What's wrong with the baggy greens?

That’s not irony.

Michael Clarke was retired at Shaun's age. Someone needs to give Shaun the old tap on the shoulder.

The more I think, the more my suspicions grow about the current bunch of selectors, that includes Justin Langer. It seems to me, most of selections since that uneventful day in Cape Town have been to guarantee places for Justin’s chums from WA — Cameron Bancroft, Shaun Marsh & Mitch Marsh — when the ban is over on the three protagonists of Sandpaper-gate. JLa is nearly succesfull in his mission of keeping Joe Burns, Matt Renshaw and Glenn Maxwell at bay so that he can keep the three spots warm for his “Elite Honesty” adherents. Right from the word go, most selections have been carefully crafted to fail. Fail they did and a maiden series loss to India is just a collateral damage of their “Elite Honesty”.

David you must be right. Legally it is not justifiable to withhold contract payments unless their contracts have been validly terminated. I do not remember reading that CA did this. Therefore any attempt to start from scratch with these players would be a breach of their existing contract and would lead to a substantial claim for damages by the players. Keith Hurst sports fanatic and lawyer

That is the system they use, at some point in time 20 get highly paid contracts. Then those players get the big money, whether they play or not. Any players not on the list that make the side get match payments only. The suspended players must have had their contracts cancelled . They have to wait till the next lot of contracts are determined.

I'm willing to let him off considering he was injured and missed shield games. He's come in underdone against a quality attack

They don't want to admit they got in wrong either so we've ended up in a loop of mediocrity

Haha - the game was over Christo !

Scoreboard pressure makes a difference. If we win the toss we are always a chance

Some of you guys should read more history. I read one reader berating chief selector Hohns & saying he should apologise for selecting Finch as opener. Why should Hohns apologise? Finch initially did well in the position. But he has been found out as having the wrong temperament, more than technique, for opener. I remember back in 1974/75, the selectors, desperate to find an opening partner for Ian Redpath following the retirement of both Keith Stackpole & Paul Sheahan, selected Rick McCosker from NSW, where he was playing #3. Despite never opening previously, McCosker was immediately successful in the position, replacing Wally Edwards mid-series who simply failed to get going at all. Selection is a two-way contract between selectors & players. The selectors give a player an opportunity, & it's up to the players to grab that opportunity. Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn't. It's never a given that every player selected for his country will deliver. Sadly, some simply don't have the skill required, or the temperament. Sometimes it's also a trial & error process, whereby selectors might have to go through several players they thought would make the grade before they find one that does. Being a selector is actually a very difficult & thankless job. No-one ever thanks them for the great selections they make. But everyone complains about every dud selection that appears.

He’s not playing at his best - no doubt about it. But there are far greater problems in that team than Khawaja. Namely, Finch (at least as opener) and the Marsh brothers.

Great point Icy - the difference between then and now is the shameful treatment of our Sheffield Shield and we are paying the price ! Cant see the solution either, as too many people are making too much money from beach cricket for the shield to regain its rightful status.

Just remind us of India’s second innings score again?

David, There are some massive structural problems with Australian cricket. For years, those with some foresight have argued it is crazy to have BBL (T20) as the only type of cricket form to pick test players. But it's amazing how money & greed can turn the illogical into the logical. Any reasonable cricket fan understands the skills required for test cricket are entirely different to that of T20. So either tests are removed from the December-January window to allow BBL to flood this peak holiday period. Or BBL is moved to late January through maybe mid-March to allow the tests & Sheffield Shield to go hand in hand. That's the practically sensible thing to do even if not the maximum profit option. Of more importance closer to the Boxing Day & New Year's Day tests, I would suggest the selectors choose 16 players to cover all contingencies - form, fitness, injury, illness. The reason for an extended squad is because these two tests are always played back to back, & making sudden changes would be easier if the incoming players were already part of the extended squad. In addition to the XI that played the Boxing Day test I would have chosen Peter Handscomb as back-up batsman; Peter Siddle as backup paceman; Steve O'Keeffe as back-up spinner; Matt Wade as back-up keeper-batsman & Joe Burns as back-up opener. Perhaps also Marnus Labuschagne as back-up all-rounder. Or simply Labuschagne for O'Keeffe. I think it would be only inviting more disaster to drop Finch now & muck around with the batting order. To bring in Joe Burns (or Matt Renshaw) cold into the team would do that player no favours at all. Ditto promoting Khawaja & returning Hanscomb. These changes would be easier if these players were already part of the squad. Is Mitchell Starc injured & struggling with injury? If so, the selectors might bring in O'Keeffe into a traditionally spinning Sydney wicket & retain Mitchell Marsh as the batting all-rounder/paceman. However, once the Sydney test is done, the selectors need to re-evaluate the batting lineup for Sri Lanka. I think then Finch & the Marsh brothers might be gone.

Sorry Paul but the facts speak louder than your wishes. If we did bat first and "rack up a score" we would have to do a mighty job of having them "on the ropes far more quickly than us " ! We were 6 for 102 matey ! I'm not a great lover of Kohli either but his captaincy and batting have been exceptional - they are too good !

The penalties were presumably partly in judgement of a sense of gracelessness. Warner especially had given every other team the ability to occupy the moral highground and the public were maybe a little fatigued by the ugliness (which seemed a transparent attempt to compensate for not being able to rely on talent). So the motivations to hammer Warner and Co might extend to refusing to go crawling back. I assume there'll be a pay ding.

Still can play spin.

Agreed, though we would surely add that selections haven’t helped. No justification in picking Handscomb, M Marsh, or Finch as an opener. Or Harris - who looks incompetent against spin - ahead of Burns.

I confess that I am not very technically proficient with Cricket. I can talk Tennis and league all day with great detail but cricket I get lost re. field placings and technique and what not. But even given my shortcomings I can see that our batsman are really, really, really bad. Forget poor shots like MM yesterday, I am talking when they are trying to play proper cricket .... they look AWFUL. They have no idea if they should come forward or play back, unable to rotate strike, defensive techniques look sloppy and uncertain and not one of them, even Usman, looks assured at the crease. Someone on twitter listed the Aussie B team of bats from 15 years ago (Hodge, Law, bevan etc ect etc) and I can honestly say not one player in the current top 7 would be picked ahead of that B team top 7. It's not even close.

I’m sure Warner and Smith are better batsmen and all round cricketers than the top 6 batsmen currently playing because the stats don’t lie. But in saying that the selectors haven’t picked the best players on stats and that has a huge bearing on how poorly the top 6 have preformed. Renshaw is Test quality and proved it when being selected first time. His form dropped off at the end of the India tour but in reality he was burnt out. Don’t forget how much he did in the first 2 Test matches in India. He hasn’t fired for Queensland but he does occupy the crease for long periods. He hit 345 in grade cricket at the start of the month and it was his 3rd century on the trot? This might not mean much but he’s averaging 160+ this season and when he was playing for Australia he was averaging 56 in the same comp? This comes on the back of a hugely successful county season. Maxwell was equally impressive in shield games as anyone else and was second to Smith in the averages against India last tour. They actually fear him because they look to go hard after him with a lot of verbal. He stood up in India when the Marsh boys crumbled. When Warner and Smith play others in the team seem to struggle ? Maybe they’re ego intimidates their team mates and adds to dressing room pressure. The current mix ( Harris, UK, Paine, Cummins, even Lyon) seem to have dug in harder in recent times.