Michael Hussey – Is his time up?

[SJS]

To put it simply Watto just doesn't have the technique to last as an batsman in the test side, he was saying he did some work on his technique with Greg Chappell, but I really don't see any visible improvements.

I think it is very unfair to ask him to open. He is a number five batsman and that is where he should bat. The fact that he has got some runs in this series just shows that he is a talent worth persevering with. Australia do not have the world's greatest opener in senior man Katich; to have a makeshift (and clearly not with the opener's game/technique) opener partner him is no way to rebuild the Aussie side.

One is not aware of the talent Australia has in young openers in the domestic circuit bit till they find one they cant do badly by getting Hayden to come out of retirement. Its not the Aussie way of handling these problems normally but thats no reason not to make an exception in what are clearly exceptional circumstances.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I think it is very unfair to ask him to open. He is a number five batsman and that is where he should bat. The fact that he has got some runs in this series just shows that he is a talent worth persevering with. Australia do not have the world's greatest opener in senior man Katich; to have a makeshift (and clearly not with the opener's game/technique) opener partner him is no way to rebuild the Aussie side.

One is not aware of the talent Australia has in young openers in the domestic circuit bit till they find one they cant do badly by getting Hayden to come out of retirement. Its not the Aussie way of handling these problems normally but thats no reason not to make an exception in what are clearly exceptional circumstances.

Hmm, two guys waiting in the wings who average 50 in Test cricket might be enough, I'd think.

 

[SJS]

Hmm, two guys waiting in the wings who average 50 in Test cricket might be enough, I'd think.

Thats true.Although I am not much of a fan of Jaques. He gets lots of runs against modest attacks.

Phil Hughes show against South Africa was much more impressive. Steyn, Ntini (even though he is past his best) Morkel and Kallis are a pretty good attack plus Harris.

 

[Matt79]

Think Hayden would really have no desire to come back. If the Watson experiment doesn't succeed, and if Hughes fails, and you don't like Jaques, there's always Chris Rogers who was one of the top scorers in Shield cricket last year. Selectors seem to have drawn a line through his name on the back of one poor (debut) test. Think we actually have three test quality genuine openers, plus one successful makeshift opener. Calling guys who are past it back is a bit of an overreaction at the moment.

 

[SJS]

Think Hayden would really have no desire to come back. If the Watson experiment doesn't succeed, and if Hughes fails, and you don't like Jaques, there's always Chris Rogers who was one of the top scorers in Shield cricket last year. Selectors seem to have drawn a line through his name on the back of one poor (debut) test. Think we actually have three test quality genuine openers, plus one successful makeshift opener. Calling guys who are past it back is a bit of an overreaction at the moment.

You may be right and yes you are spot on in that Australia should go back to Hughes really.

I must admit I am one of those not too happy with Hayden being 'forced' into retirement. I felt he should have been dropped when he was out of form as was done in his youth. I have never agreed to the "seniors can't be dropped; they should be asked to retire and spare us from doing our job properly" attitude thats taken by the Indian selectors and dont see why Australia would do the same.

I know there are those who feel differently but its a personal opinion

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

To put it simply Watto just doesn't have the technique to last as an batsman in the test side, he was saying he did some work on his technique with Greg Chappell, but I really don't see any visible improvements.

 

[Top_Cat]

Agree with Smitteh. Watto's either being caught on the crease and playing slightly across the line to ball coming back into him/playing around his pad. Any decent batting coach will tell you it's a relatively minor (although insidious) problem to fix.

Mark Waugh had exactly the same problem to about the same degree (a little worse, from memory) when he first started playing Tests and, without eradicating it totally, minimised it to the point where it only became a problem again when down on confidence/form. Not just that, Watto showed signs with his straight play at The Oval that he's already working his way through it, played far straighter in the 2nd dig. Occasionally looked Steve Waugh-like in defence.

Aside from that, it's really hard to see a hole his technical game against pace. Will be interesting to see how bowlers are getting him out in a few months.

 

[jondavluc]

 

[Athlai]

Yeah that was an heck of an knee jerk reaction

 

[pup11]

Not saying that he can never be a good test batsman, but atm he clearly seems to have technical issues that he needs to sort-out, its pretty clear he can't continue opening the batting, and if he slides down into the middle-order, then there is every chance that he might get owned by spinners.

Therefore more than anything else, he needs to work on his technique against spin, if he wishes to be consistent batsman in the longer format of the game.

 

[inbox24]

Ridiculous to call it a knee jerk reaction.

No one in their wildest dreams would have dreamt that 2 years ago, Watson would be opening the batting now or even have the skill to do such a thing. Sure he has improved his batting a little but certainly not enough to be in one the top 4 test playing nations in the world at opening, especially if Jaques comes back to form and Hughes there too (even if with his short ball faults at the moment). He's definitely no long term option. The succession plan A should be as follows:

Katich and Hughes until Katich retires. Then Jaques and Hughes into the future (5 or so years until the former retires). Opening is a specialist position and you can't muck around that for tests. ODIs maybe but not for tests.

 

[Ikki]

I'd argue that Watson had the skill to bat pretty much anywhere but I agree that it'd have still been a surprise seeing him opening. I agree he isn't a long-term option but I am pretty sure the selectors want him in the side and I wonder who they'd drop for him.

 

[inbox24]

Personally I think Jaques has been jettisoned unless Katich goes missing pretty badly in the next lot of tests. It's might take him a while firstly to get back into prolific form (can't see the selectors picking him when he's not in that kind of form). Ultimately their succession plan involves Hughes and Watson opening when Katich retires. Despicable.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Ridiculous to call it a knee jerk reaction.

<irrelevant tangent>

Whether or not he should be opening wasn't being discussed. pup said he didn't have the technique to play test cricket anymore, which IS a knee-jerk considering I could find hundreds of posts from before and during the early stages of the Ashes of pup himself saying that he DOES have the technique to play test cricket.

 

[tooextracool]

Australia need to get Hughes back into the side as their opener, I like the look of Watson but ATM there isn't a position open in the middle order for him to bat. I expect that one of North or Hussey will be out of the side fairly soon, another series of underperformance from Hussey and he'll be hanging up his boots while North will be out of the side sooner rather than later so there will be an opening and then Watson would hardly be the worst option to fill that void.

 

[pup11]

Whether or not he should be opening wasn't being discussed. pup said he didn't have the technique to play test cricket anymore, which IS a knee-jerk considering I could find hundreds of posts from before and during the early stages of the Ashes of pup himself saying that he DOES have the technique to play test cricket.

Yup, I was advocating for Watto to be picked in the side at the expense of North after the 2nd test, because his all-round capabilities would have added another dimension to the side, but the Aussie management instead preferred to play him as an opener, and due to that he wasn't able to bowl much either.

Watto's technique against spin has always been dodgy, and if he is gonna bat in the middle order of the test side, then more often than not, he would have to counter spin bowling, which he looks incapable of doing so atm, since spin bowling wasn't much of a factor in this Ashes series until the last test, I expected him to do well with the bat.

Though the way he got out in all three tests in identical fashion against the quicks was pretty disappointing, and just showed that, that's another area of his game where he is a tad vulnerable.

I like Watto, and would love to see him do well, but 500 odd runs in 11 tests really aren't figures that make him an automatic choice for the test side, and as I said in my previous post, he is only a valuable asset to the test side, if he can contribute with both bat and ball.

 

[pup11]

Australia need to get Hughes back into the side as their opener, I like the look of Watson but ATM there isn't a position open in the middle order for him to bat. I expect that one of North or Hussey will be out of the side fairly soon, another series of underperformance from Hussey and he'll be hanging up his boots while North will be out of the side sooner rather than later so there will be an opening and then Watson would hardly be the worst option to fill that void

Haha, I find this criticism of North to be a bit silly, the guy is just two series old, and has been one of our better batsmen in both of those series, his Yuvraj Singh like technique might make people think he would struggle as test batsman, but the fact of the matter is he scored runs in South Africa, as well as in England.

As for people saying he only scores runs when the team is well on top, then that's another thing that's not really true, during the 1st test in South Africa he scored his century at a pretty crucial time on a difficult pitch against a pretty good attack, the runs he scored at Cardiff, Edgbaston and Leeds also were scored when he came to the crease after the fall of a few quick wickets, so its not fair to suggest that he doesn't score runs when the team is under pressure.

As for Hussey, I think it was only the matter of him breaking out of that slump, and with that century at the Oval he has done that now, so would be very surprised if he starts struggling all over again anytime soon.

 

[Flem274*]

Why was Jaques ever dropped? He's bloody good.

 

[jondavluc]

Why was Jaques ever dropped? He's bloody good.

Bad back

 

[vic_orthdox]

Why was Jaques ever dropped? He's bloody good.

Choice was between him and Katich when Hayden returned from an achilles injury, and Katich's better series of the West Indies saw him retained. Since then, he's had chronic injuries, which meant that Hughes leap-frogged him once Hayden retired.