*Official* Sri Lanka Tour of Australia 2019

[vcs]

Paine just came out of nowhere, became captain, and is gonna lead Australia into the Ashes. Kind of surreal, he was struggling in domestic cricket and considering retirement.

 

[vcs]

They can have 4 pacers and still keep Lyon. Drop one of the batsmen and go with a super-aggressive 5-man attack. India did this quite a bit around 2016 or so at the start of Kohli's captaincy. Their batting's not their strongest suit ATM anyway so why not go full #intent with the bowling attack?

Warner
Burns
Khawaja
Smith
Head/Patterson
Paine
Pattinson (is he fit?)
Cummins
Lyon
Starc
Hazlewood/Richardson

If you're playing Pattinson, it probably needs to be as part of a 5-man attack anyway.

 

[trundler]

It'd be worth it if they still had Gilchrist to bat at 6, haha.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Lyon batting ahead of Starc, what are you smoking?

 

[harsh.ag]

Hell no. Their attack is good enough. They need KP at 6.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Especially now with talk of Smith missing the WC. The hell?

 

[andruid]

Bring back Cameron White!

 

[stephen]

Especially now with talk of Smith missing the WC. The hell?

It was unlikely that a team that hasn't won a one day series in two years was going to win the world cup.

Smith's elbow needs to be right. We don't want him injuring it again.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Is that leggie, Ahmed still hopeful of getting a debut against SL?

Edit: didn't realized that the series is done and dusted

 

[jimmy101]

You mean Fawad Ahmed? Last time I heard he's struggling to get a game in the Shield.

 

[Burgey]

They can have 4 pacers and still keep Lyon. Drop one of the batsmen and go with a super-aggressive 5-man attack. India did this quite a bit around 2016 or so at the start of Kohli's captaincy. Their batting's not their strongest suit ATM anyway so why not go full #intent with the bowling attack?

Warner
Burns
Khawaja
Smith
Head/Patterson
Paine
Pattinson (is he fit?)
Cummins
Lyon
Starc
Hazlewood/Richardson

If you're playing Pattinson, it probably needs to be as part of a 5-man attack anyway.

There is not a single thing wrong with Australia's attack. Not one. Every weakness in the Australian side is due to its batting. That attack worked its arse off all summer - to the point where they bowled for a day and two sessions on the flattest deck in the world and restricted India to 470 odd from about 180 overs. What killed them was their batting, whcih gave them all of two sessions' rest and got bent over for <200 on the same deck.

You don't improve the current Australian team by taking out a batsman. They'll end up bowling to <100 totals.

 

[Victor Ian]

This sucks. No cricket (real) until June. Australia should really be filling in these empty gaps with someone. There should never be a gap of more than 3 months without test matches scheduled. In this case I get that there is a world cup on. So why such an empty schedule until then? One ODI series in India and then another few of months off until the start? How are Australia supposed to get into any rhythm with that. Unless they have given up the gig, they should be hastily organising games with anyone to fill in the gap.

 

[morgieb]

This sucks. No cricket (real) until June. Australia should really be filling in these empty gaps with someone. There should never be a gap of more than 3 months without test matches scheduled. In this case I get that there is a world cup on. So why such an empty schedule until then? One ODI series in India and then another few of months off until the start? How are Australia supposed to get into any rhythm with that. Unless they have given up the gig, they should be hastily organising games with anyone to fill in the gap.

There’s another ODI series against Pakistan around April FWIW.

 

[Victor Ian]

OK. It is not showing up on the schedule. But, that has somewhat soothed my pissednicity.

 

[Prince EWS]

You mean Fawad Ahmed? Last time I heard he's struggling to get a game in the Shield.

To be fair this is mostly just because Holland is a gun in the Shield, and there aren't many pitches on the Shield circuit you'd be comfortable selecting two specialist spinners on. His recent record when he has played has been fine, I believe.

If they don't want to pick Holland (bowled rubbish in his Tests) or O'Keefe (blacklisted), Fawad probably is the next best spinner. These sort of quirks are the price you pay for the high standard generated by only having six domestic teams.

 

[FBU]

Starc - substantial tear to left pec
Saker resigns as bowling coach.

 

[jimmy101]

To be fair this is mostly just because Holland is a gun in the Shield, and there aren't many pitches on the Shield circuit you'd be comfortable selecting two specialist spinners on. His recent record when he has played has been fine, I believe.

If they don't want to pick Holland (bowled rubbish in his Tests) or O'Keefe (blacklisted), Fawad probably is the next best spinner. These sort of quirks are the price you pay for the high standard generated by only having six domestic teams.

I actually rate Fawad pretty highly, he might benefit from a move to another state.

 

[Dan]

To be fair this is mostly just because Holland is a gun in the Shield, and there aren't many pitches on the Shield circuit you'd be comfortable selecting two specialist spinners on. His recent record when he has played has been fine, I believe.

If they don't want to pick Holland (bowled rubbish in his Tests) or O'Keefe (blacklisted), Fawad probably is the next best spinner. These sort of quirks are the price you pay for the high standard generated by only having six domestic teams.

Like the Hauritz recall.

 

[Spikey]

Somers Somerville tbh

 

[Pup Clarke]

Somers Somerville tbh

Nothing beats this