***Official** Malaysia Tri-Series

[adharcric]

Katich definitely needs to go. He's already been gifted a ticket to the CT in India, but fortunately Shane Watson has emerged as a viable opening option. If Katich repeats such performances in India, Watson should come up and Martyn should make the cut at #4 for a lineup as follows.

Gilchrist, Watson, Ponting, Martyn, Symonds, Clarke, Hussey, Hogg, Lee, Bracken, McGrath

The next series will be the tri-series in Australia, in which selection could be influenced by Hayden's and Jacques' Ashes performance, for example. Then they've got a few matches against New Zealand before the World Cup.

 

[Complicated]

Can anyone explain to me what the logic is behind playing Simon Katich.

He seems to waste balls that would be better off going to middle order players like Hussey, Symonds, Clarke anyway. More disturbing whenever someone bats with Katich, they seem to take alot more risks and place the burden on themselves to score runs. Why do Australia continue playing him?

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Australia were continuing to play him because he kept making consistent runs, which was basically what he was asked to do, given that he had Gilchrist, Ponting and company to bat around him. There's valid criticisms of the philosophy, but the fact is that Katich was asked to go out that and play a steady role as an opener, and he did so very consistently.

He began opening in the Super Series and averaged 52, then averaged 30 in the Chappell-Hadlee series, 45 in the VB Series, 38 in South Africa and 43 in Bangladesh. In fact, I believe he was the top run scorer in the VB Series. In other words, this is his first bad series opening the batting. Hence, he hasn't been dropped.

I think that now he'd definiely be on notice again. He was okay in the first two games, but in the last two he was terrible and if he isn't being consistent he'll be dropped for a batsman who is more likely to take the game away from the opposition. I doubt it'll be Watson opening, but Hayden and Jaques are both candidates if they make runs when they get opportunities.

 

[Haddin]

Haddin should be up the order. Katich should go home.

 

[honestbharani]

Wow, we have almost the exact same views on Indian cricket.
Why wouldn't you have Dravid coming in at #3 btw?
Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvraj, Mongia, Raina, Dhoni, Agarkar, Harbhajan, Sreesanth, Patel

I guess you could switch Yuvi and Dravid to eliminate that three-lefty thing in the middle.
Basically, I think AA is still good enough to make one random cameo every 10 matches, so it's better that we keep him at #8 and deceive the opposition a little.

I had dravid at 4 to eliminate the lefty procession there and also because I think Kaif or Yuvraj can play long innings. Kaif is useless elsewhere and Yuvraj needs as many overs as he can get because he is in such good form (not based on this series, obviously but over the past year or so). Otherwise, yeah, we are pretty much in agreement abt the side. But I honestly still dont see anything special in RPS. He can bowl around the 137 to 140 mark and can get it to bounce a little more than normal off just back of a length but he really doesn't swing the ball and his seam movement isnt all that pronounced either. Cant see him adding too much value to our side, esp. given his batting and fielding.

 

[honestbharani]

Wat abt the umpiring errors in the past two games? Obviously Australia have had the better of it, but in general, I honestly think it is time for ICC to seriously consider handing over no balls to the 3rd umpire, if not use that foot fault tech they use in tennis. Feel really bad for the umpires and see how crucial their misses were for India and the Windies. Gayle and Dhoni can be impact players. It is almost impossible for the umpire to look down for the noball and then look up to see what happens, esp. at Lee's pace.

 

[Nate]

Hayden - 2 Innings, 103 runs, Average 54, S/R @ 72
Katich - 4 Innings, 92 runs, Average 23, S/R @ 51

But you know, keep giving Katich a run. To be fair, Jaques failed both times, something I didn`t expect. But when you have so many guys trying to make the side, it seems pretty unfair. Haddin was tops this tourney with 174 @ 44 with a top strike-rate. Very good work from him.

Bracks average drops under 21.

 

[Perm]

I'm sure the Australian selectors will continue to give Katich one of the opening berths, just purely because of the fact he was making runs pretty well as an opener before this tournament. He struggled in this tournament and that's fair enough, everybody will struggle at some stage in their career but I think the selectors still have enough faith in him to keep him for the Champions Trophy and more than likely the World Cup aswell.

I also noticed about Bracken's average dropping to under 21, what a gun ODI bowler, average of 20.69, SR of 28.75 and a very good ER of 4.32. A shame that he probably won't get too many tests under his belt in the near future.

 

[James]

McGrath returns to club cricket

 

[aussie]

good stuff from McGrath, more cricket the better.

 

[grecian]

Yes, and the more stray balls scattered over the outfield the better.

 

[Burgey]

Yes, and the more stray balls scattered over the outfield the better.

I'm hoping the coaches will be pretty careful about not leaving training balls scattered all over the outfield, and McGrath will be pretty careful about where he puts his feet.

How do we all think he will go this Ashes series assuming he gets through the Champions Trophy unscathed?

 

[Dravid]

Getting more and more practice before the champs trophy

 

[alternative]

Good stuff from McGrath.. IMO he was quite rusty in the recently completed Tri-Series..

 

[Mister Wright]

Good stuff from McGrath.. IMO he was quite rusty in the recently completed Tri-Series..

There needs to be a 'Captain Obvious Award' for the weekly Cricketweb Awards if you ask me....

 

[Nate]

Doesn`t hurt to think about exactly how amazing he bowled as well.