Australian test selection 2020/21

[Red]

As much a master of using so many words to say nothing as Scomo.

 

[Pup Clarke]

One thing which I extremely dislike in modern cricket, which all countries emphasise to a degree, is to try and make players play all-formats - sometimes at the expense of what they are predominantly good at. There are really only a select few players who can withstand the physical and mental demands of transitioning between the formats - while maintaining an extremely high skill level (Kohli, Kane, AB, Smith, Root, QDK off the top of my head - maybe Marnus in due course)

Alex Hales and Jason Roy are prime examples of players thrust into an environment and format which they're not accustomed too, and low and behold they looked well out of their depth.

A recent Australian example is of Aaron Finch. A weird one I saw recently is Sean Abbott being selected for some ODI's v India, after being in wonderful form in the SS, a completely different format. Like why? He promptly went for plenty and that may mark him down for future test match consideration in the eye of the selectors

 

[stephen]

Finch was told by Langer that he had to open or be dropped. Which didn't really make sense because Khawaja could have opened, Labuschagne to 3, Head to 4 and Finch at 5 would have been much better. But instead he was forced into a position that he didn't even play in domestic cricket because he was no good at it.

Langer really doesn't have a clue as a coach. Fine player, yes, but terrible coach. Way too biased in his assessment of everything. Dislikes anyone in his side having their own thoughts and really doesn't know how to coach batsmen at all. We had huge numbers of batting collapses when he was batting coach and now he's head coach they're still happening, albeit a little slower.

I've never seen an Australian side more inept at putting an opponent to the sword at home when they're on top than this one.

 

[Smudge49]

Finch was told by Langer that he had to open or be dropped. Which didn't really make sense because Khawaja could have opened, Labuschagne to 3, Head to 4 and Finch at 5 would have been much better. But instead he was forced into a position that he didn't even play in domestic cricket because he was no good at it.

Langer really doesn't have a clue as a coach. Fine player, yes, but terrible coach. Way too biased in his assessment of everything. Dislikes anyone in his side having their own thoughts and really doesn't know how to coach batsmen at all. We had huge numbers of batting collapses when he was batting coach and now he's head coach they're still happening, albeit a little slower.

I've never seen an Australian side more inept at putting an opponent to the sword at home when they're on top than this one.

You can drive a mini truck through Finch's front foot defense on the best of days, so to ask such a guy to open in test cricket was clueless of him.

The fact that after Finch, Langer made another non-opener like Wade open against the same team basically means very little was learnt from the previous series.

 

[the big bambino]

Not having a proven test performer like Khawaja in the bubble was just frustrating and invited contempt for Langer. We don't have the depth now to Siddons or Martin Love a bloke out of contention. Khawaja can open which would have been an ideal solution to the problem and probably do a better job down the order than Wade or Head too.

 

[mr_mister]

Patterson's FC return of 8 tons in 74 games is a lot lower than you'd think given his reputation

 

[Dan]

Patterson's FC return of 8 tons in 74 games is a lot lower than you'd think given his reputation

Nah he's always been renowned for failing to convert; it's why everyone thought the twin tons for the CA XI prior to the SL Test series could be a bit of a turning point.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Mackenzie Harvey
Pucovski
Labu
Smith
Maxwell (c)
Fraser-McGurk
Stepien (wk)
Pattinson
Cummins
Hazelwood
Hatazoglou

edit: Cameron Green to slide in somewhere, forgot about him

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Hatzoglu (and his brother as well for that matter) was over here playing for Prospect before the Renegades call up

He would obvoiusly rather play for a joke team in a joke competition than live in Melbourne year round, and I don't blame him one bit

 

[Smudge49]

Hatzoglou is bit of bolter atm, but surely he will be pretty hard to face especially on pitches in Asia. Bit of Rashid Khan and Kumble to him, if selectors can pick Lyon on the back of BBL they can sure consider him too.

 

[Starfighter]

Wut? Hatzoglou hasn't even played first class cricket. While I could see his style succeeding in Asia, he's very inaccurate. Needs to play a couple of shield matches first (hard to believe he'd be any worse than Pope). Mightn't even have the endurance.

 

[Spark]

Haha yeah Hatzoglou is a superb meme but he's literally a grade cricketer.

 

[Nintendo]

Nation lyon wears Peter hatzlogou shaped pyjamas

 

[Smudge49]

Wut? Hatzoglou hasn't even played first class cricket. While I could see his style succeeding in Asia, he's very inaccurate. Needs to play a couple of shield matches first (hard to believe he'd be any worse than Pope). Mightn't even have the endurance.

Lyon was basically a groundskeeper and literally had very little to no FC xp to his credit before making his test debut.

Got to develop players based on their basic skills, no point waiting for a finished article show up in the current Shield environment.

 

[Nintendo]

Lyon was basically a groundskeeper and literally had very little to no FC xp to his credit before making his test debut.

Got to develop players based on their basic skills, no point waiting for a finished article show up in the current Shield environment.

I mean if there going to call a random spinner with little fc experience to a test squad at the moment it'll be tanveer Sangha if anyone arm.

 

[Smudge49]

I mean if there going to call a random spinner with little fc experience to a test squad at the moment it'll be tanveer Sangha if anyone arm.

That won't be a bad call either, but at 18 he probably still is a bit young for grinds of test cricket.

Also on those up and down slow Asian pitches, Hatzoglou can prove trickier to face compared to a conventional spinner.

 

[Burgey]

But as others have noted, he’s literally a grade player. Would be a 21st century Peter a Taylor selection, without the batting

 

[TheJediBrah]

guys I was joking, don't pick Hatzoglou lol

 

[Smudge49]

But as others have noted, he’s literally a grade player. Would be a 21st century Peter a Taylor selection, without the batting

That's why I used the word develop, Jon Holland is Victoria's favored FC spinner. He at best is a serviceable option at first class level, but he hardly brings anything to national equation so scouting for more options is the only way to improve depth.

 

[Shady Slim]

i see what smudge is saying in the sense that he's the sort of guy who on net, you might get more in the national team later down the line if he was able to get into the vic squad than tooling around with jon holland