Haha yeah sorry about Harmer’s average. It’s 21.52. No idea how I missed that reading the article over about 3-4 times before submitting it.

Thanks. Though he was still very good, there were some fairly legitimate knocks on him in the past, but he’s put them to bed. He does deserve a tremendous amount of respect for all that he’s done throughout his career.

The tag was more about the way England bat and how they don’t stop moving around the crease rather than them being an all-conquering batting unit.

I’ll allow it 😔
Yeah, India’s bowling approach was quite questionable. Again, it all falls back on them mostly being the same kind of bowlers. I’d say they also fell into the trap of thinking they could only bowl in one set way to get the most out of the Dukes ball in English conditions. It did come across as though they let Head take the game away from them without trying anything new.
Really just what happens when they don’t have a proper holding quick like Boland who was phenomenal and a major difference.

Kind of. Of course, economic development played an instrumental role in why India is a cricketing powerhouse, but the 1983 World Cup significantly boosted the popularity of the sport in the country.

It came at the perfect time with Indians turning away from the country’s most popular sport around that time hockey because of the sport’s transition to artificial surfaces in the 1970s. This affected India’s competitiveness because the money to implement these new surfaces meant there were fewer funds to invest in player development which was already tight at best since it was a poor post-colonial country. Most players in India were used to playing on grass because India didn’t have a lot of Astroturf surfaces so when they got to the higher levels and international hockey they weren’t able to adjust as well to the different surface.

India winning the World Cup in 1983 led to people in the country turning in droves from hockey to cricket with the sport becoming a national craze. 6 years later, a teenage prodigy debuted for India and ended up becoming deified like no other Indian player ever.

The 1983 World Cup was incredibly important in fuelling the passion Indians have for cricket which once the economic development of the nation accelerated turned it into a cricketing juggernaut.

That entire 2010-11 period genuinely feels like a fever dream with how strange it was.

Thank you, I appreciate it. I didn’t comment on the page because I saw it fairly late, but I enjoyed your article on Sid Barnes.

Sorry to disappoint you. To be fair though, the reality of Smith’s early years in the Test side is just as crazy as the narrative that he went through a role change from primarily a bowler to a batter. Fact is stranger than fiction.

As a whole, I haven’t minded the editorial changes made to the articles I’ve written. Some have been really beneficial for me. It has shown me where I can tweak things that I’m not as good at and has helped improve my writing.
In general, I think it is a pretty thankless job being an editor.

To be honest, my main focus for this article was in response to India’s squad announcement and analysing the player they picked.

The headline for my submission of this entry was actually ‘A look at India’s squad for the WTC final’. It probably got changed for being a very meh headline. I’m not very good at coming up with titles in general. I can see why the article comes across as a bit strange and you were left confused as to why I hadn’t even mentioned Australia once.

The neutral venue in England makes for an intriguing matchup between the two sides. Australia has to take on the side that has had a leg up on them and India are playing in a country where a lot of their squad have performed below their usual standards.

I agree on Starc. He hasn’t done all that great in England either to suggest it would be any different at the neutral venue with a 31.27 bowling average in 9 matches. In an admittedly very small sample size of 4 innings, he’s taken 3 wickets @ 66 at The Oval. It doesn’t seem to be a track that favours him.

I wouldn’t say India were disinterested. New Zealand are just far more suited to English conditions than them.

English conditions are incredibly alien compared to the subcontinent and have more similarities with New Zealand’s conditions. New Zealand’s bowlers with a Dukes ball in swinging conditions are going to do well against India’s batsmen more often than not.

I’d love to see the English response on the socials and in the media if Australia won the WTC final in England and the Ashes. Would be beautiful.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

I do have hope that one of Khawaja, Head, and Green can stand up to help support Smith and Labuschagne. All three have made improvements to give me some optimism.

Yeah, it’s going to be a cracking time. I’ll be 60% made of coffee by the end of the Ashes.

The Oval has been a pitch that spinners have been able to do relatively well on in the recent past. From 2015-2020, spinners have an average of 29.11. In 2021, Jadeja took 2/36 and 2/50 there. The Oval still does favour pacers, but there’s enough for the spinners to do well and contribute.

With Boland, as long he’s able to maintain his metronomic accuracy he should be fine. He is tough to play when the ball is swinging because he’s able to catch the edge on deliveries that pitch on areas where other bowlers would beat the bat.

Haha. Nah, I’m clearly just oblivious.

Sorry mate, I didn’t see this before. Things don’t look good for Bancroft right now. Was out lbw for 27 trying to work a ball on an off-stump line to the leg-side in the first innings.
Second innings, Nottinghamshire made him very conscientious of his front pad after honing in on it with in-swingers. Bancroft started trying to play inside the line of the ball with a smaller stride and Broad blew his off-stump off with a good out-swinger when he was on 16.
He’s looked scratchy in his first two games. Somerset play Lancashire next so he could possibly go up against Anderson. Then in his final game they play Northamptonshire who have a strong bowling lineup.
He’s going to have to post a big score maybe even two. He’s more out of the squad than in at this stage for me. I would go for Renshaw considering his track record in county cricket and his recent performances against NZ A with the Dukes ball. He’s also the youngest out of the three main contenders at 27 so has the most potential moving forward beyond the Ashes.

Most of his County innings in the past aren’t Div 2.
2021 had a unique format where there were no hard-set divisions so Div 1 teams played Div 2 teams that year. He scored 101 against Surrey and 148 against Gloucestershire where Div 2 side Leicestershire beat Div 1 side Gloucestershire by an innings. Gloucs scored 158 and 200 in reply. He batted at 3 that year. In 2022, he played in Div 1 for Gloucestershire where he opened.
Against Div 1 sides specifically: 21 innings, 1005 runs @ 50.25. 5 100s, 2 50s.
His Div 1 season in 2022: 17 innings, 726 runs @ 42.70. 3 100s, 2 50s.

I’m curious to see what the deal was with Hardie. I suspect it might be a bit of load management since the gap between this game and the Shield final was fairly small. Most of the other bowlers had a bit more rest from bowling workloads before coming to New Zealand. Will need to wait and see for the next ‘A’ game.

‘the most consistent young bowler in the Australian domestic scene’. I didn’t say that in relation to him as an all-rounder when talking about his consistency. It was specifically about his bowling.

Are you saying that I didn’t include bowling averages? I did, that’s what the numbers behind the ‘@’ are. Lance Morris has a bowling average of 25.42, while Sutherland has a bowling average of 24.90 dating from the same season that Lance started playing Shield cricket. They’re really close, which is why I said that it’s a fair shout between the two. You can take your pick there.

Regarding your question about this season, I included stats spanning the beginning of Sutherland and Morris’ careers because I would define consistency as good performances across multiple seasons rather than just one season.

I can give you a breakdown of Kelly, Sutherland, and Morris’ per-season stats in the Shield.

Kelly:
2022/23 – 35 wickets @ 15.77 (8 matches)
2021/22 – 10 wickets @ 42.40 (6 matches)
2020/21 – 20 wickets @ 34.25 (8 matches)
2019/20 – 27 wickets @ 28.48 (8 matches)

Sutherland:
2022/23 – 41 wickets @ 19.92 (10 matches)
2021/22 – 24 wickets @ 27.12 (7 matches)
2020/21 – 18 wickets @ 33.27 (8 matches)
2019/20 – 18 wickets @ 17.61 (5 matches)

Morris:
2022/23 – 31 wickets @ 19.96 (6 matches)
2021/22 – 20 wickets @ 27.05 (8 matches)
2020/21 – 12 wickets @ 36.83 (5 matches)

I agree with that. Me saying Sutherland is the most consistent young bowler in the Shield doesn’t change that Lance bowls 150. Creating a bowling attack requires different strengths and weaknesses and Morris brings something that very few others do and helps diversify an attack while having a heap of x-factor even at the international level. Guys that bowl heat will always get fast-tracked.

Jhye has already succeeded at the Test level. Enough said. He just doesn’t play in the Shield due to a mix of international selection and unfortunately injuries.

I’m not trying to argue Sutherland should be ahead of them. The aim of this article was to put a spotlight on domestic performers that haven’t been in Test squads (thus haven’t been covered as much by the media) and help inform the reader about who the successors of the aging Test bowlers may be, particularly in a new era of workload management where 4-5 pacers are being used in long Test series outside of Asia.

In the 3 seasons prior to Sutherland’s ‘one good season’, he’s taken 60 wickets @ 26.11 in 20 games.

Joel Paris – The line is ‘the most consistent young bowler in the Australian domestic scene’. Paris is 30. He’s not young.

Matt Kelly – Sutherland’s First-Class career has been effectively 4 seasons. In that timeframe, Kelly has taken 92 wickets at 26.41.

Lance Morris – Morris has played in three First-Class seasons, he’s taken 63 wickets @ 25.42. In that timespan, Sutherland has 83 wickets @ 24.90. Fair shout between the two.

Jhye Richardson – Hard to call him the most consistent young bowler in the domestic scene when he’s played 6 First-Class matches in the last 3 years due to injuries and international duty.

Perhaps. I’d like to see Ben McDermott or Sam Heazlett being tried after Smith retires. McDermott has an ODI century against Pakistan batting at 3, although he can be criticised for being slow in 50 overs cricket with a List A strike rate of 80.29. Heazlett has an average of 42.58 and a strike rate of 97.37 while mostly opening. I think he can do well batting at 3.
There might also be a young generational batter ready to replace him depending on how long Smith has left.

Having watched Head captain in the Shield, I’m not too keen on him skippering Australia. He came across as very defensive, although to be fair to him he was mostly leading when the redbacks squad was starting to rebuild. South Australia looked better under the captaincies of Jake Lehmann and Henry Hunt who have been more proactive.

I’d be interested to see how he goes with a better squad.