Australian test selection 2018/19

[Spark]

labuschagne head mmarsh has to be basically the worst middle order aus has ever fielded in living memory

 

[Top_Cat]

When you consider where their careers were at, I always figured we never see a top-7 beat who the Kiwis faced in at Brisbane '84 for sheer crapidity. The shuffling of the order come the next Test to include Hookesy and O'Donnel suggests the selectors felt the same way.

AB in the side tips the **** ledger toward the new crew, though. Wow.

 

[Second Spitter]

That bowling “attack”. Ugh.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

It'd be some rise to fame if he ended up playing for Australia any time soon given every third post in the AusDom thread earlier in the season was complaining about him still getting selected for NSW.

The current Australian captain was basically retired 18 months ago.

 

[GRAB]

When you consider where their careers were at, I always figured we never see a top-7 beat who the Kiwis faced in at Brisbane '84 for sheer crapidity. The shuffling of the order come the next Test to include Hookesy and O'Donnel suggests the selectors felt the same way.

AB in the side tips the **** ledger toward the new crew, though. Wow.

That has Boon, Wessels and Border. Half a decent batting line-up!

It also has 0 Marsh's. A bit later on you have this: 1st Test, India tour of Australia at Adelaide, Dec 13-17 1985 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo . They made 381, although it was Adelaide... A Marsh in place of Wessels should make that a worse line-up on paper?

 

[Top_Cat]

MIssing the point a bit. DC Boon became a legit Test match bat but at the time he was playing his 8th Test and averaging just north of 20. Wessels was a fine but flawed player, much like Khawaja. As I said, add AB and the current line-up is most definitely worse.

As for who's really worse at different points, it's all varying degrees of rubbish really innit? Point is I never thought I'd see a team in the modern era that's even competitive with the 80s guys for lack of preparation for the top level. The formation of the Academy was all about making the setup more professional, giving pathways, long careers, monetary support, better prepared cricketers, etc. specifically to avoid the conga line of suck who stole their baggy greens post-Chappell/Lilllee/Marsh. It wasn't ever supposed to happen again.

Yet here we are. The side lost their two best bats, yes, but the batting's has been overall pretty stinky for around for a decade, just have to read the battle of the Aussie batting capitulations thread. Something's wrong, it's systemic and long-standing.

 

[SeamUp]

So Will Pucovski turned down BBL overtures to play club cricket.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sp...linters-on-bbl-backbench-20181229-p50opx.html

 

[SeamUp]

Malcolm makes fair points but not sure about some of those names in the scattergun in the end there.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricke...cked-team-for-birmingham-20181230-p50ou3.html

 

[Red]

Labuschagne will probably make a ton and a fool of me, but seriously, WTAF?

Guy has played 9 Shield innings this year and is averaging 28. And we're dropping him into a side that is capable of taking 20 wickets but not capable of making the runs to defend? For what? His spinners? 5 wickets in 6 innings at 60?

Christ our selectors are ****ed at the minute. If they want two spinners, just pick two spinners (Lyon + someone proven: OKeefe, Holland or Ahmed) and drop a quick. They'll no doubt persist with Mitch Marsh anyway, leaving them with 5 bowlers. So what sense is there in picking Labuschagne?

Labuschagne's selection makes it 100% clear (if there was any doubt beforehand) that the selectors put no stock in FC performances. If I was one of the batsman averaging north of 40 in Shield this year, I'd be fkn ropable and asking for serious answers from the selectors.

 

[Tangles]

Labu has been picked on BBL form? Serious question as I don’t watch it.

 

[Red]

Labu has been picked on BBL form? Serious question as I don’t watch it.

I dont know and I definitely hope not. If the mentality of the selection panel is that domestic 20/20 performances will lead to batsmen who can help us win test matches, then god help us all.

 

[Jarquis]

He isn’t even in the Heat’s first choice eleven.

Now, I’m undoubtedly a bigger fan of the bloke than anyone else on the forum but this is not the time to be picking him. Especially if he is going to be playing as well as MMarsh. I thought the selectors made it very easy for themselves to drop MMarsh with the fact they needed an all rounder for the MCG but may not for the SCG. Even if they’ve now decided they’d rather a spin bowling alleounde for the SCG then that’s fair enough but to pick both?

 

[NUFAN]

I just assumed that it would be a battle between Marnus and Mitch for the no-rounder spot.

 

[GotSpin]

Australian cricket is seriously ill right now but we need to be making smart selections until we can fix our term issues

That’s plainly not happening either

 

[Tangles]

Are they viewing every test as throwaway/experimental till Smith returns? Or it’s just the whims of the coaches? First Boof and now Gnome.

 

[NUFAN]

I know this is basically a roundabout question but anyways.

If you were in charge of county cricket and had a rule where division 1 had to field 6 Australian batsman. The teams have no specific needs such as a bowling option, need for a veteran, young gun, opener etc, you just want the best 6 bats who will perform the best in the upcoming county season. Who would you pick?

 

[morgieb]

Are they viewing every test as throwaway/experimental till Smith returns? Or it’s just the whims of the coaches? First Boof and now Gnome.

Obviously there was a greater margin of error, but I don't think Australian selectors under Lehmann were particularly bad at all. In fact there were a couple of left-field calls (Johnson) that paid massive dividends. Langer OTOH.....

That is really my biggest problem. He seems to understand the ability for batsmen to dig in more than Lehmann ever did, but his selections are poor (as well as him being a cliched ****)

 

[morgieb]

I know this is basically a roundabout question but anyways.

If you were in charge of county cricket and had a rule where division 1 had to field 6 Australian batsman. The teams have no specific needs such as a bowling option, need for a veteran, young gun, opener etc, you just want the best 6 bats who will perform the best in the upcoming county season. Who would you pick?

Probably something like:

Smith
Warner
Khawaja
Renshaw
Maxwell
Burns

Take Smith and Warner out of the equation:

Marsh
Wade

Yeah, not pretty.

 

[NUFAN]

Oh yeah, I probably should have said non banned players, so Warner and Smith arent available but Bancroft is.

 

[Gnske]

I know this is basically a roundabout question but anyways.

If you were in charge of county cricket and had a rule where division 1 had to field 6 Australian batsman. The teams have no specific needs such as a bowling option, need for a veteran, young gun, opener etc, you just want the best 6 bats who will perform the best in the upcoming county season. Who would you pick?

Renshaw
Khawaja
Burns
Patterson
Ferguson
Maxwell