Ashes 2021/22

[corbies]

Wood and Bess can really bat. Wood has a FC ton and averages 20 ffs. Leach got smacked so give the other guy a go

Woods highest fc score is 72?

 

[Woody15]

Wood and Bess can really bat. Wood has a FC ton and averages 20 ffs. Leach got smacked so give the other guy a go

Wood has a FC ton? FFS?

Mark Wood cannot 'really bat' either.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

Wood and Bess can really bat. Wood has a FC ton and averages 20 ffs. Leach got smacked so give the other guy a go

ummmm

you thinking of Chris Wood?

Mark Wood's HS is 52 in tests and 72 in FC.

 

[Pippen94]

ummmm

you thinking of Chris Wood?

Mark Wood's HS is 52 in tests and 72 in FC.

Maybe hr means Graeme Wood?!

 

[KAYNE]

Surely harry gets dropped for melbourne. JL obviously likes him too much for that to happen. Lol

I think you'll find its quite the opposite. Harris left WA because of Langer

 

[CrazyJoeFevola]

Boland added to the squad

 

[frankrizzo]

Harris wins support as Hazlewood faces fitness fight for Boxing Day

Josh Hazlewood is keen to prove his fitness when he rejoins the Australian squad on Thursday but selectors will take a cautious approach.

www.theage.com.au

Sounding more and more like it will just be neser out cummins in for boxing day(assuming starc is passed fit) guess the plan then would be rest starc for sydney bring hazlewood back for sydney and get starc right for pink ball game.

 

[BGman]

Boland added to the squad

Hazlewood still under an injury cloud. Drat. Was hoping for a Cummins, Haze, Richardson attack for Melbourne.

 

[frankrizzo]

I think if we didnt have the bowling stocks we do or series was tighter he would be playing the next test but i understand why they are being cautious, if boxing day is hard work will be some tired bowlers be great to have him fresh and fit for sydney then a pink ball test

 

[Scorpus]

Harris wins support as Hazlewood faces fitness fight for Boxing Day

Josh Hazlewood is keen to prove his fitness when he rejoins the Australian squad on Thursday but selectors will take a cautious approach.

www.theage.com.au

Sounding more and more like it will just be neser out cummins in for boxing day(assuming starc is passed fit) guess the plan then would be rest starc for sydney bring hazlewood back for sydney and get starc right for pink ball game.

So the other day they release a "squad for the rest of the series" and then like a day later add a player. Kinda makes the "squad" pointless

 

[frankrizzo]

So the other day they release a "squad for the rest of the series" and then like a day later add a player. Kinda makes the "squad" pointless

Im assuming that starc maybe pulled up sore today hence the need for bit more bowling cover, if starc and hazlewood are both out for boxing day we need cover for neser/richardson/cummins.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

The Langer conspiracy theorists need to pick a line of logic and stick with it - this time last year people on here were adamant he supposedly hated Harris for leaving WA and was keeping him out of the side.

 

[kidgorgeous]

Few going in to bat for Harris. As long as they like going in to Tests with 10 batsmen, I'm all for it. Sorry if already posted

‘Really sharp’: Support for ailing Test opener

Returning to the scene of a career-high score for the Boxing Day Test could be the tonic for Marcus Harris to find his best, with a big score “just around the corner” according to a former opening partner.

www.news.com.au

 

[big_e]

Few going in to bat for Harris. As long as they like going in to Tests with 10 batsmen, I'm all for it. Sorry if already posted

‘Really sharp’: Support for ailing Test opener

Returning to the scene of a career-high score for the Boxing Day Test could be the tonic for Marcus Harris to find his best, with a big score “just around the corner” according to a former opening partner.

www.news.com.au

Heard Ed Cowan argue that he deserved the series so we can finally decide if he is up to it at test level.

As if the previous 12 tests aren't enough....

 

[frankrizzo]

I can live with him getting one more go but issue when you carry players like this is their pass mark then stays low for a long time as the selectors feel they are already too heavily invested to back out.

Maybe he gets say a fighting 50 at the G and then that buys him the rest of the series so what would he need to do to make next tour? 3 failures and one decent 50+ knock in last two tests would then have to be enough to make the next tour and so you end up with another mitch march playing 30 tests and averaged 25 based off the occasional acceptable test innings.

 

[11kgm]

Boland called up is strange

 

[eddiesmith]

I can only assume they’re still hopeful of Puckovski coming good so they like a stop gap like Harris till then rather than more revolving door openers.

The only series he ever actually played in full he was about the teams best batsman. Since then he’s played 2 matches, dropped, 3 matches, dropped, 1 match then 11 months between tests.

 

[rippersnipper]

Harris is a great shield player but the guy just doesn't have it in him for whatever reason at test level. The fact that he keeps failing can't be helping either, given that he knows he's under intense scrutiny. Give someone else a go, can't really be worse.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

Boland called up is strange

Who would he replace? Doesn't make sense as he's not even a leftie and if Starc is having a problem, I would have thought they'd want another left-hander.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Who would he replace? Doesn't make sense as he's not even a leftie and if Starc is having a problem, I would have thought they'd want another left-hander.

Probably next best and does bowl well on these pitches. He’s emergency cover that’s it he won’t be playing

 

[The Passenger]

I would have thought Sean Abbott was next in line after Neser... Possibly stuck in Sydney with Covid protocols though ?

 

[Bareth Garry]

"Chris Woakes - innocuous. Sorry I'm going to say it bluntly. In England wonderful cricket, lovely lad. But his record abroad is poor. His wickets cost him 50 runs. And England keep picking him to protect the batting that isn't working. That's nonsense. You pick bowlers to get wickets and he can't get wickets and cause problems. He just can't change the result of a match because he's bowling people in."
- Geoffrey Boycott.

Can't disagree with him there.

 

[The Passenger]

"Chris Woakes - innocuous. Sorry I'm going to say it bluntly. In England wonderful cricket, lovely lad. But his record abroad is poor. His wickets cost him 50 runs. And England keep picking him to protect the batting that isn't working. That's nonsense. You pick bowlers to get wickets and he can't get wickets and cause problems. He just can't change the result of a match because he's bowling people in."
- Geoffrey Boycott.

Can't disagree with him there.

I've always been of the mindset It's OK to weaken your batting a little bit if your #6 (or #7) provides a decent bowling option. i.e. Most batting all rounders.

But you never weaken your bowling to strengthen your batting. If you can't take 20 wickets then you're relying on the opposition declaring to win. (Lack of runs obviously makes it hard to win too)

That being said, I was surprised how little penetration Woakes looked to have in Adelaide. I thought he would have that pink ball hooping around, especially under lights. It's the venue of his only away 4-for. I don't think you could be too critical for picking Woakes in Adelaide. For Brisbane, however, I was staggered they picked him over Broad.

All in all, they've got to consider pulling the pin on him for tours. 16 tests now outside of England and a bowling of average of 54 is terrible and the sample size is building up to say he just doesn't have enough weapons to trouble batsmen outside of swinging home conditions.

I wonder if England are going to fall into the trap they did about five years ago of thinking "the bowlers can score just as many runs as the batsmen so lets just plonk a bowler at 7 and give ourselves six bowling options". It's tempting. But for mine, it's fools gold.

 

[philreich]

39.5 per Australian wicket versus 21.8 per English wicket - therein lies the gulf between the two teams.

 

[frankrizzo]

Still think england will find some way to justify having woakes in the side, should be leach/jimmy/wood/robinson for mcg but thats a shithouse tail.