Shane Warne has named his Ashes team, and it's actually not as ridiculous as we'd have thought

He has man love for Stoinis so no big suprise there. Harris is in the team because Warne rates his 70s against India more than the others tons against Sri Lanka, which does make sense.

'deal with it'. Why the rudeness? That's as bad Don Freo.

It’s pretty much as ridiculous as I thought. 2 ridiculous selections - Harris ahead of Patterson - Ok maybe not completely ridiculous, but ill judged from so many points of view. And Stoinis - there is zero case for this. 1. White ball form is not an argument for Test selection. 2. You don’t need an allrounder in England if youve got 4 good front line bowlers, just a couple of batters who could roll their arm over anyway. So pick your six best batsmen, you’ll need em. 3. Stoinis isn’t close to being one of those - NOT ONE Australian Test player in the last hundred years has been selected in the top 6 with an average as low as his and succeeded. See my article https://www.theroar.com.au/2019/01/31/defying-the-odds-with-marnus-and-marcus/. So pick someone who is qualified- Maxwell, Khawaja, Hughes, Handscomb, Renshaw, Pucovski, Wade even. 4. Stoinis isn’t an all rounder anyway in red ball cricket, with an average of 42. He’s taken 52 wickets in 73 first class innings FFS! That’s no better or worse than the Test averages of bit part bowlers like Border, Hussey, Greg Chappell, M Clarke. To compensate for not being a genuine top 6 batsman, an allrounder only makes sense (just) if they present some wicket taking threat- Stokes, Watson, Moeen Ali. There would be more sense in picking someone like Michael Neser as an allrounder, with FC averages 26 batting and 30 bowling. A 12 point difference in bowling averages for a fifth bowler translates into about a 24 run difference in batting averages, so you’d have a chance of being 17 runs on average better off with Neser than Stoinis. I’m not recommending picking Neser, but it would make more sense than picking Stoinis.

Don't ignore who he dislikes as a selection criterion.

Khawaja is a tough one. I expect he will start the Ashes batting at 3, though his position is definitely under threat if he doesn't perform in those first couple of matches. But Warne isn't the only one to suggest he should be dropped. So that's not that "out there" a suggestion. But you can't be dropping Patterson at this point for a speculative selection of someone like Stoinis. The only way Stoinis comes into that team is for Khawaja to be dropped, Patterson to move up to 3 (where he bats for NSW) and Stoinis to come in at 6. You aren't dropping Patterson for Stoinis at this point. And I suspect Warne would have "dropped" Starc for the Ashes eleven even if he'd taken 40 wickets this summer. He clearly just doesn't like him. But having just managed to get his radar right and rip Sri Lanka apart on a beautiful batting pitch to the tune of 10/100 and then drop him for the next test is a bit of Warne's crazy coming out.

Warney is a tough one. Sometimes his comments seem to come from his in-depth cricket understanding, other times just from bias and mateship, and others it just seems to be the yobo coming out. He has really made some pretty strange pushes for certain players over the years. The idea of dropping Patterson for Stoinis at this point is just crazy. Only someone who is so set on Stoinis as a test cricketer at all costs would make that selection.

For God sake,this is 2019.

hi Chris, I don't doubt your take on Warne's selection reasoning is accurate but it makes it hard for an average punter to take him seriously when bias is shown. We all jump on selectors for perceived bias, picking their mates, choosing from their home States, etc. This is why I've repeatedly said the selectors need to spell out honestly why guys are chosen or not chosen for teams. We're supposedly talking a professional sport but seem stuck in an amateur era with this aspect of the game.

Warner is actually the one of the two who has had the better form in all the cricket he's played during the ban. They are far and away the two best batsmen in the country. They will be straight back in, deal with it.

Warne is, of course, going to keep as many Victorian's as possible. And while Stoinis plays for WA, he played for Victoria for a few years and plays for the Stars, so there's a nice Victorian connection there. No way Patterson should be dropped at this point. He's one of the few who really twisted the selectors arms into selecting him by just scoring lots of runs. After being a solid batsman for years, but having the worry of not converting enough of his 50's into hundreds, he then came out this season and scored a bunch of hundreds and they had to pick him. He now has a test average of 144 from 2 test innings. He has to be in the team.

Stoinis is a mediocre FC batsman and a rubbish bowler.

With all due respect to Warne, I don’t agree with his selection. First of all, playing for Australia is a privilege not entitlement. You need to earn that spot. Like all other players, Smith and Warner should play some cricket ( whatever is available) to score some runs. They didn’t do anything exceptional in the cricket these two played since their ban.I don’t agree that they should come straight into the team. Smith,may be but Warner I am not sure. I am also not sure if we can drop Strac and Ussie. They have proved themselves. I’d rather back my senior players and expect them to bounce back. We know what they are capable of. How about, Harris, Burns, Khawaja, Smith, Head, Stoinis, Paine, Cummins, Strac, Hazelwood, Lyon.

Warne reads the game(and opposing batters) better than anyone on the planet. Sadly picking Marcus Stoinis(and harping on about him relentlessly) shows that his selection skills aren’t anywhere near his tactical skills.

Here's an unlikely stat. Steve Smith in the 6 lost tests in he's played in England. 2013 - 53 & 17, 2 & 1, 17 & 2 for 92@15.33. 2015 33 & 33, 7 & 8, 6 & 5 for 92@15.33.

Khawaja scores in 2013 test series in England-14, 54,1, 24,0, 21 average 19. total 114 in six innings- at no 3. England 3-0. Not all his fault, but not promising. Same as his recent summer.

Not too bad. Warney has the Marsh brothers as a lock not so long ago. Patterson instead of Harris and not too sure about Stoinis.

I read Warne's article and he's not the most consistent guy. Regarding Khawaja he says that runs against a terrible Sri Lankan side shouldn't mean as much as those against India, so he drops Khawaja instead of Harris. There is an argument here, so so far so good. He uses the same argument to jettison Patterson for his boy Stoinis. But then he drops Starc for Richardson on the basis of how good Richardson looked - against Sri Lanka. And keeps Joe Burns after his big game against - Sri Lanka.

The brains trust will still go with the blokes most likely to take wickets and score runs on the big stage. ie Starc and Khawaja. They will be there for kick off. Besides, Warner and Smith aren't even back yet and there are a truckload of England debutants. Stoinis will be in the squad probably.

Most times I say shut your mouth WARNE and go away but this is the first time I entirely agree with his comments and selection. Stark needs to bend over in the locker room before the match and each one of his team mates give him a good kick in the bum. What a waste of talent because of his own mental self indulgence and over tolerated by selectors and team captain. Worst discipline since S Tait . The demise of Australian cricket is embarrassing since Ponting left thanks to Clark and the ACB admin . Thank GOD for T 20

Why would you expect Warne's side to be ridiculous? Better than most he knows what is required to play the sort of attacking cricket needed to beat England not just compete with them. And I think he is right to drop Khawaja, who was rightly expected to step up this summer at no 3 against India, given his seniority, but who was a flop. Not the man we need for the pressure cooker seaming wickets of an English summer. Don't expect Khawaja to contribute what is required anytime soon in my view.