Australia v India - post 2nd Test discussion, we're all doomed? Maybe not.

[sabso]

I criticised India for shortening their batting, and then the campaigner that got dropped for not scoring runs made a vital 77 in a match turning partnership.

My jinx streak continues. I’m barracking for North next season as well lol.

 

[ABAB]

For India, I hope it's only Rohit in for Padikal or Jurel. I wouldn't change the opening combo since they've found form together & have good chemistry. I'd play Rohit at 3 or 5. His form has been poor too.

Rohit is as cooked as Smith and Labuschagne but then Kohli was meant to be as well lol.

 

[Some Idiot]

The Australian team got a bit complacent. The signs were there. Indifference about losing to Pakistan in the ODIs, lax preparation compared to India. This was a kick up the bum that the team deserved.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

That's the thing, who do you play? I like the idea of Konstas, it's only been one Test, think it's fair to keep the same side for at least the second Test.

Konstas had two hundreds in one game to put his name in lights. But that's about it so far. Is one match, albeit two innings, enough to push ahead? Given Bancroft has fallen away, Renshaw has one innings to point to, and questions always over Harris, maybe. McSweeney then to three, or five and Marsh (esp. if restricted in bowling) moves up?
The days of asking which test ready replacement comes in are long gone. Who will be the least disgraceful, and will they be less disgraceful than an incumbent? That's the question selectors have atm, and incumbency should have its benefit for team stability (although overplayed by selectors regularly, imo).

I probably wouldn't have picked Lab before Perth, so no qualms in making that change after one match.

 

[Coops93]

Actually consistent if not firing off big scores, Kurtis Patterson [13, 91, 66, 71, 99 so far this Shield season]. I admit I haven't actually seen him play this summer, maybe form wouldn't translate - but it only needs to be regular 30s to be better than most of the top six look like managing.

Would feel much better if one or 2 of those scores were 140 and 130. 2 90s is nice but 4 50s and 0 100s doesn't exactly instil confidence. Still, broadly good form relative to the standards right now...

Cummins looked just a bit below himself and hopefully will be better for the hit out. But there's a larger gap and no Shield this coming weekend because the games are only in day two or three now. I don't see any changes among the bowlers, other than the bouncer barrage specialist in Labuschagne might miss.

I think Pats the right man but something’s got to change in our leadership/preparation.

I'll separate these into 2 points as they're slightly different.

I hate the prep for this series. No tests for 9 months, 1 shield game for Hazelwood and Starc and 0 for Cummins. Then they need to rest for the 3rd ODI in Perth 2 weeks out from the test series to "prepare" for the test series. Then they come in bowling well but just seemingly a little underdone, and Cummins in particular looking way off the pace.

This "rest over preparation" approach has failed miserably. Blowing off an ODI match in favour of a Coldplay concert with the wife is a cute story when your team is winning, but when you just got embarrassed in an ODI series at home and have lose back to back tests in Australia, it's time to pull your f**king finger out and put in the hours. There's no way in hell 1 ODI 2 weeks out from a test would disrupt their preparation, if anything it would help it. Same with the batters. I have no idea why Smith wasn't playing every shield game prior to the series (aside from ODI clashes, perhaps) to find his form.

The cartel are world class when things are going right but fall apart when the batting side get on top. We have no answers! It happened again here and will be glossed over by our poor batting.

Is Cummins too conservative? He's got Head, Marsh, Smith as players who have held captaincy positions. Maybe he needs to lean into them a bit more for different ideas? Then again he's got gun bowlers who have been very successful. Imo he can be a bit too conservative & lets the game linger on a bit.

It's an interesting conversation and I've listened to a couple of podcasts talking about it. This side really favours the "cool, calm and composed, play the percentages" approach to things and not get caught up in moments.

At times it's helped. Vs Stokes at Lords when it looked like he was about to give us all crippling PTSD they stayed calm, deployed a plan and it worked. But vs Crawley it looked hapless and like we were waiting for England to decide they were finished. You could say it worked in India during the WC, after losing early it looked like we wouldn't even make it out of the group stages, then we settled in and calmly went the whole way. But again here the calm method just looked like we were waiting for India to decide to let us have a turn.

I think somewhere in the middle is the answer. That approach is great for certain scenarios, but not all. When Stokes is going mental, sure staying calm is exactly what you need. Getting rattled makes it worse. But in a test match when the batters are slowly but surely grinding you down, going at 2 an over for 50 overs at one point, staying cool alone won't fix that. They want you to keep doing the same knowing they'll punish you late and that's exactly what happened.


I think the next step for Cummins is to get the balance between player empowerment and lifestyle balance and really getting into the grind better - on and off the field. Being the nice guys isn't always the answer. India have come here fired up and ready for a battle - even if it cost them a home series. Their batters are taunting our bowlers and their bowlers are hitting our guys on the bonce and giving us daggers. We look like we've rolled out to have a laugh playing masters on a Sunday.

 

[MisterMarcus]

It's easy to blame the selectors but they've had a bit of bad luck.

Pucovski was likely the one the selectors had pencilled in as the Set-And-Forget top order replacement, he was just cruelled by injury.

Two seasons ago blokes like Hunt, Street, and Jewell were in the mix for top order spots. Selectors couldn't have forseen all 3 would fall off a cliff last summer (although Hunt is creeping back this season)....they've had expected at least ONE of them to have kicked on and put their name right up there.

Bancroft was looking the safe short-term option at least, until his laughable start to this year.

Look at it a few years ago, the selectors are probably thinking "We've got Harris, Bancroft, Renshaw, Jewell, Hunt, Street all looking the goods for a top 4 spot. And hopefully Pucovski gets back. We're looking great here!!"

They've definitely made some self-inflicted blunders like not blooding a new opener last summer, but they've also had a hell of a lot of bad fortune and horribly-timed form slumps at the same time.

 

[BGman]

Konstas

Not a day/niter with Bumrah hurling pink balls at 145. Surely not the debut CA want for the prodigy. A more sensible debut would be the Sri Lanka tour in the New year. Just my opinion.

 

[BGman]

although Hunt is creeping back this season)

Sure is in a big way. Posted his second ton yesterday while team mates were falling round him like shot ducks. Three ducks (0) in fact in the top 4. Took terrific temperament from Henry to dig the Spiders out of that. But sorry we have already debuted one opener against Bumrah and that has been a disaster. I think if we are to bounce back from this debacle, we need an experienced guy with an aggressive mindset to open with Ussie, say Trav or Bison. just my opinion.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Not a day/niter with Bumrah hurling pink balls at 145. Surely not the debut CA want for the prodigy. A more sensible debut would be the Sri Lanka tour in the New year. Just my opinion.

If you're good enough, you're good enough. If it doesn't work out : fail, learn, earn, get recalled. It happened to most of the best.
I just don't think he has the body of work behind him yet to be considered good enough. But the way the others have thrown themselves out of contention is one match with two tons and some pretty middling performances otherwise enough?

 

[BGman]

I just don't think he has the body of work behind him yet to be considered good enough.

Correct. A great feat two hundreds in a shield, second youngest after Ponting to do it. But he has to follow that with consistent performances. I still think he has what it takes to debut in Sri Lanka. But first he has to face a fired up India attack in Canberra for CAX1. Can Bumrah be rested from this.

 

[BGman]

I find it interesting that Bumrah has played only 41 tests in 6 years since his 2018 debut. 12 home, 29 away. Is back trouble, form loss the reason. Also interesting that his average is lower at home than away too where you'd expect the conditions to be more in his favor. Take away what he did to us in Perth and his record here is not all that flash with only 32 wickets, one 5fer in 14 innings.

 

[ABAB]

The Australian team got a bit complacent. The signs were there. Indifference about losing to Pakistan in the ODIs, lax preparation compared to India. This was a kick up the bum that the team deserved.

The top 4 is clearly stuff, played Smith and Labuschagne out of form for too long and we should have blood a youngster player in place of Warner when Khawaja was in great form and now we are forced to blood an opener when he near retirement.

 

[Iceman!]

The top 4 is clearly stuff, played Smith and Labuschagne out of form for too long and we should have blood a youngster player in place of Warner when Khawaja was in great form and now we are forced to blood an opener when he near retirement.

Who?

 

[new breed]

Who?

Reconsider Bancroft until the youngsters come on to the scene.
Plus Bancroft is the best slips fielder in Australia , Ussie shouldn't be first slip.

 

[Iceman!]

Reconsider Bancroft until the youngsters come on to the scene.
Plus Bancroft is the best slips fielder in Australia , Ussie shouldn't be first slip.

We are no better with him in, I’m sorry do we really think Bumrah isn’t going to toy with him?

I am not going to pot the selectors for overlooking someone who has had multiple chances and never looked good enough for the level and has a clear and obvious technical flaw.

 

[PhatBoy]

I find it interesting that Bumrah has played only 41 tests in 6 years since his 2018 debut. 12 home, 29 away. Is back trouble, form loss the reason. Also interesting that his average is lower at home than away too where you'd expect the conditions to be more in his favor. Take away what he did to us in Perth and his record here is not all that flash with only 32 wickets, one 5fer in 14 innings.

So in other words if you remove 12.5 per cent of his tests here he has 32 wickets at an average the same as Glenn McGrath’s, with a strike rate the same as Glenn McGrath’s, in a country he visits once every now and then, to play a team renowned for making runs for fun on these wickets.

 

[Balls In]

Bancroft in the runs again should make things pretty easy selection wise. The domestic player with the most runs three years in a row and is a genuine opener as well.

 

[Lia]

Bancroft in the runs again should make things pretty easy selection wise. The domestic player with the most runs three years in a row and is a genuine opener as well.

Makes it pretty easy to say well done Cam, have fun in the big bash you mean.

 

[new breed]

We are no better with him in, I’m sorry do we really think Bumrah isn’t going to toy with him?

I am not going to pot the selectors for overlooking someone who has had multiple chances and never looked good enough for the level and has a clear and obvious technical flaw.

Bumrah has all our bats in trouble , Bancroft is way ahead of the other options , importantly great slip fielder ...buckets.
Australia's fielding standards the lowest for some time .

 

[Joose]

Banfield 105no. I great response to a run of bad form. My side for the next test would be:

Khawaja
Banfield
Head
Smith
McSweeney
Marsh
Carey
Starc
Cummins
Lyon
Hazelwood

McSweeny not an opener. Give him a go in the middle order where he belongs.
The bowlers done good in the 1st innings in Perth so no changes there - yet

 

[eth-dog]

Bancroft in the runs again should make things pretty easy selection wise. The domestic player with the most runs three years in a row and is a genuine opener as well.

Bumrah has all our bats in trouble , Bancroft is way ahead of the other options , importantly great slip fielder ...buckets.
Australia's fielding standards the lowest for some time .

Banfield 105no. I great response to a run of bad form. My side for the next test would be:

Khawaja
Banfield
Head
Smith
McSweeney
Marsh
Carey
Starc
Cummins
Lyon
Hazelwood

McSweeny not an opener. Give him a go in the middle order where he belongs.
The bowlers done good in the 1st innings in Perth so no changes there - yet

Pick the WA supporters guys.

 

[Iceman!]

Bumrah has all our bats in trouble , Bancroft is way ahead of the other options , importantly great slip fielder ...buckets.
Australia's fielding standards the lowest for some time .

No one is arguing he isn't a good fielder, but adding the 32 year old batsman with technical flaws that has failed at test level multiple times is not a solution.

 

[Iceman!]

Bancroft in the runs again should make things pretty easy selection wise. The domestic player with the most runs three years in a row and is a genuine opener as well.

Have you seen the rest of his form?

 

[ABAB]

Who?

We are giving McSweeney a go right now.

 

[Iceman!]

We are giving McSweeney a go right now.

Sorry i bolded the wrong part, who should we have gone to earlier to avoid this situation?