @ 25.50 (1 match)
2. Harris -- 501 @ 71.57 (5 matches)
3. Khawaja -- 59 @ 29.50 (1 match)
4. Marsh -- 443 @ 88.60 (3 matches)
5. Head -- 169 @ 33.80 (3 matches)
6. Marsh -- 264 @ 37.71 (4 matches)
7. Paine -- 107 @ 26.75 (3 matches)

12. Handscomb -- 361 @ 45.12 (5 matches)

Look I'm pretty open in that I've backed Marsh previously and don't rate Stoinis, so I get that this next point will feel like mental gymnastics to justify that prior support. But honestly, I'm getting to the point where I wonder if the difference between Shield cricket and Test cricket is so huge that the stats literally don't matter any more.

Shaun Marsh constantly makes big Shield runs these days and has been through an extended lean trot at Test level. Mitch Marsh is not discernibly worse than the likes of Stoinis and Henriques at Shield level, but can't buy a Test run. Marcus Harris is the form batsman of the past few years and has spent his (admittedly short) Test career looking like the WA version of himself with breezy 20-odds ending in poor dismissals. The only member of that top seven who has met or exceeded expectations is Paine -- whose FC record is rubbish and should never have been picked based on typical selection processes.

****ed if I know how to fix that.

Worth noting with Harris this season the majority of his runs have come from one innings. It also might be an experience thing (i.e. the looking good but always gets out thing may change over time)

But yeah it's a problem. Might be worth doing what England did circa 2000 and just take punts on those who have the right kind of style and back them in to improve, and put a line through certain players no matter how many runs they score.

 

[Spark]

honestly this has been an embarrassing batting display. one of the worst i've seen.

 

[stephen]

Lovely shot by Cummins there.

 

[TheJediBrah]

For reasons I'm not entirely sure of, it seems that nobody likes Burns.

I was liking Boo-urns

 

[trundler]

Now we find out if Cummins is a magical being sent to save Australian cricket.

 

[Spark]

Yeah 300ish runs at 42 this season. No tons.

Meanwhile, the current top order:

1. Finch -- 50 @ 25.50 (1 match)
2. Harris -- 501 @ 71.57 (5 matches)
3. Khawaja -- 59 @ 29.50 (1 match)
4. Marsh -- 443 @ 88.60 (3 matches)
5. Head -- 169 @ 33.80 (3 matches)
6. Marsh -- 264 @ 37.71 (4 matches)
7. Paine -- 107 @ 26.75 (3 matches)

12. Handscomb -- 361 @ 45.12 (5 matches)

Look I'm pretty open in that I've backed Marsh previously and don't rate Stoinis, so I get that this next point will feel like mental gymnastics to justify that prior support. But honestly, I'm getting to the point where I wonder if the difference between Shield cricket and Test cricket is so huge that the stats literally don't matter any more.

Shaun Marsh constantly makes big Shield runs these days and has been through an extended lean trot at Test level. Mitch Marsh is not discernibly worse than the likes of Stoinis and Henriques at Shield level, but can't buy a Test run. Marcus Harris is the form batsman of the past few years and has spent his (admittedly short) Test career looking like the WA version of himself with breezy 20-odds ending in poor dismissals. The only member of that top seven who has met or exceeded expectations is Paine -- whose FC record is rubbish and should never have been picked based on typical selection processes.

****ed if I know how to fix that.

look at those averages though - all between 30 and 40. i think there are, in terms of hand-eye coordination, some talented batsmen around the country. but outside of smith, khawaja and warner (and maybe marsh) no one really understands how you build a long innings against good bowling.

 

[Burgey]

For reasons I'm not entirely sure of, it seems that nobody likes Burns.

Probably his hair cut. And fair enough too.

 

[cnerd123]

Should just recall the likes of Hussey, Hodge, Voges, etc. out of retirement. Can't be much worse.

 

[Burgey]

This side always had an embarrassing collapse in it, hell it used to collapse wth Smith and Warner in it. I think the surprise is it’s taken until the first innings of the third test on what isthe easiest pitch to survive on so far this series.

 

[stephen]

Harris hit a 250* earlier this season. Half his runs in one innings on what I think was the mcg highway.

To put things in perspective, the batsman with the most runs this season is Wade. He'd probably be a better choice of all rounder than M Marsh with his decent medium pace bowling.

 

[trundler]

How do you go from being able to field 2 sides that could genuinely be #1 in the world to Arun Finch opening in tests.

 

[Burgey]

Mitch Marsh bowled really well here tbf to him. And got through a big workload too. He’s just not a test match six. He might be a seven or an eight but there isn’t a keeper-batsman good enough to bat six ahead of him. And his bowling useful but certainly not good enough to play at eight as part of a four man attack.

 

[vicleggie]

How do you from being able to field 2 sides that could genuinely be #1 in the world to Arun Finch opening in tests.

T20 cricket

They don't have to have good techniques to make millions in cricket

 

[Flem274*]

i don't have time to follow everyones cricket these days so im no expert but burns mk I surprised me. i didn't rate his angled bat on contact at all as a test opener but he dug in and scored runs. he wouldn't be the worst middle order bat imo away from the new ball.

really tho it's probably a case of waiting for warner and smith to return. khawaja can bat and should do better when he's not the main man, maxwell can bat and should be playing. i haven't seen enough of renshaw and bancroft to have much of an opinion. humpty dumpty can be put back together again when you can get rid of finch as opener and both marshes who are batting like drains atm

 

[Burgey]

How do you from being able to field 2 sides that could genuinely be #1 in the world to Arun Finch opening in tests.

Swings and roundabouts.

The same way you go from being the only side to really challenge the Windies in the 80s to leading the world in 1990s match fixing, I guess.

 

[cnerd123]

How do you from being able to field 2 sides that could genuinely be #1 in the world to Arun Finch opening in tests.

yea someone needs to seriously question CA's player management and talent development structures. It's not like Aus just had a golden generation either - they've been one of the best sides in the world for most of their history. To go from that to this is embarrassing.

I get that T20 cricket and lower participation numbers play a role, but CA needs to re-evaluate their grassroots structures and their domestic cricket to see what's going wrong. And TBF maybe they have. But this is a problem that runs deep. Simply selecting new players into the starting XI or hiring a new coach won't solve anything.