Australian intra-squad warm up game 23-26 August, The rose Bowl, Southampton

[wrongun]

So apparently CA had a direct deal with Hampshire Cricket to curate this kind of wicket. Supposedly it had a green cover and was dry underneath leading to seam and variable bounce. Really really stupid by CA and JL but then again I would expect no less from a board in turmoil and no idea of who it's best 15 are by now. I wish the selectors and board could be banned for a year for cheating fans of their dignity. If AUS win it from here, it will be thanks to England being wretched.

 

[mr_mister]

I knew the years of backlash against boring roads would result in an overcompensation

 

[stephen]

Maybe they could make the game 3 innings long. The game might last into the 4th day then.

The problem with Starc is the same thing that's great about him - the pitch makes no difference to him. In a game like this he's easily the worst bowler. On an MCG road he's our only hope.

Based on everything here's my squad:

Starc
Cummins
Pattinson
Hazelwood
Bird
Lyon

Warner
Smith
Khawaja
Head
Patterson
Burns
Wade

Labaschagne
Neser

Paine

 

[morgieb]

Hopefully things recover second innings, or things are looking rather grim for the Ashes full stop even if Anderson does miss a lot of games.

The bowling figures make things even more frustrating as it was the B-graders that were making the most hay. Maybe it was a case of luck (it certainly doesn't seem like Hazlewood/Pattinson bowled badly), but that doesn't appear the case with Starc at least.

 

[Starfighter]

Can they maybe cut the grass between the second and third innings?

 

[Spikey]

Just remember it was stupid before the match started too

 

[aussie tragic]

Australia only bowled 79.3 overs in the day, which is probably a good think as slow over rate may be the only thing getting them to a 3rd day...

 

[the big bambino]

Well that's breaking the rules. CA to ban both captains and all bowlers for a year.

 

[howardj]

As I said way before, this "selection trial" is an absolute farce.

The selectors are paid to pick the team using their cricketing judgement.

Otherwise, sack the selectors, and just hand things over to a spreadsheet

No touring squad 7 days out from the 1st Test - just a large contingent of insecure cricketers

Has Pat Howard - who apparently organised it all - all over it

 

[GotSpin]

Proper garbage isn’t it. If you want to prepare for the biggest test series of the calendar, you select a squad and play a whole lot of county sides before.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Has Pat Howard - who apparently organised it all - all over it

Is he still around? I thought he'd been ****ed off

 

[harsh.ag]

This isn't your regular Ashes though. There just wasn't enough time between the WC and this.

 

[Midwinter]

Just remember it was stupid before the match started too

I'm with Spikey on this

 

[Jarquis]

I think it’s pretty disingenuous to say you haven’t picked a squad yet.

You have, it’s just it’s 25 blokes. Surely you’d rather be in this situation where you have 25 guys who have played a heap of cricket in the country recently and are available for selection than if you’d named a squad of 15 a month ago and half of them had stunk up the joint or you’d had to fly in emergency injury cover.

It’s like complaining England haven’t picked a squad yet...

 

[Prince EWS]

I think it’s pretty disingenuous to say you haven’t picked a squad yet.

You have, it’s just it’s 25 blokes. Surely you’d rather be in this situation where you have 25 guys who have played a heap of cricket in the country recently and are available for selection than if you’d named a squad of 15 a month ago and half of them had stunk up the joint or you’d had to fly in emergency injury cover.

It’s like complaining England haven’t picked a squad yet...

Kind of agree, but they should have actually just named a squad of 25 and made that argument IMO.

I also like the intra-team warmup as opposed to an extra game against a county Second XI, but I think it should be seen as a warmup rather than Le UlTiMaTe SeLeCtiOn TrIaL.

If you'd told me "Australia are going to have a huge squad and organise one of their warmups against themselves" a few months ago I would've been all for it, but instead it's more like Australia have delayed their squad announcement and organised a one-off selection trial for a five Test series. It's not like they're going to keep the big squad all series -- they'll name 15 or 16 shortly. It's a different thing.

 

[howardj]

Is he still around? I thought he'd been ****ed off

He organised it way out from it happening, according to reports

No longer employed by CA

 

[howardj]

I think it’s pretty disingenuous to say you haven’t picked a squad yet.

You have, it’s just it’s 25 blokes. Surely you’d rather be in this situation where you have 25 guys who have played a heap of cricket in the country recently and are available for selection than if you’d named a squad of 15 a month ago and half of them had stunk up the joint or you’d had to fly in emergency injury cover.

It’s like complaining England haven’t picked a squad yet...

But it places too much value on this one game, when we all know that cricket being cricket, a batsman can nick off cheaply and yet that doesn't mean he's necessarily in poor form

Langer himself said that up to 4 spots are up for grabs (4 out of 16 is a quarter of the squad).

 

[Jarquis]

Kind of agree, but they should have actually just named a squad of 25 and made that argument IMO.

I also like the intra-team warmup as opposed to an extra game against a county Second XI, but I think it should be seen as a warmup rather than Le UlTiMaTe SeLeCtiOn TrIaL.

If you'd told me "Australia are going to have a huge squad and organise one of their warmups against themselves" a few months ago I would've been all for it, but instead it's more like Australia have delayed their squad announcement and organised a one-off selection trial for a five Test series. It's not like they're going to keep the big squad all series -- they'll name 15 or 16 shortly. It's a different thing.

But it places too much value on this one game, when we all know that cricket being cricket, a batsman can nick off cheaply and yet that doesn't mean he's necessarily in poor form

Langer himself said that up to 4 spots are up for grabs (4 out of 16 is a quarter of the squad).

Yeah, but the issue there is that Langer is a ****wit and not that you have 25 blokes acclimatised to playing cricket in England right now.

If you've got 25 blokes over there and playing then I don't know why you'd want to rule blokes out any sooner than you have to. Ideally, the selectors would have a solid idea of their squad by now and it might be a bit of a shootout over one or two spots but things should be largely settled and this match should be a warm up rather than a trial. I don't dispute that the current setup are putting far too much importance on one game.

However, I don't see the upside to naming your squad earlier than you have to. You name your 15 at the start and a bloke goes down injured and you call in somebody as a replacement. It sends a different message to just naming them in the squad after the fact.

Eventually there comes a point where you cull the squad down to 15 or 16 because they're the blokes with a realistic shot at playing and you're not going to carry around #25 for 6 weeks of touring but there is value in keeping them there for another week after the end of the A tour for a match like this,

 

[howardj]

Harris has to be at long odds to make the squad.

They're not going to want 3 lefties at the top of the order (assuming Warner and Usman open and bat at 3 respectively) given Anderson's expertise against them and just for team balance.

Plus, Harris doesn't bat anywhere else, has never made a Test century, averages 30, and didn't leave a lasting impression in our most recent Test series.

Burns or Bangers (surely, the former) will partner Warner

Burns has versatility in his favour too, as he can open or bat in the middle order

 

[stephen]

One would hope that part of the selection process would be looking at the guys in the nets, centre wicket practice and taking recent international and domestic form into account.

It would have been best to say that the squad had been picked before this match but not announced until after it. Paine and Head (Australia's next captain) probably unwittingly picked the squad in their draft. First 16 guys picked were likely to be the ones they had the most confidence in.

Neser might snag a squad spot, as might Labaschagne but really the first XI should have already been identified by the selectors.