Australia's Asian woes have to be stopped, but how?

If they keep selecting mediocre players like Henriques and Boland in national squads.. how do they seriously expect to win? There are at least half a dozen players better than those two, that they refuse to select. It's like they don't want to win games. The banality of selections smells of match fixing at times. People like Michael Klinger have been dominating in all formats in multiple countries and they won't give him a game. Their flaky mates, and immature youngsters are losing us games. You need a better mix of youth and experience especially in trying conditions. Boland averages 64 in ODI's, yet they bring him over to Sri Lanka. It's pathetic, and ignorant. Nevill is in the T20 squad for Sri Lanka because "he did a good job at the world T20" everyone knows he barely touched the ball with gloves or bat, so that is a bald coached lie. I've had enough. I cannot support a team of clowns selected by other clowns. I'll stick to following domestic cricket, go Redbacks.

Pattinson and Cummins are a bit of a worry. CA may choose them only for short format cricket. Chris Tremain is a ready made replacement. Express pace and is impressing in the A series with a bagful of wickets. Two five fors among them.

David Hussey seems to think Travis Head and Marcus Stoinis fit the bill. What about our forgotten man.. George Bailey. As good a player of spin as we have. CA wanted him to get plenty of red ball runs and he has done just that.. both at home in the Shield and In England presently where he is killing them on all decks.

Totally agree TB. We ontinue to have inadequate preparation for tests. Why. So bad was it this time that CA had to cobble together an all Aussie squad for a two day practise game. Then we were given thew only official tour game against a third string Lankan side. Hardly what was neededed to toughen our boys for what was to come. The ICC needs to step in ensure that test preparations suffice far more than they presently do.

Aussies are seriously poor readers of spin which makes them poor players of spin. Most of our test players came thru the Academy system where surely they were taught the rudiments of playing spin bowling. Either they missed those training sessions or there is little between the ears of some of them. Cook got it spot on when he said playing spin in India " was a war of attrition". Other than S Marsh and Steve Smith , no one could spend any more than 10-15 overs at the crease on the SL tour. I do, however, think at no time did either player wear down the bowler. They stayed there purely on mental stamina and a sound techique. But never at any time got on top of the bowling.

Aussies are seriously poor readers of spin which makes them poor players of spin. Most of our test players came thru the cademy system where surely they were taught the rudiments of playing spin bowling. Either they missed those training sessions or there is little between the ears of some of them. Cook got it spot on when he said playing spin in India " was a war of attrition". Other than S Marsh and Steve Smith , no one could spend any more than 10-15 overs at the crease on the SL tour. I do, however, think at no time did either player wear down the bowler. They stayed there purely on mental stamina and a sound techique. But never at any time got on top of the bowling.

Fine young player Colin, but my boys rave about Lawrence, and they rave about no one :) Let us just say England have some very fine young players on the rise :) even young Sam Curran is a very fine young player

I think we struggle with an 'old man' versus 'young man' view of the game here Chris over temperament You have the captain of the team run down the pitch and sacrifice his wicket at a time in the first test when ensuring a decent score was paramount with the emphasis on him which defines how flawed it is. With the Captain setting the example for all to follow Aussies cannot fathom that Asian cricket is about the waiting game , grinding things out. Whether it be playing every ball on its merits as a batsman or stick to a tried true line as a bowler- they just cannot get it, meaning they keep getting belted in Asia As for your point about batsmen doing well against spin in Australia, Chris- I cannot understand the relevance. The pitches in OZ are so true and batting friendly that they are rarely challenged by spin. Put them in Asia on a pitch ( and these were hardly raging turners ) that favours the spinners and they are ruthlessly exposed in technique and b/c they cannot grind out defining innings. A few dot balls and they feel compelled to attack, and fall. They always fail to bowlers setting them up- refer to Herath time after time pulling Smith's pants down to the Aussie Captain always having that attacking itch. As for the learning part, or in my mind head in sands approach to it................G Rated forum :) As for your point Broken of 'moving the game on'- in my teachings in the game you do this by winning the war of attrition. I think the greatest example was Alastair Cook in Asia a few years back, typically dour and resolute, in the process wearing the indian bowlers down to facilitate his teams scoring as well as making it easier for his team mates. Even here, that inning by Silva, he was the rock frustrating all the bowlers and in the process making it easier for his partners.

In terms of playing in India it would be wonderful to have our fastest bowlers on board. Such a shame that Pattinson and Cummins are so injury prone. They can really make a difference. The reason it would be great to have all of our fast bowlers available is because the Asian teams don't play pace so well, as we suck against spin. I read a great article comparing Murali vs Warne in terms of careers. Neither one shined in India. They both averaged over 40 per wicket and they are two of the greatest in the modern era. So getting our pace bowlers fit and ready is prime. As for the batting , it could be horses for courses (god that cliche has been flogged, sorry). Marsh seems to play spin very well. That is Shaun. Mitchell is not so shabby. He needs more bowling. I think he could bowl well in India. I am not sure who you can introduce as new. I can see Australia doing fantastic at home and the same batsmen being selected again. It is hard, because you don't want to relegate them for other players

It might not be temperament. The Aussie coaches openly use language like ''moving the game along'. They are prepared to try and change players who like to play the waiting game to a more attacking style of play. If that is the atmosphere that new players to the team face then they are going to try and fit in. I can't see Aus mgt accepting the limits of this approach any time soon.

Haseeb hameed is the one to watch

E-meter - I was at the WACA test. Even before Warner scored his century watching India in the field was humiliating. They moped around like spoiled children. For a while I even felt almost ripped off but then Warner got stuck in and made the early evening beers taste a lot sweeter.

Who won between Newcastle and Fulham?

If you want to be honest, the only reason they weren't destroyed during their last tour was because of Kohli and Smith's inability to put the foot on the throat. You'll also forgetting the above mentioned 2011-12 tour where they lost 4-0 and were disgraceful. I do agree that their last tour was more competitive than we were the last time we were in India, but I don't think that means much. They still haven't won a test here since 2008.

There aren't any. That's the point. The Australian team in those first two tests had our best 5 batsmen in the top 5.

They certainly played with the longest tail I've seen in an Aussie team for years once O'Keefe was out;

I don't think you can actually blame temperament as such. Even with David Warner scoring at a run a ball he still usually got out on a ball he was defending rather than because he was playing a rash stroke. As for technique against spin, most of the Aussies actually play spin reasonably well IN AUSTRALIA. It's actually playing spin in those sorts of conditions that causes the issues. As also seen by the fact that Lyon does so well in Australia, a graveyard for visiting spinners, but struggles in Asian conditions, that there's spin and there's spin, and what works in Australia is often completely different to what works over there. I think often the Australian players who are good against spin rely on reading the ball out of the hand, picking it as the bowler bowls the ball, or reading the spin based on seeing the seam in the air. But the big difference found in Sri Lanka is the main change up the Sri Lankan spinners had was a ball that was bowled pretty much exactly the same way, spun in the same way, the seam pointing the same way, but it just didn't grip and turn, instead it slid straight on. Not sure if that's just a case of the way they bowl the ball taking advantage of natural variation where some grip and turn and some don't, or if they deliver it in a fractionally different way so the seam is slanted slightly causing it to miss the seam and skid on. But it seems to be something that just doesn't happen on Australian pitches. So it's not something they can easily practice combating here. But facing that sort of bowling effectively means you can't read it out of the hand or in the air, you have to play it off the pitch. So effectively you have to either negate the spin by getting close enough to the pitch it doesn't matter, or you have to get back enough to be able to adjust, or you have to cover whichever option will hit the stumps (ie if it will hit the stumps if it doesn't spin, play it like it's not going to and hope any spin will just beat the edge, and if the spinning ball will hit the stumps but the straight one won't then play for the spin). I think a lot of these players have done a lot of work on playing spin, but worked on the wrong things, because they are things that work against spin in Australia but not in Asian conditions, so without the chance to practice against spinners bowling those sorts of balls on those sorts of pitches, it's actually pretty hard for them to learn other than trying to learn in the midst of playing the test match.

You could argue that Hazelwood offers more than Marsh as he actually bowled in the series. Marsh did not have a good series with the bat. Yes he was better than a lot of other guys but he still did not do well with the bat and his over all record is not good for a top six batsmen in the Australian Cricket team. If he is not going to bowl then he needs to be judged on his batting and for me and a lot of others he has not done enough yet. We need a the best top six we can manage. They are obviously treating like a Steve Waugh project player so I don't expect him to be dropped any time soon though.

You forgot India's tour here in 2011-12. They got thumped 4-0 and they were hopeless. Clarke and Ponting destroyed them with the bat, Hilfenhaus and Siddle with the ball.

Over the past 15 years, the batsmen having sustained success in the sub-continent are Damien Martyn, Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke. I guess you can just about add in Shaun Marsh but the sample size is too small. What this tells me is that a proper batting technique is everything in the sub-continent. For India 2017, we need the top 5-6 to be filled with batsmen with classical batting techniques, who are compact, busy and can happily work the ball around for ones. This is essential given our two linchpins are Warner and Smith, and both of them uses a different style. This rules out Khawaja, Burns, Head, Lynn and Maxwell. Voges cannot be trusted again. Handscomb and Bancroft will be tried, but who else fits this mold?