Australia v Sri Lanka, 1st Test, Brisbane, 24-28 January, 2019

Vent your spleen and nominate your picks for the Aus XI here.

My thoughts from the T4 thread...

Time to jettison the two Darsh bros once and for all. Wank and Fink must go as well.

Build the new top 6 around Ed, Ooze and Blowie. Maybe MrsR can return. I still wouldn't write off Wrench, maybe open with Ed and him, Bangers at 3 and Ooze at 4. Monty still plays too much behind point, so ban him. Head at 5 and pick the next best middle order player at 6. The lower 5 pick themselves, although Koo needs some wrist position training.

Disagree about Mrs R. The cheat has no red ball form.

Give Dues a go instead, tho cbnlg prolly has something against him as well. I like Renshaw too but he has no form and there is bad blood with the coach.

I would give. ptomaine a go instead of Hack in Brisbane. He actually swings the ball. Hacks public utterances suggest absence of insight.

See no reason to improve Starc's average by getting a Brisbane test. Give Beerdork a go as the left armer.

Who's Dues?

NLWL2
Wrench or Bangers
Koaja
Blowie Wank or Finch
Blowie Wank or Finch
Stoiner or Lois Lane
Ima
2nd
Koo
Gaz
Purple

skully wrote:Who's Dues?

Your Spiv - Hughes.

Ed
Hughes
Uber
Quarpy
Head
GroinsRus
Ima
Second
Ptomaine
Starc or Beerdork
Elmer

I have absolutely no idea what teams have what players last time I saw Lanka Sangakkara was doing a Gilchrist with bat apart from being captain. However of Lanka had any team to beat in Aus this team would be it they can definitely sneak a test win here I feel.

Note: Blow me didn't even know Lankans pulled a 3-0 whitewash at home last. Seems a matter of stat now. Must have been heart wrenching for Ozzies.....

They're in their own crisis right now. Apart from Karunaratne, Chandimal and Mathews, none of their batsmen can be considered long term fixtures.

That, and their fast bowling has gone downhill ever since they lost Dhammika Prasad. And now Herath has also retired. Dilruwan is pretty good, but not Herath.

That said Dickwella is all sorts of awesome in his looniness. Genuinely a caricature for a keeper.

tricycle wrote:They're in their own crisis right now. Apart from Karunaratne, Chandimal and Mathews, none of their batsmen can be considered long term fixtures.

That, and their fast bowling has gone downhill ever since they lost Dhammika Prasad. And now Herath has also retired. Dilruwan is pretty good, but not Herath.

That said Dickwella is all sorts of awesome in his looniness. Genuinely a caricature for a keeper.

Agreed. With that name should play IPL with Bumrah.

Saw a bit of him todAy. Like Pant, he is fun to watch.

I am dreading the squad announcement. If one Marsh or Bancroft is selected I will again refuse to watch as I would be barracking for them to fail.

horace wrote:I am dreading the squad announcement. If one Marsh or Bancroft is selected I will again refuse to watch as I would be barracking for them to fail.

You won't need to barrack, h. Failure is a lock.

Will Pick has been interviewed by Tom Morris - available on Fox podcAst I think. Heard it replayed onSEN. He talked about when his depression got bad and he sought help.

He was in Perth and finished the days play 60 odd not out. He must have had a very bad night. He somehow got himself to the ground for a hit before play resumed. Told one of the coaches he was not in a good way - said the coach was awesome.

He agreed to resume his knock. He ended up making 243. He said he has little memory of the innings, other than when he was not concentrating on each delivery he was in another world. He said he felt like he was cheating because he was not himself.

Anyway it's a very interesting interview with an intelligent young man. I recommend a listen.

I hope either he or Sanga hear their names read out today by Hohns.

Puck has hardly played any cricket & given his mental state I’d say the last thing he needs is the pressure of a test call up.

Looks like Puke will get the call up.

I agree with BD though (albeit from a totally amateur perspective), it's hard to see how he needs the extra pressure of a Test gig and all the attention that comes from it when he was so recently in a dark place mentally.

It's official. Wrench and Monty in there squad as well. Marshes and Wank are out.

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Josh Hazlewood, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Will Pucovksi, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle.

And the CA XI squad for Hobart:

Cricket Australia XI squad: Joe Burns, Kurtis Patterson (vc), Scott Boland, Jake Doran, Jon Holland, Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser, Will Pucovski, Jason Sangha, Matt Renshaw, Chris Tremain.

Big Dog wrote:Puck has hardly played any cricket & given his mental state I’d say the last thing he needs is the pressure of a test call up.

What is it with cricket players and depression? I can't recall any other sport having this problem. I also seem to remember that ex cricketers are more prone to suicide than other sportsmen.

Definitely an improvement. Definitely not cbnlg's team. I expect others have kicked the shit out of preferences. No Warpies in the side says that. Thought GroinsRus would replace Hollow Man.

Bit stunned that Renshaw was selected. He has no Shield form and cbnlg doesn't like him.expect he will be 12th man.

Pity both Hack and Koo are playing. They've failed three series in a row.

Batting order
Monty
Ed
Uber
Quarpy
Puck
Gimme
Handshakes
Second
Koo
Elmer
Hack

They've failed in every series since GCS stopped shining the ball for them

I expect that the CA XI match will be a bit of a playoff between Burns, Renshaw and Marnus.


Expect Marnus' Saffie genes to come to the fore as he runs out Monty and Wrench.

taipan wrote:

Big Dog wrote:Puck has hardly played any cricket & given his mental state I’d say the last thing he needs is the pressure of a test call up.

What is it with cricket players and depression? I can't recall any other sport having this problem. I also seem to remember that ex cricketers are more prone to suicide than other sportsmen.

AFL players suffer "mental illness`" a lot ....usually means they are about to fail a drug test....not the bloke from Dowerin though

embee wrote:They've failed in every series since GCS stopped shining the ball for them

Shining?

embee wrote:

taipan wrote:

Big Dog wrote:Puck has hardly played any cricket & given his mental state I’d say the last thing he needs is the pressure of a test call up.

What is it with cricket players and depression? I can't recall any other sport having this problem. I also seem to remember that ex cricketers are more prone to suicide than other sportsmen.

AFL players suffer "mental illness`" a lot ....usually means they are about to fail a drug test....not the bloke from Dowerin though  

Yep, it's AFL PR 101.

Except for the Weasels. They fail mental health tests. Long term roid and other drug abuse is traditional in that Club.

Pucks story of being at his worst while flogging WA is compelling listening. Will see if I can find the Fox podcast and post it later.

Not one Warpie in the squad or CA xi. Interesting.

horace wrote:Except for the Weasels. They fail mental health tests. Long term roid and other drug abuse is traditional in that Club.

Pucks story of being at his worst while flogging WA is compelling listening. Will see if I can find the Fox podcast and post it later.

Not one Warpie in the squad or CA xi. Interesting.

There are a couple in the JAMODI squad.