first test of the aussie summer 23/24

[magpiemaniac44]

A crack at Pakistans lineup for the first test and this is my guess. Not too sure of the other names in the squad really? Also it seems Sarfraz seems to have his place back over Rizwan currently.

1. Imam Ul-Haq
2. Abdullah Shafique
3. Shan Masood (c)
4. Babar Azam
5. Saud Shakeel
6. Mohammad Rizwan/Sarfraz Ahmed (wk)
7. Faheem Ashraf
8. ?
9. Hasan Ali
10. ?
11. Shaheen Afridi

Agha Salman probably bats at 7, and Faheem at 8 I guess. I'm not familiar with their attack in this squad

 

[Cleavy]

PM's XI v Pakistan

Bancroft
Harris
Renshaw
McSweeney
Green
Peirson
Webster
Neser
McAndrew
Steketee
Murphy

now the BBL teams are having a whinge at losing players for up to 2 games for this match.

 

[toml]

now the BBL teams are having a whinge at losing players for up to 2 games for this match.

Heat have a triple match First round so possibly without Renshaw, Mcsweeney, Neser and Peirson for the first 3 matches. CA have let Marnus and Usman play the first match so I guess that is something.

 

[The 747]

a look how the teams may line up:


View attachment 1859127
View attachment 1859128

I haven't been following the madness that is Pakistan cricket but the worst player in the team is the captain? That's a new one.

Anyway it is mandatory when Pakistan tour for there to be an injury to the bowlers we want to watch, I gather Naseem Shah is already filling that role?

I'd imagine Abrar will play over Numan Ali as he is about a hundred years younger.

 

[The 747]

Agha Salman probably bats at 7, and Faheem at 8 I guess. I'm not familiar with their attack in this squad

Their batting is quite strong on paper, captain aside.

Bowling:
Afridi is one of the best bowlers in the world.
Faheem and Hasan are donkey medium pacers. So is Mir Hamza but left handed.
Numan Ali is stereotype crafty old Asian spinner.
Abrar is a very promising young leggie.
Salman is a pretty decent spinner,

 

[PhatBoy]

I haven't been following the madness that is Pakistan cricket but the worst player in the team is the captain? That's a new one.

Anyway it is mandatory when Pakistan tour for there to be an injury to the bowlers we want to watch, I gather Naseem Shah is already filling that role?

I'd imagine Abrar will play over Numan Ali as he is about a hundred years younger.

Darren Sammy was borderline worst in the West Indies team and led them to two World Cup wins. And we wouldn’t have had it any other way. His time in charge of the other formats wasn’t without its problems either but it had its moments of unity too. It isn’t exactly a tried and true means of success but it’s not infeasible that it can work

 

[Cursed Cat]

Darren Sammy was borderline worst in the West Indies team and led them to two World Cup wins. And we wouldn’t have had it any other way. His time in charge of the other formats wasn’t without its problems either but it had its moments of unity too. It isn’t exactly a tried and true means of success but it’s not infeasible that it can work

Mike Brearely's record is ridiculous.

Captained England in 39 Tests for 18 wins, 9 draws and only 4 losses.

He was nominally a batsman - his Test average? 23!

 

[PhatBoy]

Mike Brearely's record is ridiculous.

Captained England in 39 Tests for 18 wins, 9 draws and only 4 losses.

He was nominally a batsman - his Test average? 23!

Absolutely, the perfect example

 

[Cursed Cat]

as much as I love a dominant Aussie team I would love an unexpectedly competitive Pakistani team to surprise us and light up the cricketing summer even more.

But I don't think it will happen.

Shaheen Afridi is a brilliant bowler; it is a shame he won't have the support of Naseem Shah and he (Afridi) will need to be managed really, really carefully.

Of the established Test-playing nations Pakistan is arguably the least successful on Australian soil; to their credit they drew a couple of series here in the 70s but they have never won a Test series Down Under in 13 attempts.

 

[Gough]

Mike Brearely's record is ridiculous.

Captained England in 39 Tests for 18 wins, 9 draws and only 4 losses.

He was nominally a batsman - his Test average? 23!

His Art of Captaincy is a cricket classic.

 

[Voice of the G]

pretty straight forward with all things being equal and everyone fit and available

Warner
Khawaja
Labuschagne
Smith (vc)
Head
Marsh/Green
Carey
Starc
Cummins (c)
Lyon
Hazlewood

The real immediate question will be who gets the number 6 - the incumbent Marsh or long term option Green ?

Can Neser press hard and gain a spot from the boys club? Not much more Neser can do. Boland may be done at test level unless an injury to the big 3 presents an opportunity.

Can Warner hang on and sign off on his terms mid summer after the 3rd test? Khawaja may well be done after the summer which includes 2 tests in New Zealand and then a 10 month break, taking him up to his 38th birthday.

Bancroft, Harris, Renshaw are the frontrunners with Pucovski still on the radar and M.Short maybe an outside chance.
A few more shield rounds may just sort things out.
Hopefully whoever gets the nod, gets a decent run at it and gets backed in and delivers.

Pucovski another duck for Melbourne in premier cricket yesterday is a worry but at least he is on the park.

 

[Coops93]

as much as I love a dominant Aussie team I would love an unexpectedly competitive Pakistani team to surprise us and light up the cricketing summer even more.

But I don't think it will happen.

Shaheen Afridi is a brilliant bowler; it is a shame he won't have the support of Naseem Shah and he (Afridi) will need to be managed really, really carefully.

Of the established Test-playing nations Pakistan is arguably the least successful on Australian soil; to their credit they drew a couple of series here in the 70s but they have never won a Test series Down Under in 13 attempts.

Agreed. If they could jag the first test that would make things interesting the next 2.

Ideally not one where we capitulate and it's an easy win for them. A highly competitive game that they get on top of it will set up the next 2 tests whereby it's known that they can compete with us at the top level and are up for the fight.

I don't see it happening, given Pakistans seemingly institutional flakiness, but to make the series interesting it would be the best possible start imo.

 

[The 747]

Agreed. If they could jag the first test that would make things interesting the next 2.

Ideally not one where we capitulate and it's an easy win for them. A highly competitive game that they get on top of it will set up the next 2 tests whereby it's known that they can compete with us at the top level and are up for the fight.

I don't see it happening, given Pakistans seemingly institutional flakiness, but to make the series interesting it would be the best possible start imo.

I have learned not to get my hopes up when Pakistan touring Australia. They will have some players who put on excellent performances here and there but expect they will lose 3-0 as usual.

 

[Coops93]

I have learned not to get my hopes up when Pakistan touring Australia. They will have some players who put on excellent performances here and there but expect they will lose 3-0 as usual.

I don't possess high hopes either. It's odd considering their propensity for developing excellent fast bowlers over the years.

Perhaps not this tour, though. Shame that Naseem Shah is out, you feel there's a world of pressure on Afridi to prop up this bowling attack this series. Rauf being out isn't a big loss really, his stats are fairly average. I get it, he's fast, but he isn't really a game changer imo. Only 1 test in his career (for which his figures were 1/78) and a FC avg of 30 isn't much to get excited about

 

[Westend]

Interesting listening to sen this morning with craddpck and whately. Lot of it was about Warner and how uncomfortable people are with Warner’s farewell tour .. not many if any past players where gifted farewell games they talked about tugga and how it was a distraction at the time .

Also discussed using this summer as a preparation for next tour by India in 24/25 and what was most interesting was even promoting head or marnus to open with green slotting into the middle order with marsh

Interesting time ahead

 

[corbies]

Probably worth noting that Australia really need to be winning all 5 of these matches to give themselves a chance at making the WTC final given the over-rate point deductions from the Ashes as well as the matches that come after this.

Hopefully management are aware of this and play the best XI available rather than using a Test match as a development tool.

 

[Cleavy]

Interesting listening to sen this morning with craddpck and whately. Lot of it was about Warner and how uncomfortable people are with Warner’s farewell tour .. not many if any past players where gifted farewell games they talked about tugga and how it was a distraction at the time .

Also discussed using this summer as a preparation for next tour by India in 24/25 and what was most interesting was even promoting head or marnus to open with green slotting into the middle order with marsh

Interesting time ahead

don't see it happening in Australian conditions. worth a try once we arrive in subcontinent if opening combination is not settled.

 

[cricketnut14]

Probably worth noting that Australia really need to be winning all 5 of these matches to give themselves a chance at making the WTC final given the over-rate point deductions from the Ashes as well as the matches that come after this.

Hopefully management are aware of this and play the best XI available rather than using a Test match as a development tool.

probably going to have to win 10 of the remaining 14 tests in this cycle to qualify - so a clean sweep of 5-0 this summer is critical.

england are also on the back foot.

 

[Jamurp]

Not sure if this Pakistan side is better or worse than the last one that came out, feel like their pace attack is different everytime, their spinners don’t seem to be effective either.

Really hope they can show something, but just can’t see it. We’re a bloody good side atm too, only India is potentially beating us at home.

 

[Westend]

don't see it happening in Australian conditions. worth a try once we arrive in subcontinent if opening combination is not settled.

Well someone has to play when Warner Retires Come Sydney or if he lasts that long .. that's what SEN was discussing

We either bring in another opener such as Bancroft Renshaw or Harris or move the order around to bring Green in

We have these 5 tests against Pak WI then two in NZ before india tours for 5 tests next summer 24/25

The general Consensus between Whatley and Craddock was basically this summer is going to be a training run regardless whoever plays

 

[eth-dog]

Bancroft should play. Dominating Shield cricket so far.

 

[The 747]

Also discussed using this summer as a preparation for next tour by India in 24/25 and what was most interesting was even promoting head or marnus to open with green slotting into the middle order with marsh

Interesting time ahead

Head to open is a bad idea on a number of levels for mine (on the subcontinent I think it is an option though):

1 Does not have the technique to handle the best bowlers on pace friendly pitches
2 Where he is he is very effective - has won us a number of games counterattacking at 5
3 Head is one of the very few captaincy options we have in the team

But more to the point I am concerned by the idea of shuffling around players who are performing at a high level in Test cricket in order to accommodate a player that does not perform at a high level - yet.

 

[The 747]

Not sure if this Pakistan side is better or worse than the last one that came out, feel like their pace attack is different everytime, their spinners don’t seem to be effective either.

Really hope they can show something, but just can’t see it. We’re a bloody good side atm too, only India is potentially beating us at home.

Better batters than usual, bowling weaker than usual.

 

[Westend]

Head to open is a bad idea on a number of levels for mine (on the subcontinent I think it is an option though):

1 Does not have the technique to handle the best bowlers on pace friendly pitches
2 Where he is he is very effective - has won us a number of games counterattacking at 5
3 Head is one of the very few captaincy options we have in the team

But more to the point I am concerned by the idea of shuffling around players who are performing at a high level in Test cricket in order to accommodate a player that does not perform at a high level - yet.

Yeah I have reservations about Head moving from 5

but its an option and its being discussed in cricket circles/media

 

[The 747]

Yeah I have reservations about Head moving from 5

but its an option and its being discussed in cricket circles/media

No doubt they want Green in the team sooner rather than later, and can't really drop Marsh on form.

But accommodating two batting all rounders is a bit difficult, unless they want to drop one of the bowlers and bat Carey at 8.