***Official*** West Indies tour of Australia, Jan–Feb 2024

[SillyCowCorner1]

It should be shown here

Cricket Australia XI Men v West Indies Men, Cricket Australia XI v West Indies - Men | cricket.com.au

Live cricket coverage, live streaming, cricket highlights, live scores, breaking news, video, analysis and expert opinion.

www.cricket.com.au

Thanks. I'll probably have to register an account on that website for me to actually watch any play.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1744852896985047321

Woi

 

[Qlder]

Australia ODI squad vs West Indies

Steve Smith (c), Travis Head (vc), Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson, Matt Short, Adam Zampa

Marsh, Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood rested

Finally no more Stoinis

 

[Spark]

Pretty annoyed they haven't rested Smith for these.

And by rested, I mean forcibly retired from the format.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Clear missed oppurtunity to give Head some international captaincy experience too

 

[TheJediBrah]

Why does Marsh need a rest. Bloke barely moves during a game

 

[Prince EWS]

Pretty annoyed they haven't rested Smith for these.

And by rested, I mean forcibly retired from the format.

I'm pretty annoyed they refuse to let Head captain.

 

[Kraken]

Why does Marsh need a rest. Bloke barely moves during a game

he's basically a lock in the side, good opportunity to see other options imo

 

[Spikey]

rest in piss marcus stonis

 

[social]

Smith has been a great player for Australia but he shouldn’t be part of our white ball future

The game has moved on

 

[TheJediBrah]

Smith has been a great player for Australia but he shouldn’t be part of our white ball future

The game has moved on

Marnus' knock in the World Cup final begs to differ

There's always a place for a proper batsman that doesn't necessarily go at 110 SR. Not every game is on a road

 

[Spark]

Yeah I don't say that on a "oh we need to Modernise Our Gamestyle (TM)" basis, I say it on a "every ODI shortens his Test career" basis.

 

[Starfighter]

Quick, dirty maths - in the 2010s, #4s in Test cricket averaged 44 (same in 00s). 2010s for openers was 35. There's 9 runs difference. So Smith goes from 42 at 4 to 33 as an opener. There seems to be some sort of acceptance that since 2020, batting has become harder (pitches, bowling attacks etc). So I don't think sub-30 for a 34-year-old who's never opened is too outrageous for me to predict. And we've just watched Warner, from his 34th birthday, average just under 30 for a pretty large sample size over the last two calendar years.

This is weird logic. While facing the new ball is of course a bit harder, there has been a run recently of teams selecting openers who are simply lower quality than in, say, the 00s, as there isn't anyone else. When we have both quite a few very good to great middle order batsmen running around at the same as openers averaging under 40 domestically are being selected, you'd expect a big collective difference in average.

That doesn't have any bearing on individual players - Khawaja has done clearly better as an opener for instance. Smith might well average less, but the collective averages aren't representing causality if he does.

 

[Daemon]

Only Smith's nutty enough to volunteer to open when he's guaranteed to live out the rest of his career on his terms from wherever he damn well pleases. Not sure you can only ascribe simple qualities like selflessness or the excitement of a fresh challenge to the guy. More likely he got the notion/tic in his head and now can't shake it off until he's tried it. Pretty cool either way though.

Haha well I seriously doubt he’s doing it out of the goodness of his heart or selflessly for the team as Burgey would have you believe. He’s just the sort of guy who wants to have a crack at everything and all at once - play in all formats, all leagues, open in T20s, middle order in Tests, bowl spin, etc. He’d probably be happy to play an XI of himself if he could. He saw an opportunity here and he grabbed it.

 

[Spark]

Haha well I seriously doubt he’s doing it out of the goodness of his heart or selflessly for the team as Burgey would have you believe. He’s just the sort of guy who wants to have a crack at everything and all at once - play in all formats, all leagues, open in T20s, middle order in Tests, bowl spin, etc. He’d probably be happy to play an XI of himself if he could. He saw an opportunity here and he grabbed it.

I sincerely think it is mostly that he hates that he has to wait for other people to get out before he gets to bat. That summer where Warner and Labuschagne made like three million runs against Pakistan and NZ must have been like slow torture for him.

 

[Spikey]

marcus stoinis got dumped and you guys are discussing captaincy and smith. what the hell is wrong with you freaks

 

[Skipper Pup]

Australia ODI squad vs West Indies

Steve Smith (c), Travis Head (vc), Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson, Matt Short, Adam Zampa

Marsh, Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood rested

Finally no more Stoinis

Steve Smith captain? I honestly can't believe CA would stoop so low and disrespect our ODI side like this..

How are kids these days going to be inspired by his leadership... disgusting.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Steve Smith captain? I honestly can't believe CA would stoop so low and disrespect our ODI side like this..

How are kids these days going to be inspired by his leadership... disgusting.

I'm interested to see if he still hates Glenn Maxwell

the way he captained him in his last stint was hilarious

 

[SteveNZ]

This is weird logic. While facing the new ball is of course a bit harder, there has been a run recently of teams selecting openers who are simply lower quality than in, say, the 00s, as there isn't anyone else. When we have both quite a few very good to great middle order batsmen running around at the same as openers averaging under 40 domestically are being selected, you'd expect a big collective difference in average.

That doesn't have any bearing on individual players - Khawaja has done clearly better as an opener for instance. Smith might well average less, but the collective averages aren't representing causality if he does.

Yeah, I'm not running a research paper here. I'm just using somewhat arbitrary figures to give a ball park figure of how much harder opening is than batting 4. It's impossible to predict. Khawaja, for example, may have matured in his approach rather than it necessarily been a better fit.

I don't even care if Smith proves me wrong - except if he does it by dominating us

 

[GotSpin]

I'm just looking at it from a critical angle. He's 34, Khawaja is 37. How is this a long term solution? What if it fails but Green or whoever comes in at 4 and succeeds? Where does that leave Smith then?

No disrespect to the W Indies, but wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity to bring in a younger opener with an eye to the future?

Creating a wheel of young **** openers isn’t a good thing either