The reason that they’ve struggled to find a genuine allrounder is that they are few and far between. There aren’t that many players going around that you would pick for either skill.

Shane Watson was the closest we’ve had in some time. I think he was underrated as a bowler, but he would never have been picked as a frontline quick. Yesterday I was listening to commentators talk about Pat Cummins becoming a ‘genuine allrounder’. But if he can’t bowl, he’ll never play as a pure batsman.

But for some reason we keep insisting that we need one, despite the fact during our golden age the team rarely had one. What we need is to have a bit of faith in our part-timers. Head and finch can both put some overs in if the quicks need a break, plus Lyon is capable of bowling most of the day if required.

What the side really needs is a proper top 6, so that the bowlers have bigger scores to defend and can bowl to attacking fields for longer

No doubt Starc has been erratic, but he has a couple of qualities that bring a lot to the team.
First, the left arm variety is really useful, and he helps create footmarks for Lyon to bowl into.
Second, he scythes through the tail. To say that his wickets are cheap because they are tail enders forgets the fact that someone has to take those wickets and Starc does it regularly. Imagine the trouble Australia would have been in recently if the tail was knocked over cheaply. Cast back to the ashes 2013/14, and England inability to clean up the tail cost them dearly.

Now, this shouldn’t keep him in the side if he’s out of form, but it does make me think twice over dropping him. There is however a compromise option worth exploring – give Cummins the new ball.

On your first point, this season weve already had four rounds before the squad announcement, there is only one more shield match before the break. Last year we had three rounds for players to put their hand up.

I’m A squad of 17 means you’ve got 6 players who are sitting around rather watching a test rather than playing cricket. Even though there is no shield cricket during the India tests this season, there are generally a few matches that these test hopefuls could be playing in, to say nothing of the big bash or even grade cricket.

I’d like to see more your matches, but that’s not how the modern game works. Players are generally hopping from one series / tournament to another, so I can’t see it improving. What I would like to see is a much higher number of A series. Actually what I’d like to see is the big four also have an A team in the second test division playing the smaller nations.

The crowd size may have been small as the game began, but ABC Radio reported that it had drifted up to 20,000 after an hour or so of play. 20k might not seem much at the new 60k stadium, but it’s a sell out at the WACA. Couple this with fact that the match isnt on free to air and therefore didn’t get a months worth of promos, and it’s probably as could be expected. Not to say that the state of the team didn’t have an effective, but maybe not as large an effective as you ascribe.

Also, Imran Tahir is 39, so Dale Steyn wasn’t the oldest on the ground.
Also, you missed the 2015 ashes in your stats, where Australia lost 3-2. Australia have also won 3 of their last 15 tests in England. The same number as England have won in Australia over the same period. Australia have won 10 at home versus England’s 8.

I think you just need to take cricket.com.au as what it is – it’s Cricket Australia’s take on cricket news. The coverage they do is great, but it’s not the place to go for the internal organisational politics. It’s kind of like the afl website. You won’t find any in-depth coverage of Gill McLachlan’s lobbying Peter Dutton over an aupair for his cousin. When two executives stepped down over affairs, you got a few press releases, but not an analysis over whether they had abused their power. Simply put, there are better places to read that information, which is why The Roar is in business.
I think the issue is really that it would be great if we had another great cricket website that really digs into Australian cricket. Once the summer is over its hard to find cricket news in Australia, unless someone takes a black and decker to the ball that is… Over the winter I wanted news on player contracts and movement (same as I do now for AFL) and I barely found any information about it. between cricket.com.au, cricinfo and the roar, I get most of what I want, but another in depth outlet wouldn’t go astray.

Shaun Marsh will see out the summer for two reasons:
A.) He has a wealth of “experience”.
B.) He’s keeping Smith’s spot free.

The selectors don’t want to drop in a young kid and do well, only to drop them when Smith is able to resume his career.

Mitch on the other hand has been handed the vice captaincy, so he’s probably rusted on for the summer. I’d prefer he be given the reins of the ODI squad and left as a white ball specialist.

Cricinfo reported that too, but they are only talking about fourth innings scores, not scores in any innings.

Why an indigenous development coach?

So the thing that I find the most amazing about this list is the fact there are only two players from NSW.

Happy to see Siddle back in the frame. I’m presuming Neser, Doggett and Labuschagne are more going for experience and will likely only play in extreme circumstances.

I’m presuming the top 6 will be Renshaw, Khawaja, marsh, marsh, finch and head. But I’ve got no idea what order they will bat. Renshaw opens, but with who? Will finch open or play middle order? Same with Sean Marsh. Mitch marsh should bat 6, but I could see him pushed up to let head debut there. Ideally I’d like Renshaw, Khawaja, s marsh, finch, head, m marsh, but nothing would surprise me.

I’ll begrudgingly accept that Anderson has become a superb bowler. In fact his figures for the past 5 years are up there with any of the greats. He has certainly proved that if you play enough tests, your bound to get better.
And that’s pretty much my issue with Anderson – he’s extremely lucky that England must have had an empty cupboard when it came to bowlers during his early career. After 4 years and 20 tests, he had taken 62 wickets at an average of 39. There is no way he would have gotten 20 tests in the Australian side. There is just too much competition for places to let that happen. If England had some more talent coming through, he would have a been a county journeyman.
But putting that aside, his performances over the past 5 years have been world class, and he has to be respected as a bowler.

I hear he gave Dave Warner that sandpaper too.

There’s a difference between making the finals and being in premiership contention. I don’t think to many non-Collingwood supporters are suggesting they are in danger of winning the flag.

By breaching the salary cap you mean? Any offers or implications of employment post career would surely have to be considered a part of their salary package.

Good article Tim.

Own things that broadcasters can do is to stop referring to players putting themselves into dangerous situations as courageous. Nearly every time I’ve heard a player described that way, they’ve been blindly leaping into a contest with a complete lack of situational awareness. While I’m certainly not trying to blame the victim in these situations, i think players need to be incentivised to protect themselves more. Calling them courageous for getting into dangerous situations doesn’t help.

Starc, cummins and Hazlewood also wouldn’t have been considered for captaining new south wales because if they are fit, they will be playing for Australia. Why appoint a captain that will be there for 2 games at the start of the season?

Cricket Australia is hoping that Paine will hang in there for the next two years until Smith can return to the captaincy. Mitch marsh is probably the backup plan, especially with Langer in charge.

I’d imagine that finch will be leading the ODI team in our next series, although I’d love to see Bailey drafted back in.

He also speaks his mind. A few days ago he expressed his disappointment at being left out. It’s not the first time he’s questioned selection policy. He might have a legitimate reason to be upset, but he doesn’t take it in his stride like some players.

Not that I’m saying he shouldn’t speak up. I’m more saying it’s probably not a trait that endears him to the heirarchy.

Paine played as an opener when he first came into the ODI side, so it’s not a radical move. He scored a century and five 50s in that position too.

It’s a shameful decision by Cricket Australia, especially in light of the massive windfall they’ve just had. If the decision was made long ago, I wonder if seven and Foxtel were aware that two of the matches they were bidding on were not going to be played.

I understand that these matches aren’t financially viable, but neither are A team tours or the shield. It’s not all about dollars and cents. Treat them like a development game and try out a handful of new players.

I don’t know where your opinions of tim Paine are coming from. He’s played most of his Odis as an opener, including scoring a century and give 50s. He also averages 73 at number 7, so he’s no liability with the bat.

He certainly is a ray of sunshine in these dark times. Here’s hoping that he can stay fit. I’m really hoping that James Pattinson can return to the test ranks too. Having the big four fit and fighting for 3 places would be a great problem to have

He did take hundreds of test wickets, finishing with 208 scalps. But yes, in any other era he would have taken many more than that.

I’m glad you decided to write this article again David, we obviously didn’t get the message the first time around.

Cummins isn’t being punished by being denied the new ball. It actually speaks to his value that he takes the wickets he does without it. It’s just about maximising your resources. Starc and Hazlewood are both at there best when the ball is fresh (or reversing). Cummins can muster something from the ball after those two have generally chipped away at the top of the order. Sayers is a swing bowler and is also at his best with a fresh ball.

Or it’s possibly a psychology thing. When playing England, we knew we just had to see off broad and Anderson without too much damage and then life got much easier. Imagine have to see off Starc and Hazlewood knowing that Cummins is lurking in the shadows.

When Smith broke down mentioning his father, it broke my heart. Here’s a guy who has his reputation shattered and has been banned form the sport he loves, and his biggest regret is disappointing his father.

That said, I deplore the thesis of your article, that men don’t cry. What a load of rubbish.

To give Lehmann the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he said to handscomb to go talk to Bancroft and find out what the hell is going on. He saw the vision and that something was up and rather than sit back twiddling his thumbs, he got proactive and tried to find out.

That being said, the issue from the moment that this happened is that he’s let this culture fester. Lehmann as a coach was always lauded as a man manager rather than a technical coach. He isn’t teaching players how to play the swinging ball, he’s there to keep the spirit of the team up and talk them through the mental side test matches. When he came in, his biggest revolution was to tell the team jokes to raise the atmosphere.

Now’s not the time for someone to tell jokes. Or to teach players how to play an agressive “brand” of cricket. Time for someone to come in and teach this team how to play cricket for Australia.

Renshaw is only 22 runs away from topping the shield runs scorers list for the season too. Not bad considering the shocking start he had.