Australia v India, 3rd Test, Perth, 13-17 January, 2012

Is Watson fit? Apparently he was jogging and batting in the nets at Sydney. His fitness will probably determine whether Lyon plays or not. Ie, if Watson is fit, Lyon stays in the side, with the two changes being Watson for Marsh/Cowan/Warner, and Harris for the injured Pattinson.

skully wrote:Hmm, so Koo does well on a greeny in a Massive Wank game. Will that aid his chances of getting a run in the T3 XI - or has Pup and co made up their minds?

The nature of the surface had feck all effect on the two yorkers S. The Fatty Smith pole was all swing. The kiddie did good.

Henry wrote:Is Watson fit? Apparently he was jogging and batting in the nets at Sydney. His fitness will probably determine whether Lyon plays or not. Ie, if Watson is fit, Lyon stays in the side, with the two changes being Watson for Marsh/Cowan/Warner, and Harris for the injured Pattinson.

Lyons is a keeper for now but Perth is not for him. Harris for Lyons, Watson for later but not as a bowler.

They'll want and need Watson to bowl at some stage. He'll perform a Kallis-type role and bat at 4 or 5 and bowl 10 overs a day when he comes back.

sooner or later, 4 bowlers only works when your spinner is top class.

it worked for the West Indies throughout the 80's and for Australia for much of the 1970s and 2000s; a spinner wasn't always essential to either team.

lardbucket wrote:it worked for the West Indies throughout the 80's and for Australia for much of the 1970s and 2000s; a spinner wasn't always essential to either team.

Well it would be quite something if Pattinson, Hilfenhaus, Siddle and Harris end up being as good as Holding, Ambrose, Marshall, and Roberts.

And in the 2000s, Australia needed Warne quite a lot, didn't they? God knows how badly they would have lost without him in the 2005 Ashes.

England get away with four bowlers at the moment because Swann is the best spinner in the World. Even with Swann, I think we should consider 5 bowlers in the UAE.

I see Shaun Marsh has gone down again. This time with illness.

If he wasn't paid $1million+ a year to play cricket around the World, he'd have a really tough life considering how injury/illness prone he is. *****Not as tough as his Dad*****

rofl at claim about chinhead

I'm not suggesting that P H S and H are anywhere near the calibre of the Windian quicks. You suggested that it was not possible for a four bowler attack to be effective unless one of them was a good spinner. I replied that the West Indies managed quite well without them for ten years, and that Australia managed in the 70's (no Warne) and in the 2000's (warne not always present). It can be done if the bowling is disciplined enough. The fifth bowler is often redundant ... not required on pitches that help bowlers, and just another victim on roads.

I think it's always very important that a couple of the batsmen can be relied upon to bowl a few decent overs, even if it's only 4 or 5.

horace wrote:rofl at claim about chinhead

Name a better current test spinner. What's that? You can't? Ok then. Moving on........

ashtray among others (herath) have overtaken chinhead...name the last great performance from chinhead...


admittedly it is a dire time for spinners

of all the current spinners I'd have harry potter in my team

Ashwin? Isn't threatening unless the pitch is a bunsen, and too inconsistent with his line. Of course, it doesn't help that his captain is clueless.

Herath? Steady and accurate, but will only run through a side on a tailor made pitch.

Vettori? You can hardly call him a spinner these days seeing as he hasn't actually turned a delivery since 2008. He's more a run stopper at one end and relies on changes of pace to keep batsmen guessing. He's basically a batting all rounder these days.

Ajmal is Swann's biggest rival, but he chucks it.

chinhead had an ordinairy 2011...doubt he will play ashes

horace wrote:chinhead had an ordinairy 2011...doubt he will play ashes

In 2011 he was hardly needed.

Red wrote:Johnson is working with Lillee atm.

that's like sending Gilligan / Corporal Agarn / Sergeant Schultz to Stephen Hawking for remedial mathematics tutorials

or Stephen Hawking to Usain Bolt for running lessons

Henry wrote:

horace wrote:chinhead had an ordinairy 2011...doubt he will play ashes

In 2011 he was hardly needed.

and doubt he will be in the future...his form in other forms of the game has also been average...is no longer reliable with the bat (always hard to play from square leg)

swann was the best spinner till about 2010. ajmal has since seemed like the world's best

Yeah, Ajmal has been great bowling in the Sub Continent against Bangladesh with his illegal action....

Actually, all things considered, like the quality of opposition in recent times, and the apparent triviality as to whether he bowls with a legal action or not, i'd say that Rangana Herath is Swanny's nearest rival. Good, honest cricketer with a good attitude.

bowling well against weak teams at home seems to be more of a swann speciality

he was the world's best in a time when there was a large drop in spin bowling quality. ajmal looks a lot more threatening against good players of spin

The One wrote:bowling well against weak teams at home seems to be more of a swann speciality

he was the world's best in a time when there was a large drop in spin bowling quality. ajmal looks a lot more threatening against good players of spin

So if you consider Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India as poor players of spin, who would you say plays spin bowling well?

Indians ...

Out of interest, how well has Swann actually done against Australia? (overall figures)

lardbucket wrote:Indians ...

Out of interest, how well has Swann actually done against Australia? (overall figures)

The Indians can't play spin very well anymore. They've forgotten how to seeing as the pace bowlers blow them away before they have the chance to face spin.

They still have plenty of practice v spin at home, and in Tests at home