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*Official* Road to 2013 Ashes

Spikey

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Invers has just said they could bring Smith in. I have little faith they'll willingly do that. They'll willingly call in Ahmed, but they couldn't've picked Ahmed a month ago. They could have picked Smith. I feel Clarke's recovery will have to hit a set-back for Smith to get called.
 

uvelocity

International Coach
clarke will be right too. he just cbf and plus with nine running selections and the ct not being featured on nine, they decided to rest him
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Invers has just said they could bring Smith in. I have little faith they'll willingly do that. They'll willingly call in Ahmed, but they couldn't've picked Ahmed a month ago. They could have picked Smith. I feel Clarke's recovery will have to hit a set-back for Smith to get called.
warner though
 

Maximas

Cricketer Of The Year
Wow, I never thought I'd see Australian fans desperate to see Smith come into an Ashes squad, but he really has improved and I hope he gets a go. Not sure if I'd prefer a 4/5-0 loss which forces a clean-up of the team or a 2-1 loss where Watson/Warner/Lyon/Haddin have mediocre (but not bad enough to be dropped) series' and they do a similar thing in the Aussie summer.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Sad thing is that I don't think it's far off at all and I still don't rate the side in general - shows how bad the batting situation is.
 

Viscount Tom

International Debutant
That and your keeper is terrible.

But yeah Australia's batting is well and truely woeful, Rogers I tihnk will go okay, Cowan too maybe but aside from that I can see the bowlers being more useful batsman than some of the players.

Should be imo
Cowan
Rogers
Hughes
Clarke
Smith
Bailey
Haddin
Siddle
Pattinson
Lyon
Bird

Although I think possibly for Trent Bridge you could swap out Lyon for another seamer depending on the pitch.
 

Burgey

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Don't think Haddin is terrible tbh. He's not the greatest keeper of all time but he's none too bad. Or was Tom referring to Wade?
 

sphynx

U19 Debutant
I think I missed something.
Yeah the fact that the 2 main Australian quicks have sub 23 bowling averages?

And the other two quicks have sub 30 averages?


He's not far wrong.


It will be alot better in a few years though if Cummins and Starc come on though.
 
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Adders

Cricketer Of The Year
Yeah the fact that the 2 main Australian quicks have sub 23 bowling averages?

And the other two quicks have sub 30 averages?
Who are these bowlers??

Harris played 12 tests ave 23........Hasn't played a test match in 14 months and is likely to break down at any stage.

Bird played 2 tests ave of 16............he's played 2 test matches mate.

Patto, a whopping 10 tests to his name and an ave of 23.

So you're selling yourself short, you have 3x 23 ave and under bowlers.........a cripple and 2 noobs.

Anyone that says that bowling line up is the best in the world needs medical attention and fast.

What they are is a bowling unit with a lot of potential and one day Mickey might be able to call them the best in the world, but right now that is a ridiculous comment. They are nowhere near it until they prove themselves.over time and in a variety of conditions. Don't get me wrong, I rate them all highly but lets keep a bit of perspective here. It would be like me claiming Joe Root to be the best ODI batsmen in the world........utter crap.
 

Maximas

Cricketer Of The Year
While you have a point Adders, I think Patto represents more than just a noob with beginners luck, 5/90 odd on a dead track in India shows he isn't just a greentop bully. Anyway, it's not as if the world's best bowling attack is some magic bowling line-up either, SA struggled in Australia and somewhat in England, while the English fast bowlers often bowl like **** for extended periods (seriously, Stuart Broad, Finn and Bresnan hardly have batsmen shaking in their boots - most of the time). I would say Mickey isn't quite right, the SA fast bowlers are better, but not by much.
 

howardj

International Coach
I agree very much with this article Daniel Brettig: Clarke's Ashes squad fragmented | Cricket News | Australia in England - The Investec Ashes | ESPN Cricinfo

There is no sense of team with the Aussies

It permeates throughout the whole system:

- Rotations
- Adding players to the squad
- Having guys not in the one location

Shane Warne’s manifesto earlier this year was complete rubbish, but he did make one good point – that you have to have familiarity with the other guys in the team; you have to have a sense of team
 

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