Part of that is the transition from Kohli and Smith. Tough decisions pending.
India have a population of 1.4bn as opposed to ours, roughly 27m. Probably about five times our population follow cricket in India and thatās I reckon a conservative estimate. The pool of mad keen Indian cricketers dwarf ours. Their national sport easy.
Of course its the quality and not the quantity thats important in a champion team ā¦ but still.
I reckon India will have a queue of decent bats in the pipe that stretches miles. Weāre up against it these days to maintain the levels of success weve enjoyed, in a now crowded and varied global cricketing schedule.
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Coldplay.
Itās funny we are resting players due to āLoadingā But most of the Load now isnāt for, or in Australia. I Guess 16 IPL matches does that to you.
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I get that people are disappointed with whatās happened so far in the Perth Test, but is it really that surprising? It is an ageing team that is massively reliant on its incredibly good bowling attack. They lost, at the Gabba no less, to WI last summer and also got spared defeats against Pakistan (also at home) and NZ because of the oppositionās poor catching.
The batting is clearly the issue, and it has been for a while. Plundering weak opposition in friendly conditions is good for the averages (hi Marnus), but it is detrimental when it comes to facing quality bowlers in helpful conditions. The lack of quality reinforcements makes the problem even worse. The bowlers are ageing, too, so the next 12-18 months is gonna be really interestingā¦
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Given the pitch is apparently calming down, Iād just like our top six to play straight and without overthiinking their batting. Weāll likely lose this Test , but once weāre set a stupid 500 target or something, just go out and play positive and straight. Hit the ball hard, and leave intelligently.
Nothing to lose but lots to gain, (including confidence and form).
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Nothing to lose except this test and momentum.
So yeah, nothing to loseā¦
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This test is done. Only 1 result possible but we need to at least show something in the second innings and take something to Adelaide
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Letās hope so. Another poor second innings where we get bowled out for 200 will hand crucial momentum to India. If this happens you can put Adelaide down as another loss and at 2-0 we have little chance of drawing or winning the series. So the second innings this test is key to the whole series IMO
Either way Iāll be there in Adelaide - Iām going days 1,2 and 3 !
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Hold or fold: has this era of Aussie cricket reached a cliff?
By Tom Morris
The eternal challenge of list management in the footy world is knowing when to rebuild and when to top up in search of a premiership.
Finding the right balance is a craft. Geelong and Sydney have refused to regenerate - bucking the trend - while others such as Melbourne have done so out of necessity, eventually achieving success in 2021 to justify the strategy. Hawthorn hopped in and out of a rebuild superbly in 2024.
Australian cricket may be in a similar predicament to Collingwood or even Geelong. But in truth, they are probably more like Richmond in 2023, holding on for something special, even if the evidence suggests those glory days are gone.
After a period of success, do they still blindly trust the team which won them a World Test Championship in 2023? Or is it time to put faith in unproven replacements as a means to shake the status quo, with no certainty of improved results?
In any sport, a byproduct of a great era is the dreaded cliff. The best players are difficult to drop and the logically very best teams have the most very good players. Australia has players who are not yet bad enough to be replaced, but no longer playing well enough to be automatic locks.
In Usman Khawaja (37), Steve Smith (35), Mitchell Marsh (33) and Marnus Labuchagne (30), Australia has a quartet of batters with worrying formlines.
Khawaja has gone 24 Test knocks without a ton, Labuchagne has gone 17 digs but has made a single figure score in six of his last seven attempts.
Itās 18 Test innings since Marsh reached three figures and 22 for Smith.
All four made centuries in the 2023 Ashes. All four are hundred-less ever since. If we are to be hyper-critical, itās almost as if last summer was the beginning of the end. Of course, we hope this is a grossly premature assessment. We hope. Itās day two of 25 this summer.
Itās debatable whether this Aussie team will be considered āgreatā by historians of the future, but retaining the ashes twice, winning the World Test Champions and two white ball World Cups offshore warrant significant admiration.
The challenge for George Bailey is the challenge a poker player faces: When to hold and when to fold.
If Labuschagne fails in the second innings, is his position untenable? If Smith struggles in Adelaide, do they need to have a chat about his future?
Travis Head might be a matchwinner, but heās passed 30 just once in his last 12 digs. He needs better coverage from the top order. And he needs it soon. And he needs to be more consistent.
Itās one thing to appreciate a problem. Itās another thing to solve it. There is no National Draft to stockpile talent. No trade period to exchange commodities in a mutually-beneficial manner. The only method for improvement is a strong pathway system from juniors through to the first-class system, coupled with shrewd selection policies.
Unlike footy clubs which replenish via the draft, Australian Shield cricket is fairly baron. There is no conveyer-belt of 18 year olds ready to step into the top level. Cricket is a nuanced craft. Reaching the top is difficult, itās why we appreciate those who do with such acclaim.
Even with these realities, Itās indisputable that there has never been so few options for the Australian selectors to choose from if they elect to commit to a regeneration.
Josh Inglis is the next batter in. OK, who is the one after that? Marcus Harris? Matt Renshaw? Sam Konstas? You can have your opinions, but itās not exactly clear.
Nostalgic bliss is as glorious as it is jarring in times like this. Remember the days when Stuart Law, Michael Bevan, Michael Di Venuto, Brad Hodge and Chris Rogers couldnāt get a gig? When Mark Waugh was dropped in October 2002, Darren Lehmann replaced him in the XI and Damien Martyn shifted from six to four, where he would remain for a further four years.
Rediscovering this depth is impossible given the fragmented landscape of cricket formats, but in his private moments surely George Bailey would concede it would be nice to have a few more options to select from. A couple more batters, shall we say, banginā down the door. Will Pucovskiās exit hurts this cause, as he was the anointed one.
So when the cliff comes - assuming somewhat optimistically it hasnāt arrived already - what will Bailey do? And are he and coach Andrew McDonald brave enough to shift things mid-series in a similar manner to the post-mortem against South Africa in 2016?
And if they do take the nuclear approach, does it even work? Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb and Nic Maddinson came and went as Test players. All may feature again, but itās not as if the three debutants post-Hobart justified the wholesale changes that were made. Adam Voges, Callum Ferguson and Joe Burns were the scapegoats.
After Australia lost to the West Indies in January - perhaps an early sign of problems - McDonald was asked whether the team balance was right.
āWe are not in the mood to change the batting order,ā he said defiantly.
Would he be as categoric after this test if Smith and co fail again?
At some stage in the next 12-14 months, change is coming. If this summer continues the way itās begun, it may arrive sooner than we thought.
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Curious on junior numbers. I have two kids that play. Feels like teams are merging or dropping out every year. Rep teams still decided politically rather than by talent. Itās the most ridiculously bureaucratic sport Iāve ever seen
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Iām not super across grassroots cricket like I once was when I played but if feels from afar as though itās the subcontinental Aussies or guys over here on visas who are keeping cricket participation numbers afloat.
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My local comp has record numbers of juniors so much so we have moved several grades to weeknights to fit them all in. Senior team numbers are also up this year although we do find more people can only play one week on, one week off. The numbers are very solid across the board over here. At Premier cricket is where it becomes a mess as many country lads are not interested in playing in the city and putting up with the BS that goes with it
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The Morris article certainly doesnāt avoid the notion that selection policy and long-term regeneration have not helped us.
I read that if McSweeney (25) hadnāt been selected this would have been Australiaās oldest ever Test team. So what? Well if every one of these older players were truly being selected on form and not because once upon a time they were world beaters then this wouldnāt be an issue. As long as the panel keeps picking Smith, Marnus et al in the basis of form shown 2-5 years ago weāll continue to play like Test cricket doesnāt matter.
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And thats the problem right there.
IPL, BBL, Test cricket.
Bring back the ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ODI series.
Bring back the tri nations, with other players ffs cos at the moment we arenāt getting the quality cricket fans deserve 
.
Or do you all like to watch another day of a team scoring 150 or so runs?
Marnus and smith will keep getting games because the cupboard is bare
Some state cricketer averaging mid 30s isnāt goong to do any better
Theyāre part of the mens club for fucksake.
Like the ball tampering incident. 2 kept their careers, 1 didnāt.
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The tri series went because for every game a team played in oz we had to reciprocate with a game offshore, so we had to play two games offshore for every match we didnāt even participate in. It wasnāt worth it anymore, it will never come back
Marnus was only averaging mid 30ās at shield level when he was selected. It was a shock when he did as well as he did.
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No ā ā ā ā .
BBLW play in empty stadiums
Hardly anyone watches state matches.
Instead of any new ODI series we got 2 choice for watching.
Long day on toast or Half a game baseball.
Pretty sweet hey.
There is a theory that batting averages are down the last 4 years in SS because the pitches have become bowler friendly. Overall itās become a much harder place to bat in Australia. The talent might be there but hidden behind the lower averages. Also comparing it to when Hayden and Kat were scoring 1,000 runs per season is not as meaningful