*Official* Tour Matches

[BoyBrumby]

How come Shahzad is over here apart from playing this game if hes not in the squad?

Our performance squad is in Oz too, which he's a part of.

 

[Prince EWS]

How come Shahzad is over here apart from playing this game if hes not in the squad?

Touring with the performance squad. England have a whole secondary squad touring.

 

[Prince EWS]

Definitely a problem you'd rather have than the one the Aussie selectors are having i.e. "So... who's fit?"

You know the world's gone crazy when England have a much more settled eleven than Australia going into an Ashes series and one of the few answers to the above question is "Mark Cameron".

 

[BoyBrumby]

Colly bowling seam up. Rarity nowadays.

 

[BoyBrumby]

75/5 at lunch. Really can't fault it, can you?

Right, bed for me I reckon.

 

[Top_Cat]

You know the world's gone crazy when England have a much more settled eleven than Australia going into an Ashes series and one of the few answers to the above question is "Mark Cameron".

*subject to change without notice.

 

[Top_Cat]

heh, gone are the days of 'Aus's second XI would beat most Test sides.' Not that I thought it was terribly true anyway but this side is struggling to compete against England's second string.

 

[Prince EWS]

*subject to change without notice.

Quite. It looks like he'll probably get a bowl today so I've probably put the mocker on him.

 

[King Pietersen]

Rob Key doesn't quite have the face for Television, but I do enjoy his punditry a lot. Generally speaks a lot of sense, has a great cricket brain and I could defintely see him move into a regular commentary position when his career comes to an end. I'd rather listen to him ahead of Botham or Knight anyway.

 

[robelinda]

Really like Paine's batting, not a world beater but his technique is solid. Would bat all day for 10 if needed, not sure some of the other batsmen could leave their egos at the gate. Would be very brave to play Paine as a batsman, but his front foot play is miles better than White's for example.

 

[DragonPunk]

With our middle order woes, i'd give Paine a go as just a batsmen. I don't know how good he is in the field though.

 

[Prince EWS]

With our middle order woes, i'd give Paine a go as just a batsmen. I don't know how good he is in the field though.

Terrible idea IMO.

 

[King Pietersen]

AWTA. If I was an Aussie fan I'd rather stick with North and Hussey than bring Paine in as a batsman.

 

[TumTum]

As long as White's not in the top 6, I'm happy.

 

[Noble One]

With our middle order woes, i'd give Paine a go as just a batsmen. I don't know how good he is in the field though.

That is the worst idea. Paine has always been a wonderful to watch batsmen, who simply fails to consistently score big runs. Until he starts scoring plenty of runs for Tasmania, then he will remain our backup wicketkeeper.

I would much prefer Wade over Paine if selecting purely based on batting ability.

 

[Spark]

With our middle order woes, i'd give Paine a go as just a batsmen. I don't know how good he is in the field though.

To be fair a 30 (70) is the kind of thing that could really help stop a collapse.

However given that there are more than a few around who could do that better...

 

[pup11]

Jeez, just saw the scorecard and I was shocked!! Expected better from the batsmen tbh, so is the pitch a juicy one or has England just bowled well!?

 

[Sylvester]

Right now McGrath would be a better bet than Hussey that boy can't even get past double figures lately.

 

[Sylvester]

Smith just smoked that one. Good reply from Bresnan.

 

[Johnners]

Wonder if Ferguson/Usman had at least made it to 50 today, how much deliberation the selectors would have had in regards to Hussey's position. I still think he's a lock for the 1st test at least, but a score from either of those 2 today and who knows.