Australian test selection 2020/21

[Red]

You can't even spell Pucovski's name correctly, I think I will pass on your advice

I just use the traditional Serbian spelling of my people

 

[Red]

uh.

Easily the best spin bowler in Australia.

 

[Prince EWS]

Easily the best spin bowler in Australia.

He's retired bro.

 

[Flem274*]

You can't even spell Pucovski's name correctly, I think I will pass on your advice

maybe he wants the russian version, a man who would die for the motherland before allowing indian boots on australian soil.

 

[Red]

He's retired bro.

Would only take a phone call from Hohns. He didn't want to retire.

(For the record, I get that he's a loose cannon and it's unlikely. Still think he's a very good bowler and probably still the best spinner in the country)

 

[GoodAreasShane]

I just use the traditional Serbian spelling of my people

Sorry, didn't realise that was the case. I still disagree entirely with your selection opinions, but I didn't mean to disparage your culture at all

 

[Spark]

The problem with this team has very little to do with a lack of talent except maybe batting depth, but even then there should be enough there to get more than 700 runs on that pitch against that attack. That's not why they lost this series and took 12 overs in two fourth innings chases, a bunch of which were junk time slogs.

 

[Shady Slim]

also noting that this is the second german army reference GAS made inside of two days after his luftwaffe reference yesterday, might want to put him on a watchlist @mods

now racism against slavic peoples. the evidence just keeps coming

 

[Red]

Sorry, didn't realise that was the case. I still disagree entirely with your selection opinions, but I didn't mean to disparage your culture at all

Wade should go, there is not question of that in my mind. He is immensely frustrating, because a lot of the time he looked our best batsman, but continually got out in dumb ways and dumb times, for mediocre scores. Give Patterson a series, he has the game at FC level and looks a class act.

Harris looks slightly out of his depth every chance he gets at test level, which is a shame because he can look solid in FC cricket. Puc/kovski should come back in when he's fit to replace him, anyhow. Harris is the guy you'd like to see do well but I feel he'll be more Ed Cowan than Chris Rogers as a test opener.

Starc has credit in the bank, and left armers who bowl 150km don't grow on trees, but he needs to step up in situations like the ones we had in this series. He's not blasting tails out like he should be. Pattinson, Neser, Jhai Richardson are all very good quicks.

Paine's keeping was a bit sloppy, and his captaincy questionable. He's done an outstanding job leading the team since sandpaper, but at 36 his keeping isn't going to get any sharper. Time for a change.

 

[Athlai]

Close this thread, this sort of talk belongs in doom and gloom now

 

[social]

Okay so you guys are used to me name dropping and here’s another one

A friend of mine is a very successful coach and has the results to back it up

He also watches more cricket than anyone I have ever met

This guy identified Pant, Sundar & Natarajan when they were nobodies

His view

Australia are dinosaurs

Langer, Paine, Wade, Starc & Lyon all gone

Phillipe, McDermott, Richardson and Zampa in for SA

 

[Prince EWS]

Zampa

 

[Spikey]

with green and pucovski in, there's not even a reason for a youth push

 

[social]

Zampa

Tell me about it BUT his view is simple

These guys are technically good AND perform under pressure

Somebody like Finch doesn’t cut it as he doesn’t have the technique

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Tell me about it BUT his view is simple

These guys are technically good AND perform under pressure

Somebody like Finch doesn’t cut it as he doesn’t have the technique

Except Zampa has been consistently terrible for pretty much his entire red ball career, and not off a small sample size either

 

[Prince EWS]

Tell me about it BUT his view is simple

These guys are technically good AND perform under pressure

How's that held up for him in Shield cricket?

I wouldn't put it past the selectors but it would the worst selection decision they've made since the Maxwell batted 8 and played as a frontline bowler in India.

Not only should Test selectors avoid Zampa, but I think Shield teams should give up on the dream too. He averages 48 FFS.

 

[social]

Except Zampa has been consistently terrible for pretty much his entire red ball career, and not off a small sample size either

I don’t get the Zampa love either

FWIW, he reckons Swepson is crap

 

[Spikey]

as I was doing research last night for something else, I was shocked to learn Zampa had a shield season where he took 30 odd wickets at just under 40. I had no memory of that

 

[Nintendo]

There's plenty of talent in this Australian team but always feels like the whole unit underperforms compared to the sum of its parts, not sure what that is down to but it's the problem that needs to be solved.

 

[Prince EWS]

I don’t get the Zampa love either

FWIW, he reckons Swepson is crap

Swepson's really impressed me in the past season and a half of Shield cricket after initially not really rating him at all, but in terms of handling pressure he really lost his action a few times against India (both in the white ball stuff and the Aus A four day game he played).

But... this is why we just can't afford to drop Lyon. As I said in the other thread, averaging early 30s isn't really good enough to hold your spot as a Test batsman in a strong team, but Zimbabwe don't drop such players because they know they don't have better blokes waiting in the wings. Lyon has been way below his best at late but I think he's still better than Swepson and he's still comfortably better than anyone else.

I'd back him to still outperform Zampa even if we had to flip a coin every time he took a wicket to see if it counted or not.