India v Australia, 1st Test, Nagpur, 9-13 February, 2023

With the first Test only a month away, and the series results likely to determine who will play in the World Championship match, who will be in the Australian touring squad of 14-15?

All those who played v WI and in Tests 1 and 2 v Sourh Africa have IMO done enough. Renshaw had no opportunity to do enough to enhance his chances, Agar may actually have done just enough to miss out !! Harris Renshaw and Handscomb are probably fighting for the same spot with Handscomb's reserve keeping ability and supposed expertise against spin in his favour, Murphy may not have been around long enough for this to be his first tour, but he hasn't got much competition for the crucial second spinner's spot.

My squad: Warner, Khawaja, Labuschagne, Smith, Head, Green, Carey, Lyon, Starc, Hazlewood, Boland, Handscomb, Cummins, Neser, and one of Agar/Murphy/Swepson - probably Murphy. If Starc and or Green aren't fit, the replacement players will be hard to choose ... probably Morris for Stac, and Agar or Sean Abbott if Green is unavailable.

I’d so do anything to be a year younger.

lardbucket wrote:With the first Test only a month away, and the series results likely to determine who will play in the World Championship match, who will be in the Australian touring squad of 14-15?

All those who played v WI and in Tests 1 and 2 v Sourh Africa have IMO done enough. Renshaw had no opportunity to do enough to enhance his chances, Agar may actually have done just enough to miss out !! Harris Renshaw and Handscomb are probably fighting for the same spot with Handscomb's reserve keeping ability and supposed expertise against spin in his favour, Murphy may not have been around long enough for this to be his first tour, but he hasn't got much competition for the crucial second spinner's spot.

My squad: Warner, Khawaja, Labuschagne, Smith, Head, Green, Carey, Lyon, Starc, Hazlewood, Boland, Handscomb, Cummins, Neser, and one of Agar/Murphy/Swepson - probably Murphy. If Starc and or Green aren't fit, the replacement players will be hard to choose ... probably Morris for Stac, and Agar or Sean Abbott if Green is unavailable.

Think the Squad will be a little larger. Assuming Starc and Green are fit, I think only one of Boland or Neser will go, probably the latter. I would take Morris.

Expect they will take Renshaw or Bancroft as cover for ‘MOTS’ Warner.

Listened to Phil Jaques rave about Murphy. However he is young and an offy and I doubt Lyon wants the heir apparent on tour. Maybe Todd is better off staying at home and ripping through Shield teams. The same argument applies to the lefty orthodox Qldr, ‘Special K’. Unhappily I reckon Agar goes.

Of the leggies, Swepson and form are a distant memory, while wunderkind Sangha has been injured. Pope is in SA Grade Cricket. I think the selectors want three spinners and Swepson will go.

Probable Squad: Warner, ussie, Marnus, Smith, Head, Green, Carey, Agar, Starc, Cummins, Lyon. - First Test where the pitch takes spin. Others Renshaw, Handscomb, Neser, Haze, Swepson.

lardbucket wrote:Sean Abbott if Green is unavailable.

that's enough foruming for today then...    

On Abbott, I do wonder how much the burden of Phil Hughes’ death affected his development and career.

He has still had a good career as a wholehearted Shield bowler who can also bat a bit. I guess he has made a decent living from the BBL, but I don’t follow that Sport.

*Australia Test squad for tour of India: * Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

I've made no secret of my lack of respect for that dinosaur Crappelli, but I did have some very rare agreement with the tool when he said Ashton Agar is not a Test bowler, prior to T3 v SAf.

The more you look at this squad, the more bizarre it becomes.

Starc, Green & Handscomb are all injured & unlikely to be available for T1    . There are no FC games before T1 so why 4 spinners with no games to trial them in?

If it's a turner in Nagpur (which the Bannies would be mad not to produce), how can you pick Agar on his T3 v SAf showing?? This looks a classic "oh we farked up in selecting him for that Test but won't admit it" selection. So do you chuck Swepson in?? Murphy to debut?? WTF??

Why is Lance Morris even in the squad?? This is India with it low turners, FFS. [Awaits outrage from the SGWT]. Why did they cart Marcus Harris around all summer, only to flick him for the injured Handscomb? FWIW, I don't disagree with Harris being flicked.

Farkin weird selections all round. Some seriously expensive hedging being done by the NSP.

We've never sent a squad of 18 anywhere before as far as I can recall.

Even in the early 70's, when we used to send squads to the UK for 3 months or more for an Ashes series and seemingly endless County games before and between the Tests, we only sent 17, including a reserve keeper, a couple of reserve batsmen, and enough fast bowlers to last 3 months. I can still name the entire 72 squad without having to check, although one name sticks in the craw ...

Guess it’s the squad culture that’s taken over most sports, even if cricket hasn’t adopted in-game substitutions bar concussion replacements and an unsuccessful trial of tactical subs in JAMODIs some years back. Football teams used to win titles using 15 players in a season, look how that’s changed!

Cricket has always been behind other sports in terms of squad sizes and it’s fair enough for Tests as it’s a lot of hanging around and you can typically just send for replacements between matches if required. Having different options on hand bowling-wise is increasingly valuable, though.

Its a squad of 14 with two work experience kids getting fast tracked into team culture and two net bowlers who offer spin variety for Smudge and Marnus to practice on

Actually assuming they rate their spin bowlers as being better than ours, producing a ridiculous pitch would be crazy. They made a match-winner out of Steve O'Keefe last time they pulled that stunt. Why risk making our bad bowlers look good?

Fred Nerk wrote:Why risk making our bad bowlers look good?

‘again’

4-0 India.

Hard to argue.

And that's without the next Tendulkar in the squad.

Strinos will be OK... England's wrong uns managed to look OK for half the matches... India have frailties, seems to me that Pant manages to whack them out of trouble half the time. Can't go on forever. Out of an inconsistent bunch, the Aussies seem to be the most consistent and are deserved of the place at the top of the tree

Well, Pant certainly won’t be whacking them out of trouble in this series. Not sure who they have to stand in for him…

Having said that, if Australia can win in India it will be up there with anything they’ve done since the 06/07 Ashes.

India squad for the first two Tests: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.

No keeper named ...Bharat is a keeper ...Rahul and Kishan have kept in clown cricket (at least) ...probably more

Looks a pretty imposing squad.

Still 2 weeks away. Just the endless bbl dirge in the interim.

beamer wrote:Well, Pant certainly won’t be whacking them out of trouble in this series. Not sure who they have to stand in for him…

Having said that, if Australia can win in India it will be up there with anything they’ve done since the 06/07 Ashes.

Ah yeah... I forgot about the whole Pant thing, grimace emoji!

Yep, Pant’s down. Makes a bit of a difference to the batting but whoever they get to keep will be better at that.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/david-warner-exhausted-ahead-of-india-would-rather-skip-cricket-australia-awards-1356213

oh great, Warner is exhausted and being a big sook already.

Nath wrote:https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/david-warner-exhausted-ahead-of-india-would-rather-skip-cricket-australia-awards-1356213

oh great, Warner is exhausted and being a big sook already.  

Good grief.

9 days to go.