1st Test Border Gavaskar Trophy November 22-26 1350hrs @ Perth Stadium

[Iceman!]

ultimately it showed that he was more interested in playing favourites as opposed to making the best decision for a team. should you realistically let someone who's consistently not performing in an important role keep their spot in the side, or should you take the chance with someone who may be decent enough to have a go.

just my 2 cents, obviously.

It is the bolded i strongly disagree with and people keep running with it.

It just shows they thought a cooked David Warner was still more likely to make runs then the 3 incredibly flawed options. Now they may have been wrong, i am not totally sold either way. He averaged around the low the mid 30's from memory over his last few years and i don't really see any of those 3 doing any better.

If we had a fit and firing Puc waiting in the wings i would totally agree, but that wasn't the case. All really good players get a bit of a longer leash and Warner was no different, but i do not think it was a case of playing favourites as much as it was backing in a guy who at his best has proven he can play at that level which i don't think either of those other 3 are.

 

[PhatBoy]

Pucovski was a unicorn that I think people wanted to be what he wasn’t. At least for now anyway.

He undoubtedly had enough talent to offer something but whether that was to be the saviour people were hoping, I think is up for debate. He had a decent enough record but without his one big score (an unbeaten 255) his average was just over 40) and he was an opener with a glaring weakness against short pitched bowling which aside from defence is pretty much the one thing an opener HAS to be able to handle.

What has happened to him is in no uncertain terms a tragedy as no talented young sportsman deserves to have their career cut short by health issues but if his head knocks weren’t leading to concussions and were instead just leading to the odd retirement and he was still healthy enough to play, I dare say he would just be another player at the pointy end of the queue but not necessarily tearing things apart

 

[Freezin]

i’d have liked to think so, but the selectors have their favourites. think about how long warner played with his shockingly consistently poor performances. george bailey cant make the tough calls

Nor did JL when Warner averaged less than 10 on one Ashes tour.....and he was supposed to be a hard arse.

 

[Neese]

Thread title is misleading, makes it seem like it was a competitive match over 5 days

 

[ROOTA#6]

Pucovski was a unicorn that I think people wanted to be what he wasn’t. At least for now anyway.

He undoubtedly had enough talent to offer something but whether that was to be the saviour people were hoping, I think is up for debate. He had a decent enough record but without his one big score (an unbeaten 255) his average was just over 40) and he was an opener with a glaring weakness against short pitched bowling which aside from defence is pretty much the one thing an opener HAS to be able to handle.

What has happened to him is in no uncertain terms a tragedy as no talented young sportsman deserves to have their career cut short by health issues but if his head knocks weren’t leading to concussions and were instead just leading to the odd retirement and he was still healthy enough to play, I dare say he would just be another player at the pointy end of the queue but not necessarily tearing things apart

He was never an opener though was he until he was pushed up because there was a spot and they wanted him in

 

[PhatBoy]

He was never an opener though was he until he was pushed up because there was a spot and they wanted him in

Fair call

 

[Gough]

2nd Test fred

2nd Test Border Gavaskar Trophy December 6-10 1430hrs @ Adelaide Oval

Australia from, Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Brendan Doggett, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster India from, Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit...

www.bigfooty.com

 

[Soggy2112]

Poor bloke got a jaffa in the second innings.

In both, thought he was stiff in the first innings too, that ball went like a genuine off spinner and he didn’t do a lot wrong technically. His weight was forward and bat and pad were together.

 

[Soggy2112]

Pucovski was a unicorn that I think people wanted to be what he wasn’t. At least for now anyway.

He undoubtedly had enough talent to offer something but whether that was to be the saviour people were hoping, I think is up for debate. He had a decent enough record but without his one big score (an unbeaten 255) his average was just over 40) and he was an opener with a glaring weakness against short pitched bowling which aside from defence is pretty much the one thing an opener HAS to be able to handle.

What has happened to him is in no uncertain terms a tragedy as no talented young sportsman deserves to have their career cut short by health issues but if his head knocks weren’t leading to concussions and were instead just leading to the odd retirement and he was still healthy enough to play, I dare say he would just be another player at the pointy end of the queue but not necessarily tearing things apart

We’ll never know, but players his age always have some sort of deficiency in their game to overcome, I don’t think the short ball issues couldn’t have been resolved if it wasn’t for the concussion problems.

Also, interesting to see your point about openers and short bowling, I’d say the way the game is played now if you struggle with it opening is probably the best place. Teams tend to go at middle orders with sustained barrages, whereas you get far more pitched up with the new ball to my observation.

 

[Jamz]

We’ll never know, but players his age always have some sort of deficiency in their game to overcome, I don’t think the short ball issues couldn’t have been resolved if it wasn’t for the concussion problems.

Also, interesting to see your point about openers and short bowling, I’d say the way the game is played now if you struggle with it opening is probably the best place. Teams tend to go at middle orders with sustained barrages, whereas you get far more pitched up with the new ball to my observation.

It wouldn't be any easier I don't think, he would probably find himself getting out to the good length ball after they dig one in half way down to put that doubt in his mind. Probably find himself not committing forward like he should be against a moving ball.