Cricket Thread: Indian Summer

[Firewalker]

Handscomb would be in the mix for sub continent. Horses for courses, we need to pick players who are decent against spin on dust bowls.

I wouldn't rule out Maxwell either.

If the tour was 12-months earlier I probably would think of selecting Maxwell too but I just don’t think he can come in and hit the ground running at that level anymore, his body as well is really letting him down so there’s that problem as well. It’s always tempting because of the problems they’ve found themselves in on Sri Lanka tours previously but Maxwell looked pretty cooked in the recent one-dayers they played against England & Pakistan.

I think they go;

Head
Khawaja (if he doesn’t retire)
Labuschagne
Smith
Handscomb
Carey
Webster
Starc
Murphy
Kuhnemann
Lyon

Inglis will be the spare bat

If Aaron Hardie’s fit to bowl take him as the other all-round option fighting for a spot with Webster

Need air speed in Sri Lanka so one of Jhye Richardson and Lance Morris should be the spare paceman picked.

Hazelwood to be rested & Boland (as good as he is) is a horses for courses selection and after how he bowled in India is not suited to conditions & should be put on ice for the Ashes as well.

Someone like Cooper Connolly might end up on the tour but not in the squad though to gain experience, Zampa won’t be selected but would be funny how many people would have a conniption if he was, don’t actually think he’d do a bad job in those conditions and has great record against Sri Lanka.

Picking a 15/16 man squad seems excessive for a 2 test series should probably only be 13/14 man squad.

 

[Cromulant]

Just needs some experience.

Murphy in India 14 wickets @ 25.2
Lyon in India 56 wickets @ 27.4

Does he though?? It's not like he's a kid

 

[Mostyn]

There definitely was leading into the series and post-McSweeney but now I think it’s probably strangely more settled just because selectors (whether it will prove to be real or not) are likely to get swept up in the Konstas wave and they’ll stick with him now for a while and like I said selectors are just waiting for Usman to make the call before bringing Renshaw back in, if Konstas and Renshaw fail it will likely start up all over again but by then they’ll probably also be dealing with the Smith retirement as well.

I think Renshaw is a mile off. Went at 34 last year and 27 this year.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Does he though?? It's not like he's a kid

Has a better average than Lyon in every country he has played!

 

[BRL121]

Let's hope we get a good score this match unlike the 1st test where we blew a good first day. India made 150 and still had a good 1st innings lead.

I fear a replay.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

I think Renshaw is a mile off. Went at 34 last year and 27 this year.

So who are you suggesting instead?

Renshaw has showed his best is quality.

The likes of Harris & Bancroft are not up to Test level.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Just needs some experience.

Murphy in India 14 wickets @ 25.2
Lyon in India 56 wickets @ 27.4

Murphy in UK 7 wickets @ 25.9
Lyon in UK 59 wickets @ 29.6

Lyon is overrated imo.

He's obviously not overrated. His record is there in black and white.

Second spinners get a free ride initially because they only get picked on spin-friendly pitches and avoid the pitches not conducive to spin. Whereas Lyon toils away everywhere.

And you'll recall that Cummins got to the point that he couldn't bowl Murphy, so he became a passenger. Sure, it protected his figures but it's not a valid way to mount a test career.

 

[Mostyn]

So who are you suggesting instead?

Renshaw has showed his best is quality.

The likes of Harris & Bancroft are not up to Test level.

I genuinely don't know.

I guess Hunt, but I'm not confident. They may go McSweeney again?

It's one of the reasons I've been looking at Head ..

 

[feenix67]

I'm in two minds about this. I think he actually could be a very good opener, though I don't think Konstas and Head probably work as a pair.

I'm a bit less in the "Trav is perfect where he is" camp - he's still a bit feast or famine, and his averages have been going backwards each year for the last four. He also averages 7 in Sri Lanka (though only has one series there).

Ate you Daniel Cherny? That's the exact argument he used to drop Trav in India. Travis used to be troubled by spin, worked on it, and killed it over there. He's a decent player of spin now.

I'd play Harris as the opener in Sri Lanka. Bloke should have played ages ago but Smith decided he wanted to open. Or Bancroft,perfect time to give him a couple of tests to see what he can do.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

If the tour was 12-months earlier I probably would think of selecting Maxwell too but I just don’t think he can come in and hit the ground running at that level anymore, his body as well is really letting him down so there’s that problem as well. It’s always tempting because of the problems they’ve found themselves in on Sri Lanka tours previously but Maxwell looked pretty cooked in the recent one-dayers they played against England & Pakistan.

I think they go;

Head
Khawaja (if he doesn’t retire)
Labuschagne
Smith
Handscomb
Carey
Webster
Starc
Murphy
Kuhnemann
Lyon

Inglis will be the spare bat

If Aaron Hardie’s fit to bowl take him as the other all-round option fighting for a spot with Webster

Need air speed in Sri Lanka so one of Jhye Richardson and Lance Morris should be the spare paceman picked.

Hazelwood to be rested & Boland (as good as he is) is a horses for courses selection and after how he bowled in India is not suited to conditions & should be put on ice for the Ashes as well.

Someone like Cooper Connolly might end up on the tour but not in the squad though to gain experience, Zampa won’t be selected but would be funny how many people would have a conniption if he was, don’t actually think he’d do a bad job in those conditions and has great record against Sri Lanka.

Picking a 15/16 man squad seems excessive for a 2 test series should probably only be 13/14 man squad.

I think you are right the selectors will choose Handscomb as currently training with the Australian squad.

I don't have an issue him going as backup batsman given he is decent on sub continent... but surely we take Konstas instead of Khawaja who is cooked?

I have Inglis in my squad too as spare bat/keeper & Murphy as spare spin option.

Hardie in the mix too. Agar could be a consideration too. Think too soon for Connolly.

I'm liking Richardson & Morris as pace options. Think both better options than Bolland in SL

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

I genuinely don't know.

I guess Hunt, but I'm not confident. They may go McSweeney again?

It's one of the reasons I've been looking at Head ..

McSweeney is not an opener. We learnt that. Needs to be given his next crack in the middle order.

Hunt hopefully down the track, but have Renshaw as best option once we are not playing in sub continent.

Head for SL, but needs to revert back to #5 away from sub continent.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Ate you Daniel Cherny? That's the exact argument he used to drop Trav in India. Travis used to be troubled by spin, worked on it, and killed it over there. He's a decent player of spin now.

I'd play Harris as the opener in Sri Lanka. Bloke should have played ages ago but Smith decided he wanted to open. Or Bancroft,perfect time to give him a couple of tests to see what he can do.

Harris?

Hell no.

Not test standard.

Prefer to persist with cooked Khawaja.

 

[feenix67]

Harris?

Hell no.

Not test standard.

Prefer to persist with cooked Khawaja.

Yeah, had a lot of opportunities.... not.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Yeah, had a lot of opportunities.... not.

Seen enough to know he isn't Test standard.

Reckon the selectors think the same.

 

[Firewalker]

I'm not much of a fan of Todd Murphy. See him as someone who could only ever succeed on subcontinent dustbowls.

I rate Corey Rocchiccioli higher. Think he's someone who could be Lyon's eventual successor and play everywhere.

It’s a double edge sword with Murphy I’m not his biggest fan either but there might’ve been something there but after India where he bowled pretty well to conditions he totally lost his action and any actual loop he had out the hand was gone and his action looked broken in the Ashes and last season in the Shield with him just darting them down. Only looked a little better this season but will still be handy in Sri Lanka given he’s more of a cutter/side spinner of the ball.

Rocchiccioli is a weird one to get a read on, sometimes looks really tough to play and get away but other times looks like a park cricketer rolling his arm over off a few steps, would be a better option than Murphy outside of the subcontinent.

Interestingly both are failed medium pacers who only took up spin in their late teens/early 20s so their actions do come across as slightly unorthodox and both don’t really use the crease as more traditional spinner’s like Nathan Lyon does.

If Kuhnemann performs again I wonder if they’ll ever think of using him as an option for outside of the subcontinent, left-arm finger spin is a cheat code in modern day cricket and Australia can’t seem to find anyone to take advantage of it.

 

[Cromulant]

Has a better average than Lyon in every country he has played!

With less experience.

He's not a better bowler, not even close

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

With less experience.

He's not a better bowler, not even close

I guess I don't rate bowlers with an average over 30 as greats... which is why I never rated Brett Lee highly.

 

[ABAB]

As well as we played today, we just handed the momentum to the Indians.

Or Bumrah might look at the vision of his celebration and be very embarrassed, Kohli is already a lost cause lol.

 

[Cromulant]

I guess I don't rate bowlers with an average over 30 as greats... which is why I never rated Brett Lee highly.

Off spinners in general don't have low averages, ones that bowl legally anyway.

I don't think Lyon is an all time great by any means, but he'll be extremely hard to replace.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Off spinners in general don't have low averages, ones that bowl legally anyway.

I don't think Lyon is an all time great by any means, but he'll be extremely hard to replace.

Is he that hard to replace though?

Murphy has a better record...

 

[Cromulant]

Is he that hard to replace though?

Murphy has a better record...

You keep saying he's got a better record, but so did Jason Krezja after a few Tests.

Alan Davison has a better Test bowling average than Cummins and McGrath too.... does that make him a better bowler ??

No it doesn't.

 

[Mostyn]

Ate you Daniel Cherny? That's the exact argument he used to drop Trav in India. Travis used to be troubled by spin, worked on it, and killed it over there. He's a decent player of spin now.

I'd play Harris as the opener in Sri Lanka. Bloke should have played ages ago but Smith decided he wanted to open. Or Bancroft,perfect time to give him a couple of tests to see what he can do.

As in Marcus Harris? And Bancroft?

SURELY their papers have been stamped by now?

 

[Cromulant]

Ate you Daniel Cherny? That's the exact argument he used to drop Trav in India. Travis used to be troubled by spin, worked on it, and killed it over there. He's a decent player of spin now.

I'd play Harris as the opener in Sri Lanka. Bloke should have played ages ago but Smith decided he wanted to open. Or Bancroft,perfect time to give him a couple of tests to see what he can do.

Harris is trash, that's why he's not being played. McDonald of ALL coaches should have no qualms about picking him.... and he didn't.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

You keep saying he's got a better record, but so did Jason Krezja after a few Tests.

Alan Davison has a better Test bowling average than Cummins and McGrath too.... does that make him a better bowler ??

No it doesn't.

Krezja was found out very quickly.

Murphy has performed better than Lyon at the same stage & Lyon improved with experience.

 

[Cromulant]

Krezja was found out very quickly.

Murphy has performed better than Lyon at the same stage & Lyon improved with experience.

Again, doesn't make him better.

Murphy is at best a break even with Lyon even now.

He's the next in line for sure, but i can't see him being better. We are probably at a p9int similar to the early 90s where we need a Ressies St Kilda footballer to come along.