*Official* Sri Lanka in South Africa 2020/21 Tests

[Rasimione]

Mulder in the test side changes things. I see a lot of people want him to bat at 6 but I'd rather have him at 7. QDK 6 and Mulder at 7 gives us better balance IMO. If he continues to bowl the way he's doing at the moment, he'll really be a handful. He's clearly a far better player than Hulk.

 

[Gnske]

Didn't it happen to India at some point during their horror overseas run? I'm sure they've had games where they were 2 players down, but one of those injuries might have been external blow.

Also this SL side did mostly play in the LPL before this tour. There wasn't an opportunity to get the squad together for conditioning, or to get a warmup in SA, but they aren't exactly coming in from nothing. And besides that, fitness should be an individual players' responsibility. They can't be waiting around for the SLC to set up a national training camp before they get in shape to play. This is their career, they should always be in shape to play.

Even putting this game to the side, I think allowing for subs when players are injured due to being unfit isn't the right direction to go. Fitness matters. I get that subs enhance the spectacle for fans, and that in some cases injuries are unavoidable, but when the injuries can be avoided...

I'll bite in a serious manner. Shane Watson proved you can have a body conditioned by zeus himself and still be made of glass.

 

[cnerd123]

I only saw most of these guys in the latter part of their careers but "fitness geeks" is not something I'd use to describe some of them.

Only Aarvinda and Herath (lol) were visibly chubby and out of shape. The rest were fine given the standard of cricket fitness for the era.

 

[cnerd123]

I'll bite in a serious manner. Shane Watson proved you can have a body conditioned by zeus himself and still be made of glass.

Watson was way too buff to be a cricketer with no injuries imo. Especially if you're running in to bowl 10-15 overs of seam up a day, or attempting to bat for hours on end with lots of #intent.

 

[Daemon]

Maybe, but fitness geeks?

 

[Gnske]

Watson was way too buff to be a cricketer with no injuries imo. Especially if you're running in to bowl 10-15 overs of seam up a day, or attempting to bat for hours on end with lots of #intent.

His body was perfect enough to drink shot juice off and you should shut your filthy mouth.

I'm going to pick on Lyon as a bad example. The guy has the body of an elite gamer with low testosterone who dyes his water blue and calls it gamer juice. The guy rarely if ever gets injured. If we're talking injury subs seriously in regards to soft tissue injuries, difficult to raise the "shoulda been conditioned" line out when someone as perfect as Watson can die and someone like Lyon can live.

 

[cnerd123]

His body was perfect enough to drink shot juice off and you should shut your filthy mouth.

Agreed, and make me

I'm going to pick on Lyon as a bad example. The guy has the body of an elite gamer with low testosterone who dyes his water blue and calls it gamer juice. The guy rarely if ever gets injured. If we're talking injury subs seriously in regards to soft tissue injuries, difficult to raise the "shoulda been conditioned" line out when someone as perfect as Watson can die and someone like Lyon can live.

Lyon is conditioned tho. This is cricket not bodybuilding. All that matters is that you can stay on the park and perform consistently. Lyon clearly has a body that's conditioned to survive the 'rigors' of being a Test Match finger-spinner.

I'll grant you that some players are more injury-prone than others. But that's the same as saying some batsmen are more dumb-shot-prone than others, or some bowlers are more half-tracker-prone than others. If a player can't reliably last 5 days, or a series, then he should not be playing Test cricket. Drop him, find someone fitter. And if you pick him anyways and he goes down because his hamstring is as soft as cotton then you play on with 10 men.

 

[Bahseph]

Just throwing this out here,but Sri Lanka had Herath playing for them for a long time and he never looked the fittest,but he stayed on the park. They also have Mathews who basically had to give up bowling to even have a chance of playing. Conditioning really is unique to a player and is a tough topic to have a general discussion around. I agree that an external injury like a broken arm or twisted knee caused by a collision should probably warrant a sub,but drawing the line with soft tissue injuries will be a logistical nightmare imo.

 

[Gnske]

Lyon is conditioned tho. This is cricket not bodybuilding. All that matters is that you can stay on the park and perform consistently. Lyon clearly has a body that's conditioned to survive the 'rigors' of being a Test Match finger-spinner.

If a player can't reliably last 5 days, or a series, then he should not be playing Test cricket. Drop him, find someone fitter. And if you pick him anyways and he goes down because his hamstring is as soft as cotton then you play on with 10 men.

Ashwin, built like a brick shithouse. Fit to toss pies all day apparently relative to an offspinner's role, take a slew of wickets and perform at that level but struggles to chase a ball to the boundary without almost having a heart attack as determined by his fielding effort the other day. Does his calf after 2.3 overs and gets carried off basically comatose and weeping blood. Does he qualify for a sub under your doctrine?

 

[cnerd123]

Ashwin, built like a brick ****house. Fit to toss pies all day apparently relative to an offspinner's role, take a slew of wickets and perform at that level but struggles to chase a ball to the boundary without almost having a heart attack as determined by his fielding effort the other day. Does his calf after 2.3 overs and gets carried off basically comatose and weeping blood. Does he qualify for a sub under your doctrine?

no sub for Ashwin, in my ideal word

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Really wanna see some skinny fat/dadbod cricketers

 

[cnerd123]

good to see Chandimal is fit to resume batting

 

[StephenZA]

Mulder in the test side changes things. I see a lot of people want him to bat at 6 but I'd rather have him at 7. QDK 6 and Mulder at 7 gives us better balance IMO. If he continues to bowl the way he's doing at the moment, he'll really be a handful. He's clearly a far better player than Hulk.

I don't think people want him at 6 yet. I think Mulder can bat in the top 6, not that he must. It will depend on QDK's long term role though and what other batsmen come in to fulfil the long term batting positions. If QDK moves up the order then Mulder can happily move to 6 if needed. We have guys like Linde who can also fill the 7 role. Ruan de Swardt might make a go of it in time. And all of M Jansen, Migael and even Coetzee have real talent with the bat. Or maybe another wicketkeeper at 7 and Mulder at 6.

What Mulder gives us is lots and lots of potential options.

 

[Bahseph]

There is definitely confidence in Mulder as a bowler to have him start this morning. Especially ahead of Sipamla and Nortje.

 

[Rasimione]

I don't think people want him at 6 yet. I think Mulder can bat in the top 6, not that he must. It will depend on QDK's long term role though and what other batsmen come in to fulfil the long term batting positions. If QDK moves up the order then Mulder can happily move to 6 if needed. We have guys like Linde who can also fill the 7 role. Ruan de Swardt might make a go of it in time. And all of M Jansen, Migael and even Coetzee have real talent with the bat. Or maybe another wicketkeeper at 7 and Mulder at 6.

What Mulder gives us is lots and lots of potential options.

Yeah the options he gives us are infinite.

 

[Rasimione]

There is definitely confidence in Mulder as a bowler to have him start this morning. Especially ahead of Sipamla and Nortje.

He's bowled better than them. His consistency has really impressed me.

 

[SeamUp]

Thought I would look into this. Faf became the 7th batsmen for SA post isolation to score a test century at over 35 years of age.

Kepler Wessels 2 (last in 1994 at nearly 37)
Peter Kirsten 1 (in 1994 at 39)
Dave Richardson 1 (in 1995 at just past 35)
Pat Symcox 1 ( in 1998 at 38)
Gary Kirsten 5 (last in 2004 at nearly 37)
Jacques Kallis 10 (last in 2013 at 38)
Faf du Plessis 1 (in this test in 2020 at 36.5 years of age)

 

[SeamUp]

Wiaan

 

[StephenZA]

Nice wicket. Good bowling continued from Mulder. Good line and lengths consistently testing all morning.

 

[StephenZA]

Wiaan

He's actually a batting allrounder...