By Test_Fan - 31 Dec 2018 7:34 PM
India have all ready retained the trophy being ahead 2-1 but will want to win the series.
Australia are in disarray and with a group of selectors that seem not to care, or just love the Marsh surname or are being paid off. Smith and Warner are being painted as soon to be returning saviours of the batting line up and Paine is complaining about the pitch.
India have to be strong favourites, they are stronger in all aspects of the game.
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By baggygreenmania - 8 Jan 2019 9:07 AM
+x+x+x+x+xWill 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 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. 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 just read an article which said WA rested Agar from their last shield match so he would be fresh for the BBL. THIS IS A DISGRACE. He has hardly played for whatever reason yet was still RESTED. IT MAKES NO SENSE. The only way I can interpret it is he was protected from being injured so he could play the BBL. So somehow the fake cricket BBL is being put above FC cricket. FUMING. I think Agar is talented but he needs to play FC cricket so he can develop and in a few years replace Lyon as our main spinner. Playing BBL instead of FC cricket is not going to do him any good. Ahmed has good looking figures but I checked the games he played and every wicket he took was a tail ender so the stats flatter him an awful lot. He is also 36 and has a modest FC record. Choosing a second spinner is not going to be easy if one is needed. Lyon has 20 wickets at 21.45 but no one else has done anything to really impressive Swepson 14 wickets at 47 Ahmed 9 wickets at 17 but all tail enders Pope 9 wickets at 51, with 7 coming in one innings. Holland 8 wickets at 35. It is probably difficult for him to take too many wickets with Boland and Tremain taking so many but his average is a bit high. He did take 5/65 in the last match. O'Keefe 7 wickets at 44 Labuschagne 5 wickets at 59 Sangha 4 wickets at 34 Usman Qadir, oh wait he is from Pakistan and has terrible figures anyway. Good post. Yes the spin cupboard is bare going on those figures. To be fair the Shield decks this season have been grassy which is good for pace over spin. . We need to have somewhere where our spinners can actually take wickets. There has been talk of the NT. The red dust ant bed like decks that certainly would provide spinning conditions. Does the new CA CEO have the foresite to do something about this. If this is in the too hard basket, CA could always install one of those Indian-like practice decks at the NCC in the middle of an actual ground. So our cricketers can play an actual game using actual spinning conditions.
Are we all forgetting that an OZ A side will travel to England for matches against County sides while the WC is on. This is an excellent prep for fringies if needed for the Baggy Greens in the Ashes. So that squad also has to be picked.
This side should contain some of our most promising cricketers. Josh Philippe, Jason Sangha, Cameron Green, and Will Pucovski. Tremain and J Richardson should be automatic selections. Others in contention are Trent Copeland, Jack Wildermuth, Josh Inglis, Jake Lehmann, Riley Meredith, Jimmy Peirson, Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Nick Winter, Michael Neser, Alex Doolan, Tom Cooper, Matthew Wade, Mark Steketee, Dan Worrall, Jackson Bird. I also have Worrall and Nick Winter as Ashes tourists. Our two best swing bowlers imho.
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