My thoughts from watching players live at Bellerive have been confirmed by Shame Warne. He calls  for the inclusion of Pucovski and Riley Meredith in today's Test team, dropping Starc. 

DC Is Warne auditioning to be our next chairman of selectors.? I have never seen him this outspoken over selections. Is it time to bid adieu to our chairman of selectors.. Hohns

Tim Paine finally wins a toss and is batting. Is this wise with the overcast and the ball likely to swing in the first session. Will certainly be a test for a couple of our blokes who are not blessed with the most solid of techniques.

I am retired, but do not have Foxtel as per the majority of Australians, so do not comment on those games
not on free to air. 
This micky mouse test series, with the selectors not using same to blood new talent is ridiculous.
I have given up on the selectors and this series as it just gets too frustrating.
The only words of wisdom coming from anyone in the media is as mentioned Shane Warne.
The sooner he is given a place in CA, the sooner we may get some modern constructive thinking
in the game.

Then you are getting your cricket fix via 7?  I am also retired. My son purchased me a new LCD tv but go figure it only shows half a picture on Foxtel  so i chop and change between Foxtel and 7.. When the two Mikes.. Hussey and Vaughan are comming on Fox I  tune in.. then back to 7. 

Burns  and harris have to show that they can see off the new ball before playing any risky shots.

I cursed Harris.. This now is a big chance for Burns to steal Harris' Ashes spot.

In hindsight Khawaja should have sat this one out but still been on the plane to the ashes. Either Pucovski or Stoinis could have played. And would have pushes Patterson up the order. 

Im also incredibly worried about Harris. He cant convert starts and has some glaring weaknesses in his game. 

On the selectors;
We have Trevor Hons, Creg Chappell & Justin Langer.
These are all old fashioned thinkers of the game & Langer has stated outright he goes in to back his players
(by this he is saying the current team & especially if it wins, he will not change same).
So we have the perennial question, why is the coach a selector?
I have had a big question mark over Langer & at the moment he is not doing anything to give me encouragement.
He should not be a selector, full stop & needs to concentrate on the team he needs to win the ashes.
My fear is, if Langer doesn't change his thinking, the Ashes are lost before we even get there. 

The next question is why do we have so few selectors & what is the new CA board doing about it, 
It seems as if nothing has changed from CA & it's business as usual - time for the CEO to stand up & actually
do something, to date he has talked a lot but done b. all.

It has been suggested by others that  there needs to be a selector from every state involved in the national game.
This has huge merit, but would never be agreed to by Hons as it weakens his position.
Money for these selectors is quite simple, when you look at the players on contract not being played.
Convert these monies into modern thinking selectors such as Shane Warne & we may get somewhere.

Cricket has become a modern day sport with modern day technology, however the thinking from CA & the selectors
is still from a time 20 years ago. The idea of an unchanged team is gone, cricket will become like other sports
where players are included based on performance and requirements for each test.
Players themselves have to change their thinking and this is where the coach is involved - not as a selector.
Langer does not think like this, his attitude 'you've had 2 bad games but we will stick with you until you come good"
Bad 2 games = out & someone else comes in, no other sport in Australia would tolerate bad performances for as long as
cricket does.
Unfortunately the only way it can be changed is by CA = nothing will happen.

Marnus gone too. Another one that should be worried about the ashes but selectors seem to love him and that 80 last game probably booked his ticket

Get him to sort the settings for you...

What has happened to foot work in batting.
3 down, no footwork, all reaching for the ball.
What is Langer doing about this, he has a batting coach under him,
get another one or get involved, this is the head coaches job to sort out & he is failing.

Why is Marnus batting 4 anyway, that should be Patterson's spot.

Who even knows? Hes an odd enough selection at 6 but selectors see a top order player for some reason

Is burns playing well enough to make Ashes selection over Harris?
He has the same problem of playing outside of his footwork & reaching for the ball.

I would have thought that Patterson would have batted at 4 and Labuchagne at 6 too.

3-83 is another poor start for Australia.

5th highest shield run scorer with 472 runs at 47. Last season 7th highest last season with 725 runs at 56. So hes the form opener in shield cricket. 

Good cut from Burns after being dropped in slips. He has reached the pass mark of 40 runs.

Head hits 40 too. Hes really got to cash in on all these starts. I had him down as a future test captain but his selection seemed a bit premature. A 100 here though would change things

It would have been better for Head to have come in with 4 established, experienced Test  batters in the line up.

I thought Langer was a specialist batting coach too, JJ.

Agree.

Fox is so much better than 7 , Baggers.

I'm a keen football follower as well.

So Fox is worth having, being interested in cricket too.

  I love hearing other people use the phrase, 'Mickey Mouse'!

Burns with the first hundred of the summer. Head on 93* too

Head fills his boots too

Great innings from both, Head playing some lovely shots after the 100 now

77 runs the past 10 overs

Inflated figures against the weakest bowling attack you will ever face in test cricket,
plus both gave chances that would have been taken by  most test teams.

This is an extremely inexperienced attack. Sri Lanka's attack was okay at best with their three best fast bowlers, now it is just sub test standard. Players who fail against this attack should have their place in the team questioned. 

Good to see Burns and Head get centuries but they really should be scoring runs. Getting a bit worried about Harris now, thought he would be doing better, going to struggle to hold his place in the team if Warner comes back or Renshaw finds form in Shield cricket. 

Khawaja has a bit going on outside of cricket but he was supposed to be the player this side was built around and he has not delivered. 

Head should be batting 4 in my opinion.

reminds me of oz in melbourne

if you field well your bowling looks good
if you field badly your bowling sux

also the last two batting performances massively affect how the Sri Lankans will bowl