if I evenly weight career sheild and the past two years of averages it doesn't make the selectors look any better

Puckovski 62.65
Khawaja* 58.79
Smarsh* 49.53
Bruns 47.58
Wade 47.08
Finch* 32.57
C White 44.23
Ferguson 43.81
Harris* 42.91
Patterson 41.47
Handscomb* 41.13
Renshaw 36.98
Head* 39.13
Ferguson 38.87
Lehman 36.38
Bailey 35.97
Labu* 35.03
Cartwright 34.73
Mmarsh* 33.12
Neville 33.05
Finch* 32.57

Ostriches.

Ponting wants Labuchagne for the Ashes. Says he is a lock.  Sorry Ricky do not agree.  That may change my mind tho if he saves us today with a big ton.

Paddles I have often questioned why CA insisted on having Hazlewood  bowl at 140ks. Like you I reckon that was when he lost his metronomic accuracy and fell into bad habits (trying swing)  and losing his rhythm. Despite this plus his strike rate not being where we or he wants it to be he is still our most accurate bowler. His economy rate regularly dips under 3.. This series he has bowled almost as many maidens as his partners combined. He has also bowled without luck. He often had Kohli edging. He came within a coat of varnish in removing Pujara cheaply in this game. He has also accounted for Pujara once or is it twice. So he just scrapes in a pass mark. 5/10. Cummins other than his express paced Melbourne second innings has been moderate. Of his 14 wickets he claimed 9 of those were in that one match. Some thru poor batting execution. Gets 5 for his bowling.. an extra 2 points for his excellent batting. 7/10. Starc has been at his most inconsistent this series. As our fastest bowler he should have been constantly at the throats of the Indians instead of wasting so many of his dangerous deliveries thru his inaccuracy. He rarely had his major weapon.. the fast new ball in swinging yorker .. on show. When it was it was not on target. Even with runs contribution he fails 4/10. 

My Indian ratings.
Rahul 4/10
Vijay 4/10
Pujara  9/10
Kohli  7/10
Rahane  6/10
Vihari  5/10
Pant  6/10
Ashwin 7/10
Shami 7/10
Sharma 5/10
Bumrah  8/10

You've rated Kohli 7/10, does this include his rating as a captain.
His captaincy I rate 9/10 

Thats ok you rate him 9/10 overall if you wish.

The rain clouds are coming from the opposite direction today. Plenty of drizzle in them. Dont expect play any time soon.

His captaincy is not that good, he chases boundaries with his field placements. He has set bad fields to the spinners and I think has been far too conservative at times. It is not that hard to captain a team which is superior to the opposition in every facet of the game. So i give his captaincy about 6/10.

Overall I give the Indians
Rahul 2/10
Vijay 0/10
Agarwal 7/10
Pujara 9/10
Kohli 7/10
Rahane 5/10
Vihari 4/10
R. Sharma 3/10
Pant 5/10
Umesh Yadav 3/10
I Sharma 7/10
Shami 8/10
Bumrah 9/10
Ashwin 7/10
Jadeja 8/10
Kuldeep Yadav 9/10 - based on one innings but it was excellent.

It is not April1???

No it is not, but he is playing the Bangladesh fake cricket tournament where he captains the Commilla Victorians. Warner is captaining another team.

How did Ishant get better? He played seasons of country cricket the past years...
Pattison has played a season there and tore it up as has renshaw. I hope that gets rewarded 

This is what CA should have enforced on our players with an Ashes year ahead. But no dice as CA do not think outside the box. Or under todays regime dont they have the power to force a player to do anything? In an case, given our form the past two years, the player himself, should have opted to make the England pilgrimage. County Cricket starts in April.. wonder how many are going across to get the best Ashes prep of all...and get them out of their "gilded bubble". 

They are unable to enforce it. They could encourage and not prevent it as they did for Pattinson...

I would give Pant a 7 - he needs to take more catches to get an 8 - but his batting has been excellent...

Will CA stand down our pace trio and give others a chance to state their cases for the Ashes?  Fringe batsmen like Renshaw, Burns and Patterson should also be given the series.

Players in mind for the two Tester.
Harris/Renshaw/Burns/Labuchagne/White/ one of Philippe,Pucovski, Sangha/ Tremain, J Richardson, Copeland, Boland, Bird.. Could gamble on sheer pace with Riley Meredith. My smokie for the Ashes Nick Winter. Skull O'Keefe says we should take swing bowlers to England. I agree. Others in contention Worrall, Sayers. Rest Harris.  has shown sufficient. Rest Lyon.

Ok I will have a crack at my squad:
Renshaw
Burns
Khawaja
White
Patterson
Sangha/Pucovski/Philippe
Paine
Agar
J Richardson
Copeland
Tremain

Res: Meredith/Pattinson/ Worrall/Winter, Zampa/Ahmed, Labu/Maxwell

The longer the delay the greater chance we have of saving face by drawing the match.. Will only be polishing over the cracks.

Agar and Zampa do not deserve to be anywhere near the test team, they have not played well enough in the Sheffield Shield. Test teams need to be selected only based on FC cricket, short cricket should not be considered at all. 
Agar 1 match 1/69 and 27 runs across 2 innings, poor overall record as well, bowling average 39, batting 25. Not good enough spinner, not good enough batsman. 
Zampa 1 match 2/175, terrible overall record, 47 bowling average, he is lucky to even be playing FC cricket, I would not be picking him for Siouth Australia, better to go in without a spinner or even Lloyd Pope than Zampa.
Pucovski has basically scored two big hundreds and failed almost every other innings. Far to early to play him. Sangha and Philippe have barely proved they are good enough to play Sheffield Shield let alone test cricket. A big no.
Renshaw is totally out of form, you just cannot pick a player who is averaging 19 this season, it would be totally wrong.

Resting Harris is just plain stupid. He is still adjusting to test cricket and needs to play as many tests as quickly as possible to find out what works and does not work at the level.  Getting a century against the Sri Lankans could really set up his test career and the two tests against Sri Lanka are vital for him if he is going to do well in the Ashes. 

The test match is a draw, there will be very little play, if any at all, and even our weak batting will not lose. 

So without any FC cricket between now and the first test against Sri Lanka selections need to be made on Shield cricket and performances in the test series. The fake cricket BBL can be completely ignored and so can the one day series against India which is going to happen in between. 
It is a complete disgrace but it seems our test batsmen and contenders to play test cricket are going to be ruining their mindset but playing one of these two fake cricket events. There should be a round of FC cricket before the Sri Lankan tests.

Assuming we name a 13 man squad for the Sri Lankan series it should be
Wicket Keeper: Paine
Fast bowlers: Cummins, Starc, J. Richardson and Tremain
Spinner: Lyon
Batsmen: Harris, Khawaja, Burns, Patterson, Maxwell, Wade, Handscomb.

Starc stays because he is a left armer, but maybe still not play. 

I've always liked a left armer, as everything about them is a different perspective.
This is also why I prefer a leftie finger spinner opposite Lyon, compared to a right wrist spinner.
The dynamics are just different.

 Think you will find that Harris has already done sufficient for an Ashes berth. Many pundits and former players are talking him up. I guess he does need to be playing and developing tho.  Renshaw's domestic form will return. Is too good a player for it not to. He does have this in his favor to be on the plane to England.  Playing for Somerset this county season 6 m 513 r @51 with three centuries. The three kids are on spec.. a gamble. Blood one of them against a weaker opposition. He may just score a big ton to put himself in the frame for the Ashes. Joe Root has big wraps on Sangha...perhaps give him the nod. He, Philippe and Pucovski are our three most promising red ball cricketers imho. What is the point in putting Agar on a contract and not playing him in any format. it is foolish and one CA should rectify. He must be so disillusioned. A mixture of poor bowling conditions and injury is reason for his moderate figures for WA. His bowling has improved markedly. His batting is resolute but he can lift the scoring rate in a heartbeat if needs be. Zampa is our best performed limited overs wristie and his red ball game is improving. Ahmed  bowled well in the shield before Holland returned. He is also bowling well in the circus game. 

I totally agree with you over there not being any red ball cricket at this time of the year. Ludicrous.. but one CA wont change as the BBL is its 'cash cow'. So who is your leftie finger spinner. Agar?  Maxwell perhaps definitely not Handscomb. 105 @21 for this series. Still has this dodgy technique. Too much a liability for the Ashes.

Have not ruled out a total washout.. after at least a half hour of this rain band there are clear skies. So if the outfield is deemed playable we should get the last session. It is already starting to clear here and I am around 20km south/west of the SCG.

Agar is not a test player. He's an eco bowler for limited overs with some very limited batting ability. Put frankly, I am not entirely convinced he's not simply a bits and pieces cricketer and he's not near either Ali or Santner at this role. Yes he had a great innings on debut - so did many cricketers who then went on to fail.

Circus leggies play a different sport to red ball cricket. Its a different ball game with the field up and having to find their mark against reactive and non premeditating batsmen.

Obviously the outfield is too wet even when the rain stops. as the match has now been called off with india. winning a comprehensive 2-1 victory. Can be no one other than Chet Pujara as the MOS. Wins it by a country mile.

Game washed out - India win the series with a score line somewhat flattering Australia at 2-1...

Now  for some soul searching and the post mortems of Australian cricket. We are in a muddy patch at the moment. We will sink more before we can once again swim. 

I bet Fanie de Villiers isn't getting much love from Cricket Australia right now...

Now there's an ODI series that I expect India to win...

And that's the longest part of the summer over... until WC and Ashes humiliation in winter...

At some point, someone has to offer Tom Moody a fortune to come back to Australia and sort this mess out. Which he is more than capable of doing seeing he understands WORLD cricket...

missed maxwell some how
weighting form and career he is one of the best
Maxwell 46.58

Puckovski 62.65 - retain.

Khawaja* 58.79 - retain
Burns 47.58 - retain
C White 44.23 - retain despite others saying he is too old. Like fine wine is Bear.
Harris* 42.91  - retain
Patterson 41.47 - retain
Renshaw 36.98 - retain
Bailey 35.97  ditto White

Maxwell 46.58 retain?

Wade 47.08 - reserve judgement
Ferguson 43.81 - reserve judgment
Handscomb* 41.13  reserve judgement
Head* 39.13 - reserve judgement
Lehman 36.38  - reserve judgement
Labu* 35.03  - reserve judgement
Cartwright 34.73 -  reserve judgement
Mmarsh* 33.12  - reserve judgement

plenty of batters that you can make a competetive top 6 with there

only need 4 as well

Khawaja Burns Harris Maxwell to accompany Smith and Warner. Before then include White and patterson

grazor  I see Patterson as long term not a stop gap. Where is Maxwell @46. I have him at @41 career average.. mostly after a strong 2017/18. Has he played this year? Can not see his record.