**Official** 1st Test @ Perth, 22nd-26th November

[Spark]

> We need to refresh the batting order by giving new blokes a go
> The new bloke didn't make runs in his very first game against Jasprit Bumrah, let's drop him immediately

Pick one

 

[Skyliner]

Virat gets to walk out with about 325 runs on the board and then deal with the fiery pace of Marnus in his pomp. Tough runs indeed. The Aussies will no doubt rue the fact that they’ve handed him on a silver platter the chance to find form and confidence.
Rahul’s innings in a big partnership with Jaiswal was a true gem as it laid the platform.

 

[Johan]

Virat gets to walk out with about 325 runs on the board and then deal with the fiery pace of Marnus in his pomp. Tough runs indeed. The Aussies will no doubt rue the fact that they’ve handed him on a silver platter the chance to find form and confidence.
Rahul’s innings in a big partnership with Jaiswal was a true gem as it laid the platform.

Virat's a proper mental midget, get him out cheaply two innings and he'll be back to his normal output

 

[Burgey]

TIL this morning on cricketweb.net/forums - bloke with 30 test hundreds is apparently a mental midget.

 

[Burgey]

> We need to refresh the batting order by giving new blokes a go
> The new bloke didn't make runs in his very first game against Jasprit Bumrah, let's drop him immediately

Pick one

Honestly think Marnus is completely shot. He hasn’t got age as an excuse but he’s purely looking to survive. He did something similar to his first innings here in one of the Ashes tests last year.

You can’t have a test number three facing 60 balls for two runs. I don’t care who’s bowling, it’s woeful and actually puts a ton of pressure on the entire side. The bowlers aren’t even having to think about their game plans when you aren’t looking to score a run. And if the issue is that he can’t get bat on ball then that’s even worse and he almost definitely needs a breather. The way he’s going atm you could bring in any Shield random player and they couldn’t be worse.

Move McSweeney to three and bring in an opener. I’d be tempted to do it next game but they won’t, so almost certainly the game after that.

 

[Adders]

Did I hear right on the radio that Michael Vaughan has been working with Marnus and the key messaged has been patience? I think that little mentorship needs to stop right away.

 

[Prince EWS]

TIL this morning on cricketweb.net/forums - bloke with 30 test hundreds is apparently a mental midget.

Imagine how many he'd have if he wasn't.

 

[social]

Part of what makes him great is that he wants the ball at all times. Good luck getting it off him when there's a maiden 10-for at stake. So I guess the answer is he gives a crap, and he is your talisman, so you let him rip in until the job is done.

I listened to Brett Lee on a podcast yesterday, talking about the importance of letting fast bowlers bowl to get and stay fit, having them attuned to their body and what is uncomfortable v time to back off when their body is truly going wrong...it was a hell of a good listen and a slap for sport science/management. No one can say that these over analysed modern approaches to the management of pacemen have worked - in fact, there's probably evidence to the contrary.

Glenn McGrath bowled virtually every day while Truman bowled himself fit

Meanwhile, current Australian quicks are wrapped in cotton wool and generally more injury prone than ever

 

[Silver Silva]

Virat's a proper mental midget, get him out cheaply two innings and he'll be back to his normal output

Top 5 Most Test centuries by a visiting batter in Australia :

JB Hobbs - 9 hundreds in 45 innings
V Kohli - 7 hundreds in 27 innings
WR Hammond - 7 hundreds in 37 innings
H Sutcliffe - 6 hundreds in 25 innings
SR Tendulkar - 6 hundreds in 38 innings

 

[Johan]

Top 5 Most Test centuries by a visiting batter in Australia :

JB Hobbs - 9 hundreds in 45 innings
V Kohli - 7 hundreds in 27 innings
WR Hammond - 7 hundreds in 37 innings
H Sutcliffe - 6 hundreds in 25 innings
SR Tendulkar - 6 hundreds in 38 innings

Virat's been cooked for 5 years bro, I don't care that he scored 4 hundreds in 10 innings in Aus 10 years Ago

 

[silentstriker]

Glenn McGrath bowled virtually every day while Truman bowled himself fit

Meanwhile, current Australian quicks are wrapped in cotton wool and generally more injury prone than ever

McGrath was a freak in so many ways. His action was so perfect and he bowled so within himself - sacrificing the physical effort for perfect accuracy - that I think his body could handle the strains a lot better. I don’t think a Bumrah action and the strain that places on his body is comparable.

 

[silentstriker]

Virat's a proper mental midget, get him out cheaply two innings and he'll be back to his normal output

For all his faults, and there are perhaps quite a few, but that ain’t one of them.

You gotta remember Father Time is, and always will be, undefeated.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Virat's been cooked for 5 years bro, I don't care that he scored 4 hundreds in 10 innings in Aus 10 years Ago

He is mentally as strong as ever. He is also physically still very good. If anything has gone it is that his razor sharp reflexes and vision have worsened, so that picking up the line/trajectory/movement of the ball could be slower making him late getting in position, and taking catches, judging singles etc. Nonetheless, he still has the aura to dominate many bowlers.

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Virat's a proper mental midget, get him out cheaply two innings and he'll be back to his normal output

Yea a player with 81 international hundreds and 7 test hundreds in Australia is a mental midget. Makes sense.

 

[social]

A number of series recently have seen the away side win the First Test but not the series. England in Pakistan with a similar hiding to kick things off.

Having said that, the future of this Aussie team when certain bowlers retire looks pretty average.

We have lots of bowling stock but very little batting

 

[the big bambino]

Kohli scores runs and still cops it. He came in on a great platform for sure, but he didn't just face Marnus. It was a very good innings. I don't think it too early to congratulate India. Bumrah has been a good captain and I'm guessing the privilege has inspired his bowling. I'm sure even Kohli would make way for Jaiswal's innings.

As for Aus - so many problems everywhere all at once. I think Marnus should go and move Smith to 3. Smith is on borrowed time too. Similarly Marsh. I'd bring one of Davies, Inglis or Webster for Marnus and bat them at 4 or 5.

I think the bowling needs rejigging too. This same quartet has played many times against India in unsuccessful series. They aren't to blame here but you can't keep picking the same men the opposing batsmen do well against. Cummins stays and Haze was effective when the pitch had life and economical when it flattened out. Starc should go and atm I can't think who should come in so I'll mention several - Jhye, Boland, Spencer Johnson and Bartlett. Maybe they can be given a test each which I'd take if they managed to get through just one.

Lyon stays for the time being. But you'd have to watch his form as closely as that of Murphy, Manetti, Rocchiccioli and I'm not sure if Kuhnemann is even getting game time.

 

[SteveNZ]

Glenn McGrath bowled virtually every day while Truman bowled himself fit

Meanwhile, current Australian quicks are wrapped in cotton wool and generally more injury prone than ever

This is essentially my point. Listening to Bing Lee on that podcast, and stories about how it seems coaching structures are using a one-size-all fit to the management of fast bowlers, both at junior and senior level, I find that problematic. It's almost lazy. Some people, like you say, get fit by bowling. I know I did. I never had an acute soft tissue injury in all years playing, even bowling 20-25 overs in a day in school cricket, the same plus playing 2-3 times a week as a teenager in England, and so on. I got strong by repeating the action, by running in all day. Not bowling on hard astro nets/surfaces because that's proven to be detrimental to fast bowlers, but by learning how to manage my body by bowling lots of overs.

The difference then was they’d play a test then have 2-3 weeks off before the next one. There weren’t back to back tests like there are now, or as many tours. Ashes tours to England, for example, used to run from May to August

True. Didn't those guys play tour matches on Ashes tours as well? I think of guys like Sir Richard Hadlee, the Windies quicks and so on, who bowled a mountain of overs in county cricket and were still cherry ripe to go on Test tours, as well. It's almost like the sports scientists put themselves out of a job by saying actually you just need to bowl overs, do enough in the nets, recover well, don't blast in on concrete based nets, and so on. There's taking it too far, like when Joe Root desperately bowled Jofra into the ground, but it's a fast bowler's job to know how much is too much, and how much they need to be bowling to be at their best. I'm honestly not a luddite and I back sports science when it's applicable, but I honestly don't think it has a lot to offer in the way of bowling loads.

 

[SteveNZ]

Virat's a proper mental midget, get him out cheaply two innings and he'll be back to his normal output

This is outrageous. He didn't make runs in the first innings. It won't go on the podium as the greatest hundred in history but downplaying its merits is pretty ridiculous, I reckon.

Lot of kneejerking in this thread. The Australian quicks are the best in the business, and got dominated...once. McSweeney got cleaned up by a grass grubber. Marnus probably does need to go, but the contenders aren't scoring runs, either.