Ashes niggle in January? Strap in for a long year

Along with some typos in haste I guess you get the point . The ambition should be to transition a few more in this summer that should have been played against india or rotated in on merit. In addition Carey or marsh could have batted middle order if wade opened in a few tests , swepson for lyon at scg , neser scg and a rotated Patto at mcg should have started against india given his world beating average of 16 there . We had some potentially series changing options against india alongisde some better Captaincy decisions against india . Now we may go in to next ashes with some confidence issues and players that won't be moved on and getting past their prime before an Indian subcontinent tour 2022

Good response Pierro, cheers :cricket:

Well all moot on team selection now sa is indefinitely suspended . Probably a good call . Vaccine up play it closer to ashes as warm up. It will extend paines career to end of ashes but such is life with pc cricket australia . Let's hope paine is smart enough to step down after an ashes win (if we can bring home that result on home soil with paines onfield decision making mistakes

Well sth Africa is off . Actually may benefit us to have it September closer to ashes if possible . Better to get form going closer to a bigger series and clearly better for the team to vaccinate before it . No brainer . Think you called it why not perth and a rev share deal. Still they may be asking for too much ingenuity and less marketing and pr pc talk from cricket australia

Well it was a standard catch right behind wickets to get pant out at scg . No great debate there if you watch it . Let’s say it’s probable carey would have caught that catch and got in to india’s tail two hours earlier . Of the six or seven drops carey made in the series many of them were harder and a few extremely difficult . I think my overall honest view is being more specific is , tim paine for a long time was australia’s best keeper who was awfully unlucky to accrue terrible injuries which stopped him from keeping in his prime and for longer . Now however looking at this test i think there’s probably little in it on the keeping front as he’s now getting on in cricketing age and that when , coupled with his poor onfield cpatiancy decisions under pressure there may be a considerable amount of downside in paine playing on as carry could develop and has had some huge knocks on intentional display alongside a good red ball display for aus a in uk and some small runs in shield where he hasn’t had as much time to feature after being called up. We are delaying the inevitable and a stronger potential outcome if you look at scg and gabba day 5 and headingly in particular . Sure he batted ok with some luck in this series but he’s been on home soil twice in a year and the fear is his batting on tour was really sliding . How with sa postponed it would make sense to replace him later in year but he will have the benefit of suspension due to covid and playing out the home ashes at the very least . We may escape with a win and a rosy send off unless his ego means he won’t step down or ca don’t have the conviction to prepare for the future when he hits 37 years of age in December

Yep a career of one Test is not great news for Aussie opening stocks when, right now, there's no suitable candidates to replace him. And he's getting over an injury.

4 blokes; 2 Aussies, 2 English. Joe Burns, Lloyd Pope Rory Burns, Ollie Pope :cricket:

You are clearly a soul with conviction Pierro, as any of us who followed recent Test series via The Roar could attest, but how can you be sure that 'Carey would have caught that' You present it as fact, when its actually just your (considered) opinion. I found it odd, given your criticism.... 'Absolute rubbish it’s just your opinion mate'

just on 1; Warner struggling overseas, Puckovski looks good, but how many tests has he played again ?

Funny enough smith looked rusty at adelaide and took him a bit of time to adjust to red ball despite some good indian tactics . He has always looked more comfortable against red ball. We still had quite a bit of quarentining from nsw as well to adelaide as a unit . Also rotations were even more necessary arguably . What struck me I’d we were beaten first innings and everyone thinks stick to the same bowling unit for mcg when only two bowlers cleaned up india and our best two who almost always get picked outside of fact they should be careful to monitor hazelwood hamstrings

Notcher my slip about venue I noted it yesterday actually and corrected it elsewhere in a post above this one actually before you messaged . Still pakistan beats sth Africa , clearly sa are not at their best . However there’s mistruth about paine . A loss against india at home (two series ) and a drawn ashes that should have been a win . Perhaps it’s you are the incessant posting for the paine or that camp that needs to get real but I guess you like your captain bungling decisions at headingly scg and gabba on day 5 resulting in a lost test and last time round a loss series on home soik , let alone now the added dimension of poor keeping . The drop to pant was so costly at scg allowing another two hours until we got to the tail on final afternoon tiring our bowlers . another blinkered fan that likes medicority and our nation losing tests is all we need on here . At least back your post up with solutions not knit picking and mud slinging

Pakistan beat Sth Africa in Karachi. How many times are you going to peddle this sort of mistruth in your incessant posting against Paine.

Very few bowler-captains pull it off well. Most have a phalanx of apologists in tow. Khan and Benaud l rate. —– Interestingly they became doyens-@-large. Benaud International Commentator Extrordinaire and Khan leader of his beloved Pakistan. Khan’s story is a film. Something about that name…..

I just think if you are going to wear a mistake it better be yours and not someone else’s. ——- And if they’re spending too much time in tactic discussions that is also detrimental.

But paine explained it was his decision to send england in . Also jeff remember headingly paine lacked agression with field and pressure earlier in day but boy that drs was a howler by paine down leg side too it was there for taking a ball or two later . I'll never forget smith hands on his head disagreeing with paine over the leg side drs and that there in was a captains moment too sure we can dispute it but smith was going for the right decision as a decision maker. I know it was a series of events there and stokes was fantastic but just too many times with paine. As for selections I think not elevating khawaja was a mistake and bancroft was hanging round longer than harris . I'm not always about rotation but I think starc also had some good figures at lords from memory with yorkers and reverse swing and I wanted him bowling there but not all grounds . Also stand by carey could have come in middle order . I tend to think something then allan border says it . He called labs first test , carey to come in to bat off world cup.and warm up match. We know english form is huge for aus selections . Border also wanted sean marsh in start of this series . All three decisions I was thinking before both series . None happened , well njury got labs in and look what he did and look at the results

Selection - an imperfect science. Labs in UK - yes made sense, though wasn't a given based on his previous international performances. I think they got rotations (resting bowlers) wrong (in hindsight) v India - but then again, when you bowl out a team like India for 36, there is an understandable mindset not to mess with what has worked before. But they should have taken account of tiring bowlers IN CASE Tests went into the fifth day - as they did SCG and Brisbane. Burns' selection was the one big selection failing for me. That impending failure was clear for all to see. Back to the UK 2019 - I'm not as unforgiving. Pre-series, would we have expected anything other than a series loss? Really, it was a Ben Stokes one-for-the-ages performance that got England close to avoiding a 3-1 drubbing. Stokes aside and the decision to send England in, I think the selections and preparation was pretty good.

So perhaps we agree it’s both langer and paine . I think langer definitely missed the boat on bowling rotations at mcg scg and gabba and that’s another mindset that’s resistant tonchange . It definitely contributed to our losses and draws in last three tests let alone burns should never have started . England are on to rotations at certain grounds or with problematic bowlers and I thought we were too but last season Patto only started at mcg because hazelwood got injured and he did the job at the G yet again with bags of wickets , that average of 16 at mcg can’t be ignored . Funny enough reminds me that you and I wanted labuschagne in test 1 in uk ashes off a great county and warm up with aus a . It took smith getting hammered by archer in the head to start labuschagne . Once again reactionary selections off the back of injury instead of smart practical common sense pre emptive selections . Really think hohns and langer get way more wrong than right at selectors in the uk and this series against india it was very noticeable

Tell Langer the Selector where to go? mmmmm..... :laughing: ai understand the perspective of the likes of Chappell, even Border, but their days of the captain being the be-all and end-all of decision making around the team are long gone. Not sure they can let go of "the way things were" v "the way things are" re decision making in the team. From what I can tell, Langer and the coaches discuss ad-nauseum team strategy ant tactics before the match, before/after day's play and even at lunch breaks, so I still think Paine is operating within the "plans" as discussed. Of course he still has to make on-the-spot decisions, but I don't think he has as much freedom to operate broadly as he sees fit, as many think he has. Whether he should have those freedoms is another matter.

It’s arguable paine shoukd have told langer where to go and he’s captain with field settings . Ian chappel agreed there I think or michael clarke did not sure which or both . That said I think paine does decide bowling changes captains usually always have . We cried out for labs to come on earlier at manchester and paine left that to last minute and it got a result and we almost got in to trouble at manchester with paines bowling choices last day . I can remember fifth day at lords he kept lyon on way too long on fifth day and england scored quickly and got us in under real pressure too soon . If not for labs holding on there we may have lost lords . Point is I think paine is definitely making choices on final days we’ve seen numerous times I don’t think it’s langer

Sure, but, the coaches (with Langer at top), set a lot of the parameters for the captain to operate within - for example I absolutely agree Labuschagne should be bowling more in Tests - but is that a Paine on-field decision, or are the coaches (including the bowling coach) pushing/promoting Labs to be bowling in the nets? If not, then just "bowling" him in a Test may be of little value if he hasn't kept his skill set up. As with all of these issues, I think it's a broader discussion than just Paine v Smith; many things that happen on the field are pre-determined by what is being structured off the field.