So thoughts on the West Indies side?
The two main queries are - with Starc out who will be the 4th pace bowler for the series? And will we see the back of the brother Marshes?
I'm hoping the second happens, but I doubt it will. Mitch at least is bowling well, and that still helps. And in his defence for a lot of the series the positions he's batted in haven't been great, and in the first two Tests he kinda was on a hiding to nothing. But still I think Henriques balances us better. Fortunately for Mitch Marsh though he's injured again so I presume he'll still make it.
As for Shaun though....he really shouldn't be playing for Australia any more. Especially if Khawaja is not 100% certain to be fit by Boxing Day. I mean there's plenty of other options...Klinger, Ferguson, Handscomb, etc. And Burns I don't trust as an opener either, so there's a gap for Cowan or Bancroft potentially, though it probably sends mixed messages if he does get moved down the order. But we all know that Darsh is very highly rated internally so he may still hold onto his spot, and it's not going to be a huge issue in my eyes as it's basically a stop-gap.
I'm presuming that Pattinson comes in for Starc, but both him and Hazlewood will probably need to be rotated once during the West Indian series. And the pitches likely won't favour a call-up for O'Keefe, so I suspect that there'll need to be another quick in the side. Trouble is, who?
There's no shortage of options, but all have question marks......
Bird - played 3 Tests a couple of years back and did pretty well. Unfortunately since then he's had injury issues and hasn't really been able to play FC cricket consistently and when he has he hasn't been amazing. I also wonder how much he's rated by CA.
Bollinger - probably the best option in my eyes. Was very good when he did play Tests and he's generally taken wickets at Shield level in recent years. But he's no longer guaranteed a spot in the NSW side and he's probably been put in the "too old" basket. Plus when I suggested him for an Australian call-up to the Ashes squad I was dismissed by some people as "Geoff Lawson". I don't expect a selection here.
Fekete - made the Bangladesh squad but just got dumped from his state team and still feels a 'one-season wonder' in my eyes. Would be disappointed if he was selected.
Hastings - injured recently and was exposed in his one Test. No thanks.
Sandhu - offers variety but he's not enough of a strike bowler for my liking in these conditions. Maybe in Asia you would but he needs to do more to get ahead of the queue.
Coulter-Nile - hasn't played Shield cricket yet this season due to injury. Might be selected otherwise but not right now.
Berendorff - again his recent injury hurts else I'd think he may well get the call-up and at the very least would deserve it. Oddly was picked in the squad twice for WA but missed the starting XI - what's the deal there? And he hasn't been in the mix for Australian places to the same extent the Sandhus and the Coulter-Niles of the world have....though that might be down to injuries and his relatively recent improvement.
Stanlake/Paris - have only played the one FC game each. It would be a massive reach to select them now.
Mennie - might be taking wickets but his two seasons before this one was poor, not making a fairly average SA side. Won't happen.
Abbott - just hasn't been consistently excellent to the extent that he should be selected.
Faulkner - the wildcard. I don't think he's a good enough bowler to hold down a 3rd seamer role, but against the West Indies we probably won't have too many problems taking wickets but they could roll us once or twice. Having the extra batting may help. Has he been 100% forgiven for that drink driving incident during his time at Lancashire though?
Probably others I'm forgetting too. I have NFI which way they go out of those.