Five players to watch in the Sheffield Shield

Or Marcus Harris' dropped catch in the outfield which would have won us the game.

Well not sure on that luck often plays a part. Denly nearly got wade out four times in his first century (probably should have had him out around 40 , wade was poor against leg spin and a slightly detonating wicket for spin but not pace) and he slashed wildly at times a little without discipline and technique pre 50. I actually think he was ridiculously lucky in that innings and the pitch did get easier to bat on. True he survived though which is more than what the two inept openers did . In the other innings, wade was poor with three lbws where they outfoxed him pulling him wide then lining up the pads. His technique was questionable in four 7 to 8 innings. the oval is usually conducive to a flatter deck which suited wade I think. . Regardless he will get great conditions in australia for the flaws in his technique and one day cricket style and should start in brisbane on form. He’s got more of a case to play than warner who was dreadful in england with the poorest opening 5 match series in cricketing history. No doubt the australian pitches will assist him as well. More concerned about the openers as think head wade , carey if he starts and a few others can all make big runs in australia especially against pakistan who generally don’t tour well in australia. the bigger tests will be against NZ and then India the following summer where we can see who can do well against quality line ups.

Will do . Im a fan of the man though. He's a great spinner and our best. Fielding I will go have a look. Slight concern of the ashes he wasn't quite right which was strange. Id say bancroft/smith is best fielder up close but fielding alone is not enough of course. Didn't realize lyon has effected so many run outs. I can forgive his fielding blunder in the ashes too. Im more likely to target paines decision making than lyons one off blunder off a poor throw I might add.

There are no lucky Test centuries. Players may have a slice of luck with a dropped catch or missed run out on a ball or two, but decisions made during an innings build hundreds.

Hmm interesting read of the link you sent jeff. In the comments you did support careys first class average and largely advocated him getting a start for Australia in Australia A test conditions not the ashes itself though. The bulk of your arguments actually were really on a Paine v Carey basis on keeping which were a little more irrelevant for me but one has to wonder if carey would have done better especially with critical referrals and competent enough keeping in the world cup despite a few blips with gloves . Of course paine had a very poor ashes in 4 of 5 tests as many have discussed. Keeping was adequate at best. Batting largely poor, decision making inept for the most part and referral decisions extroadinarily poor. Argument to say a better captain and selector would have taken us a home in a winning series for sure though given the minute margin in one match. Had Carey played there the ashes may have gone home with a win . Speculation now. Also noted you questioned labasuchanges county form due to Second division. I selected him first test. Seemed to be key to bringing the ashes home and county english based form again. On top of that you advocated warner pre series and he produced the worst opening 5 series display in test match cricket history over 100 plus years in one series. All in all my views on pre series were very strong on labuschagne , carey starting and warner to be highly susceptible. I was right on these matters save for the fact that carey just didn’t get a chance. All that said hope you are well and still enjoy reading your posts some very informative ones and of course these are two or three issues we didn’t see eye to eye on many we did. I just think the outcome of the series was highly linked to points I advocated preseries. I suggest your very good statistical analysis will hold up much better in australia this summer where the pitches are mostly drop ins and formalines are much more relevant and often hold up at home

Why was it pointless we could have played carey or called him up for an injured player . We did lose two matches and draw the series so its not pointless as it was largely due to inept batsman picked on australian and first class averages which just do not hold up well in England in the last 15 years without some good english form. If you advocated carey pre ashes then a retraction is due to an extent although during the ashes it still mattered. He was there and in huge form all summer and we did not win the series as a consequence of poor batting selections in part.

True his last innings was pretty good but I think with sensible batting there were runs on the pitch. That said his average of 33 for series was still not a pass for me and he did have several other streaky poor innings. He should flourish back in australia on the flatter decks though. Theres still a case to say carey could have started in the ashes and produced a higher average given his elite form in england all summer . It is of course hard to be sure off the white ball (av 60 all summer in england) but he didn’t really fail in any innings he played all summer in england and backed it up in his county match with the dukes ball (double 50s) . He and smith were the two to stand up to england in the world cup semi where . As a result of following australian first class averages we played some very poor batsman all summer there and wade certainly did better than a lot of lot of them although got very very lucky with his first century. His technique is still not ideal in england but will not be exposed as much in australia. For me carey has the better batting technique

Jordan Silk is just one example of a young player on fire early in their first class career, unable to make adjustments once oppositions teams had more time to look at them play. Many were calling for his test debut after an handful of first class matches and a couple of seasons later, as far as first class cricket is concerned, its Jordan who? Will Pucovski has already set himself apart from most young batting talents through his ability to go big. Shield scores of 188 and 243 and unbeaten double hundred in U23 cricket last summer has many wondering if he could be something quite special.

Not too fanciful. Langer's philosophy is right and those guys who go down that path will not only have handy International careers but cash in after 34. Plenty of them on the slogball circuit.

Wade has had two outstanding Shield seasons, followed that up by belting the bejeebus out of any attack he faced across formats on tour in the UK, then scored two centuries in the Ashes. I can't see any reason why his form won't continue through this summer. I'm less sure about Burn's consistency. Perhaps I'm being influenced by the end of his FC summer last season. Bancroft is a grafter; Harris I think has better prospects.

Indeed outside of Smith, Warner and to an extent Khawaja, there has been no solidity in the top six, its really a joke. Only because we have the second best test batsman have we even been able to compete. I think Wade and Burns have been the exception in recent years, not making a massive amount of hundreds but plenty of fifties in between. Joe Burns is remarkably consistent. Wade deserves at least the first 3 tests at home to show what he can do now as a specialist bat. Burns literally only needs to make 2-3 good scores in the pre test Shield and he's in. Harris and Bancroft are unpick-able at the moment, their technical deficiencies are pretty clear.

Opens the batting when required as well!

Don Freo, "You advertise your mind with your comments". We are a psychologist now. Your comments get more bizarre by the post. Oh you will be pleased, your hero Agar made the T20 squad. Go Ashton.

I think the problem is there are so few centuries being scored in Shield cricket last few years. So the conundrum is that the Test side has to be filled with batsmen, but there aren't many scoring multiple tons. A quick look at the last two seasons multiple century makers: 2018/19 - Harris and Maddinson (3), then Cooper, Hughes, Larkin, M Marsh, Patterson, Pucovski and Wade (2) 2017-18 - Renshaw and Wade (3), then Burns, Dean, Harris, Head, Hemphrey and Labuschagne (2) So in the last two years only Harris and Wade (5) have scored more than 3 centuries. I agree about the principle of batsmen having to bang the door down, but I guess when batting spots in the Test side need to be filled, what other options are there?

Pierro Lyon is seriously our best ringfielder and catcher, maybe outside of Smith. The amount of runouts and runs he stops is second to none. Yes, it was a bad fumble, everyone makes mistakes and the pressure he was under given the tension and situation of the match, I can't hold it against him. Pierro seriously go watch a highlight reel of Lyon's fielding on YouTube, I think you'll change your mind.

No I'm not saying there should be a definite number of hundreds a batsman has to score, but as Tomothy pointed out above, any of the younger players who make a hundred in the early Shield season seem to get picked. While I agree Harris probably did deserve his selection, remember Bancroft did the same thing in 17/18 before the ashes, got picked off the back of one big double hundred, and we all know how that turned out. We need to make rookie batsman really bang the door down, with 3-4 hundreds in a season before picking them. It's why when the selectors declare 'spots up for grabs' they kneejerk select batsman who clearly aren't ready. Would like to hear your thoughts Jeff.

Yep. It wasn't disagreeing with you, quite the contrary actually. As a fan I'd like the young guys to get their defence right first and add the funky shots afterwards but that's a bit idealistic I guess. The fact is they have a window of 10-15 yrs before they have to get a real job so I can't really blame them for trying to earn some coin before their cricketing days are over.

I played A grade at 14 and played state rep hockey. Fancy that! So what? I just go on your comments. You advertise your mind with your comments. I'm not buying what you're offering.

Yeah it was a good knock. I thought he showed plenty of common sense and heaps of ticker. He deserves to be given a chance to show what he can do on home soil imo.

Perhaps bring in a rule that says you can not represent more than 1 country ... you know ... like Morgan or Archer or ...