Wade is enjoying his cricket more as a specialist batter. 

When Paine isn’t playing, Wade has not even been keeping for Tas in the Shield. Doran has. 

At his age, 33, Wade needs to improve at Test level quickly, or he will be replaced by a younger batter. 

Wade was working 2 days a week as an apprentice carpenter, preparing for life after cricket. 

if head can average there abouts for his career its good enough to be a supporting case to smith/labu/warner

yeah I agree, the few times that we needed him Smith was his usual self. He's a pretty intense fellow, apparently he has trouble sleeping during tests. This summer is one of the few times in his entire career where he has been barely needed

Excuse me? Is your head pulled in with this post? Is this not arrogant, divisive or childish of you?  Think about this? Who pressed your buttons? Noone. And who are you to tell me where I should or should not waste my time? Are you my mother? My wife? Where do you get off?

You're just joining a wave on me because I gave Dec a curt reply and Baggers wants to white knight for his bff. Sorry, not sorry. Dec deserved every piece of it given all the threads he has locked and posts he has deleted. And this was a simple factual exercise for him to confirm and get right, instead of confusing the fab 4 debate with the actual ratings. But I am not surprised he did. But I'm not interested in face saving for him. In the least. As for Baggers, his lack of an apology over bilateral tours is still resonating strongly. At least he admitted why he would make a mistake. Even if his justification for the mistake made more sense to him than me. 

I really don't care what posts of mine KW you read or don't - but thanks for your personal update.  I don't find it arrogant of you in the least.

If the supercilious censors act their way as they have been, and give hypocritical orders, I will act the way I do, deliberately and intentionally. And I have no intention of pulling my head into someone as ignorant as Baggers who refuses to apologies despite being wrong about world tours. I thought so much less of him then, and he knows it. And I don't care for the weak, childish, immature, sycophantic-ally scared bonding to the masses of stupidity calling out the original insults. No offence. But you can have your sandpit back. 

The supercilious censors may run independent thinkers like Mike and myself off from the forum, and you can all enjoy  an agreement of cliche soundbites. We're not arrogant because we think for ourselves, we just think for ourselves. And have the confidence and ability to do it. Without shame. :) And we can support our arguments. With facts. With quotes. With stats. With videos. 

Dec, you can have me banned from Inside Sport - I don't mind. I don't suffer fools gladly, no offence. From Bagger's "billateral tours"  ICC folly to your ICC ranking arguments as opinion, I'm just finding it all rather humorous.  Sorry if that sounds arrogant, but your censorship smacks of ego and foolishness. And its so hard with you and Baggers to give a hint you get, vs just being so unsubtle and being blunt.

Baggers and Dec, please sit here in your fiefdom, and just repeat what former cricketers you watch on tv said. Enjoy yourselves. I hope you have a great time. But don't think I was arrogant to you. It wasn't even veiled contempt.  It was contempt and disbelief both at times. I lost respect for your opines lacking logic, factual accuracy or displaying a single modicum of research abilities a long way back. Sorry.

When Baggers forgot the WI bowled 20 years of bouncers, that was pretty much me done, here. Not being arrogant. Not even being contemptuous. I just don't belong in a place like this with people like that. He clearly knows sfa about cricket history. At all. And even less how tours are arranged. 

I thought the Kiwi tactics to Smith were very good. They noticed that he plays the full ball on the stumps really well, so they just decided to take that out of the equation either by bowling short pitched stuff from the left armer with a stacked leg side field, or wide outside off. It worked. (Although to be fair Wagner executed the plan brilliantly). 

Labuschagne to me was the find of the summer. He is in ridiculous form, and the technical change he made last winter has turned him into a run machine. I was also really happy with Travis Head, who is coming along nicely ( a test av of 43 at age 25 is nothing to be sneezed at). 

Burns disappointed me but I still think he's a better option than Bancroft or Harris, both of whom have inferior techniques at present. He's also a very handy first slip fielder. I'd leave him there until further notice. 

To me the weak link is Wade, but if he can come good with the bat he might actually replace Tim Paine when he retires. Wade could be a keeper batsman at number 6, and then Australia could bring an all rounder in to bat at 7. 

Smith and Head both averaged 43 against the Kiwis. By Smith's own high standards it was poor, whilst  for Head it was a success.

If you are not going to pull your head in, engage in cricket discussion without being arrogant, divisive and childish, stop wasting your time on here, do something useful and start coaching  for the NZ Cricket Association. I won't be reading your posts anymore, Paddles. 

 Tend to agree with you, Baggers. I used to like what  Mike and Paddles posted  about cricket. Then you realise after a while in every thread topic they try and change the subject to talk about themselves, how much they know about world cricket,  stir you in particular  and lay crap on everyone else for knowing less than them. They also seem jealous that you are a respected poster on here. These knob jockeys both seem to crave an audience of fan boys.  I don't know why Paddles still posts here? He doesn't  respect what anyone else posts, other than Mike.  If he doesn't get the message and piss off or get banned I'm going  to stop reading his posts. I suggest everyone does the same. Some of his posts have been damn childish lately, with the intent of causing conflict.

Back to the topic - does a combined eleven of Aus/NZ need an all rounder? De Grandhomme didn't score many runs.

I agree. I think all three of his first innings were important and had direct bearing on the results though. The rest of the time this summer were only either filling in time to give the bowlers a good break before declaring, or for quick runs.

I doubt anyone has him worked out either, especially with slow long hops. His form has been indifferent this summer compared to the superhuman version we're used to. Yet as you say, he hasn't had much pressure on him to perform either, when there has been any pressure at all he still delivered when necessary.

I don't think they worked him out. Smith for the entirety of this summer came in when we needed quick runs.

The two innings this summer where he came in with any sort of pressure was the Melbourne test where he got an important 85 and then built that big partnership with Labuschagne in Sydney. 

As far as i am concerned we needed him in two innings this summer and he delivered in both of them.

NZ had a terrible tour. Only Wagner is coming back with his head held high. CdG and Blundell had their moments, the rest, incl Southee despite Perth wickets, had an awful time too often.

Williamson's recent form is fine. He was player of the World Cup, struggled in SL, made some runs vs England, and didn't have a good tour of Aus. I am not concerned about his form. I am very concerned about the openers, though. 

NZ has William Young and Devon Conway from September to bring in. 

But the opening spots are a problem for NZ. We need to stop exposing KW to the new ball all the time.

Goose and gander, what goes around comes back around. If you put tone out there that is not warm, and arrogantly censor posts, you don't get warmth back. Maybe he gets the hint.

Huh? You serious? Root has been nowhere near the top 4 rankings for the past few years since being captain of England. 

NZ has never had a test match in Dunedin.. never.. never.

Paddles this is the sort of arrogant, divisive posting that warrants some of us not wanting you on this site.  DC has told you he enjoys watching cricket but lacks knowledge of the game. I have never professed to to be an expert on the game. I have watched much cricket over the years and have a decent knowledge.. tho not a great deal when it comes to international cricket. I also forget some things.. must be losing some of my marbles at my decrepit age. But seems you only come onto this site to big note yourself by denigrating the regular posters with your superior nature. 

Fair points made, FS.

I think the average of 26 for Smith was for the  series against  Pakistan as well as the Kiwis, and, possibly all Tests played since he came back after the Archer short ball hit him, including  the latter Ashes Tests.

Cricket is about opinions. Nobody is unequivocally right or wrong.

I knew there was a quartet of top ranked batters of Smith, Kohli, Williamson and Root, with Pujara about 5th at some stage of the world rankings. 

I thought you would be keen to expound on Williamson's recent form, or, your best combined eleven?

Huh? You serious?

Root was #1 in 2015. The "Fab 4" was an article written by MD Crowe in 2014 - Aug iirc. It was never about the best at the time cos it excluded Clarke, Amla, ABdV and Sanga. Maybe read it if you havn't.

But Root has been nowhere near the top 4 rankings for the past few years since being captain of England. 

He was sliding. Not even close to top 3 in a 4th. even slipped out of the top 10 recently altogether. And all real cricket fans know this.

Delete and censor this post too. You're welcome.

Under the circumstances, yes.

It was his ability to form first innings partnerships with Labushagne that were of importance more so than strike rate, and this is what set the matches up for us. Particularly in the first match, but in all of them he got through the tougher batting conditions and helped wear the kiwi bowlers out, while his partner was scoring. It could have been a different story had Wade/Head/Paine needed to come in early.

Scores of 43, 85, 63 are not bad at all, but more important were the amount of balls he saw off. With all of the matches finishing in 4 days, it doesn't indicate strike rate was a problem anyway.

He has been slow ever since the Ashes, in the shield he scored at around 24 in one match from memory. The kiwis think they have him worked out with long hops, but he was still instrumental in our first innings totals, and anyway he was far worse against Pakistan. He's a bit out of form, but he'll come good again. Even when he's out of form, he's still contributing.

Steve Smith’s SR was only 34. Is this good enough? 

Surprisingly, Paine was 7th highest run scorer at 38, and had a higher average than Burns, who scored a few more runs, but faced many more balls than the Aussie skipper. 

We we all know Williamson has usually been ranked in the top four for years, with Kohli, Smith and Root, and with someone close behind like Pujara. 

KW didn’t perform in this series though. 

Based on these figures And watching the whole series I’d suggest a line up of : 

Warner
Blundell
Labu
Smith ( wrong about his average)
Head
Paine
De Grandhomme
Starc
Cummins 
Lyon 
Wagner

Southee took 12 wickets over 2 Tests at 25, whilst Cummins took 12 over 3 Tests at 18, plus the latter only conceded 2 runs per over. 

Both had SRs of 49 and 50 respectively,  so Southee is unlucky to miss out. 

I love all rounders, so I went for CDG as number 7. I was very impressed with his back up bowling when Fergie was injured. 

Thanks a bunch, Flyslip! 

Most wickets

Player	Mat	Inns	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	5	10
NM Lyon (AUS)	3	6	116.2	24	345	20	5/50	10/118	17.25	2.96	34.9	2	1
N Wagner (NZ)	3	6	157.3	33	387	17	4/83	7/133	22.76	2.45	55.5	0	0
MA Starc (AUS)	3	6	89.5	18	268	15	5/52	9/97	17.86	2.98	35.9	1	0
PJ Cummins (AUS)	3	6	101.4	27	225	12	5/28	5/75	18.75	2.21	50.8	1	0
TG Southee (NZ)	2	4	99.4	22	309	12	5/69	9/162	25.75	3.10	49.8	1	0
C de Grandhomme (NZ)	3	6	111.0	17	287	7	3/78	3/121	41.00	2.58	95.1	0	0
JL Pattinson (AUS)	2	4	49.0	11	135	6	3/34	6/69	22.50	2.75	49.0	0	0
TD Astle (NZ)	1	2	40.0	1	152	3	2/111	3/152	50.66	3.80	80.0	0	0
M Labuschagne (AUS)	3	5	22.0	2	61	2	1/9	1/11	30.50	2.77	66.0	0	0
MJ Henry (NZ)	1	2	44.0	5	148	2	1/54	2/148	74.00	3.36	132.0	0	0
JR Hazlewood (AUS)	1	1	1.2	1	0	1	1/0	1/0	0.00	0.00	8.0	0	0
JA Raval (NZ)	2	1	13.0	1	33	1	1/33	1/33	33.00	2.53	78.0	0	0
TA Boult (NZ)	1	2	40.0	3	121	1	1/91	1/121	121.00	3.02	240.0	0	0
WER Somerville (NZ)	1	2	39.0	2	135	1	1/99	1/135	135.00	3.46	234.0	0	0
MJ Santner (NZ)	2	4	69.0	6	250	1	1/22	1/104	250.00	3.62	414.0	0	0
TA Blundell (NZ)	2	1	3.0	0	13	0	-	-	-	4.33	-	0	0
MS Wade (AUS)	3	2	3.0	0	21	0	-	-	-	7.00	-	0	0
TM Head (AUS)	3	2	7.0	1	24	0	-	-	-	3.42	-	0	0
LH Ferguson (NZ)	1	1	11.0	1	47	0	-	-	-	4.27	-	0	0

Most runs

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	0	4s	6s
M Labuschagne (AUS)	3	6	0	549	215	91.50	940	58.40	2	3	0	49	3
DA Warner (AUS)	3	6	1	297	111*	59.40	505	58.81	1	0	0	25	0
SPD Smith (AUS)	3	5	0	214	85	42.80	627	34.13	0	2	0	20	1
TM Head (AUS)	3	5	0	213	114	42.60	445	47.86	1	1	0	26	0
TA Blundell (NZ)	2	4	0	172	121	43.00	344	50.00	1	0	0	21	0
JA Burns (AUS)	3	6	0	155	53	25.83	384	40.36	0	1	1	15	3
TD Paine (AUS)	3	4	0	153	79	38.25	337	45.40	0	1	1	14	0
LRPL Taylor (NZ)	3	6	0	152	80	25.33	270	56.29	0	1	0	18	0
C de Grandhomme (NZ)	3	6	0	148	52	24.66	223	66.36	0	1	0	15	2
TWM Latham (NZ)	3	6	0	126	50	21.00	383	32.89	0	1	1	10	0
MS Wade (AUS)	3	5	1	119	38	29.75	242	49.17	0	0	0	11	1
BJ Watling (NZ)	3	6	0	105	40	17.50	353	29.74	0	0	0	10	0
MA Starc (AUS)	3	4	0	76	30	19.00	86	88.37	0	0	0	8	2
HM Nicholls (NZ)	2	4	0	61	33	15.25	125	48.80	0	0	1	4	1
KS Williamson (NZ)	2	4	0	57	34	14.25	101	56.43	0	0	1	10	0
GD Phillips (NZ)	1	2	0	52	52	26.00	119	43.69	0	1	1	6	1
JA Raval (NZ)	2	4	0	45	31	11.25	103	43.68	0	0	0	5	0
TD Astle (NZ)	1	2	1	42	25*	42.00	81	51.85	0	0	0	6	0
PJ Cummins (AUS)	3	4	0	41	20	10.25	134	30.59	0	0	1	5	0
MJ Santner (NZ)	2	4	0	32	27	8.00	105	30.47	0	0	1	5	0
N Wagner (NZ)	3	6	3	32	18*	10.66	35	91.42	0	0	2	3	2
TG Southee (NZ)	2	4	0	24	10	6.00	53	45.28	0	0	0	3	0
JL Pattinson (AUS)	2	2	1	16	14*	16.00	31	51.61	0	0	0	2	0
NM Lyon (AUS)	3	4	2	15	8	7.50	42	35.71	0	0	0	3	0
TA Boult (NZ)	1	1	0	8	8	8.00	13	61.53	0	0	0	0	1
WER Somerville (NZ)	1	2	0	7	7	3.50	15	46.66	0	0	1	1	0
MJ Henry (NZ)	1	1	0	3	3	3.00	15	20.00	0	0	0	0	0
LH Ferguson (NZ)	1	2	2	1	1*	-	9	11.11	0	0	0	0	0
JR Hazlewood (AUS)	1	1	1	0	0*	-	0	-	0	0	0	0	0

I thought the runscoring rate seemed a bit slow over the series. Particularly, with Australia being the home team it seemed as though they’ve scored runs more quickly in recent series at home. 

Over the three Tests a most enjoyable series - particularly for an Australian.

I'd probably have a few Kiwis in a combined team though. Smith would  be lucky to make it at an average of 26. Thoughts?

I haven't seen any Series Averages for batting and bowling for both teams.

If anyone has seen them, it would be great to post them here.

Yeah, agree. We are a couple of batsmen and another good spinner short of a team that can reasonably be expected to perform well anywhere. They're not mugs though, and putting much store in recent performances after the sandpaper fiasco, as some seem to enjoy doing, might be unrealistic.

Burns is a stopgap but is usually ok in Aus. Hoping someone like Renshaw will get back into form again (plenty of time he's still young). We have any number of young hopefuls for the lower order. At the moment Wade looks ok (needs some runs soon though) and Head has all the potential in the world, usually gets set then gets himself out.

This is the best our middle order has looked in a long time and they're good players of spin.

Will be interesting to see if Smith goes the S Waugh route of putting the hookshot away, or the Ponting in decline route of playing at everything. Or somewhere in between. He is going to get peppered for sure. He hasn't been bothered by them either, even with Archer at 150 he was playing them ok (except when he wore one). Not as though he's top edging them everywhere like Ponting did, he's just hitting them straight to the field. Hope he puts the shot away.

Well Aus actually have a chance to redeem the last won in Asia 2011 in Bangladesh soon- who are in an absolute rabble now. Shakib is suspended, and the whole team is in crisis and threatened walks outs after their Domestic Pro t20 turned to a shambles,  they managed to lose at home to Afghanistan. Who thrashed them. When they still had Shakib. Curiously, Bangladesh has never beaten India, South Africa, Afghanistan, NZ, or Pakistan in a test match.

But given almost half the countries now more less are now from Asia (Pak, SL, Indi, Ban, Afg), its pretty much a requirement to play sub continental conditions well. Just as India have put together a formidable seam attack, teams do need a spin attack for Asia. England put together a very interesting team in SL last year, which had great success. Then went and got smashed by the West Indies in seaming and bouncey conditions. 

Just looking back on that NZ in India series, it was a pretty awful NZ team sent there tbh. Guptill still opening, Ronchi played all 3 tests as a batsman due to injuries, Sodhi, Craig and Jeetan Patel were the spinners with Santner. Southee missed the whole series, with Henry playing, even Neesham played a test. And yet, there is still a core group there that NZ has had since 2012, KW, Taylor, Boult, Wagner, Watling, Latham - the 'old firm'. But yeah, anyone comparing their team to NZ as a foundational basis is barking up the wrong tree. NZ is far from a complete team. But we scrap hard in Asia, not losing away to Pakistan in - well a long time. In fact - NZ might just be the only nation to not lose a series ever in the UAE and actually win one too (admittedly India has never played there). A big change from the days when Pakistan used to turn up here in the 90's and 00's and beat us for fun. 

But I do think world cricket is going to start to face the inevitable soon. India, with all its wealth, resources, population and total love for the game of cricket, will start to pull away now. Noone is going to beat them in India when they refuse to play Pakistan. SL, Bangla, Afg tour, they get met with a bouncy seamer track. Sena turn up, they get greeted with a dustbowl or a low road that takes turn late. 

With their wealth and power, they have bought the best coaches, think Lillee, think McGrath, and set up their pace academies. And now they are producing seamers of very high quality like BK, like Bumrah, like Shami... Even their fielding is no longer horrid. With Pakistan now easily left behind by India raising their standards by a mile. Their season goes about 9 months of the year, the IPL gives massive exposure to some of the best foreign talent around. They have the most A tours, home and away, with the England team touring away more than it plays at home. They have multiple structured FC competitions to keep raising the standards of play. And India want to be the best. They want to the AB's of the sport. 

India has become the benchmark in world cricket. And their player depth, for seamers, for spinners, and their famous batsmen is just unrivalled. The number of intl quality batsmen they have is extraordinary. They're not worried about losing at home, they're now trying to win away. And I think these away wins will start to happen more and more with Kohli and Bumrah leading the charge.

We were going ok until a certain sand paper saga sent us backwards. Now hopefully we are on the way up again.
Did it what. Like a bolt of litening was sent thru Aussie cricket. We are on way up again.. but for mine we still have a few weak links in out batting lineup at #2, #5  and specially #6. Burns is still inconsistent but his technique is more solid than in past. Wade will battle but needs a score, Head seems incapable of converting good starts with brain fades. If these three are replaced CA needs to be picking not only good players of pace but also spin for when we tour the sub continent.

Of course we are better on home tracks. Most good teams are. 

Our team is very different (and all round better) than 4 yrs ago in Sri Lanka when we had players like Voges, M Marsh, S Marsh, Henriques, Holland, Neville (and Khawaja).

Our first big away series after the clean out from that match against the Saffers was a 4 match series in India. You don't get to be 1 all going into the final match against them without being good in those conditions (as the kiwis found out when they lost 3 nil). A drawn series in Bangladesh away only puts us level with the Saffers, India and England. They were no easy beats in Bangladesh at the time.

We were going ok until a certain sand paper saga sent us backwards. Now hopefully we are on the way up again.

India the best at home.... and doing better away than everyone else...

SENA is a joke in Asia, but England and NZ are doing the best in Asia right now. Cos Aus lose a test to Bangaldesh, and Safrica lose to SL like Aus losing to SA at home (not quite true - Aus in Sl was the worst thrashing Aus has ever suffered possibly in the entire history of cricket - incl bodyline). NZ draw away with SL again and beat Pak. Aus and SA lose to Pak. Eng lose to Pak.

It is that simple....

Aus lose at home to India and SA. NZ lose at home to Aus and SA. Eng lose at home.... to noone.... SA lose at home to SL... INdia lose at home to noo:): Pak dont beat anyone away... They like the Aus of Asia... No offence :)

India is the best. Deal with it. Even fi they run from Pak. And they do... Cos Pak knows more than anyone else how to win in India. But globally. Its their game. We're all just pawns in it now... IPL... :)