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*Official* Third Test (Headingley, Leeds) 6–10 July

ataraxia

International Coach
Warner's done decently in England, amazingly (edit: this winter). There's no way he's going to be dropped this series, except maybe for a dead rubber (or perceived dead rubber) final test.
 
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halba

State Captain
I’d go more left field than that and open with Green, keep 3-6 as they were this test and bring in Neser for Boland. OT is meant to swing a fair bit isn’t it?

Sounds like it won’t happen and Warner will play, but

Green
Khawaja
Labu
Smith
Head
Marsh
Carey
Neser
Starc
Cummins
Murphy

gives you six bowling options, seven with Head’s part timers, and takes the #batdeep meme to new depths. Left-right opening pair and the middle order keep their preferred spots
Agree. Main thing is i'd drop Warner. he's useless as a player for how long exactly. Green provides value with the ball- even if he takes 1 wicket and bang a quick 25-30 he's done his job imo. Warner will take no wickets as he cant bowl, and mostly be out under 10 runs to Broad.
Thats probably the best XI we have right now - isnt this a must win ashes, why dont the selectors be more bold. Marsh, you cant drop him after making a hundred, also he is suited to English conditions. Neser should've played from the very beginning, the selectors keep shunning him due to mistaken loyalty to the establishment(Hazlewood, Boland ahead in the pecking order, yet both are rubbish right now and both cant bat at all)
 

Spofforth

School Boy/Girl Captain
I can see them folding for 220 if not less. Safety is probably 400 and loong way away

Overcast conditions is the key I guess
There's a possibility of them folding sub 200 for sure. I think a 250 lead will be interesting. 300 more than enough. You never know though.
 

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
I’d go more left field than that and open with Green, keep 3-6 as they were this test and bring in Neser for Boland. OT is meant to swing a fair bit isn’t it?

Sounds like it won’t happen and Warner will play, but

Green
Khawaja
Labu
Smith
Head
Marsh
Carey
Neser
Starc
Cummins
Murphy

gives you six bowling options, seven with Head’s part timers, and takes the #batdeep meme to new depths. Left-right opening pair and the middle order keep their preferred spots
Greens just come back from an injury scare and ideally should bowl more than marsh. I like the idea of him opening in theory, his style is more suited to being up the order than 6, but him facing a ton of balls opening and also bowling anything resembling a realistic amount of overs for someone of his ability is an injury waiting to happen.
 

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
What on earth happened to marnus? Leading into this series he was fine in india and had the most county experience + runs of any of out guys but he's completely **** the bad so far this series and in the WTC.

He's completely lost where his offstump is while playing at balls he shouldn't be and struggling to put away full tosses and drag downs from moeen. I watched his entire innings yesterday and there where so many times where he shaped to play at balls he had no right even thinking about playing before leaving at the very last second. A large part of his success in 2019 was how well he left the ball, he left like 45% of his deliveries that series and now he's doing the polar opposite.
 

Spofforth

School Boy/Girl Captain
Warner's done decently in England, amazingly. There's no way he's going to be dropped this series, except maybe for a dead rubber (or perceived dead rubber) final test.
From his 31 innings in England Warner has 0 centuries and an average of 25.

From his 4 innings at Old Trafford he averages 11. Would be a good time to replace him.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
It's obviously a crazy and for a bunch of reasons quite stupid idea but it would be quite interesting if they threw Green in as opener. It would almost certainly fail terribly but technically he's probably reasonably equipped for it and striking at 40 per 100 balls wouldn't stand out anywhere near as much as it does at 6.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
It's obviously a crazy and for a bunch of reasons quite stupid idea but it would be quite interesting if they threw Green in as opener. It would almost certainly fail terribly but technically he's probably reasonably equipped for it and striking at 40 per 100 balls wouldn't stand out anywhere near as much as it does at 6.
Bloody hell, your team spends 6 weeks in England and your posters start suggesting literally everyone as a better option than your dud opener. Bitch please that’s our thing!
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Bloody hell, your team spends 6 weeks in England and your posters start suggesting literally everyone as a better option than your dud opener. Bitch please that’s our thing!
I mean when the actual alternative is Marcus Harris...
 

Spofforth

School Boy/Girl Captain
Bloody hell, your team spends 6 weeks in England and your posters start suggesting literally everyone as a better option than your dud opener. Bitch please that’s our thing!
A lot of people have been suggesting that he was a dud in England for years and knew what to expect. You realise he was Broad's bunny and averaged 9.5 last Ashes series out here?

Warner is always a good selection in Aus. but never in England. We're just waiting for our selectors to wise up to it.
 

quincywagstaff

International Debutant
Warner's done decently in England, amazingly. There's no way he's going to be dropped this series, except maybe for a dead rubber (or perceived dead rubber) final test.
He's played some handy innings but you can only really argue he's done decently is because he's improved from his 2019 disaster.

I think if Australia lose there'll be pressure on his spot, although I'm guessing they wouldn't have the nerve to do it.

As an aside, his Test average hasn't been this low since February 2014.
 

Spofforth

School Boy/Girl Captain
It's obviously a crazy and for a bunch of reasons quite stupid idea but it would be quite interesting if they threw Green in as opener. It would almost certainly fail terribly but technically he's probably reasonably equipped for it and striking at 40 per 100 balls wouldn't stand out anywhere near as much as it does at 6.
It has been done before. Remember when Flintoff worked Hughes out so they dropped him and promoted an all rounder (Watson) up the order? We didn't win the series, but were never going to but Watson fared ok.

His strike rate doesn't matter that much, if he could stay there for a while, hopefully a session, we would be better off.

ps. so far Green is a specialist fielder.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
A lot of people have been suggesting that he was a dud in England for years and knew what to expect. You realise he was Broad's bunny and averaged 9.5 last Ashes series out here?

Warner is always a good selection in Aus. but never in England. We're just waiting for our selectors to wise up to it.
Oh no I must have not noticed that lol
 

Ashes81

State Vice-Captain
As an England fan and looking at things in the most positive light, you do feel if we could win this test, we could also win the last 2.

The Aussie batting is starting to shows some cracks. Warner looks lost, Labuschagne is out of form and even Smith looks a mere mortal.

Yes Khawaja looks good as well as Marsh and Head but it doesn't look as formidable as it did before the series.

Bowling wise, the attack is becoming Cummins dependent and can he keep going for all 5 tests.

Of course none of this matters if we lose this test.
 

Woodster

International Captain
As an England fan and looking at things in the most positive light, you do feel if we could win this test, we could also win the last 2.

The Aussie batting is starting to shows some cracks. Warner looks lost, Labuschagne is out of form and even Smith looks a mere mortal.

Yes Khawaja looks good as well as Marsh and Head but it doesn't look as formidable as it did before the series.

Bowling wise, the attack is becoming Cummins dependent and can he keep going for all 5 tests.

Of course none of this matters if we lose this test.
That is the most positive light! While some of those observations are well made, my main concern is our ability to chase anything like a testing total against their attack. We really need to turn up this first session and have a really strong session so we’re chasing something around the 200 mark. Not sure my nerves could take another nail biter and us being reliant on a Stokes special again!
 

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