This is a VERY good point IMO. I ignored it because of how well he did vs India, but he's definitely been underperforming for a while and slipped under the radar recently because of the aforementioned India series and the other batsmen around him underperforming. I would even be open to keeping him there after smith returns depending on how Inglis goes.
Aussie selectors learning from indian ones. One word =experience
Abbott has no Test experience
Have mentioned before that I have no idea why they gave Bartlett a CA contract when they’re not picking him and the same now goes for Morris
But has experience of being in squad
That is underwhelming considering how seam friendly our shield pitches have been.
Abbott took ~20 wickets @21 last shield season when he played and outbowled starc when they played together tbf. The issue here is CA picking Abbott over O'Neill or Barlett when either can do the "bowling cover who bats a bit" schtick and aren't on the wrong side of 30.
Bartlett is not in A squad as he's playing American League T20. He just took 4-28 for San Francisco
I think the bigger question is why he's playing in a random t20 league right now? The team he's playing isn't even IPL affiliated; I doubt a good season here does anything a good bbl season wouldn't.
I guess you could ask Behrendorff, Connolly, Edwards, Fraser-McGurk, Marsh, Maxwell, Owen, Smith, Short, Stoinis and Warner who all also signed to play American League with Bartlett
Yeah, would have been an ideal opportunity to rotate the pace attack with Starc and Hazlewood resting a test each and playing someone like Morris for a couple of tests while Konstas should now open the batting.
Brother wi have good side which is fully capable of upseting aussies
Apparently it’s with CA blessing but the situation is very strange as he’s been overlooked for everything since being given a CA contract
I think if the Aussies blood some new batters and they go well, you can give them a lot of credit as our seam attack is as good as most in world cricket. Even without Roach it's decent.Brother wi have good side which is fully capable of upseting aussies
Good bowling, somewhat weakened by the bone head decision to not pick Roach. But the batting is incredibly poor.Brother wi have good side which is fully capable of upseting aussies
Did some digging and I'm not as certain on this. First image attached is head's test average based on when he walks in to bat (pre or post 30 over mark) in Australia since 2021. Second image is the same for smith in all conditions in the 2010's vs 2020's. These number's are slightly out of date, don't think they include the Sri Lanka series or WTC final, but I think the idea still stands. Head and Smith have been far better when they start vs the older ball. Same thing happened in the WTC final as well. Smith averaged 40 having to bat early, and head struggled when walking in vs the newer ball. Head batting 3 doesn't solve the "head and smith do worse when they face the new ball" issue, and I don't think inglis is going to fair much better if he has to walk in vs a newish ball at 5 like head at 3 would promote. I think the more appropriate solution is trying to find a way to get the top 3 to soak up balls and let the middle order walk in later, not trying to solve this issue with a stopgap middle order bat at 3.
