Roar Guru
Joined February 2019
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I make up supporting Bangladesh and WSW by supporting Arsenal. All aboard the Arteta express. Cricket, league and football fanatic.
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Match 7 2017. Ask any Arsenal fan what their memories were of that day and you'd get anything but a positive response. Leading 1-0…
When Shubman Gill made his Test debut against Australia at the MCG, a select few outside of India had known about the then 21-year-old…
The Cronulla Sharks host the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs for the first double header of Friday Night Footy. Join The Roar for live scores and…
The Gold Coast Titans host the St George Illawarra Dragons to kick off their 2023 NRL season. Join The Roar for live scores and…
The T20I series between New Zealand and Australia continues in the city of Auckland. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 5:10pm…
Australia and the West Indies resume their T20I series in the city of churches. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7pm…
Australia's international summer concludes with a three match T20 series against the West Indies, starting off in the city of Hobart. Join The Roar…
The ODI leg of the West Indies tour of Australia concludes in the Australian capital. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from…
The white ball leg of the Australian summer begins with as Australia and the West Indies face each other in the first ODI in…
It's BBL Challenger time as the Brisbane Heat take on the Adelaide Strikers for the right to face the Sixers in the BBL13 final.…
The Perth Scorchers host the Adelaide Strikers in the BBL13 Knockout final. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:40pm (AEDT). Game…
The BBL knockout stages begin with the Qualifier final between the Brisbane Heat and the Sydney Sixers. Join The Roar for live scores and…
Australia and the West Indies resume their 2024 Frank Worrell Trophy battle in the city of Adelaide. Join The Roar for live scores and…
Australia and Pakistan resume their battle on Day 4 at the SCG in what is likely to be the final day of the 2023/24…
The 16th edition of Jane McGrath Day at the SCG sees Australia resume 196 runs behind Pakistan’s first innings total of 313 with eight…
After an eventful opening day, Australia resume hostilities with Pakistan as they look to put on a substantial first-innings total. Join The Roar for…
It's the end of the road for David Warner as the Benaud-Qadir Trophy wraps up with the New Year’s Test match Sydney, as Australia…
Australia are inching closer towards victory after a dominant display against a Pakistan team that are refusing to give up. Join The Roar for…
Australia are looking to pile on the runs after ending the Pakistan first innings with a hefty 216 runs at tea on Day 3…
That gap is big because Australia and England hardly play the small teams at home for Test series. 20 years since Bangladesh toured Australia and 13 since they toured England for bilateral series. Zimbabwe toured Austalia for the first time in 19 years. Haven’t played a bilateral series against England in England in 20+ years. West Indies came to Australia for the first time in seven years. Couldn’t care less about Afghanistan as they’re lucky to still keep full member status. Proteas might be sending a weaker squad, but Blackcaps have never won a Tests series against them and it could end up as a drawn series.
As for the women’s game, Pakistan just completed a successful tour of NZ winning the T20 series 2-1 and narrowly losing 2-1 in the ODI series. Could’ve easily been 2-1 to Pakistan in the ODI series had they won the second ODI which was a thriller. Bangladesh are on course to win an ODI series in South Africa. The gap is getting smaller between teams while Australia still remains the benchmark
Gap's never been wider between cricket’s Big Three haves and the have-nots ... and it’s only getting worse
The problem with Babar is that he hasn’t even scored a Test 50 in 2023. He’s struggled to start a tour of Australia well with his highest score in his first Test innings in tours of Australia being 21. Imam may have gotten 62, but he was extremely slow and showed no aggression before his brain fade. Shan Masood needs to step up as skipper as well. That second innings dismissal was terrible for a player who bats better outside of Asia than in Asia
Test-mortem: Jury's out on ‘treacherous’ Optus as Perth’s best venue, Warner robbed, Marnus slump no big deal … yet
Granted that is true Tony. However, how many 19 year old halfbacks have looked so comfortable at NRL and international level? Very few. Katoa is a gem and the fact that Penrith didn’t prioritize re-signing him could blow up in their faces in a few years time
'No pen to paper here': Luai throws doubt on $6m Tigers deal - but tells teammates he is leaving the Panthers
Tigers lack some confidence and personalities on their team. Luai brings both. He also brings a winning mentality to the side. Yes they’ve had to pay overs, but Luai being coached by Benji has so much upside. As for Penrith, why did they not priorotise keeping Katoa at the club?????
'No pen to paper here': Luai throws doubt on $6m Tigers deal - but tells teammates he is leaving the Panthers
We all would’ve liked Australia to be 3/546 at stumps yesterday
Not surprised by how Masood batted as he’s adopted an aggressive approach since county this year.
Pakistan are playing for the draw as they are far too behind to push for a win in three days. A few wickets tomorrow morning and hopefully knock them out by tea
From Bazball to Snoozeball: Aussies toil despite monster first-innings total as gritty Pakistan fight back with the bat
He should come back to NSW
Can't beat an egg: No moral victories and barely any wins to speak of for England after Ashes Bazball hubris
Windies might not be competitive in the two Test series, but Darren Sammy is slowly building the white ball team well after the WCQ debacle. Alick Athanaze, Shai Hope, Hetmyer, Carty make a formidable batting lineup while bowlers like Motie, Shepherd and Joseph are stepping up. Good to see some belief back in the Windies team.
Can't beat an egg: No moral victories and barely any wins to speak of for England after Ashes Bazball hubris
India got 329 and 286 in the second Test. Two players got centuries including one coming from a number 8 in Ashwin
The Third Test was overdone but I don’t know how much that was due to the pink ball and the uncertainties of how it’d go in Indian conditions. The 4th Test saw India bat second. They got 350+ and won by an innings.
I don’t think England players are poor players of spin. But when it gets tough, they don’t apply themselves long enough to score big runs.
Jofra makes injury comeback in West Indies - but England had no idea
Tbh, the second Test and fourth Test pitch wasn’t impossible to bat on. India got 300+ as their first innings scores in those Tests. So I think we will see turning wickets, but not raging turners which takes out the skills of spinners as we saw in Indore in the BGT or Dhaka recently between Bangladesh and New Zealand
Jofra makes injury comeback in West Indies - but England had no idea
Never thought I’d see a pitch anywhere near as bad as Delhi in an ODI between India and Sri Lanka in 2009. This beat that by a mile and to be honest, huge props to the umpires for taking action so quickly (if I remember correctly, that ODI went on till the 24th over in the first innings)
'It's bouncing ridiculously': BBL clash ends in farce as Geelong pitch deemed unsafe just six overs in
First Test pitch was brilliant. Proper cricket wicket. Pitch yesterday was so poor that Tamim Iqbal called it out on commentary. And I’m not surprised by this. Head curator for Dhaka in Gamini De Silva always makes terrible pitches. This pitch is turning so much that even part timers look very effective
'Not what you want to see for Test cricket': Aussie stars sound franchise alarm ahead of international summer
Exactly. People don’t realize how fortunate these players in big three nations are that they can financially avoid playing franchise leagues since they get paid well.
While it is unfortunate that RSA won’t have a full strength squad, they have some decent backups. Blackcaps have never beaten RSA at home in a Test series so it won’t be easy. Talking of Blackcaps, they might lose a Test series against a Bangladesh side missing Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and Liton Das
'Not what you want to see for Test cricket': Aussie stars sound franchise alarm ahead of international summer
As a Gunner, I look at one thing with Arteta at the helm. And that’s whether the board unanimously backed him knowing that this rebuild would take time. They definitely have from how Arteta handled the moles in the club when they were struggling. Not to mention the patterns of play he had.
Now onto Man U. The board screwed Ole over by getting Ronaldo back (Mendes played his cards perfectly by making Fabrizio lie about the City rumour). Suddenly, Ole’s plans with implementing a gegenpress was impossible with Ronaldo in his front three. Cost him his job. Ten Hag has tried to be strict but coming from a club that priorotises youth, it’s hard to do the same with a club filled with plenty of big egos. Man U have to ride the tough wave until the end of next season. If ETH is still not progressing Man U halfway into his fourth season and weeded out the bad rot, then there’s only one way his reign will end.
What the EPL?!: Spurs are going places under Ange - so what can he teach 'nowhere fast' United?
Patel now has 6 POTM awards in T20 internationals and he isn’t in India’s squad for their next T20I series.
Australia bowled better but probably gave 10-15 too many on a surprisingly slow Bengaluru wicket
'It's hard to wrap my head around': Wade rages at umpires after non-call sees Aussies fall to India again
This is the first time I’ve criticised Johnson.
John the Bookie is nothing desperate. Warne and Mark Waugh were involved in fixing through giving away pitch and weather conditions for money and the fact that CA tried to cover that up is still disgraceful.
'Bunnings would sell out of sandpaper': Bailey reacts after Johnson delivers brutal sledge over 'arrogant' Warner's farewell
Johnson using every possible situation to criticize the current Aussie team just because Langer isn’t coach anymore. And can we get over the sandpaper issue? Two Aussie men in the 90s were best mates with John the Bookie and hardly got a ban. Forget getting banned, the board tried to protect them and they’re still considered as legends in Australian cricket. What Warner, Smith and Bancroft did is nowhere near as bad
'Bunnings would sell out of sandpaper': Bailey reacts after Johnson delivers brutal sledge over 'arrogant' Warner's farewell
McDermott deserves a long run in the ODI team. But I think after he failed to capitalize against SL last year in the 5 match T20 series, it should’ve been the end of his T20I career. Only thing I can see that can revive his T20I career is if he goes to play in CPL to improve his game vs spin. Same could happen if an IPL team gets him in the auction.
Australia fail depth test with second-stringers spun out as India clinch series: 'They got hold of us and didn't let go'
If Misbah Ul Haq can play Tests till 43, Lyon can do something similar as well
Why Lyon should keep playing Tests into his roaring 40s - and Maxwell can keep white-ball berths as long as he wants
India have found a gem in Rinku Singh. No chance he’s missing the WC squad. And to think that Axar Patel won’t be in the T20 squad against RSA while Jadeja comes back and is vice captain for the T20 team.
Shame none of the Aussie fringe bats have put their hand up to stake a claim for the T20 WC squad
Australia fail depth test with second-stringers spun out as India clinch series: 'They got hold of us and didn't let go'
Smith has always been an average T20 cricketer. T20 career SR of 127. T20I SR of 125. IPL SR of 128. He’s getting into the T20 team based on his reputation in other formats. Australia should’ve moved on from him ages ago, but he’ll always get a recall for his BBL exploits.
Smith scrambling to make T20 World Cup squad as diminishing white-ball returns put spot in jeopardy
An XI India should’ve gone with
Rohit, Gill, Kohli, Iyer, Rahul, Hooda, Axar, Unadkat, Bumrah, Shami, Kuldeep
This allows them to play their ultra aggressive style up front while also having a better tail that wouldn’t crumble with the bat. Having two passengers in their top seven + a long tail meant that India were on the back foot once Iyer got out in the 11th over. Australia exposed that flaw brilliantly and got India bowled out for 50-60 runs below par
Fringe candidates flunk audition for T20 World Cup as Australia caned by India: 'Failing to execute at critical moments'
Performances for each player for Australia A in FC matches
Harris: 14 innings, 360 runs, 30.0 average, 1 hundred
Renshaw: 14 innings, 620 runs, 44.28 average, 2 hundreds, two fifties
Bancroft: 15 innings, 590 runs, 49.16 average, 1 hundred, 3 fifties
I’ve always put A performances for players all over the world as a key indicator on whether they’re truly ready for Test cricket with bat or ball. Bancroft for me despite scoring slightly less than Renshaw as he’s unbelievable at short leg. Not to mention Renshaw’s time will come once Uzzie calls it quits (which I assume will be after the home series vs India)
Harris, Renshaw or Bancroft? Choosing Warner’s Test replacement should be opener and shut case for selectors
Sai Kishore is the best left arm orthodox India have got, especially with his ability to bowl tightly during the powerplay and not panicking if he concedes a boundary. KL Rahul is a big no after two poor T20 WC’s. Jadeja has improved but on sluggish surfaces in WI, he will get exposed badly with his batting – especially if opposition teams bowl off spinners to him. Axar had a poor 2022 T20 WC, but I back him to do well on slower surfaces in WI with bat and ball.
Fringe candidates flunk audition for T20 World Cup as Australia caned by India: 'Failing to execute at critical moments'
India’s tail began from when SKY came in at 6. But thank you for reminding me about the long tail. Jaydev Unadkat. Left arm seamer who’s got great leadership credentials and can hold a willow well. India should’ve had him in the WC squad over Thakur who loses the plot quickly. That way, Siraj would’ve had proper competition and arguably loses his spot halfway through the tournament.
Fringe candidates flunk audition for T20 World Cup as Australia caned by India: 'Failing to execute at critical moments'
Nope. Serves Afghanistan right. They’re lucky to still be a Test playing nation and I applaud CA on what they did on cancelling the tour as well. Someone has to take a stance on them.
Gap's never been wider between cricket’s Big Three haves and the have-nots ... and it’s only getting worse