**Official** 4th Test at Melbourne, 26-30 Dec 2024

[Qlder]

Bringing in an aggressive opener who likely departs early is better for India.

Or he scores 60 before lunch and sets up Australia for a huge score...

 

[ataraxia]

If Konstas fails this will look so awful lmao.

 

[centurymaker]

Or he scores 60 before lunch and sets up Australia for a huge score...

Not against Bumrah. Good luck. 1 in 4 inns maybe.

Regarding Konstas, he has a weakness with the ball coming in and Bumrah's stock ball is the one that comes in.

 

[centurymaker]

Australia should bring in a decent leftie.

Indian bowling is pretty ordinary against left handers both historically and right now.

Australia's best two batters this series are both lefties. It's no coincidence.

 

[nido]

The G is usually a good batting surface. Aussies top order should go in unchanged.

 

[Prince EWS]

Australia should bring in a decent leftie.

Indian bowling is pretty ordinary against left handers both historically and right now.

Australia's best two batters this series are both lefties. It's no coincidence.

Don't think they really have one. Renshaw I guess?

 

[honestbharani]

Konstas still shouldn't be anywhere near the team at this point in his career. Throwing him in the deep end (especially with the absolutely absurd degree of media hype around him) would be frankly bordering on negligent at this very early stage. Putting such a vast degree of pressure on someone who has still played so little professional cricket in the grand scheme of things does not sit well with me at all

I get the sentiment but if he is actually your best bat outside of this group, then he absolutely deserves to be picked. The selectors have to do what is best for Australian cricket and many folks have learned on the job at the international level.

 

[honestbharani]

That might be the most ****ed selectoral decision I’ve seen from our selectors this side of Phil Hughes. Talk about throwing him under the bus.

Yeah I did not have money on him being your new Rob Quiney.

 

[cascade]

Australia should bring in a decent leftie.

Indian bowling is pretty ordinary against left handers both historically and right now.

Australia's best two batters this series are both lefties. It's no coincidence.

Yeah but Khawaja being a leftie hasn't helped him much. And even in his current form, I'd still expect Khawaja to do better than Harris or Renshaw.

 

[Shri]

Yeah I did not have money on him being your new Rob Quiney.

the names even rhyme sort of

 

[Shri]

maybe aussies are biased towards nicknames tat end with the o sound rather than the ee sound

 

[Prince EWS]

I get the sentiment but if he is actually your best bat outside of this group, then he absolutely deserves to be picked.

The problem is that there's no real evidence he actually is. He's made two First Class hundreds and they were both in the same match. Moreover it was a drawn match on a road where McSweeney made an unbeaten hundred and a half century, and Carey made over 200 runs as well. Technical flaws have already been noticed as well.

I totally agree with "if you're good enough then you're old enough" but I don't really understand why people think he's good enough based on that evidence. If he was the same age or even younger but had put together a full awesome Shield season then go for it, but it seems like they're interested in him precisely because he hasn't proven himself to be meh yet, and that's not the way to go about selection at all.

 

[centurymaker]

Yeah but Khawaja being a leftie hasn't helped him much. And even in his current form, I'd still expect Khawaja to do better than Harris or Renshaw.

Because he is horribly out of form/finished/too old.

 

[centurymaker]

Don't think they really have one. Renshaw I guess?

Thats the main issue.

Renshaw not a bad shout.

 

[cascade]

Because he is horribly out of form/finished/too old.

Renshaw's form has looked worse than Khawaja's outside of maybe one match.

 

[the big bambino]

It isn't even a remotely comparable situation to someone like Ponting, who while quite young had already had been playing Shield cricket for 2-3 seasons and had been absolutely gunning it. Konstas has played all of 9 Shield games. Absolute apples and oranges

As for Pucovski, he really shouldn't have been picked for the Test he played anyway imo with all his issues, but that's a topic for another day

Don't agree. There's plenty of other examples outside Ponting that negates your point. The situation doesn't demand it but it is an option. That said I see there's talk of him replacing McSweeney. That is the worst outcome of the lot despite getting Konstas in the side. Perhaps Boof has a point about Bailey being too chummy with the established players after all. Terrible decision to cut N Mc.

 

[centurymaker]

Konstas has height though. I have seen taller batters fare better vs India.

Most recently- Crawley.

They can get much further forward and also put the bowler off their length more easily etc

 

[Burgey]

Don't think they really have one. Renshaw I guess?

Tim Ward ffs

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Don't agree. There's plenty of other examples outside Ponting that negates your point. The situation doesn't demand it but it is an option. That said I see there's talk of him replacing McSweeney. That is the worst outcome of the lot despite getting Konstas in the side. Perhaps Boof has a point about Bailey being too chummy with the established players after all. Terrible decision to cut N Mc.

I am not outright against young guys getting at Test chance... if they have a decent body of work (more than just one good year preferably) behind them in FC cricket, something which Konstas simply doesn't have. Pretty much everyone I have seen named, even if not that much older than he is now, had at least been around domestically for longer than this

Him being anywhere near the Test squad IS the worst outcome in of itself

 

[Starfighter]

The selectors are clearly panicking due to us being 2/30 or worse every innings and the failure of any mature candidate to emerge as an obvious successor to Warner's spot.