Australian test selection 2020/21

[Gob]

Marnus will catch up

 

[Gob]

Swepo will get poles imo

 

[stephen]

That's a great infographic. Shame they won't pick the third guy on that list.

 

[TimAngas]

That's damning.

I really am lost as to who to pick at five for South Africa. It's just so easy to put a line through the possible contenders. That we need to take an expanded squad due to Covid just makes matters worse since those selected will miss probably three rounds of the shield. So while in principle I'd lean towards picking Head at five with Maddison as a backup, that robs Maddinson of three shield games in a season where he's already been robbed of an opportunity due to Harris and Pucovski batting ridiculously big. This fact slightly strengthens the case of Khawaja or the Marsh brothers; known quantities who wouldn't be losing invaluable FC matches to develop their game.

 

[Gob]

That's damning.

I really am lost as to who to pick at five for South Africa. It's just so easy to put a line through the possible contenders. That we need to take an expanded squad due to Covid just makes matters worse since those selected will miss probably three rounds of the shield. So while in principle I'd lean towards picking Head at five with Maddison as a backup, that robs Maddinson of three shield games in a season where he's already been robbed of an opportunity due to Harris and Pucovski batting ridiculously big. This fact slightly strengthens the case of Khawaja or the Marsh brothers; known quantities who wouldn't be losing invaluable FC matches to develop their game.

Shaun Marsh is a good intermediate number 5 tbh. Looked all class in the shield

 

[TimAngas]

Shaun Marsh is a good intermediate number 5 tbh. Looked all class in the shield

I don't know. It seems the pattern of Shaun Marsh call-ups that he has a huge start to the shield, gets picked and plays an important innings, then reverts to an unacceptable mean. It's literally happened on debut, 2014, 2016 and 2017. Considering what's a stake with the WTC, and his current form I guess the selectors would want one big innings.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I don't know. It seems the pattern of Shaun Marsh call-ups that he has a huge start to the shield, gets picked and plays an important innings, then reverts to an unacceptable mean.

Well that's almost perfect when all you want from him is a stop-gap for a series or 2 while a younger talent puts their name forward in the Shield

 

[Smudge49]

Krejza's 12-fer was pretty terrible tbh. It was because he was given literally no respect.

The bowling in general was terrible during that phase, but he bowled a good number of balls like this to some of the best players of spin.

 

[Daemon]

It was a very Mark Craig sort of performance

 

[Smudge49]

What this infographic won't tell you is that close to 50-60 baggy greens have been handed over in the last decade, that stat is totally bonkers given that in a over a century only 400 odd Australians were lucky enough to play test cricket for Australia.

In the last decade however the selectors pick players, only to find reasons to axe them.

 

[Spikey]

by my count, australia played 12% of their total test matches from 2011 to 2020 (103/834), and 9% of Australia's total players debuted in that same time (42/460), so that seems pretty ok. the more troubling thing is we have to drop 4 players after any loss, and that pursuit is spearheaded from fans, etc

and yes, I'm replying to hyperbole with some cold hard facts...and then hyperbole

 

[honestbharani]

TBF, our horror run in 2011 and then the 2014 debacles also did not force wholesale changes to the squad. Just some finetuning, identification of roles that were not yet fulfilled, shortlisting folks who had potential to deliver on those roles and investing in their development.

No reason why all this can't be done by Australia. They just need to cut down the BBL to a reasonable length and ensure FC cricket is also played in the proper conditions. And reinvest in A tours. Also get some of the almost there players some county deals.

 

[Smudge49]

BBL is a massive issue at this point, telling Shield players to go into hibernation mode after half the season for a hiatus of over 2-3 months is crazy, especially when test cricket is simultaneously co-existing with the BBL season.

In short most national players don't play in the BBL, making it a watered down T20 competition for fringe Aussie players and a quick buck making event for foreign players.

Domestic cricketers are being shoved in test cricket on residual form, from last summer or first half of Shield the current season.

What makes matters worst is the constant lookout for new players, the moment the team loses a few games which suggests the lack of any long term plans.

 

[GotSpin]

BBL is a massive issue at this point, telling Shield players to go into hibernation mode after half the season for a hiatus of over 2-3 months is crazy, especially when test cricket is simultaneously co-existing with the BBL season.

In short most national players don't play in the BBL, making it a watered down T20 competition for fringe Aussie players and a quick buck making event for foreign players.

Domestic cricketers are being shoved in test cricket on residual form, from last summer or first half of Shield the current season.

What makes matters worst is the constant lookout for new players, the moment the team loses a few games which suggests the lack of any long term plans.

The BBL is just massive for kids though. It's not an easy fix

 

[Flem274*]

The BBL is just massive for kids though. It's not an easy fix

pretty sure there's a few guys who can help you out there. amir has a lot of free time on his hands now.

 

[Shady Slim]

smudge raises a great point though that the bbl running concurrently with the test summer means it is pretty hard to know who's waiting in the wings to come straight in to the test squad and perform at test level if the need to call in the cavalry arises

gotspin raises an equally great point in that you can't really move the bbl from where it is, especially because if you start it after the test summer you've lost about half of the school holidays which isn't great for bbl attendance - and not to mention the flow on effect that can have down the line where kids get introduced to cricket through the bbl and later discover test cricket and get in to that too. big proponent of the "the bbl can be used to foster a greater interest in test cricket" argument if it's done right.

 

[Spikey]

smudge raises a great point though that the bbl running concurrently with the test summer means it is pretty hard to know who's waiting in the wings to come straight in to the test squad and perform at test level if the need to call in the cavalry arises

its actually extremely easy as long as you're not waiting around for 2 good games in the shield to make decisions for you

 

[Prince EWS]

its actually extremely easy as long as you're not waiting around for 2 good games in the shield to make decisions for you

Yeah, the idea that they don't know who to call up because no-one has played any Shield games for a month says more about the horrible reactionary selection policy than it does about the scheduling.

It definitely is good to have players in red ball mode when they get called up to play Test cricket, but not so the selectors know who to pick.

 

[Red]

Moises Henriques played some really nice shots in the BBL last night. Just looks assured at the crease.

 

[Spikey]

I need a safe space to deposit this for all our reference. Please do not comment on this beyond mocking Peter Siddle for barely being better than Kallis

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1351923110581297153