On the ABC, some clown was lamenting the absence of Shaun Marsh.
Well, there’s a waste of my 8 cents…probably about 3 cents after a few years of coalition governments.
Yep.
Simple examples are saffers and poms. Off drives, cuts. Glances all on show. Mix it up in the middle order with some paddles and reverse stuff.
The new bats and batsmen friendly pitches have encouraged correct technique for 50 overs if Nything
They all seem to switch back to 20 20 or test as seamlessly as you see what I did there.
The longer that Bancroft is missing the better he seems to be! Stats suggest he is ordinary at best.
Batting and fielding averages
| Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 4s | 6s | Ct | St | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tests  |
8 | 14 | 1 | 402 | 82* | 30.92 | 880 | 45.68 | 0 | 3 | 56 | 1 | 11 | 0 |
| T20Is |
1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0* | - | 0 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| First-class | 76 | 139 | 11 | 4910 | 228* | 38.35 | 11336 | 43.31 | 11 | 20 | 583 | 18 | 101 | 1 |
| List A | 41 | 39 | 5 | 1224 | 176 | 36.00 | 1573 | 77.81 | 1 | 9 | 93 | 21 | 35 | 1 |
| T20s |
25 | 20 | 5 | 502 | 75* | 33.46 | 390 | 128.71 | 0 | 4 | 37 | 14 | ||
He’s no Rogers or Bailey, I’ll give you that.
Any smidgeon of form from Renshaw get him in. Get the feeling he’s one of those players that get touch at test level.
If anyone in the brains trusts employ is unnecessary it’s pat Howard. More useless than Buchanan.
Nup. Vic’s current middle order all do - Short, White, Handscomb, Maxwell.
And 2 or 3 others in the mid 30s.
Most shield sides have 2 or 3. There’s talent there.
It’s this mental selection policy whereby guys almost seem to be penalised for consistently doing well in Shield. And we see these 22-23 year olds come out of Aus U19s and AIS, do well in their first few shield games, suddenly getting talked about for a baggy green. Madness.
Cricket is a game of grind and determination. We’re not rewarding that.
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I’m not too concerned. Once our batsmen get back on Australian pitches, away from these slow foreign wickets they will improve!!! They are still playing overseas aren’t they.
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Only won 2 of our last 20 ODI’s which is borderline minnow status
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Good thing World Cup ain’t coming up
At this point we should actually be thankful for the format change. Don’t have to qualify on merit. Cos I’m not sure we would.
He’s definitely in the best handful of openers in the country.
Along with Renshaw, Finch, Burns, Weatherald, probably Kurtis Patterson.
There’s real scope for a selection bolter this year. If someone scores a number of Shield tons between now and the first Test I can easily see them getting picked regardless of their overall career record. Handscomb is another Shield ton from a recall IMO. He’s scored runs at Test level before, he looks to have improved his technique. That pitch yesterday had something in it, even when the Saffas were batting there was enough interest for the bowlers if you put it in the right spots. Our inability to cope with some bowler-friendly conditions, especially early, was pretty disgraceful and shows how big a flat-track bullies we really are.
PS: I’d pick Stoinis ahead of M.Marsh. His batting may only be marginally better but he looks a hell of a lot more threatening with the pill…
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Who ever reckoned Steyn has slowed down wasn’t watching last night. His ability to move the ball at 140 plus is incredible.
Even if he has slowed down a fraction, 140 to 145 is still more than enough if you can still bounce it sideways.
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At full strength I would play a test team of
warner, renshaw, kwojo, smith, handscomb, marsh, paine & the 4 bowlers are obvious.
I realise m marsh is out of form & handscomb & renshaw are yet to establish themselves - but the latter 2 both have grit & talent, and marsh is an investment in extreme talent which he showed last year.
That team is not great but only SA could beat us in Australia given their quality quicks. The problem is more we have shot ourselves in both feet.
Wait.
A guy with a Test batting average of 26 after 30 Tests (2 tons, 3 x 50s) is merely “out of form”
Another guy has an avg of 43 after 14 Tests (2 tons, 4 x 50s) - and he’s “yet to establish himself” ?
Don’t drink the coolaid.
The only thing Mitch Marsh has established is that nepotism doesn’t work - and that that doesn’t matter.
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They don’t even use Mitch Marsh as an allrounder which is even more mystifying. You can’t pick him on his batting alone (nor his bowling) however surely if he is going to be picked he needs to bowl more than 5 overs an innings.
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Marsh was brilliant last summer, and like the most of our players had 2 poor tours since. I have no idea if he will ever become a good player overseas - but that applies to every batsmen in the country apart from smith & warner. Marsh showed against England what he is capable of at home. If there’s a better option at 6 then pick him, but it’s not maxwell.
Renshaw & Handscomb are not established test players as they are not in the team. I’d pick them both against India.
Oh yes you can.
Becausefuckyou.jpg
He’s been picked at 4 recently.
OK. Let’s look at his summer.
He averaged 38 over the “brilliant” summer. Batting at 6. (And the vast majority of those runs made at home, but we’ll leave that for now).
So we’ve put 5 years into him, he’s theoretically at the peak of his powers, and at his absolute best, for 1 summer which he doesn’t look like reproducing, he was still not as good as Handscomb has been across the totality of hus careers thus far.
As I say.
Cool aid. You’re drinking it.
And the line about not being established because you’re not in the side is self fulfilling logic. By that definition, Steve Smith isn’t established, but Labuschagne is. More cool aid nonsense. And since your original point was about there being no-one making runs outside the squad, flat out dumb.
Clearly there are guys outside this XI who aren’t being picked, who are better credentialled, more established at the level than guys who are being picked.
The side won’t move on until we get over the Marshes. And Langer’s absolutely not going to drop them, under any circumstances. He and Geoff are thick as thieves, after GM left the selection panel he was a WA assistant - under Langer - for years.
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Hilton Cartwrights probably your next best bet but he’s stalled.
Mitchell starc and pat cummins are our only things close to allrounders. If we had a world class Ben stokes type to complement them, and smith and warner back, and one other bat back in form we would have a very good unit. In any form.