The Australian top order doom and gloom thread

[Prince EWS]

Not while Clarke's captain.

I think the fact that Simon Katich has retired from Shield cricket plays a bigger role in it all than who the captain is at this point.

Seriously, he's retired. Don't now why his name keeps coming up.

 

[Spikey]

He'll be over in England during the Ashes though.

but yeah to just call **** on the clarke/katich. it's no surprise one of the 36yos got dumped following the ashes. katich, due to injury, was already out of the team, his last few matches had been pretty bad, hussey just had a gun series and ponting wasn't being dropped. so

 

[Ruckus]

Warner is still a keeper for me. I'm confident he will come good, but just needs more match experience. Have lots of doubts about Cowan now though. A good century on a very flat deck doesn't override the fact he hasn't done anything else of note really. Wouldn't really want to bring Hughes back so soon, but I think maybe it's gonna have to happen. Reasonably confident he will be a top class player at some point too, but there could be a lot of shaky moments before that. Think we probably need to settle with the, basically universally accepted 'future' batting order, for a good deal of time, and be patient. E.g. Warner, Hughes, Watson, Khawaja, Clarke, Hussey. With Ponting's retirement, it seems like a good enough time to start a new phase with the team again.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Aussies have as weak a batting line up as they have since the 80's. Doesn't look like improving much in the near future either.

 

[cnerd123]

Time to start a thread like this about the bowling stocks

 

[fredfertang]

Not one for the future, but I'm sure Chris Rogers could do a job next summer - I'm certainly glad he'll be playing County cricket

 

[Ruckus]

The bowling stocks are fine, the selectors are just yet to take advantage of them.

 

[TumTum]

The bowling stocks are fine, the selectors are just yet to take advantage of them.

Or they are all injured.

 

[Dan]

We're horrible. Terrible. Awe-inspiringly pathetic.

A nation of front foot planters and across the line heavers. A country in which Steven Smith is a legitimate top 6 option. A shadow of our former selves.

And yet we still can't beat New Zealand in the doom and gloom stakes (or in Hobart).

NZ at least has the bright spark of Kane 'Inconsistently Underperforming Gun' Williamson in their top order. And Ross Taylor isn't bad at all. Plus that Jesse Ryder bloke can apparently bat a bit and at least Martin Guptill tries.

We have a T20 specialist with footwork that makes Virender Sehwag look like a ballroom dancer, an all rounder with a glass body and a serious case of vertigo, and a faded, retired giant. At least Ed Cowan tries.

Not to mention we're looking at bringing back a bloke who has nightmares about Martin Guptill when he nicks himself shaving #clearlyoriginal or picking Steven Smith as a legitimate top 6 option.

Everything is ****ed. We now must wait for our lord and saviour Joe Burns to get selected and pull us out of this technically flawed, predictable, talented-but-useless hole that we've found ourselves in.

I rest my case.

 

[Hurricane]

I guess we picked Ingram who doesn't really have any technique. So we can't be snobs towards Smith - but I would prefer in the interests of me getting a good nights sleep uninterrupted by night mares of front foot baseball shots that he not be promoted as an option.

 

[Red]

How's Rogers going domestically. Cos he's another forgotten one. Getting him and Cossy in there would sort the **** out.

Watson ffs. IS NOT A TEST BATSMAN.

 

[Justo]

Current Shield stats down to Rogers.

Player Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 0 4s 6s
PJ Hughes 5 10 0 518 158 51.80 891 58.13 1 3 0 69 0
(South Australia)
CJ Ferguson 6 11 0 463 164 42.09 1002 46.20 1 1 0 53 1
(South Australia)
UT Khawaja 6 11 0 438 138 39.81 752 58.24 1 3 1 61 6
(Queensland)
AJ Doolan 5 8 1 409 149 58.42 738 55.42 1 2 0 60 2
(Tasmania)
MJ Cosgrove 6 10 0 373 104 37.30 687 54.29 1 2 1 51 2
(Tasmania)
RT Ponting 4 6 3 355 162* 118.33 587 60.47 1 2 0 38 9
(Tasmania)
BCJ Cutting 5 9 0 348 109 38.66 362 96.13 1 1 0 29 16
(Queensland)
CJL Rogers 6 10 2 340 125 42.50 731 46.51 1 0 0 43 1

Should have bought in Cutting to shore up our batting.

 

[NUFAN]

Don't worry guys someone will step up in the next few weeks of hard fought Shield matches is what I would like to say, but it's Big Bash time..

 

[Flem274*]

We're horrible. Terrible. Awe-inspiringly pathetic.

A nation of front foot planters and across the line heavers. A country in which Steven Smith is a legitimate top 6 option. A shadow of our former selves.

And yet we still can't beat New Zealand in the doom and gloom stakes (or in Hobart).

NZ at least has the bright spark of Kane 'Inconsistently Underperforming Gun' Williamson in their top order. And Ross Taylor isn't bad at all. Plus that Jesse Ryder bloke can apparently bat a bit and at least Martin Guptill tries.

We have a T20 specialist with footwork that makes Virender Sehwag look like a ballroom dancer, an all rounder with a glass body and a serious case of vertigo, and a faded, retired giant. At least Ed Cowan tries.

Not to mention we're looking at bringing back a bloke who has nightmares about Martin Guptill when he nicks himself shaving #clearlyoriginal or picking Steven Smith as a legitimate top 6 option.

Everything is ****ed. We now must wait for our lord and saviour Joe Burns to get selected and pull us out of this technically flawed, predictable, talented-but-useless hole that we've found ourselves in.

I rest my case.

On a scale of GIMH to Bahnz I give you a Neil Pickup.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Dave Hussey would be a nice little stopgap to keep the young fellas' sense of entitlement in check. Make them fight it out for another season.

 

[uvelocity]

dont worry guys its sri lanka next and we will beat them at home we have been batting all day on greentops

 

[cnerd123]

If you're surprised by what Hastings actually bowls in comparison to his First Class record then you'd probably have a stroke watching James Faulkner bowl; he has over 100 FC wickets @ 22 bowling bowling like a post-injury James Franklin. In fact I'd probably still rate Franklin ahead of him as a bowler as he can at least swing the new rock sometimes; they're very similar currently in every other way.

The Hobart Sheffied Shield wicket has been absurd in the past three seasons or so and he plays for Tasmania so he's benefited from it hugely. Not to mention the diminishing standard of Shield batting to bowl against. The Sheffield Shield just isn't what is was as an indicator for Test success, which is why you get people like me - usually a huge advocate of performance over potential in selection - advocating someone like Hazelwood over these blokes. The bowling records of heaps of players are very flattering at the moment for a couple of reasons and if we want to be performance-based in selection we need to closely examine how these bowlers go in different situations, including the flatter pitches we see in the Ryobi Cup.

Going off this...if you have some batsmen averaging around 40 in the Shield over the last couple of seasons, they must be pretty decent technique wise - or atleast against swing and seam.

If the Test wickets are flatter, they shouldn't have so much trouble making a step up?

 

[Furball]

Going off this...if you have some batsmen averaging around 40 in the Shield over the last couple of seasons, they must be pretty decent technique wise - or atleast against swing and seam.

If the Test wickets are flatter, they shouldn't have so much trouble making a step up?

You would think so, but Phil Hughes has no problem smashing Shield attacks on minefields then comes into international cricket and looks like he's never seen a bat.

 

[cnerd123]

You would think so, but Phil Hughes has no problem smashing Shield attacks on minefields then comes into international cricket and looks like he's never seen a bat.

Probably more of a confidence thing than anything else.

 

[AlanJLegend]

You would think so, but Phil Hughes has no problem smashing Shield attacks on minefields then comes into international cricket and looks like he's never seen a bat.

^^Definitely agree that this is just a confidence thing. After seeing him absolutely flay SA for two centuries in his second test, it's pretty obvious he can bat. That being said, his technique is far from textbook which may hurt him a bit at international level.

He does have 10-15 years left though, during which time I expect him to 'come good' (if he isn't already) and score an absolutely colossal amount of FC and test runs.