4th Test at Sydney (?) - Jan 5-9 2022

[Gob]

If Bailey/Langer find any reason to not to play all of Usman/Head and Green, they should be fired and dragged around naked in public

 

[ashley bach]

Alex Carey really struggling big time this series.
Tim Paine is sorely missed, except for his penis of course.

 

[Burgey]

How do you know his penis isn’t missed around the set up?

 

[Shady Slim]

If Bailey/Langer find any reason to not to play all of Usman/Head and Green, they should be fired and dragged around naked in public

not that i disagree but we can't pretend green's horrendous run of form with the bat is done because of one good dig lol

he still gets to play and has done enough to keep his spot but if today was the exception rather than the rule we can't have a bowling all rounder at six tbh, so weve got to hope today is closer to the norm. as someone else said, i believe it was the ever euclidian @Spark, if he can just hit some meme boundaries every dig instead of plonking the front foot and getting trapped in front for like 8 he's going to be a nigh atg

 

[Gob]

not that i disagree but we can't pretend green's horrendous run of form with the bat is done because of one good dig lol

he still gets to play and has done enough to keep his spot but if today was the exception rather than the rule we can't have a bowling all rounder at six tbh, so weve got to hope today is closer to the norm. as someone else said, i believe it was the ever euclidian @Spark, if he can just hit some meme boundaries every dig instead of plonking the front foot and getting trapped in front for like 8 he's going to be a nigh atg

He adds so much to the bowling unit tbh. Averaging 12 this series it self is amazing but most importantly, it reduces the work load of the other bowlers and potentially prevents burn out like against India last year ( yeah I know he played that series and bowled to better batsmen but he looks much more threatening now).
Would also work in the subcontinent in favour of playing two spinners. Agree with the part about his approach to batting. He has such a good offensive game so maybe that's how he should bat more often. Be really aggressive and counter attacking

 

[GIMH]

Not sure what I expected to wake to but it wasn’t an unbeaten stand of 30 from our openers. What a time to be alive

 

[Prince EWS]

Not sure what I expected to wake to

Probably a free helicopter ride for what you said to me on WhatsApp last night.

 

[ashley bach]

Not sure what I expected to wake to but it wasn’t an unbeaten stand of 30 from our openers. What a time to be alive

a true cricket fan stays up all night to watch their team(or others) then sleeps in the day.

 

[Shady Slim]

He adds so much to the bowling unit tbh. Averaging 12 this series it self is amazing but most importantly, it reduces the work load of the other bowlers and potentially prevents burn out like against India last year ( yeah I know he played that series and bowled to better batsmen but he looks much more threatening now).
Would also work in the subcontinent in favour of playing two spinners. Agree with the part about his approach to batting. He has such a good offensive game so maybe that's how he should bat more often. Be really aggressive and counter attacking

yeah i don't disagree with any of the above but my point is we can't be carrying a bloke at 6 doing wonders with the ball if he's averaging 15 with bat, so to say green's spot is forever secure in the absolute relies on today being more than a once in a blue moon thing from him, because if you're averaging twelve with the ball but fifteen with the bat you're going to be batting at ten and not six

 

[ashley bach]

yeah i don't disagree with any of the above but my point is we can't be carrying a bloke at 6 doing wonders with the ball if he's averaging 15 with bat, so to say green's spot is forever secure in the absolute relies on today being more than a once in a blue moon thing from him, because if you're averaging twelve with the ball but fifteen with the bat you're going to be batting at ten and not six

he still averages about 30 in tests, and it's obvious we haven't seen anywhere near the best of him yet.
think getting one big innings under his belt could see him on the way...

 

[Spark]

we can't carry a bowling all rounder at 6 but imo we can absolutely carry one at 7. so i don't really see why the focus is so much on "but he bats top 6!" when #6 has never ever been the make-or-break position in a test batting lineup anyway.

to me he looks like someone who still doesn't yet understand his own game, his own scoring plans, and isn't fully confident in his technical tweaks. he clearly has quite a range of shots (that back foot punch was an outrageous stroke), but he's too concerned about Batting Properly to actually free them unless it's a declaration batting situation. for that reason i'd leave him at 7 for a while.

yeah i don't disagree with any of the above but my point is we can't be carrying a bloke at 6 doing wonders with the ball if he's averaging 15 with bat, so to say green's spot is forever secure in the absolute relies on today being more than a once in a blue moon thing from him, because if you're averaging twelve with the ball but fifteen with the bat you're going to be batting at ten and not six

okay but... if you average 12 with the ball then your spot is definitely, 100% forever secure. just for very different reasons.

 

[Shady Slim]

okay but... if you average 12 with the ball then your spot is definitely, 100% forever secure. just for very different reasons.

i never said anything to the contrary, in fact i said exactly that, just that you're batting at ten and not six with those numbers

i agree with you that right now he should be at seven, all i'm saying is the what should be completely uncontroversial take that no matter how good he's playing with the ball if he continues to bat like he was batting before today, and it so happens that today was the exception not the rule, then we can't have the guy at six forever with those returns with the bat

 

[social]

we can't carry a bowling all rounder at 6 but imo we can absolutely carry one at 7. so i don't really see why the focus is so much on "but he bats top 6!" when #6 has never ever been the make-or-break position in a test batting lineup anyway.

to me he looks like someone who still doesn't yet understand his own game, his own scoring plans, and isn't fully confident in his technical tweaks. he clearly has quite a range of shots (that back foot punch was an outrageous stroke), but he's too concerned about Batting Properly to actually free them unless it's a declaration batting situation. for that reason i'd leave him at 7 for a while.



okay but... if you average 12 with the ball then your spot is definitely, 100% forever secure. just for very different reasons.

Agree 100%

His batting is a WIP and most importantly in his own mind

Talent is obvious

We’re also not carrying him because he contributes in other ways

 

[Spark]

i never said anything to the contrary, in fact i said exactly that, just that you're batting at ten and not six with those numbers

i agree with you that right now he should be at seven, all i'm saying is the what should be completely uncontroversial take that no matter how good he's playing with the ball if he continues to bat like he was batting before today, and it so happens that today was the exception not the rule, then we can't have the guy at six forever with those returns with the bat

Yeah but it's important to point out that this isn't a MMarsh case where we were carrying a player who pretty much wasn't contributing to the team in any meaningful sense for however many Test matches, the bloke is a pretty vital part of the attack already and bowling extremely well. He's the main reason we haven't missed Hazlewood IMO. This is before we get to the observation that he basically might as well be two gully fielders on his own.

He's not just a "project player", though he obviously is with his batting, he's genuinely pulling his weight in the side. He's a 22-year old fast bowling all-rounder, it's basically the most difficult gig in the game. IIRC he's already outperforming both Steve Waugh and Shane Watson at the respective points of their careers. I'm not sure Stokes had even made his debut at this point.

 

[Shady Slim]

Yeah but it's important to point out that this isn't a MMarsh case where we were carrying a player who pretty much wasn't contributing to the team in any meaningful sense for however many Test matches, the bloke is a pretty vital part of the attack already and bowling extremely well. He's the main reason we haven't missed Hazlewood IMO. This is before we get to the observation that he basically might as well be two gully fielders on his own.

He's not just a "project player", though he obviously is with his batting, he's genuinely pulling his weight in the side. He's a 22-year old fast bowling all-rounder, it's basically the most difficult gig in the game. IIRC he's already outperforming both Steve Waugh and Shane Watson at the respective points of their careers. I'm not sure Stokes had even made his debut at this point.

again i don't disagree with anything that you've said it's just right now his batting has not been good enough to be a longterm six - which does not mean i'm saying drop him, i'm just saying that before we can anoint him the number six for the next fifteen years we need to see more stuff like today. it's not as if he's not holding his place in the xi ~~somewhere~~ with the other stuff because he totally is doing so, just purely talking about his place with the batting lineup

 

[Spark]

again i don't disagree with anything that you've said it's just right now his batting has not been good enough to be a longterm six - which does not mean i'm saying drop him, i'm just saying that before we can anoint him the number six for the next fifteen years we need to see more stuff like today. it's not as if he's not holding his place in the xi ~~somewhere~~ with the other stuff because he totally is doing so, just purely talking about his place with the batting lineup

He's basically being picked as a long term six based on his FC record, which I don't think is that remarkable a thing to do tbh.

If anything, the way he bats screams long term #5. I strongly suspect that's where he'll play most of his games in the end, fitness notwithstanding.

 

[jcas0167]

I thought that was Adam Parore to Waugh

There is a book on sledging that incorrectly attributes it to Parore but it's Pocock. Parore wasn't on the 93 tour to Australia but Pocock was. Also, Parore in his book says Pocock sledged Waugh with one of the nastiest sledges he'd heard about his partner who was somewhat older than Waugh.

 

[Shady Slim]

He's basically being picked as a long term six based on his FC record, which I don't think is that remarkable a thing to do tbh.

If anything, the way he bats screams long term #5. I strongly suspect that's where he'll play most of his games in the end, fitness notwithstanding.

again i don't disagree with anything of what you've said, it's just that eventually when you're in the team long term it has to be on your test record and not your first class record and we need more innings like today's to say he's a long term top order bat based on proven test stuff rather than fc record

 

[Bijed]

I've said before that he should be persisted with because the upside if he comes good with the bat is fantastic, but it'll be interesting to see if the selectors keep the faith - what I'm thinking (and I don't actually know tours Australia have got coming up) is tougher opposition might throw a hypothetical continued lack of runs into sharper focus and it could be decided that swapping him for a better batsman is worth losing his bowling for. I'm not sure if I'd agree (it would depend heavily on how is bowling was currently going at the time I guess) but it's a realistic possibility imo.

 

[Spark]

I've said before that he should be persisted with because the upside if he comes good with the bat is fantastic, but it'll be interesting to see if the selectors keep the faith - what I'm thinking (and I don't actually know tours Australia have got coming up) is tougher opposition might throw a hypothetical continued lack of runs into sharper focus and it could be decided that swapping him for a better batsman is worth losing his bowling for. I'm not sure if I'd agree (it would depend heavily on how is bowling was currently going at the time I guess) but it's a realistic possibility imo.

I think he gets the whole year unless he looked genuinely, totally lost against spin in the subcontinent (which, I have to say, is definitely a possibility...) and he basically gets yanked for his own good.

But like as Burgey said he's six foot a million. He really should just run down the pitch and basically tonk anything on a good length. That or practice his sweep shot, a lot.