Australia v England, 4th Test, Melbourne, 26-30 December, 2013

So, the hard work of Test Cricket continues after the urn changed hands in Perth. The players now get a well-earned 8 day break before locking horns again at the MCG cauldron.

Changes?

bad weather in, bouncy pitch out.

surely england should ring in some changes with the series lost. broad will probably not be risked. panesar should replace swann. anderson will be picked since TINA

kp and cook on thin ice. the skipper will survive

4th test is a good chance to blood in a whole lot of youngsters. I say bring in a whole load of em and test them out. This is THE opportunity, and do not be staid and uptight about the entire thing.

Assuming Broad won't make it, I'd go-

Cook(c)
Carberry
Root
Bell
Ballance
Stokes
Bairstow+
Bresnan
Tremlett
Anderson
Panesar

Tremlett's in there for his reasonable number 9 batting as much as anything else. Surely they can't play a tail of Anderson, Rankin, and Panesar. And Finn has completely lost it. I guess they might give some though to calling up a bowler from the performance squad. Chris Jordan or Tymal Mills?

KP, Prior, and Swann get the axe.

Can't see any changes for Oz unless there is an injury. 8 days will hopefully be enough for Rhino recharge.

Prior surely will be lucky to escape after the disaster of this Test.

JGK wrote:Can't see any changes for Oz unless there is an injury. 8 days will hopefully be enough for Rhino recharge.

Aye, Rhino would be the only doubt for us. How grouse is it not to have to gnash teeth over who should play in the next Test??   

There was talk that if Aus wrapped up the Ashes in Perth then players would be released for the Big Bash , if CA follow through on that all I can say is  

Henry wrote:Assuming Broad won't make it, I'd go-

Cook(c)
Carberry
Root
Bell
Ballance
Stokes
Bairstow+
Bresnan
Tremlett
Anderson
Panesar

Tremlett's in there for his reasonable number 9 batting as much as anything else. Surely they can't play a tail of Anderson, Rankin, and Panesar. And Finn has completely lost it. I guess they might give some though to calling up a bowler from the performance squad. Chris Jordan or Tymal Mills?

KP, Prior, and Swann get the axe.

I honestly can't see the English NSP having the balls to sack KP and Swann. Matt Prior may not be so lucky.

If Sturat is not fit for the MCG it'll be very interesting to see who they go with as a replacement.

JGK wrote:Prior surely will be lucky to escape after the disaster of this Test.

Can't bat, can't keep, can't grow hair.

skully wrote:

Henry wrote:Assuming Broad won't make it, I'd go-

Cook(c)
Carberry
Root
Bell
Ballance
Stokes
Bairstow+
Bresnan
Tremlett
Anderson
Panesar

Tremlett's in there for his reasonable number 9 batting as much as anything else. Surely they can't play a tail of Anderson, Rankin, and Panesar. And Finn has completely lost it. I guess they might give some though to calling up a bowler from the performance squad. Chris Jordan or Tymal Mills?

KP, Prior, and Swann get the axe.

I honestly can't see the English NSP having the balls to sack KP and Swann. Matt Prior may not be so lucky.

If Sturat is not fit for the MCG it'll be very interesting to see who they go with as a replacement.

They won't make any "seismic" changes on this tour - only easy to sugarcoat tweaks. Prior will be "rested". Broad won't be risked. And that'll pretty much be that.

Cook
Carberry
Root (shouldn't be at three)
Pietersen
Bell
Stokes
Bairstow +
Bresnan
Swann
Anderson
Rankin or Finn or Tremlett

There's not a shit load else they can do. I'd like to see Gary Ballance get a chance to show what he's about, but it's hard to see anyone in the top five getting dropped to accommodate him - although a case could perhaps be made against them all.

You're right that Root shouldn't be at 3. He scores far to slowly for such an important position.

Shirley they'll play Belf at 3??

JGK wrote:You're right that Root shouldn't be at 3.  He scores far to slowly for such an important position.

Makes no sense that he was picked there in the first place, given that they'd demoted him from opener to number six the previous game because they felt, at this stage in his career, facing the new ball first up wasn't playing to his strengths. It was also claimed that Ian Bell campaigned to bat at three - which is where he's played all his FC career and where he's often stated he wants to play for England.

Yet they went with Root. Ending up with their two most inexperienced batsmen, Carberry and Root, coming together at first drop and trying to keep the Aussies at bay, while the "proven" talent hid in the shed.

Nonsense.

Here's my team:

Pussy #1
Pussy #2
Pussy #3
Pussy #4
Pussy #5
Pussy #6
Pussy #7
Pussy #8
Pussy #9
Pussy #10
Pussy #11

Sexy.

@Dello: True.


Bell
Carberry
Cook
Root
Ballance
Stokes
Bairstow +
Swann *
Rankin
Anderson (look in his eyes) or Mills
Tremlett or Panesar (see conditions)

So I've taken on board the objections to my previous team: that you can't just fly in an opener at this stage - however obvious the error in the first place -, and that Belly should not be let off so lightly as to be dropped.

It's time he showed all his range of technique and intelligence, and opened. Cook can go back to where he was strong. (Not captaining.)

Suffice it to say, "my" previous team for Melbin was tongue-in-cheek. The tragedy is, the joking XI above is only half a joke - and would probably do rather better than the one they do send out.

I just don't see how they can't drop at least one batsman after this debacle. If none of them are dropped now, then when WILL they be dropped? No one thought Stokes was ready, yet he's come in and made England's only century of the series, so they shouldn't be so fearful of giving Ballance a go. No point in easing him in against a half strength Sri Lankan attack next Summer and getting a false sense of how good he actually is.

Test him now. See what he's got. We did it with Stokes and now we potentially have a world class all rounder on our hands. Maybe Ballance will come through too. And if we drop KP now we'll definitely find out if he still wants to play for England or not. If he does there will be no whingeing, no Twitter outbursts, no texts....he'll just accept his dropping, and work his but off to get back into the side, and maybe achieve that next Summer. His knee still isn't 100% anyway. Just like Swann's elbow and Anderson's body in general.

Brass Monkey wrote:Here's my team:

Pussy #1
Pussy #2
Pussy #3
Pussy #4
Pussy #5
Pussy #6
Pussy #7
Pussy #8
Pussy #9
Pussy #10
Pussy #11

Sexy.

Your team's a bit gash.

Boom! He's here all week, ladies and gentlemen...

TGM is arguing for the Shermanator to bat at 3...unforch I think that Carbs will be chopped with Root to open with Cook...Belf to move to 3 and Ballance to come in at 5...assuming Princess is fit, Bres may be sent out out to pasture with one of the mcg light towers to bowl for the poms...

I think the Chin must go and Monty must replace him. There are only 3 lefties in oz batting line-up for Chin to work on and he has really been flogged for fun by Oz....but the final nail for Chin was that he was regularly heard on stump cam swearing at his team mates

Neil D wrote:Boom!  He's here all week, ladies and gentlemen...

And the week after that. And the week after that. And the...

F*ck my life.

horace wrote:TGM is arguing for the Shermanator to bat at 3...unforch I think that Carbs will be chopped with Root to open with Cook...Belf to move to 3 and Ballance to come in at 5...assuming Princess is fit, Bres may be sent out out to pasture with one of the mcg light towers to bowl for the poms...

It could happen. Would be tough on Carbs, who has looked the goods in pretty much every innings, but without kicking on to a major score, but the facts are the facts: he's in there to make major scores.

Not that anyone else has made any major scores, but unfortunately for Carbs, they've made major scores in the recent past for England. And he hasn't.

I think Swann's time is just about up. He's been a brilliant player for these past 5-6 years but its time to give Monty a few games before Swann's average heads completely north of 30 and he spoils some of the good memories. Maybe give him Sydney where we should play 2 spinners if he is determined to prove his future.

We might end up playing Bresnan just for his batting, which is a sad state of affairs. I suppose the MCG is his pitch so he'll get another go. However if Broad only has a bruised foot then he really should play and that will enable us to add a bit more pace into the attack.

Prior needs to be put out of his misery - like Trott, he'll have a chance to stake a claim in County Cricket next summer, but for now Bairstow should get a game, even though I don't think his keepingis up to it at this stage.

My team for Melbourne:

Cook
Carberry
Root
Pietersen
Bell
Stokes
Bairstow
Broad(if fit)/Bresnan
Rankin
Anderson
Panesar

This could be a huge loss to cricket - if major league baseball, or even minor league, was a circus.

http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/news/david-warner-mulls-us-baseball-trial-013626690--spt.html