Australia Test squad - 2014

[Hellgood]

What chance the BCCI would agree? They want India to be a fortress.

We would be offering the carrot of giving one/some of their players the opportunity to develop their game on Australian pitches.

 

[matty p]

O'Keefe bowling well yet again in the Shield. Best spinner in Australia.

 

[The_Reaper]

O'Keefe bowling well yet again in the Shield. Best spinner in Australia.

Why didn't Lyon play for NSW this match?

 

[eth-dog]

O'Keefe bowling well yet again in the Shield. Best spinner in Australia.

No. Just no.

 

[Seagrave_Holmes]

Why didn't Lyon play for NSW this match?

because he didn't want to get out-bowled by O'Keefe again

 

[matty p]

No. Just no.

Results say otherwise.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

O'Keefe is definitely the best performed Shield spinner, has been for many years. Wonder how he'd go with an extended Test run. I find it hard to believe that he would fail to match Lyon's figures.

 

[eth-dog]

Results say otherwise.

Results say more about the ineptitude of Australian players at spin. He doesn't get any flight, dip or, rather importantly, spin. He would be an unmitigated disaster against India. If he plays in Brisbane I'd expect 0/100 off 16 or something similar.

 

[matty p]

Results say more about the ineptitude of Australian players at spin. He doesn't get any flight, dip or, rather importantly, spin. He would be an unmitigated disaster against India. If he plays in Brisbane I'd expect 0/100 off 16 or something similar.

So why doesn't any other Australian spinner average anywhere near what O'Keefe does bowling against "inept" Australian batsmen?

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Results say more about the ineptitude of Australian players at spin. He doesn't get any flight, dip or, rather importantly, spin. He would be an unmitigated disaster against India. If he plays in Brisbane I'd expect 0/100 off 16 or something similar.

So if Australian players are so shit at spin, why does Lyon have a Shield bowling average of over 40?

 

[eth-dog]

So why doesn't any other Australian spinner average anywhere near what O'Keefe does bowling against "inept" Australian batsmen?

So if Australian players are so shit at spin, why does Lyon have a Shield bowling average of over 40?

Because the Australian spinners are quite poor or young and inconsistant. If you actually look at how he bowls, you would agree. It's so frustrating that we lack a gun spinner, but Lyon's international record is quite tidy.

 

[The_Reaper]

nobody else has had the run Lyon has had at international level.

And he's let us down a few times

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Because the Australian spinners are quite poor or young and inconsistant. If you actually look at how he bowls, you would agree. It's so frustrating that we lack a gun spinner, but Lyon's international record is quite tidy.

Lyon has done well for himself in Tests and Clarke uses him well, which I think is a part of it. It will be interesting to see what happens if Lyon has a poor Test summer and his average balloons out towards 37/38. Especially if O'Keefe continues to perform in the Shield.

 

[Phone]

Why didn't Lyon play for NSW this match?

Baby

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Lyon has done well for himself in Tests and Clarke uses him well, which I think is a part of it. It will be interesting to see what happens if Lyon has a poor Test summer and his average balloons out towards 37/38. Especially if O'Keefe continues to perform in the Shield.

If O'keefe plays test cricket outside the subcontinent, we have scraped the bottom of the barrel.

 

[The_Reaper]

If O'keefe plays test cricket outside the subcontinent, we have scraped the bottom of the barrel.

Quite interesting given his type of spin bowling is very well adapted to Australian conditions.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Quite interesting given his type of spin bowling is very well adapted to Australian conditions.

And only against first class players, international standard batsmen will tear him to shreds.

 

[Black Diamond]

So O'Keefe has a super Shield record, but it's because the batsmen are shit. And no other spinner has a record which comes close, but that's because they are all either young or shit. But those other spinners are still more suited to Test cricket. Ok.

I'm struggling with this logic. I certainly don't think one Test in which he happened to take the most wickets is enough to judge him on.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

I just really dislike giving any player one test match or even two and trying to judge them on that. It's no sample to judge anyone on.

 

[frankrizzo]

If o keefe is apparently shit i would still rather they had given him a 2nd test to show it rather than yet another test for the massively over rated starc, a bowler who is a questionable pick in our conditions and just an awful pick in places like the uae.

Still i don't back this selection group to handle any of our spinners well , boof and marsh are the ones who dropped lyon the test after a 7 for for a kid like agar, lucky for them the kid made runs at 11 so nobody focused on what a bizarre selection it actually was.

 

[Seagrave_Holmes]

I for one wouldn't mind seeing another spinner tried in place of Lyon. He has been pretty poor in 2014. I mean here's his 2014 stats from 6 tests so far,

Wickets: 14
Average: 61.50
Strike rate: 110.5

Have a feeling he'll play the whole summer though.

 

[Kram]

^Yeah but who?

 

[Seagrave_Holmes]

So O'Keefe has a super Shield record, but it's because the batsmen are shit. And no other spinner has a record which comes close, but that's because they are all either young or shit. But those other spinners are still more suited to Test cricket. Ok.

I'm struggling with this logic. I certainly don't think one Test in which he happened to take the most wickets is enough to judge him on.

I guess you could apply the same logic for Maxwell being the 3rd best player of spin in the country, obviously not because he's a good player of spin but because all the shield spinners are young and crap.

 

[frankrizzo]

^Yeah but who?

And the the issue becomes how long does the new spinner get to earn and hold his spot?

Lyon hasn't been at his best this year but he isn't some new kid, before the SA tour he did have 100+ wickets at about 32-33 if a spinner with those numbers is only a few tests away from getting dumped then what sort of numbers would his replacement need to stay in the spot?

If the new spinner takes say 12-15 wickets@38-40 vs india is that a pass or fail?

On our pitches vs india that is a pass mark for me but i feel for most aussies fans that is seen as a big fail, if somebody at shield level bowls very well they deserve to challenge lyon for a test spot but the issue is the bloke who actually did that is o keefe and the selectors gave him a whole 5 days to prove himself at this level.

If they do dump lyon they will then just chew and spit out any new spinner who doesn't roll people on a regular basis at test level.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

And the the issue becomes how long does the new spinner get to earn and hold his spot?

Lyon hasn't been at his best this year but he isn't some new kid, before the SA tour he did have 100+ wickets at about 32-33 if a spinner with those numbers is only a few tests away from getting dumped then what sort of numbers would his replacement need to stay in the spot?

If the new spinner takes say 12-15 wickets@38-40 vs india is that a pass or fail?

On our pitches vs india that is a pass mark for me but i feel for most aussies fans that is seen as a big fail, if somebody at shield level bowls very well they deserve to challenge lyon for a test spot but the issue is the bloke who actually did that is o keefe and the selectors gave him a whole 5 days to prove himself at this level.

If they do dump lyon they will then just chew and spit out any new spinner who doesn't roll people on a regular basis at test level.

I say go for it. We need new blood. There's been hardly ANY new baggy greens awarded in the last few years. I'm so tired of seeing the same 30 or so faces.