I’m not, was probably their last great player. Born a decade too late.
spare a thought for Habibul Bashar - 1 win from 50 matches
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true, but don’t we arrive in most countries underprepared as well given the glut of white ball cricket?
Great story. Hickey did play games for South Australia. 156 first class wickets in 57 matches is a decent career.
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yep - scheduling can be an issue due to the amount of cricket played. At least for the 2023 Ashes tour of England we had the WTC as prep and an intense camp (thank you CHAT GPT…).
I’d like to see the tests be given priority over other forms, especially when playing the top countries, regarding relevant practice games and training .
Mitch Owen 33 off 8 so far against the Strikers in Hobart. Brutal hitting!
He is so hit and miss though. Looks good but then gets out.
I mozzed him, got out next delivery.
If you take a sample closer to when McCallum took over it was something like 1 win from the previous 17 tests. He has certainly been good for them, but I think he has been given far too much rope.
Taking over as England coach now would be great timing, the talent is (mostly) there, the performance not so much. Imagine how that series would have gone if they had prepared properly, not dropped 16 catches and not batted like space cadets? Add into that some poor captaincy and its not a recipe for winning.
They need a spinner, an opener and to better manage their quicks. Stokes needs to manage his bowlers better, including opening the bowling, and Carse at first change and doing the grunt work rather than the other way around. Carse bowls first change for his county side!
I think the 2027 series is going to be a hell of a series. We have 14 test matches to fill at least 3 top order bats. I expect England’s top order will have less change than ours.
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Yep, I agree.
It’s why quite a few of us wanted to ‘play the kids’ after the series was decided.
They look to have the jump on us with Bethell and Tongue.
They’ll be a completely different proposition on their own turf, and a lot of things are going to have to go right for Australia as they transition.
Very much looking forward to it. I have faith in our players and the people running our Test team. I think they’ve earned it.
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An unpopular opinion but I think Smith will be a good player if he just pulls his head in and does the simple things well.
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Oh, and also…
Given that it will be a changing of the guard for Australia in the next Ashes, and England are definitely to be respected at home, unless everything does go perfectly and the new team is somehow clearly the best Test team in the world…
…then if you offered me 2-2 right now, I would take that and run.
I would call that a very satisfying win.
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I think so too, but they literally picked him because of how he plays now. And seemed to send him out with those instructions.
The overarching philosophy of carefree , no responsibility is out of hand. They need to pull that back and reward those that get the job done pretty well most of the time rather than those who are brilliant 1 in 10.
What a shocking game by the Strikers.
Internally they were thinking they were finishing bottom so not really suprised
BBC Voters team of the series :
Head. 629 @ 62.9
Crawley. 273 @ 27.3
Smith. 286 @ 57.2
Root. 400 @ 44.4
Brook. 358 @ 39.7
Stokes. 184 @ 18.1
Carey. 323 @ 46.1
Starc. 31 w @ 19.9
Archer. 9 w @27
Boland. 20 w @ 24.9
Tongue. 18 w @20.1
Archer!!? Crikey.
Swap Joff or Tongue for Neser and that’s about right.
Aus really only had 3 standout players despite the 4-1 series win.
Edit: actually, screw that. Boland 20 wickets at 25.
Swap joffa and Tongue for Neser and Boland. Done.
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Hahahaha!!!
Archer - 6 innings 9 wickets 27.11ave 53.33SR
Neser - 6 innings 15 wickets 19.93ave 33.13SR
Okay, champ.
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Why can they have Archer but I can’t have Cummins in my team?
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