stephen
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I've said this before but I think for South Africa the following first XI should play:
Warner
Khawaja
Labuschagne
Smith
Pucovski
Green
Paine+*
Cummins
Starc
Lyon
Hazlewood
I honestly also think that Khawaja should be promoted to captain if we don't win there. Paine really should be on his final warning as skipper. Khawaja's been a good captain for Queensland and is probably our best opener in the medium term not named Warner.
Pucovski looked the goods in his test match against India, but I am really loathe to have him open. Opening is the batting position most likely to see him badged again and with his concussion history, getting any kind of hit in the head is likely to force him to sub out. Bat him at 5 and promote him up after a few years of not getting knocked out. Pucovski has only moved up to opener this season, so I don't think him playing lower in tests is a real issue. He needs to be persisted with and nurtured and the best place for that is at 5.
People have pointed the finger at Starc for our loss but there are some reasons why I don't think he should be dropped. All of his best replacements (Richardson and Pattinson) have injury concerns. He bowled extremely well in Adelaide and Melbourne and was a bit unlucky in Sydney. He looked tired at Brisbane, particularly in the fourth innings, but I don't think he's too far from being right.
What needs to change are the tactics used with Starc. Basically he should never bowl around the wicket. The only time it's of use is for softening a batsman up with a bumper barrage, but Cummins is way better at that tactic than he is. Starc should focus on bowling length on off from over the wicket 90% of the time, with the occasional interruption for a bouncer-yorker combo. The times he looked best this summer were when he was targeting the top of off from over the wicket. He wasted entire spells in the last two tests bowling short balls, both from over and around the wicket. He's not Mitchell Johnson and shouldn't try to be.
Lyon is a huge problem. Bowled way too flat, fast and without purchase for the entire series. But there's nobody realistically to replace him. I place the series loss against India on a combination of leadership and Lyon's poor performance. It was genuinely the worst I've seen him bowl in Australia and the worst since Wade was keeper.
I think it's a bad idea to keep strong players in the shield because they disagree with Langer. Bring back Khawaja and ditch Langer.
Warner
Khawaja
Labuschagne
Smith
Pucovski
Green
Paine+*
Cummins
Starc
Lyon
Hazlewood
I honestly also think that Khawaja should be promoted to captain if we don't win there. Paine really should be on his final warning as skipper. Khawaja's been a good captain for Queensland and is probably our best opener in the medium term not named Warner.
Pucovski looked the goods in his test match against India, but I am really loathe to have him open. Opening is the batting position most likely to see him badged again and with his concussion history, getting any kind of hit in the head is likely to force him to sub out. Bat him at 5 and promote him up after a few years of not getting knocked out. Pucovski has only moved up to opener this season, so I don't think him playing lower in tests is a real issue. He needs to be persisted with and nurtured and the best place for that is at 5.
People have pointed the finger at Starc for our loss but there are some reasons why I don't think he should be dropped. All of his best replacements (Richardson and Pattinson) have injury concerns. He bowled extremely well in Adelaide and Melbourne and was a bit unlucky in Sydney. He looked tired at Brisbane, particularly in the fourth innings, but I don't think he's too far from being right.
What needs to change are the tactics used with Starc. Basically he should never bowl around the wicket. The only time it's of use is for softening a batsman up with a bumper barrage, but Cummins is way better at that tactic than he is. Starc should focus on bowling length on off from over the wicket 90% of the time, with the occasional interruption for a bouncer-yorker combo. The times he looked best this summer were when he was targeting the top of off from over the wicket. He wasted entire spells in the last two tests bowling short balls, both from over and around the wicket. He's not Mitchell Johnson and shouldn't try to be.
Lyon is a huge problem. Bowled way too flat, fast and without purchase for the entire series. But there's nobody realistically to replace him. I place the series loss against India on a combination of leadership and Lyon's poor performance. It was genuinely the worst I've seen him bowl in Australia and the worst since Wade was keeper.
I think it's a bad idea to keep strong players in the shield because they disagree with Langer. Bring back Khawaja and ditch Langer.
Just because you reminded me of this. 
