Goes without saying. Smithy has hundreds in every nation except the UAE. Most being at home(13) and England (5) Just the three in India.

Khawaja is lucky to have survived the series for this long. He is not exactly Bradman in England  @20.. miserable. "credit in the bank" rubbish Langer. His bank just foreclosed on him. 

Gday BG,
jaszyjim - This the problem with Langer as coach, once you are in the team,
as far as Langer is concerned you are golden & he will stand by you, even if you are way under performing.
Do you think that if this was a Manchester United Soccer team, the coach would have buried
his head in the sand for so long with so many players under performing.
If he did, he would be sacked & rightly so.
So Langer really needs to take a tougher stance, eg no performance = your out.
Or he can't do it = your out.

G'day to you JJ. Agree. A coach should not be mollycoddling his charges. He has to be firm for their and the team's sake. I hope Langer is not the sole reason Mitch Marsh is in this quad. His Test record suggests he should not be anywhere near it. But to be fair he has improved his FC figures with bat and ball since taking over the reins at the Warriors. Does CA see him as a future national captain?

No. 

In a word.

Thanks for bringing this up, Baggers.

Swann was close to the top spinner in the world then.

Big money lost!

That would be a cruel fate for Starc to have to continue to be a seat-warmer. I think there’s too much focus on his supposed lack of accuracy when we need to have a more aggressive approach to winning this series. Cummins - and Lyon on his day can keep the run-rate down from the other end. The most effective way not to have the England score ticking over  is not to have them out in the middle!

Welcome to the forum, Thingy Bob.

Starc's selection is interesting, given about 8 months ago he was almost first picked and had the choice of which end to bowl from first. He may be inaccurate at times, but he is different.

Thank you for the welcome. Nice to be among fellow cricket lovers at this time of year.

I can’t help but think of comparisons of Gilchrist with Carey, a superbly gifted and free flowing batsman sitting in the wings and playing the Odis while Healy kept playing test cricket well past the time when everyone thought he would retire. Heals was a completely different class above Paine though- no disrespect to the current captain, but what a legend he was both behind the stumps and with the bat under pressure. However,  Carey has shown a similarly cool head, at least in white ball cricket. Carey probably a better glovesman than Gilchrist, too, at a pinch. Just shows the complexities of juggling test sides with Odi teams, keepers who captain vs talented batsman who can also keep etc. I wouldn’t want to be a selector, that’s for sure.

Musta been all media talk. Yet CA did say he was an option.

Gday  Dc,
jaszyjim-As you know I have been an advocate for M. Marsh's inclusion, though not as a future captain at this stage.
So I went through the over all test stats between M. Marsh, Pattinson & Siddle - interesting,
Marsh & Pattinson have very similar figures with both bat & ball, Marsh bats & bowls RH whilst
Pattinson bats RH & bowls LH.
Siddle bowls RH, has a better economy rate but a much higher strike rate & a much lower batting average.
So on the figures you would play Pattinson, if Starc wasn't playing & wanted a LH fast bowler but
would play M. Marsh ahead of Siddle as he has the better stats & younger.

You are aware Carey holds the Shield season keeping record. Took it out in 2016/17. He had to eclipse not only his childhood hero Gilly but also the little Qlander Chris Hartley.. arguably the best keeper to never play for his country. Gilly's career record is better than many think..outstanding actually. Carey will have to be good to beat it. Dont subscribe to your view that Healy was a class above Paine. I have seen plenty of both and Paine measures up nicely. Their FC records are very similar. Their test records dont compare as Healy played over 100 tests with the bulk in his prime while Paine played 4 Tests from memory before a crippling finger injury wiped out his career until his recent recall. 

Rumour has it that broken fingers never stopped Healy keeping, which is why he got to 100 tests. Of course, it was a different era and players these days are probably more conscious of managing injuries and looking after themselves. But you have to hand it to him for sheer grit and determination.  There must be reassurance for a bowler having a constant presence behind the stumps over such a long period, especially one that so many tried to emulate in terms of skill. It would be interesting to see how Paine would keep to Warne and Brett Lee or if he could manage over 150 facing Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh. Not saying he couldn't, it's just hard to compare players from different eras. And again, how he would perform is he didn't have to captain. Shoulda coulda woulda. I didn't know that about Carey, but not surprised. And yes, Gilly was the quiet achiever. Got the job done at a time when McGrath, Warne et al were in the limelight, or else he was scoring the runs himself.

Here is a nice article about the generosity of Healy but I get the impression that Healy may think the captaincy is too much for a keeper.

https://wwos.nine.com.au/cricket/ashes-2019-tony-jones-ian-healy-works-with-tim-paine/480096ed-42cc-4729-9622-7a1047088c53

Healy giving advice to Paine when Langer asked him to do so. No payment. Nice guy Ian Healy

Hang on......Isn't Brad Haddin the fielding coach????? Obviously not much respect with regards to his keeping ability if you have to go elsewhere. Remind me again Baggers how Australia go for the better keeper over batting. How did Haddin keep Hartley out of the side? because it wasn't Haddin's keeping, 

 A lot of dropped catches by Australia currently something Haddin did regularly to the extent it cost us the Ashes in 2013, when he dropped Bell twice and the runs he went on to score were more than the winning margin. What is Haddin doing apart from collecting his cheque each week? Even you Baggers have to admit that selection and future jobs are solely "jobs for the boys" within CA.

Aus have very rarely gone with the best keeper. In just my years, 

Wayne Philips was a batsman, when Aussie batting was so weak, they decided to give the gloves to a batsman. He was a horrid keeper.

Zoehrer was the better gloveman over Healey, but Healey had many more runs over Zohrer. Healy gets the seal on the job with a match winning 50 in an odi in Perth with Aus in all sorts of trouble, tbh. Where he was boo'd when walking out. (Zoehrer's home town).

Gilly gets Healey ass'd with the much superior batting and less glovework. 

Then there is Matty "Scissor finger" Wade, who would struggle to catch a cold let alone find a stump in a former timber forrest. It was all about his batting. 

I don't think Haddin was all that bad with the gloves. A youtube proven cricket cheat and an ugly sledger, but not a bad keeper. But Australia have not gone for the best keeper. That's a myth. England rarely did with Stewart over Russell. Bairstow is nowhere near Foakes with the gloves. At all. Not many teams go for the best keeper.

A counter- exception though for how bad a team will go is Pant for India. Now he is really really awful. Easily the worst keeper I have seen in test cricket, since, uhmmm, maybe forever (Phillips). I don't think I have seen anyone worse with the gloves. But he is a talented bat. That we can all agree. And that's why he is picked. 

WI went with Adams for a while to extend the batting iirc. I rate Hope, but he isnt the best Keeper WI have, its about batting. But Dowrish is handy with the bat tbf compared to their lame ass top order. For NZ, Watling is a former opening batsman who after being dropped, took up wicket keeping to get back in the test team. He took Kruger's spot who was a better keeper but weak batter. I think Dhoni, had his batting help him get in the team, but I cannot criticise his keeping, he is slick. 

But runs scored matter. Its that simple. And everyone, from Sanga, to Flower to Gilly, know this and must balance it. 

SA often used ABdV to keep between Boucher and de Kock. But ABdV was surprisingly good at keeping. Not much he can;t do bar be a pop star singer, and he tried that. But Hockey, Golf, Rugby, he was a freak at every sport. Just one of those guys...

Why does Buttler and not Bairstow keep in the ODIs?

Cos Bairstow opens in oDI. They're much of a muchness with the gloves. I think Buttler is slightly better, but Bairstow wants them in test. Its not feasible for him to have them in ODI opening (Bairstow's current odi record is outstanding, like one of the best ever players, srsly, but so is Buttlers as the modern day finisher that Dhoni could only dream og being with serious SR power and innovation).

Foakes is the best gloveman in England. Stewart and Buttler have both said it to the media as not even being close. Buttler reckons Foakes teaches him and Bairstow how ti keep. And a damn fine test cricketer with the willow too. When the WC was on, Foakes had a bad county season and lost his spot to Bairstow again. But he got Bairstow dropped last year in SL.

England has 6 keepers if you dont know. Ollie Pope, their next test bat is a keeper. Burns is a former keeper. And Sam Billings is their t20.odi sub batsman after Hales...

They are full of wicket keepers... 

Could do with some test #3's though. And openers. and a 5.

Ok. What am I missing? Gilchrist was an opener...

Prolly the fact that:

 Gilly, as much as you love him, averaged 35.89 at 97 with 16 tons from 287 games.

Bairstow has flown under the radar with the most incredible numbers, brace yourself:

Bairstow averages 47.7 at 104 with 9 tons from 74 games. 

But wait for it...

This is critical to really get the ginger ninja...

As an opener.... he averages so much over 50 striking at 110+ its not damn funny. With 9 tons in 46 games.

It's not even close...


That's what you're missing...







http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/297433.html?class=2;template=results;type=batting


While everyone talks of Rohitt and  Kohli, as a threesome, Bairstow, Roy and Root are re-writing all the records. All of them...

Gilly and Dhoni donbt get near Buttler for me. He is the best keeper.bat in ODi i have ever seen.

That's why Bairstow don't keep :)

You would think then, with talent like that that he would similarly want to concentrate on his batting in tests, and leave the keeping to someone arguably more skilled. Like this Foakes chappy. There’d be room for him at number 5 perhaps? Get rid of some dead wood elsewhere.

I’ve just tuned in and Warner is already out caught behind off Broad!   

1-1!

Got to seriously consider bringing Khawaja back for Warner next test. Broad has such a psychological edge over him it’s like watching Ali facing Lyon- the batsman knows no he’s out and the bowler is steaming in knowing he’s got a wicket 

Harris LBW Broad. 

2-28. 

Aus 35/2 - one more wicket and England is into the tail....

I’ve honestly been ultra impressed with Labuschagne this series, after not rating him too much at all throughout his career so far. I’m starting to see the foundations of a tidy test player, but he needs to convert these starts..fingers crossed for the lad.

Labu has been a surprise, Jay Ess. 

It seems the English bowlers are far more comfortable bowling to our left handed batters than our RHBs. 

Big hooper from Stokes, makes you wonder why they bought Leach on so early. 

A decision in favour of us as Stokes LBW appeal snicked leg stump, but Erasmus originally ruled Labu NO. 

Stokes is getting a few to move a long way.