Australia's batting without Smith and Warner, worst of all major teams?

[srbhkshk]

India / SA / NZ / England are all definitely better.

How'd you compare it with Pakistan / SL / WI / BD?

 

[vcs]

Someone had posted a stat that Australia had the highest percentage contribution of runs from two batsmen over the past few years, so statistically you might be right.

Rather than worst, I'd say "unproven". They have a fairly easy schedule coming up and it's hard not to see whoever comes in not getting runs against Zimbabwe/Bangladesh and India, especially on their home highways.

Away is a different story, it's pretty grim. But Smith and Warner should be back by the time their next challenging tour comes around.

 

[S.Kennedy]

As I said elsewhere, who knows what Australian team will emerge from the chaos? England's batting might be significantly changed soon also. Two teams in transit.

 

[stephen]

Renshaw: 33
Burns: 37
Khawaja: 42
Handscomb: 44
S Marsh: 38
M Marsh: 27
Paine: 41

Easily this is the weakest Australian batting lineup in decades based on the averages. And I think Paine, Handscomb and Khawaja's averages flatter them. Paine due to some not outs, Handscomb because of the hundreds he scored a year and a half ago are still distorting his average and Khawaja because he's been dropped for the series' that would destroy his average.

So yeah, the highest averaging batsmen are worse than their averages suggest and the rest average under 40.

 

[RK_123]

Agreed.

England without Root/Cook have Bairstow and Stokes.

SA without their duo have Elgar/Markram/de Kock.

India have Vijay, Rahul and Rahane

NZ might be one without Ross/Kane. They anyways have weaker batting lineup either way among the big five. Yes, they drew today but that was because of tail and Grandhome.

Aus have Paine who will become an elite player in quick time but at the moment they have the worst batting lineup when exclude Warner and Smith, closely followed by NZ.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Renshaw: 33
Burns: 37
Khawaja: 42
Handscomb: 44
S Marsh: 38
M Marsh: 27
Paine: 41

The key in assessing these players are at what stage of their careers are at and whether they can get better.

I couldn't see S Marsh or Khawaja improving as players; you can get by with them in Australian conditions but they'll never be the A-grade players some hoped they would be.

Can't see Paine getting any better as a batsman; indeed considering his FC record he's probably exceeded expectations.

Even though he's relatively young, I can't see Mitch Marsh become a genuine top 6 bat. On flat tracks like the WACA when he just play through the line, he can sometimes come off. But as a long-term option, doubt it.

I think there's still significant scope for improvement in Renshaw, Burns and Handscomb. They've all gone through tough times as Test cricketers already but potential for significant improvement is there if they're persisted with.

 

[Burgey]

I think of those listed, Renshaw is the lad most likely to have a long and good-to-very-good career at test level.

 

[Athlai]

India / SA / NZ / England are all definitely better.

How'd you compare it with Pakistan / SL / WI / BD?

Reckon they're still probably better than SL/WI/BD.

Though SL/BD would probably be far superior in their home conditions so it sorta skews it. Australia's batting is THEIR worst in decades, but it's still not terrible.

 

[Shri]

Would look a lot better if they were not stupid with their selection. Keeping good players out for non-cricketing reasons while chopping and changing at a whim doesn't help matters. Handscombe, Maxwell, Smarsh and Khawaja could be solid test bats who can average early 40s at worst to mid 40s at best if they stopped tinkering the XI all the time.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Of those four, only Maxwell has cause to be aggrieved imo. Treated as an outsider under the Lehmann/Smith regime almost with glee at times; whatever Maxwell's flaws, that someone as talented as him couldn't get in the side for one Test this season is pretty remarkable.

It's almost the opposite issue with Shaun Marsh; treated favourably and given too many opportunities over the years; he's improved in Australian conditions but his failures in SA and India mean that the faith hasn't been repaid.

The issue with Khawaja and Handscombe is that not only don't the score runs, but they look horribly out of form when doing so. This season Handscombe has a technique that seems incapable of scoring a run off pace in front of the wicket and it's understandable why he was dropped.

 

[Shri]

Yeah but Smarsh was dropped for a while, wasn't he? He looked decent in one of the earlier tours to India but got the boot somewhere along the line. Much better than his last visit to India anyway.

 

[Daemon]

Maxwell being dropped stunk. Ferguson being dropped after a solitary test stunk. Cartwright was given 2 tests.

Just very short term thinking.

 

[Zinzan]

I think of those listed, Renshaw is the lad most likely to have a long and good-to-very-good career at test level.

I never got how Bancroft managed to sneak ahead of Renshaw to begin with. Didn't the latter have a relatively decent first tour to India?

 

[Top_Cat]

Noone trains harder.

 

[Starfighter]

I never got how Bancroft managed to sneak ahead of Renshaw to begin with. Didn't the latter have a relatively decent first tour to India?

Renshaw was catastrophically bad at the start of the Shield season and Bancroft got a double ton on a typical Perth road.

 

[SeamUp]

Hard to think this was 3 years ago now on the last 'A' tour to India : 2nd unofficial Test, Australia A tour of India at Chennai, Jul 29-Aug 1 2015 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo

 

[Flem274*]

every batting line up looks worse when facing some mixture of steyn/philander/rabada/morkel

australia will return home and these same batsmen will pile on the pain against touring fast medium along the wicket seamers and finger spinners like they always do.

 

[Spark]

I never got how Bancroft managed to sneak ahead of Renshaw to begin with. Didn't the latter have a relatively decent first tour to India?

Renshaw looked like he'd swapped his bat for a walking stick early on in the season. He looked catastrophically out of nick.

 

[harsh.ag]

Renshaw and Hameed are on the same cycle.

 

[Garson007]

But Smith and Warner should be back by the time their next challenging tour comes around.

You honestly expect Warner to be back?