Aussie one day side to be announced.

[pup11]

I know this. And when I identify it (in cricket), I'll be posting about it on CricketWeb, as I have here. I'm not going to sit back and think "It's okay Hodge wasn't picked because Clarke's the golden boy. Losing with Clarke in the team is obviously better than winning without him."

Frankly, I don't really care if Australia pick a good Twenty20 team or not. If they want to use it to groom players for captaincy, get their Test stars IPL contracts or whatever, that's fine by me I guess (although presumably not many others). There's a difference between that and actually arguing that Clarke or Hopes should be picked on merit though, or that it's okay to leave Hodge out because Clarke's the golden boy.

I don't have any problem with what you are saying, on the contrary, I agree with this, though my only issue is that people are suggesting that Australia would have done well in the T20 WC had Hodge and Nannes been there in the squad.

That's is something I don't agree with, the perception and attitude of the Aussie think-tank and players have towards T20 cricket is totally wrong, and without a proper attitude makeover, nothing is gonna change for us in this format, no matter who we pick.

 

[pasag]

Quiney ftw.

 

[aussie]

Look mate, its a complete myth that you need to slog the cover off the ball in order to be a good T20 batsman, blokes likes Kallis, Dravid, Shaun Marsh, Dilshan, Sanga, Jayawardene have all proved that good proper cricket, mixed with bit of improvisation can be as good or maybe even more effective than power-hitting.

Why would you say Marsh & Dilshan aren't power players?

You dont have to be a slogger, but you at least need to be inventive enough to maintain a very fast scoring rate to make up for that inability. Sanga & Jayawardene have been able to do that, Clarke hasn't.

Kallis is a big strong bloke, he has always been able to hit the ball. The reason why he suits opening in T20s because he is best suited to opening to coming in while the ball is new. If SA bat him in the middle he could still struggle again.

Dravid has no doubt adapted well after his initial T20 failures. But lets not forget, Dravid in the back end of his ODI career did find a way to become a hitter, so to me he just took a while to find back that skill in T20s.

Clarke is batsman with plenty of natural ability and flair, and all he needs to do is try to bat a bit freely in the T20 games, these T20 games leading upto the T20 WC don't mean much, and I don't think there is any harm in allowing a bloke like him to develop his game for this format by playing in it.

AUS dont have time for that unfortunately. Given that they barely have these 2 T20s in ENG & a few in the AUS summer before the WC next year. They need to treat these games seriously. Clarke batting right now just aint good enough.

I think one thing we mustn't forget is none of these Australian players get to play much T20 cricket domestically, and hence its hardly surprising to see them struggling to find their feet in this format, so therefore the more T20 cricket they would play the better they would get.

The international players yes. But you got a few domestic players like Nannes, Hodge, White especially who have the skills. Just need to get Hodge in now.

Its clear as its already been said, due to his "protected species" & vice-captaincy status, it will hard to drop him. But it has to be done in the T20s.

 

[pup11]

Why would you say Marsh & Dilshan aren't power players?

You dont have to be a slogger, but you at least need to be inventive enough to maintain a very fast scoring rate to make up for that inability. Sanga & Jayawardene have been able to do that, Clarke hasn't.

Kallis is a big strong bloke, he has always been able to hit the ball. The reason why he suits opening in T20s because he is best suited to opening to coming in while the ball is new. If SA bat him in the middle he could still struggle again.

Dravid has no doubt adapted well after his initial T20 failures. But lets not forget, Dravid in the back end of his ODI career did find a way to become a hitter, so to me he just took a while to find back that skill in T20s.

You yourself said that Clarke was an innovative finisher for Australia for a good part of his initial career, but even while batting at no.4 he has played some very good aggressive knocks, he did it right through the 2007 WC, and later in that year he did that in India as well.

So that just indicates that he can definitely play those high-scoring shots, its only the matter of him trying to once again finding back those same skills, and bring those shots out of his closet for the limited overs format.

AUS dont have time for that unfortunately. Given that they barely have these 2 T20s in ENG & a few in the AUS summer before the WC next year. They need to treat these games seriously. Clarke batting right now just aint good enough.

Unfortunately the Aussie think-tank doesn't seem to be thinking that way, I doubt they are giving much importance to these T20 games, otherwise don't know why they would rest/drop blokes like Ponting, Hussey and Bracks, who despite their average performances in recent times in this format, are still quality players and likely to do a lot better than Hilfenhaus, Voges or White.

The international players yes. But you got a few domestic players like Nannes, Hodge, White especially who have the skills. Just need to get Hodge in now.

Its clear as its already been said, due to his "protected species" & vice-captaincy status, it will hard to drop him. But it has to be done in the T20s.

Frankly speaking as I already said, I don't care who they pick if they start building a stable T20 side, because thus far virtually every half-decent domestic Aussie cricketer has had a crack at playing T20 cricket for Australia without any real purpose or reason behind those selections, and that for me is one of the biggest reasons why we have struggled as a team in this format.

 

[Furball]

True. But i'm worried it may finally have a ripple effect towards his ODI batting.

He's been shocking for about 18 months in Tests, yet has produced the goods in ODIs.

 

[pup11]

He's been shocking for about 18 months in Tests, yet has produced the goods in ODIs.

 

[brockley]

Is this australian one day squad,the same side for the icc knockout squad,everyone naming their team now.