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Australian test selection 2020/21

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I've said this before but I think for South Africa the following first XI should play:

Warner
Khawaja
Labuschagne
Smith
Pucovski
Green
Paine+*
Cummins
Starc
Lyon
Hazlewood

I honestly also think that Khawaja should be promoted to captain if we don't win there. Paine really should be on his final warning as skipper. Khawaja's been a good captain for Queensland and is probably our best opener in the medium term not named Warner.

Pucovski looked the goods in his test match against India, but I am really loathe to have him open. Opening is the batting position most likely to see him badged again and with his concussion history, getting any kind of hit in the head is likely to force him to sub out. Bat him at 5 and promote him up after a few years of not getting knocked out. Pucovski has only moved up to opener this season, so I don't think him playing lower in tests is a real issue. He needs to be persisted with and nurtured and the best place for that is at 5.

People have pointed the finger at Starc for our loss but there are some reasons why I don't think he should be dropped. All of his best replacements (Richardson and Pattinson) have injury concerns. He bowled extremely well in Adelaide and Melbourne and was a bit unlucky in Sydney. He looked tired at Brisbane, particularly in the fourth innings, but I don't think he's too far from being right.

What needs to change are the tactics used with Starc. Basically he should never bowl around the wicket. The only time it's of use is for softening a batsman up with a bumper barrage, but Cummins is way better at that tactic than he is. Starc should focus on bowling length on off from over the wicket 90% of the time, with the occasional interruption for a bouncer-yorker combo. The times he looked best this summer were when he was targeting the top of off from over the wicket. He wasted entire spells in the last two tests bowling short balls, both from over and around the wicket. He's not Mitchell Johnson and shouldn't try to be.

Lyon is a huge problem. Bowled way too flat, fast and without purchase for the entire series. But there's nobody realistically to replace him. I place the series loss against India on a combination of leadership and Lyon's poor performance. It was genuinely the worst I've seen him bowl in Australia and the worst since Wade was keeper.

I think it's a bad idea to keep strong players in the shield because they disagree with Langer. Bring back Khawaja and ditch Langer.
 

Smudge49

U19 12th Man
I've said this before but I think for South Africa the following first XI should play:

Warner
Khawaja
Labuschagne
Smith
Pucovski
Green
Paine+*
Cummins
Starc
Lyon
Hazlewood

I honestly also think that Khawaja should be promoted to captain if we don't win there. Paine really should be on his final warning as skipper. Khawaja's been a good captain for Queensland and is probably our best opener in the medium term not named Warner.

Pucovski looked the goods in his test match against India, but I am really loathe to have him open. Opening is the batting position most likely to see him badged again and with his concussion history, getting any kind of hit in the head is likely to force him to sub out. Bat him at 5 and promote him up after a few years of not getting knocked out. Pucovski has only moved up to opener this season, so I don't think him playing lower in tests is a real issue. He needs to be persisted with and nurtured and the best place for that is at 5.

People have pointed the finger at Starc for our loss but there are some reasons why I don't think he should be dropped. All of his best replacements (Richardson and Pattinson) have injury concerns. He bowled extremely well in Adelaide and Melbourne and was a bit unlucky in Sydney. He looked tired at Brisbane, particularly in the fourth innings, but I don't think he's too far from being right.

What needs to change are the tactics used with Starc. Basically he should never bowl around the wicket. The only time it's of use is for softening a batsman up with a bumper barrage, but Cummins is way better at that tactic than he is. Starc should focus on bowling length on off from over the wicket 90% of the time, with the occasional interruption for a bouncer-yorker combo. The times he looked best this summer were when he was targeting the top of off from over the wicket. He wasted entire spells in the last two tests bowling short balls, both from over and around the wicket. He's not Mitchell Johnson and shouldn't try to be.

Lyon is a huge problem. Bowled way too flat, fast and without purchase for the entire series. But there's nobody realistically to replace him. I place the series loss against India on a combination of leadership and Lyon's poor performance. It was genuinely the worst I've seen him bowl in Australia and the worst since Wade was keeper.

I think it's a bad idea to keep strong players in the shield because they disagree with Langer. Bring back Khawaja and ditch Langer.
Khawaja isn't coming back into this team in a million years, leave alone captain the side. Uzi has had a history of challenging authority and that isn't liked much within this Australian set-up. Management publicly have put a mark across his name, suggesting he is a low energy player.
 

Gnske

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Australian cricket is dead you fools and you're all planning the next series.

How do resurrect it? How do solve Australian cricket, there needs to be some sort of solution with finality.
 

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
Only way to save Australian cricket is to bring in a 90% SA test team

1.Weatherald
2.Henry HUNT
3.Marnus
4.Will Bosisto
5.Travis head
6.Harry neilsen
7.Liam Scott
8.Tim Oakley (C)
9.Cummins
10.Bird
11.Pope.
 

GoodAreasShane

Cricketer Of The Year
I actually genuinely think people would like Timmeh if they got to see a bit of him

Australian cricket needs more lunatic fast bowlers
 

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
When I saw SA I though 'South Africa'.

Could we get an Australian SA-born XI? Marnus, Neser and Chris Green are the only ones I can think of, unless you want to count Botha (I think he's been living here long enough).
 

GoodAreasShane

Cricketer Of The Year
I read somehere that Matt Kelly was born in Durban, although I can't recall where . Grew up in Perth and came all through the WA underage setup though
 

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Couldn't think of anywhere else to write this, but I'm worried that they're gonna wreck Green's bowling by trying to cast him as a bounce merchant just because he's tall.

In the Shield he's taken wickets by bowling sensibly, good length on or just outside off stump, a bit of seam and outswing. In the tests he pitched far too short for my liking, even briefly trying some ridiculous bouncers around the wicket. His bowling will be far better if he tries to bowl like Jamieson.
 

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