Maxwell and Wade at the crossroads

Mongrel = being a bogan who sledges players who are far superior to him

Well said Chris - Maddinson and Wade were terrible selections.

I get what you are saying, but often form is form, and a player who plays all formats if they are in form in one format that often flows to the others and if they are out of form in one that is often matches in the others too. I certainly don't agree with the idea of looking at a player who's currently just an ODI player, seeing them do well in ODI's and deciding to pick them for tests on the back of that despite an ordinary first class record. But any form of cricket a player is playing can still be an indication of form.

Have to agree on Ashton Turner. He's definitely turned out some quality performances. If he starts the shield season with some serious runs he's got to be considered.

I think the selectors managed Chris Hartley very badly

Fair points Chris. My point specifically with Wade was he has bought back to add a bit of niggle and fire to the Australian side many thought had gone a bit soft. A wicketkeeper is very important in the field and Wade bought that bit of mongrel that Australia keepers of the last have always had. Neville was deemed too nice and too quiet by many in the media at the time. The likes of Healy, Haddin and even Gilchrist were not afraid to mix it up verbally. I suppose the difference being they could back up the bluster with runs and catches. I tend to agree that Neville is their best bet, however a Test batting average of 22 in 17 Tests is very underwhelming. He is a better player than that.

Wade should definitely be dropped from the Test side because of his poor *Test* form, but the fact that fans (and probably the selectors too) are using this ODI series as a guide to Ashes selection is very concerning to me. ODIs are a vastly different format and these ones are being played in conditions that are very far removed from Australian Test wickets. These ODIs have zero relevance to the Ashes.

G

For sure.

I've been in Maxwell's corner for a few years now, hoping with a good opportunity he will come good. But that dismissal the other night would have to be one of the most brainless dismissals I've seen in cricket. It was so obvious to the commentators and everyone watching on TV that the Indian spinners were going to bowl wide outside off stump. But Maxwell either didn't pick it up or just didn't care. Why not just get on the back foot and smash it through point or late cut it to third man. Instead he falls straight in the trap, runs down the track and looks like an absolute clown and is stumped. I'm happy enough if he keeps playing white ball cricket for Australia, because he can change a game pretty quickly but we don't need his unreliability in test cricket until he can show that he's grown up. Perhaps he could drop all the video clips he does of himself until he actually does something meaningful for Australia.

Wade will be picked for the Ashes He will fail Carey will come into the series in the 4thtest with aussies down 2-1 and be expected to score big He wont and he will be dumped for life Meanwhole Stokes should be banned for 6 months but he will get a dollybird on the wrist and have his lollypop taken away.

I actually think Burns' stats are alright, given he is an opener, but I hear what you are saying.

Another for the no.6 spot is Ashton Turner. He had a massive Shield last season, and what happens if he starts on fire again? Here are the Shield run scorers and averages from last season. Might be surprising reading for those pushing for Head, Lehman, Patterson or Burns. EJM Cowan 959 runs @ 73.76 HWR Cartwright 861 runs @ 53.81 GJ Bailey 839 runs @ 59.92, helped by a 200no MS Harris 808 runs @ 42.52 MC Henriques 775 runs @ 64.58 AJ Turner 742 runs @ 53.00 JA Burns 724 runs @ 40.22 JS Lehmann 692 runs @ 40.70 KR Patterson 668 runs @ 44.53 TM Head 645 runs @ 43.00 PM Nevill 625 runs @ 56.81

Can't rule out anything the selectors might do, especially when you have a player who ticks both the Marsh and Mitchell boxes, but Marsh the more time has gone on the more Mitch Marsh has worked his way further away from the batting allrounder role to more of a bowling allrounder. He's nowhere near being among our top 3-4 quicks, a long way from that, but his FC bowling record is good enough to have him in a the WA team purely as a bowler, while his batting record suggests more a better than average tail-ender than a full-fledged allrounder. He's more a good number 8 than a batting allrounder these days. Unfortunately for him, selector brain farts aside, that leaves him little options for getting into the Australian side. It's hard to see him any higher than 15-20 in the pace bowling pecking order. And many of those other bowlers in that list way ahead of him are pretty handy with the bat and can make a pretty good #8 themselves. Basically, to get into a team as a bowling allrounder you need to be in one of the top 4 available bowlers in the country. To get into the team as a true allrounder you really need to be a batting allrounder, able to make the team pretty much on your batting with your bowling basically being the bonus. He's getting further and further away from that. I suspect that when fit he's still part of Australia's best ODI team though. While he's a fair way off being a test #6, his ODI record is actually pretty good.

Australia is definitely not going to go the way of the Windies. It's a very different situation here. But there certainly are challenges for Australia. It is going to go through ups and downs. You have a few really good players come along and suddenly you have a top team for a decade or so, those players retire and those who replace them aren't at the same level and the team drops down. Many people have got used to Australia being absolutely dominant through the Warne / McGrath and co era. But it hasn't always been like that. You can look back through history and see there are periods where Australia had some absolute champion players and were a dominant team, and then periods where that waned and Australia struggled before some more champion players came along and Australia was on top again. We had a significant period of dominance around the time that things like team rankings and the like were brought in. And have been really successful in World Cups since the '90s. But if you look back to the 80's things weren't so rosy for Australia. Australia was really good in the '70s through the prime of the Lillee/Thompson era, but prior to that not necessarily so dominant. So there's always going to be ups and downs.

Regarding Wade, I have nothing to add. We have a real lack of alternatives at wicket keeper, which must make ex-players like Darren Berry, Wade Seccombe and especially Chris Hartley, absolutely sick. I'm almost inclined to say, "Alex Carey you lucky son of a gun. You are the guy who just happens to be in the right spot at the right time. Here you go, make it your own." It worked with Ian Healey, who was basically Qld's second choice keeper when he was selected. Regarding Maxwell, I think he's done enough to finally get a test match outside of Asia, but I am worried. Cartwright and even Stoinis may be able to make a strong case in the first few rounds of the Shield. But I can hear the drums starting to beat in the back of the selectors' collective mind. Can you hear it? Mitch Marsh, Mitch Marsh, Mitch Marsh. After all he's a Marsh and he's a Mitchell.

I agree with that. It could have been a game changer.

Maxwell should have opened in the first 2 games. He partnered Warner in Sri Lanka and did very well