Who should replace Steve Waugh ??

[Pratters]

Ok I joined the forum late for being a part of this discussion in the beginnin gbut have strong views on this. Lehmann has fought for years till he has got the chance. So he will be retained if he is not injured. There is no debate on that I think, no matter how much people talk of Clarke n Love having the possibility of getting a chance ahead of him.

Among Clarke and Love, I would go with Love. Clarke has huge talent but whatever I have seen of him (in tour game vs India and his record apart from one dayers), he throws his wicket away which separates test players from players.

Love is a good player, nothing awesome, but he sticks on which is important. Love has fought long for his chance too an gets precedence over the likes of Hussey too(remember Australia A scores too)

Clarke may even be below Hussey right now. Its funny how he ha garnered so much talk by even the commentators. He has talent but has not fine tuned it till now. And he is fighting with good players who could make test elevens of any other country barring maybe India and South Africa.

Clarke will have to fight his way into the team.

As far as Katich goes, he will be dropped IMO if he doesnt perform in the next 2-3 tests.

 

[Tom Halsey]

he's not yet to play a Test

Double negative. Apparently Clarke has already played a test. :O :P

 

[age_master]

well i think you are all WRONG :P:P:P


i reakon we will play 5 bowlers in sri lanka, with McGrath and Warne returning to the side, if we play 4, i reakon macgill will miss out.


as for the batsmen...

Love - seems to have fallen out of favor for whatever reason - i would have thought if he was likley to be recalled than he would have captained Australia A

Hodge - nah

Lehmann - will have to play well to get onto the Sri Lanka tour - hes a good player of spin though with works to his advantage in Sir Lanka and India. he is old however and very slow in the field - and Katich bowls better than him

Katich - hasn't really done anythingt wrong thus far (apart from a couple of catches) but is batting pretty well, bowling well and his feilding apart from those catches has been excellent

Clarke - 22, like 6 years younger than the rest - big advantage for him, hes in pretty useful from with the bat, should have batted on vs India, they were never going to go for a slog. great fielder - that catch vs Zimbabwe was amazing - and a handy bowler. he fits into the Australian side well - it was pointed out that with the massive re arrangement of the field since ME Waughs retirement and Warnes banning, hayden and Potning have been in the slips, which means that the cover, gully and mid wicket area's are weakened, with Warne back, one of them will still be ing the slips, Clarke can fill the gap on the other side of the pitch. he is also an aggressive bat (lehmann is too) wich means that he will fit in well with the batting lineup. named as vc and skipper of Australia A and clearly in the sights of the selectors who with the aging team are no doubt looking into the future.

as for coming in under pressure and not performing, well thats about the dumbest things ive heard you say rik:

his lowest scores -

1 in teh 7th ODI vs WI, the series was over, and he came in after a big partnership...

2 - vs India in India off 2 balls, out of the 2nd last ball of the innings

2 - vs NZ in India - again coming in after a pretty useful partnership - batting @ 7

never really under pressure though

and when he has been -

on debut vs England - always pressure on debut, made a solid 39* in good time to guids Australia home

vs NZ in India - made 70 off 80 after coming in at 3/54 chasing 258

and ofcourse the TVS cup final where he made an average looking total into a good one with 44* of 28 balls than Got Badani and Dravid with his bowling if a final like this against india in india isn't pressure than i dont know what is

 

[marc71178]

Clarke - 22, like 6 years younger than the rest - big advantage for him, hes in pretty useful from with the bat,

He is? Does that explain his pretty ordinary 2003/04 season then?

should have batted on vs India

Instead of getting out for 8 - useful form that!

and a handy bowler.

Handy? By whose standards.

If you really think he's in pretty useful batting form and a handy bowler, I guess you're now happy to accept mediocrity from the Aussie side.

 

[age_master]

Instead of getting out for 8 - useful form that!

umm he made 38* and 131* i have no idea what your talking about....



prettyy handy bt Australian standards - hes only a part timer, and doesn;t really bowl in the longer form of the game.

as for his batting form, for him its useful, ie hes not in top for for him

 

[iamdavid]

I agree with what Liam said, M.Hussey has to be one of the unluckest players in Australia he regularly scores hatfuls of runs each season and still about 5 players are ahead of him in the pecking order.

To be fair Hussey really hasnt delivered at Pura Cup level for 3 years , he's been averaging around the 35-40 mark & has scored just one hundred since 2001-02 , which for a player of his clear ability is just not good enough , his ING form has always been superb & everyone knows how well he's done in England.

But really if you want to play test cricket for Australia then you have to make runs in the Australian FC competition , and Hussey simply hasnt done that to the best of his ability.

There was a stage when he was pretty close to a test call up , during 2000/01 against the West Indies Hayden was hardly setting the world on fire & people everywhere were praising Hussey's maturity.

But then Hayden made 549 runs in India & Hussey went down hill , the rest is history.

 

[iamdavid]

Still a long way to go , but I reckon something like this for the test squad to tour Sri Lanka.

1.M.L.Hayden
2.J.L.Langer
3.R.T.Ponting
4.D.R.Martyn
5.S.M.Katich
6.D.S.Lehmann
7.A.C.Gilchrist
8.S.K.Warne
9.B.Lee (????)
10.J.N.Gillespie
11.G.D.McGrath(if fit , Williams if not)
12.A.J.Bichel
13.S.C.G.MacGill / G.B.Hogg
14.M.L.Love / M.J.Clarke (slight possibility of both)
15.N.W.Bracken

 

[Rik]

Rik have you actually watched Michael Clarke bat?

He's got superb technique and I don't see any reason why he shouldn't get a chance in Test cricket. He hasn't done anything wrong for Australia so far.

I don't think you'll ever give Clarke credit... like Harmison.

I've seen him bat once, didn't look bad, didn't look amazingly attractive.

I'm sorry but how can I give someone credit who has performed in a basically pressure-free zone and as soon as he comes in when Australia are in trouble, he gets out for 1? He's obviously still got a hell of a lot to learn, there are many players who are more experianced and, at the moment, are more likely to perform than Clarke is.

As for Harmison, if he performed against a team not located in the bottom 2 positions in the Test Championship table, then I would give him credit. But he hasn't, so I won't. Shock horror, did I just manage to dispell all those "you'll never rate him" rumours? And the ones about "he's done well but you still don't rate him?"

I think I just have

 

[Rik]

umm he made 38* and 131* i have no idea what your talking about....

ummmm MJ Clarke c Taibu b Hondo 8 ring any bells?

(Marc got the games mixed up)

 

[age_master]

I've seen him bat once, didn't look bad, didn't look amazingly attractive.

I'm sorry but how can I give someone credit who has performed in a basically pressure-free zone and as soon as he comes in when Australia are in trouble, he gets out for 1? He's obviously still got a hell of a lot to learn, there are many players who are more experianced and, at the moment, are more likely to perform than Clarke is.

yeah hes got a hell of alot to learn, but hes learning and doing well while hes learning, and hes performed under pressure a a fair bit.

and to quote myself (just for rik)

as for coming in under pressure and not performing, well thats about the dumbest things ive heard you say rik

his lowest scores -

1 in teh 7th ODI vs WI, the series was over, and he came in after a big partnership...

2 - vs India in India off 2 balls, out of the 2nd last ball of the innings

2 - vs NZ in India - again coming in after a pretty useful partnership - batting @ 7

never really under pressure though

and when he has been -

on debut vs England - always pressure on debut, made a solid 39* in good time to guids Australia home

vs NZ in India - made 70 off 80 after coming in at 3/54 chasing 258

and ofcourse the TVS cup final where he made an average looking total into a good one with 44* of 28 balls than Got Badani and Dravid with his bowling if a final like this against india in india isn't pressure than i dont know what is

 

[age_master]

ummmm MJ Clarke c Taibu b Hondo 8 ring any bells?

yeah, but i said he should have batted on against india (taibu and hondo are from Zimbabwe) and than marc said something about instead of getting out for 8....

 

[Rik]

yeah hes got a hell of alot to learn, but hes learning and doing well while hes learning, and hes performed under pressure a a fair bit.

and to quote myself (just for rik)

Strange, all those pressure situations you just mentioned, he was basically given a liscence to throw his bat at anything, against England he was chasing a tiny total.

 

[Rik]

yeah, but i said he should have batted on against india (taibu and hondo are from Zimbabwe) and than marc said something about instead of getting out for 8....

Oh come on it wasn't that hard! Unless you want to forget it of course :saint:

 

[age_master]

Ch 9 commentary team veiws:

most said Clarke, a few votes for love for the long term, short term however a couple suggested Lehmann and even bevan for the tour of sri lanka.

the thing with Clarke and love is the fielding, both are excellent fielders which the team seems to need at the moment

 

[Rik]

Ch 9 commentary team veiws:

Disregards immediately

 

[age_master]

for someone who has seen a guy bat once you try to claim alot about him... and as for knowing anything about batting under pressure.

being given a licence, well that may have applied to the TVS cup fiinal, there was still pressure and he still still did well

as for the rest, he batted sensibly.

there is always pressure chasing - but especially after losing early wickets...

 

[Eclipse]

I would rather Clark than Love.

I just dont rate Love at all. He has a good FC avrage but that's bosted by the fact he has like 10 double hunderd's. He get's out early alot.

He just look's crappy in my opinion and not good enough for test cricket.

 

[Rik]

I would rather Clark than Love.

I just dont rate Love at all. He has a good FC avrage but that's bosted by the fact he has like 10 double hunderd's. He get's out early alot.

He just look's crappy in my opinion and not good enough for test cricket.

How can your average be boosted by double 100s? Seriously do you understand how hard it is to go on? You've just given another reason why Love should be ahead of Clarke, he can actually build an innings and go on and make a massive score, Clarke has not shown that.

 

[Eclipse]

Yeah I know but at test level batting at number six he is not going to make many big big scores especialy batting at the speed he does.

And he does get out early alot!

He does not look as solid at the crease or as technicaly correct as Clark and in all the test inning's he has playd were he has scored over 50 he has been droped at least once.

I suppose you might say I just have not been very impressed by him.

 

[Rik]

for someone who has seen a guy bat once you try to claim alot about him... and as for knowing anything about batting under pressure.

being given a licence, well that may have applied to the TVS cup fiinal, there was still pressure and he still still did well

as for the rest, he batted sensibly.

there is always pressure chasing - but especially after losing early wickets...

There is only pressure when your not in the strongest batting side in OD cricket. I'm sorry but only the 3-54 situation seemed like pressure to me. His debut was against England chasing a tiny total and in the TVS Final he was given 9 overs to throw his bat in.