The Aus top 7 - a bleak future?

Why didn't Aus pick him before he was 30?

Henry wrote:Why didn't Aus pick him before he was 30?

wrong state of course...and his career in SA was unremarkable...prolly that vile pitch dulled his potential early on

True enough, h. His success did come after moving to Qld.

I think it MIGHT be bleak if you build from Warner.

You might almost as well go the whole hog and bring back Hughes, complete with the cap and bells and jibber-jabber jester's stick.

I'd have Kim or Merv before that matter before fuse...you just want a useless counterpoint to the belf

Howard?

he does have the disadvantage of being dead

....and even tho Cowan is no great star, at least he has a reasonable technique as an opener...the gcs has no concept about technique

Henry wrote:

horace wrote:

lardbucket wrote:Perhaps he'll make runs in the second dig. Otherwise, a forgettable Test for John H.

...by far the best bowler in the first dig..bowling into the breeze...Moo dropped a sitter and he beat the bat regularly

...plus he made some useful runs with the tail...as someone said - he outcored punter's series contribution and tonic/schoolgirl

On the other hand, he was struggling to reach 125kph in the second innings, as he frequently served up long hops to some grateful South African batsmen. Had "out of his depth" written all over it.

Agreed Trev. Looked pure filth to me.

Hmmm, out of all I've seen, I'd say that Bailey is pretty decent looking - nice and compact. He and Cowan should be able to face balls. Watson's still pretty decent. Khawaja looks like he has a nice game about him. With Hussey and Clarke, these lot could build scores.

Brass Monkey wrote:Hmmm, out of all I've seen, I'd say that Bailey is pretty decent looking - nice and compact. He and Cowan should be able to face balls. Watson's still pretty decent. Khawaja looks like he has a nice game about him. With Hussey and Clarke, these lot could build scores.

I agree about Bailey. He's shown a pretty decent technique and temperament in ODIs and T20s, and he has a pretty good first class record as well. I'm not sure why they seem to have pigeon-holed him as a short form specialist.

He just doesn't score enough runs.

JGK wrote:He just doesn't score enough runs.

Phil Hughes does (in Shield cricket). Should they pick him? Good selectors will look at more than just domestic cricket stats.

JGK wrote:He just doesn't score enough runs.

so the same as the mugs in the top 6 AND those in contention?

I was going to open up a thread and poll with all the options for Ponting's successor, seems pointless now there's over 3 page of discussion here (and the warm day has me in a stupor).

It does seem like its a battle of three between Hughes, Khawaja and Doolan. Doolan being the domestic lovers favourite and Khawaja being the favourite of people here because of Hughes animosity

Got to say that whilst I would prefer not to see Hughes in the team he is the "star" performer in the Shield and Khawaja's average has dropped to under 40. He's got much better form in the Limited Overs than he does in First Class at the moment.

Also if you consider the Chairman's XI, Hughes isn't selected whereas the other two are so you could assume they have left him out to groom him for that spot.

Don't agree with Bailey at all. If they want experience I'd put Callum Ferguson in there.

Khawaja would be the prime candidate. He's done well in domestic cricket for several years now, and some would say he should have been persisted with for longer in test cricket before he was dropped (He's already been picked, dropped, and recalled twice).

Hughes's technical faults were so badly exposed that I think they need more evidence than just runs against State and County attacks to prove that he can handle the World's best bowlers. He had a poor time of it against South Africa for Australia A.

Doolan needs to prove that he's not a one season (or month even) wonder. He looks a decent player, but then so do a lot of young Aussie batsmen when they're not tested by top bowling.

what happened to Kurtis Patterson from NSW? fell off the radar/victim of NSW playing 3 keepers?

But Khawaja has his faults too, otherwise he'd have been dominating more himself too. A test-standard bowler bowling proper line and length around off stump will have him troubled. NSW pace attack, for instance troubled him for over an hour in the QLDvNSW SS match earlier last month.

If they need more evidence for Hughes, why not the same for Khawaja?

Like I said before, my personal bias wants Khawaja in there ahead of Hughes and his early form, especially in the LA was great but if we're comparing the two then Hughes comes out looking better and isn't the only one deficiencies in his game.

Nath wrote:what happened to Kurtis Patterson from NSW? fell off the radar/victim of NSW playing 3 keepers?

One of the great mysteries. PLayed one first class game, made a century, and hasn't been seen since. I can only assume he's decided to focus on studies in the immediate future?

he's not stuck in the 2nd XI?

I don't think the future is bleak. Now that we have finally got rid of the money-hungry Ponting, we can give someone a proper opportunity. The last few years we have just been treading water waiting & waiting & waiting for Punter to pull the pin.

So with Punter's retirement we've gone from having 4 spots open in the batting line up to having 5?

I think Aus will be-

Cowan
Warner
Khawaja
Clarke(c)
Watson
Hussey
Wade+
Siddle
Starc
Hilfenhaus
Lyon

Sri Lanka-

Karunaratne
Dilshan
Sangakkara
M.Jayawardene (c)
Mathews
Samaraweera
P. Jayawardene+
Kulasekara
Herath
Eranga
Welegedara

I reckon Aus will win the series 2-0. The Lankans don't have a good enough bowling attack and their batting is shaky in these conditions.

I would be happy with that line-up for the first Test v Sri Lanka, but don't think Warner will last long.

I'd be batting Starc above Hilfy, too.

Warner pretty much flatters to deceive again. Gets a ton amongst the shite. If I had any confidence in our bowling attack (maybe 2011 'vintage') then I reckon we'd eat him alive. As it is, I'm sure there'll be some flat tracks / indisciplined bowling to smash.