Righty-o, let's see how I did
Winner: Australia [duh]
Scoreline: 3-1 (Sydney to be drawn due to rain) [was silly to think England could win one, but got the Sydney bit correct, just]
Most runs: Marnus [the obvious choice, but no]
Most wickets: Cummins [the obvious choice and correct]
Compton-Miller Medal: Cummins, if he stays fit [nope, the bowling was pretty even]
Surprise packet (g00d): Buttler [must've been high when I thought of this one]
Surprise packet (bad): Smith [claiming it. He needs to go back to his 2014-15 or so batting stye or he's cooked. That requires the coaching staff to point it out. He also needs a non-cricket hobby so he can relax]
Players to get a call up/dayboo: Richardson, but not in the place of Starc [good call]
Players to get dropped/
R E S T E D
E
S
T
E
D: Anderson or Broad, Khawaja if he starts (if Head starts he'll get the whole series) [wrong on Usman, astoundingly right on Broaderson]
Random prediction: the series to be deeply unsatisfying and generally lacking in quality performances. Also disappointing in that England won't be debuting a helpless spinner at Sydney. Oh, and if Cummins does get injured, expect a torrent of 'why fast bowlers should never be captain' media. [claiming this one. Head's tons were electric but the batting performances varied between 'shoulda still done better and WTF?' and while Boland in Melbourne was amazing but that was also terrible batting. The Australian bowling vastly outmatched England's and while the Australian batting never gave as full an account of itself as it should have]
5.5/10
A pass and pretty decent by CW standards, but the whole series was just *ugh* because of the low quality of the batting, especially from England. When was the last time a non-minnow team was so astoundingly bad in Australia? At least the pitches were much faster and spicier than has generally been the case recently, so there was less grind.
