*Official* Australia limited overs tour of Scotland and England 2024

[GIMH]

Spare a thought for Alex Carey. As things stand, he's played the innings of the day by a country mile, but, barring something extraordinary, it will end up being compleetly irrelevant.

Eh I don’t think that’s right. Rest of the game follows very differently if he goes first ball.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

So why not just play the bazball experienced test team in ODI's...that's how they play anyway

Not good enough for odis. You have to 2xbazball in odis (bazball 2.0)

 

[King Kane]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bethell in England's test team soon, he looks like he has the goods like Smith to succeed at that level.

 

[wpdavid]

Tbf Root will certainly go the champions trophy. Can understand why they’ve rested him but there’s a gaping hole in that middle order.

Yes, I can see them bringing Root back for the tournaments for the time being. But not for too much longer. Maybe some of the newer guys will have found their feet at this level by the next WC. Maybe Duckett will be a fixture in the side now. My main beef with Salt and Jacks is that, to differing degrees perhaps, their games aren't so much moving on up as regressing. Especially Jacks, but Salt isn't exactly looking like a world beater either.

 

[wpdavid]

Eh I don’t think that’s right. Rest of the game follows very differently if he goes first ball.

Do you reckon? I think our guys will bat the same way even if chasing 180. Might be wrong of course.

 

[wpdavid]

Now then. They're pointing out that Bethell played Zampa well in one of the T20s, but I think the ball was damp in that passage of play.

 

[kevinw]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bethell in England's test team soon, he looks like he has the goods like Smith to succeed at that level.

Very modest FC record, as he has in all formats tbh, but that doesn't really count does it?

 

[GIMH]

Jesus

 

[GIMH]

Do you reckon? I think our guys will bat the same way even if chasing 180. Might be wrong of course.

It’s just the whole game dynamic changes. They set different fields, bowl differently etc. Assuming a miracle doesn’t happen he’s clear MOTM for me

 

[Spark]

It's actually kind of a feat to get out like that.

 

[King Kane]

Bethell should be filthy with himself, that was a half tracker from Maxwell that he should have sent into the stands.

 

[ImpatientLime]

on another day......

 

[Qlder]

Why is Rashid now a #11? I remember when he was going to be a great Test allrounder. He has a 180 and 10 centuries averaging 32 in FC cricket?

 

[King Kane]

Very modest FC record, as he has in all formats tbh, but that doesn't really count does it?

Some great test batsmen have modest FC records and some batsmen with great FC records are modest test batsmen or not good test batsmen at all.

 

[wpdavid]

Bethell should be filthy with himself, that was a half tracker from Maxwell that he should have sent into the stands.

I'm sure he is. But I could name several far more experienced players who are responsible for this position rather than the youngster playing his second game at this level.

 

[wpdavid]

It’s just the whole game dynamic changes. They set different fields, bowl differently etc. Assuming a miracle doesn’t happen he’s clear MOTM for me

You say tomato, etc. I don't object to him being given the MOTM award if it ends up being the best individual performance, which it is so far.

 

[King Kane]

I'm sure he is. But I could name several far more experienced players who are responsible for this position rather than they youngster playing his second game at this level.

I wouldn't be blaming Bethell for England losing this match if they do, I would be blaming more experienced batsmen than him.

None of the English batsmen are that experienced though, even the captain Brook isn't that experienced, he's not an old salt like Morgan or Root.

 

[wpdavid]

I wouldn't be blaming Bethell for England losing this match if they do, I would be blaming more experienced batsmen than him.

None of the English batsmen are that experienced though, even the captain Brook isn't that experienced, he's not an old salt like Morgan or Root.

You're right. I don't know if these figures include the current match, but apparently the number of ODis played by each of the top 6 is:
Salt - 20
Duckett - 12
Jacks - 8
Brook - 16
Smith - 3
Livingstone - 26

So one job for the selectors is to work out which of them are worth persevering with in the hope that they'll become better at this level.
The other job is to try and work out which one who aren't in the side might be worth looking at. Not easy given the mess we've made of our domestic 50 over competition.

And referring back to someone else's comment, I think this will be much harder than the rebuild after the 2015 WC. At least then there were a number of very experienced players who needed the freedom to play to their potential. Looking at the scorecard for the first ODI in the summer of 2025, the middle order was Root, Morgan, Stokes and Buttler. I have no idea how many games they'd played before then, but the difference in quality between then and now is obvious.

 

[GIMH]

You say tomato, etc. I don't object to him being given the MOTM award if it ends up being the best individual performance, which it is so far.

It’s just a butterfly effect thing for me. Plus he came in at 145-4. He goes cheaply and even if you don’t think anything else changes, we’ve almost won the game as it stands.

On a positive note, Jamie Smith is the standout of the summer isn’t he. With all the Bairstow/Foakes hoo ha you have to actually wonder if we took the plunge a year too late - yes I acknowledged he debuted V Ireland last year

 

[GIMH]

That’s the game then. Sigh