Why is Australia Only Playing 5 Tests this Summer?

[SillyCowCorner1]

Eh, winning 2-0 against Pak is easier than winning 3-0 against Pak, but on the other hand if a game is rained out or a massive road, 1-0 from two Tests gets less points than 2-0 from three Tests. There's also now slightly more chance of them losing/drawing the series.

Playing four and five Test series against teams you're expected to smash isn't tactically the best idea, but I don't think two Test series are really tactically superior to three Test series unless they really suck.

I think 3-test series are just right. They sit in the middle. 5-tests series are fun though.

 

[vcs]

Pakistan will probably do something daft like getting Smith out cheaply, but still lose by an innings because Mitch Marsh made a double century or something.

Going to Australia is not the hopeless assignment it used to be, though. It will be a tough task to survive their bowling attack, but if teams can make 350-400 in the first innings, they have a good chance.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Wait, people are worried Oz-NZ is not going to be a good test series? That's bonkers. Am really looking forward to it. Bet the NZ bowlers do better this time.

No it's not bonkers. NZ have been **** every Test series they've played against Aus since I've been watching cricket. It's "bonkers" to say it's "bonkers" on the basis that you "bet the NZ bowlers do better this time".

I'd be surprised if they didn't do better but it's a perfectly sensible response to be scepitical and not be expecting much from them

 

[Burgey]

It’s not sensible though, given the make up and form of the two sides, particularly when one test is a floodlit lottery and another is an almost certain snore draw at Melbourne. Certainly think Australia are favourites at home but they’re one Smith failure (lol I know) from a rout. Warner seems a shadow and Khawaja won’t be there, so the home town bullies aren’t as consistent as they once were.

Am hoping a couple of the younger bats do well, so long as they aren’t Harris or Bancroft.

 

[Flem274*]

while it shows jedibrah hasn't watched cricket for very long, he isn't wrong. nz always melt to australia in test cricket regardless of what both sides have done to other sides in recent history.

that 2015 team went toe to toe with pakistan in the uae after pakistan crushed australia, saw off the likes of india on home turf then proceeded to absolutely melt home and away to clarke's side.

 

[Flem274*]

it's a bit like wales in rugby - wales are ****ing good right now and were deservedly in the top 3 pre-wc but they haven't beaten nz since 1953 and despite being close to us in the rankings, i'll believe it when i see it.

 

[mr_mister]

while it shows jedibrah hasn't watched cricket for very long, he isn't wrong. nz always melt to australia in test cricket regardless of what both sides have done to other sides in recent history.

that 2015 team went toe to toe with pakistan in the uae after pakistan crushed australia, saw off the likes of india on home turf then proceeded to absolutely melt home and away to clarke's side.

Smith was captaining by then. Clarke was on the scrap heap

 

[Burgey]

while it shows jedibrah hasn't watched cricket for very long, he isn't wrong. nz always melt to australia in test cricket regardless of what both sides have done to other sides in recent history.

that 2015 team went toe to toe with pakistan in the uae after pakistan crushed australia, saw off the likes of india on home turf then proceeded to absolutely melt home and away to clarke's side.

I think you're underestimating as a factor the understandable nervousness the Kiwis feel playing on larger Australian grounds #MCGsobig

 

[jimmy101]

Can't forget that awesome 2001 series between the sides though. Fleming's side did really well to go toe-to-toe with that all-conquering Aussie side.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Can't forget that awesome 2001 series between the sides though. Fleming's side did really well to go toe-to-toe with that all-conquering Aussie side.

not really. The first 2 Tests were one-sided domination and only rained stopped it from being 2-0 going in to the 3rd Test, which NZ admittedly did outdo themselves in.

 

[jimmy101]

Still, it was a better result than most would have expected.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Sure, if you look purely at the scoreline. But it doesn't tell you anything about how well the teams played. If Bangladesh came to Australian and drew a Test series 0-0 because the whole thing was rained out would you say that they "did really well"?

 

[jimmy101]

Eh, I just remember enjoying it thoroughly at the time. Was probably the era when my interest in cricket was at its peak.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Yeah I enjoyed it too. I'm probably being needlessly pedantic about your wording because I will agree that it was impressive that NZ were as competitive as they were (even though it wasn't much) given their limited resources. Fleming's captaincy was a pleasure to watch, even if he was probably being a bit too funky for the sake of being funky at times.

A lot of his plans and traps worked, Aus went from 0-200+ to 5-less than 300 I think on the first day of the series with most of the wickets being deliberately planned for by Fleming. Craig McMillan taking bulk wickets caught on the boundary from slow half trackers was hilarious, especially because that was exactly the plan, and it showed the hubris of the Australian batsmen. Martyn getting out to the 2-3 backward points a couple of times too IIRC.

 

[jimmy101]

Nice. You remember it a lot better than I do!

 

[NZTailender]

Yeah I'm not expecting much, just hoping we don't get drubbed. After we stole Hobart in 2011 and toe to toe in Perth 2001 there hasn't been many positives in our test series vs each other.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Got a bad feeling this will be the David "Davey" Warner redemption series.

 

[TheJediBrah]

He will have well and truly cemented his legacy as one of the biggest Home Track Bullies in history if it is

 

[Bahnz]

NZ are in a better space this time than they were 4 years ago. BMac had basically given up trying to captain and bat properly by the 2015/16 season with negative consequences for both his bowlers and his own batting. Boult was coming off a stress fracture and was struggling to crack 130 kmh. Wagner was out of fashion as the selectors hadn't yet figured out that Matt Henry's ***y line and length was of little use on Australian roads. Guptill was swiftly found out. And Mark Craig finally stopped treading water and sank like a stone. This time Boult is (touch wood) fully fit, we have a well established seam bowling trio with an exciting prospect (Ferguson) waiting in the wings if one of them falls away. The batting lineup overall looks to have very few obvious weak points. And of course there's Somers Sommerville to bring his experience of bowling in Aus conditions in the spin bowling role.

Would still rate Australia very very heavy favourites, on the back of Smith's greatness, Warner's likely rejuvenation on home soil and their awesome bowling attack.

 

[Prince EWS]

If they pick Tim Southee over Wagner again, they deserve a drubbing like last time.

They'll just pick both. Last time they picked Bracewell over Wagner.