3rd Test Border Gavaskar Trophy December 14-18 1050hrs @ The Gabba

[MJG14]

Worried that Bumrah will blow up Konstas' front pad.

 

[RookiePick]

George Bailey is a useless prick. Bog average player. Shit house selector.

I'm ropeable.

 

[TommyD13]

How, when you are looking for long-term opening options, can you drop a bloke three games in?

Has faced statistically the hardest quality of bowling of anyone since data began in 2006. Has never opened before. Should have been given the series to find his feet.

To cite his style of batting as a reason for the change is just plain ****ing stupid. His style of batting has not changed, and you would have known it before he even set foot out for the first test. Why is it different now?

Not making excuses for his average start, but for Christ sakes he is not even the worst performing opener in this side, and is 13 years younger than the bloke who is. Give the guy a proper chance.

Horrible selection consistency.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Trust your eyes.

McSweeney looked out of depth all along. The mistake here isn't dropping him, it was picking him out of position.

I still think he might resurface in the middle order in the next year or 2.

 

[sosos]

Cricket should abandon the current throwing rules. And replace them with these two:

Spinners? Who cares if they throw? Its a slow delivery, cop it sweet.

Fast bowlers? No baseball throw, that's it.

We should move past this endless, pointless prattle about the legality of someone's action bs for good.

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

Trust your eyes.

I did, he has a good technique who came up against the best bowler in the world.

 

[Cmarsh]

Meanwhile...

I really like that Jhye Richardson is back in the squad. Got a feeling he's going to be needed for the Ashes.

 

[Nuggetz]

Looks like Uzzie has the next 4 innings to secure his spot, otherwise I think he'll be dropped for the next test series. Imo they should've dropped him for boxing day, his fielding wasn't great either.

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

Also I don't think a lot of people understand we are witnessing one of the greatest fast bowlers in Bumrah

We're talking Malcolm Marshall areas

 

[nobbyiscool]

I did, he has a good technique who came up against the best bowler in the world.

I keep reading this... is this supposed to be a pass that he looked inept because it was Bumrah?

He was brought in as an opening bat presumably to try and blunt Bumrah's impact. He failed.

He doesn't have a good technique for an opener. You need to know where your off-stump is, which he's ok at. You need to be able to leave on length, which he doesn't do. You need to be able to rotate strike, which he doesn't do - to the extent that we had peanuts here criticising Khawaja during the Perth test for not shielding his opening partner.

 

[to1994]

I don't think it's the end of the world that McSweeney got dropped but it feels a bit flip floppy and would he have been dropped if we weren't forced to bat again in Brisbane?

At this point I don't think he can return as an opener, it'll have to be further down the order after Marnus gets dropped or Smith retires. Hopefully it happens, but most other players who've been dropped in the last decade seem to fall away in the Shield and never really come back (Khawaja and Harris the main exceptions but Harris just doesn't seem to be good enough).

I don't get the sense that this is all George Bailey. He seems to work for the team and not the other way around, there to identify potential talent, but certainly not there to end the careers of established players.

I hope Sam Konstas succeeds as we desperately need a firing young gun in our top 3. The pick does expose how bare the cupboard is though, I remember when Jordan Silk & Travis Dean had similar starts to their Shield careers and completely fell away once bowlers developed plans for them. There's a reason we don't usually pick players this early on.

 

[to1994]

It’s got disaster written all over it. What will our squad look like?

They’ve worked out a solution to their opening issues. Plucked some kid out of nowhere, found their keeper, decent middle order. Tapped a legend on the shoulder, sampled a few quick’s and spinners. Root in the form of his life shaping up for a career defining series.

If they can pull back on the recklessness I can see them being hard to beat. Maybe I’m overreacting?

Possibly, though we've been through this dance before where England look good on paper and totally flop over here.

What I've noticed this year is they've failed basically every time the conditions have been testing. They won the first test in Pakistan before the home board finally pulled their finger out and delivered pitches that suit their side which England failed on.

If Crawley is still in the side, he will utterly flop on our modern pitches. Duckett also can't leave the ball, can't see him doing well.

Their number 3 spot is sketchy, it's between a guy who hasn't scored a first class hundred and Pope at the moment is woefully inconsistent.

Brook and Root are the main worries, but Root is getting on and may have started to fall away by then, he may be peaking in form too early.

Their keeper looks good, but I don't know about Stokes. I'll never write him off but he seems like a specialist captain who can barely make it on the park. Maybe he'll lift for one last Ashes (though he probably won't bowl much).

Meanwhile, they've got some promising bowlers coming through, but few of them have bowled in Australia and it may be more of a development tour for them. They also no longer have a spinner and may need to go back to Leach (though if conditions are similar to this year maybe that won't matter).

None of this changes the weaknesses in our own side but I've been fooled into thinking it'll be a competitive series here too many times.

 

[sosos]

Uz, 38, has had 3 tests, and not only hasn't scored runs, he's getting caught on the crease, jumping. Drop, he's just out of form, I get why they back him, but the form, and that dropped catch.

McSweeney. Back him in. Pair him with Konstas. Literally can't do any worse than throw a punch, a daring move that could pay off.

Lab. Can't decide. But keep until the end of the series. Still young enough, so could handle a drop, and work back to some form. So experienced now, incredible fieldsman, and great energy. Overthinking right now. He can own this Indian attack if he believes. Needs to grow up probably.

Smith. He's back.

Head. Wow.

Bison? 3 tests, scored a something in the 1st, but nothing since.Undoubtedly a test player. But not young, injured, and out of form. Drop, especially with an in form like for like in Webster to come in. Easiest call for the selectors.

Carey. I knew you his average would start to rise. Class batman, and quite effective behind the stumps. I'd bat him at 6, and Webster at 7.

Amazing we have such a great backup in Inglis. I'm not averse to playing him as a batsman if Head is injured.

Cummins is bowling well, but the captaincy seems like such a "thing" with him, almost bigger than him.

I'd seriously hand it to...well I can't think of anyone else that would do a better job. So he stays captain until the end of the series.

Starc. Warrior. If he's right, you play him.

Boland. Know what you'll get.

Lyon. Majority of my posts in these threads are about his lack of flight, pace too fast, only rarely above the eyeline.
But wtf would I know? He's taken so many wickets, how can I argue with his record? It's madness I do, and although there are some options who could come in, my long, long wish has been for the selectors to steal Zampa from the hit and giggle, and repurpose him, to mercilessly mow down batsman on the subcontinent, would be sublime to witness.

Has the temperament, has the belief in himself, I don't get why we don't utilise him on the biggest stage?

And I know you will all point to his shield record. Irrelevant. He's my captain's pick.

 

[Coasters7]

So WTC win and coming back with the Ashes aren't KPIs he's passed.

Basically been all on the bowlers and Head/Carey for a lot of our recent test wins. The batting has been up the shit for quite a few years now but getting bailed out big time. Cracks have been papered over for years and it could be panic stations for next years Ashes given we don’t have many games to sort it out.

 

[Hawks_4478]

McSweeney should lie about his age.

Wouldn’t have been dropped if he was 10 years older.

Or he could have just scored some runs instead…

 

[Underarm]

You've obviously got an axe to grind or are of the BBL generation

There was a time when we would give newcomers to the test teams 10+ tests to find their feet. And that was when we had options!

This has never been a thing. Show me one player who got 10 tests averaging less than 15.

 

[Underarm]

They the selectors should man up and admit they where wrong ..

They've just done that. For the last 6 tests they have selected based on the premise that the Opener isn't a specialist position. This was wrong.

Sweeney never should have been picked out of position in the first place.

 

[Big Bryza]

Back then we played Sheffield Shield Cricket intermingled with Domestic ODI cricket in Summer…now we play big bash and blow smoke up one trick pony leg side sloggers and tell them how awesome their 12 was…

This is spot on but it's not this era of batsmen's fault. It is what it is now.

 

[revo333]

Yep.

I'll be on for plenty for the Poms to win.

I see no way out for us next Summer. The cattle just aren't there.

Particularly when the Captain will shit the bed the first time we're attacked as a bowling unit.

I remember the doomsayers saying England would take a decade to recover after 2021.

They prove you can turn things around quickly if you do a few things right.

 

[PhatBoy]

When they have a track record of mistakes like George absolutely. In the private sector he'd be sacked already. We all have jobs with KPIs and performance management except him.

No they wouldn’t.

That’s a ridiculous comparison because in the private sector the success or failure of someone doesn’t depend on nearly as many favours as the success or failure of someone in cricket.

Someone in a normal field of employment is either good enough, or they aren’t.

Someone in a game of cricket may be good enough one day, then they face Jasprit Bumrah and it doesn’t matter how good they are, they might not stand a chance.


The whole argument about ‘a player has to be accountable and get dropped, why shouldn’t a selector’ is such a silly false equivalency. A player is held accountable for ONE person’s performances: his own.

A selector is held accountable for a team, and the collective performances of more than a dozen players over a period of time and when that team starts to fail that’s when things take a turn.

You can argue till you’re blue in the face that some guys have been given too long or whatever and that’s fine but saying a selector should be dropped because of a failure when so far the team has not specifically failed is hard to back up, particularly when the obvious people to drop are all players with a long line of credit.

 

[Big Bryza]

Remind me what Mitch Marsh does again?

Besides fcuk all?

 

[Big Bryza]

It's as if George and friends thought, 'Fcuk, we can't drop all of Ussie, Marn and Bison, so we'll just give the kid the arse'.

Laughable stuff and weak as fcukin piss leadership. Those 3 senior blokes should all be out of the team. You can't just live off form from 3 years ago.

Get a clue, George.

 

[Iceman!]

It's as if George and friends thought, 'Fcuk, we can't drop all of Ussie, Marn and Bison, so we'll just give the kid the arse'.

Laughable stuff and weak as fcukin piss leadership. Those 3 senior blokes should all be out of the team. You can't just live off form from 3 years ago.

Get a clue, George.

I think he looked at it and thought '**** Sydney looks out of his depth here, better make a move if we want a chance to win this series'.

 

[Borisdog]

I remember the doomsayers saying England would take a decade to recover after 2021.

They prove you can turn things around quickly if you do a few things right.

I'm not saying a decade. I'm saying next season.

The few things we need to do right are find 2 openers and 2 middle order batsmen, all of Test match standard. Not allrounders. In a year. Or 2 of the current 3 need to recover, then hold, form very quickly. I'd be very happy for that to happen but it doesn't look good for any of the 3 at the moment.

I'm open to suggestions but I don't see them. I'd be more than happy to play Inglis as a batsman though.

Going into an Ashes campaign with 4 new players sounds like a recipe for a hiding to me. But so does going into an Ashes campaign with most of your top 6 as cannon fodder. The long term approach has to be find the players and cop this one on the chin.

I'll be a very happy little Vegemite if we win the Ashes, I just can't see it happening given the current display. Our bowlers are keeping us in most games at the moment against India and I do not think the Poms' batting is as fragile as this current Indian line up.

 

[SC_Power]

No they f$$&Ed up by giving a young player 3 tests and made him a scapegoat

Ussie and labs form is just as bad and for longer one of those should of been dropped for Konstas

That’s ok, we now have the chosen one Konstas, for whom I learned last night by Ch 7 that on debut will be younger than… * checks notes * … Don Bradman.