While Australia won the last test I feel the decision to keep the same squad for final two squads is a disgrace. It is a total dereliction of their duties to keep players in the squad who are clearly failing to meet the minimum requirements.

Both the Marsh brothers belong nowhere near the squad they should have been dropped. 
Aaron Finch is not an opener, he is fighting hard but why is he being sacrificed? It almost seems they do not want a good opening partnership so that Warner can be brought straight back into the side as a kind of saviour to the opening position. 
Handscomb does not have the right technique to be successful, he needs to go at work on playing a way that lets his talent be shown at test cricket.

India have not be afraid to add to their squad after Shaw was ruled out for the whole series and Hardick Pandya proved he has recovered from injury, yet the Australian selectors have stayed with their own personal favourites despite them being failures at test level.

It was clearly time to bring in some other batsmen, Burns and Patterson would have been my choice while dropping Marsh and Handscomb and putting Finch in the middle order.
Drop Mitch Marsh from the squad entirely. A quality all rounder would be great to have in the squad but that is not Marsh and there is not another one available. The only reasonable option is to go with 6 batsmen and 4 bowlers. Lyon can bowl long spells and take wickets so the fast bowlers only need to cover one end for large periods of innings. Head can bowl a few overs if needed as well.

So lets get rid of the selectors and bring in some who do not think having the surname Marsh or being able to open in the fake cricket shorter forms of the game are qualifications to be selected and pick on merit. Also being part of a winning team should not be considered when a player does nothing to contribute to the win.

Time to say goodbye, Trevor Hohns, Mark Waugh, Justin Langer and Greg Chappell, 

And while we are sacking people perhaps sack Graeme Hick as batting coach. We need a coach who can instil fight and discipline into the batsmen, something which was notably absent from the hugely talented Hick's career as a flat track bully.

Honestly test fan their decision was predictable. They have no intention of going to England without Smith and Warner, they keep harping on the experience of S Marsh and that will be his final tour. They love M Marsh for some reason. The only player I can see as a possibility for Sydney is Marnus Labuschagne who again they see as an all round prospect, but I can assure you he's never shown anything prior to Pakistan so where they got that idea I have no idea.
They don't seem worried about Sri Lanka at all, and neither do I at the Gabba and Canberra.
The first test Ashes
Warner
Finch/Harris
Khawaja
Smith
S Marsh
Head
Paine
Cummins
Starc
Lyon
Hazlewood

So whilst they have this team in mind they aren't going to upset the apple cart, and select someone who may actually do well, because then they have a decision to make and they hate doing that, so they'll let Handscomb continue and ultimately I don't think they'll even take him to England. They always seem to pick a junior player with potential to develop them and Patterson at 26 will fit that bill. Burns and Maxwell will already be in England playing county so they have that covered. Pattinson will be one bowler they will take in addition if he remains fit. So the side currently is pretty much set in stone for the Ashes barring injury.

Warner in England, the English are going to love that, They're probably already stocking up on sandpaper and Sonny Bill face masks. 

Finch would be a disaster opening in England. 
There is only 4 openers that should be considered for the Ashes, Warner, Harris, Renshaw and Burns. Daniel Hughes is a very long shot if he dominates the second part of the shield season. Finch should not even be being considered to open, middle order perhaps but definitely not opening. 

They picked Mitch Marsh again,

Sack the selectors and have a good look at their bank accounts. Bribery is surely the only reason they have selected him.

I would definitely be happy if the selectors got the sack

Marsh's shield form this season: 6 wickets for 373 at 62 runs per wicket

batting is slightly better where he has averaged mid thirties this season

Maxwell burns white or pattinson all average 40+ and two of them bowl well enough to give the bowlers a rest

Chris Lynn averages 45 (although hasn't played for a while)

I mean we take 20 wickets in just about every game we play but rarely make 600 runs in a match or even 300 in an innings

so we weaken our batting to improve our bowling?

I'd like a 5th bowling all rounder - Maxwell? He did the job in India.

Disagree about dropping the selectors. They have a tough job selecting a batting line up ATM.

I'm surprised  at all three sentences, Grazor?

Patto averaging over 40 with the bat - amazing! 

Michael Di Venuto trains at the same gym as me and  is highly regarded as a batting coach.

Agree about looking at Hick's position.

my bad the other batters got deleted

It was meant to say Joe Burns, Cameron White, Glen Maxwell and Kurt patterson all average over 40 with maxwell averagine 45

we actually have the talent to be competitive overseas. Not world beaters, but competitive

there is no need to select a bunch of dibbly doblers that average 30

Maxwell has a Test century in India too.

I suppose in Aussie conditions a pace bowling all rounder is more sought after than a spinning all rounder?

Gday TF, agree with most of your rant,
Regarding Test only stats for all rounders;
M. Marsh & Maxwell are very similar; both avg 26.1 with the bat, bowl economy = 3.53 for Marsh & 4.42 for Maxwell and
bowling averages = 42.5 & 42.6.
The best test all rounder figures are Agar;
bat avg = 32.5; bowl econ = 2.84 & bowl avg = 45.5
Surly he should be in consideration especially for the SCG test 

As I've read more about Sandpapergate, I am far happier with Smith returning (but never as captain again), whereas Warner may be a more toxic and pernicious influence in the team.

By chance, Paine is the captain we've needed for a long time.

Long term he is a far better leader than Smith has been. I've been astonished how well he kept in such hot conditions in the Middle-East, and Perth, given he resides in temperate Tasmania. Also, he has a better test average than a FC average in batting. Plus, he has had to bat under pressure with frequent collapses above him in the order. 

He has also maintained calm and leadership leading a losing side - which is difficult . Many other Aussie teams implode when this happens.

Poor old Agar struggles to play for  WA in the Shield at home with WA wickets, and Tasmania's, too conducive to pace.

Most cricketers reproduce their first class averages if given enough test matches

Maxwell is already reproducing Marsh's test stats with less games. He would well exceed him given the chance

Marsh is statistically one of Australia’s worst ever players. Still manages to get in the team though

Maxwell averages 41 in first class cricket although it is increasing, but definitely not 45. 

Sorry its chrissy so not at my best

I meant Lynne's average is 45

Lynn's average is 43.53 but it seems he has given up FC cricket as he is infected by the evil of fake cricket.

yeah pretty decent average
If I was a selector I'd talk pretty regularly to him to try and get him in the team

we don't have many players averaging mid 40s

One of the big problems of not making the required changes for this test match is that players will be totally in fake cricket mindset and bringing them into the side would probably fail.
Are any of Burns, Patterson, Lehmann, White, Maxwell or Renshaw not playing fake cricket?
I cannot be bothered trawling through that dung to find out.

Yes. With this silly time of the year when pure cricket takes a back seat to the BBL circus our Test fringe players have no red ball cricket with which to push their claims for a call up. So they have no choice but to don the colored pyjamas and bash a white ball to all corners as their only way to impress the nong selectors. I have watched small feeds of the BBL and have yet to see Patterson, White, Burns or Renshaw.