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Roar Rookie
Joined February 2019
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Zaheer Abbas and Sarfraz Nawaz unlucky not to get a look in, and I’d probably prefer Saqlain over Mushy for variation, but my main qualm is about the keeping position.
There is no way, in the 60-odd years that Pakistan have played test cricket, that Sarfraz Ahmed has been their best keeper. You have so many candidates aside from him! Rashid Latif, Wasim Bari, Moin Khan – all different in what they bring to the table, but all considerably better than Sarfraz. Just because he captained doesn’t really mean anything.
My all-time Pakistan Test XI
Spruce, I voted for Hutton too, but you’re taking what is a fun online vote way, way too seriously.
There’s really no reason to disparage those who voted for Hayden. Yeah, they’ve picked a bloke with a considerably weaker Ashes record, but you’ve got to understand that many cricket fans not only never watched Hutton play, they wouldn’t even know his name from a bar of soap. Hayden is one of Australia’s greatest openers ever. I don’t blame them for connecting two with two.
“Sometimes the voters are wrong” – like come on, this is democracy. No one answer is “right” or “wrong”. There are worse things happening in the world right now. It’s not the end of the universe if people don’t vote according to what you like.
Pick The Roar's greatest Ashes XI of all time: Matthew Hayden vs Len Hutton
Ponting is a rubbish commentator? Unreal. His tactical insight is sensational, and his penchant for predicting match occurrences before they happen is unmatched. I can listen to him all day. In a world of Warne ranting about his favourites and Brayshaw going on random AFL tangents on a whim, complaining about the best commentator in the industry blows my mind.
Also, Damien Fleming was an excellent bowler in his day, much more than an average medium pacer. He played 100 matches for Australia. He’s not McGrath, but he was international quality easy.
The BBL is slowly but surely going downhill
Top 3 would look sensational if it were Klinger, Katich and Khawaja
Room for Krejza and Kasprowicz in the bowling unit too
The Australian cricket all-time great alphabet teams: Letter J
Likewise for you Paul.
You can’t claim Kane has an easy package when he bowls all the high pressure overs. That’s simply untrue. You completely glossed over what is a pretty key fact here. No matter who he has bowling at the other end, you have to do a job – when very often the game is on the line. He was bowling to an inform vd Dussen and Miller the other night, both T20 stalwarts. His current T20I economy is 7.7. For someone who is meant to be a domestic-level death bowler, that’s unreal. For perspective, Rabada’s T20I economy is 8.5.
There is nowhere in your comment you credited Kane without any caveat. You seemed to always add a if or but, and you point blank call him “underwhelming”. If that’s “credit”, Paul, than I’d hate to hear your criticism.
Kane Richardson finally flourishing for Australia
Give the bloke some credit.
How does he have an “easy passage” when he is consistently being asked to bowl in the death overs and the last over if the powerplay? Those are literally all the hardest overs to bowl. For someone who isn’t really of international calibre, that’s enormous responsibility, and the fact he’s performed that role with aplomb against some of the best T20 teams in the world is testament to his ability to handle high pressure situations.
Kane Richardson finally flourishing for Australia
Mitch Marsh the limited overs player is completely different to Mitch Marsh the Test player. He’s very valuable in a T20 team, and no generous test selection will ever change that.
Marsh, Wade and Carey must be given time
I’ve seen some ridiculous suggestions but this just about takes the cake.
You do realise Ronchi and Wessels aren’t actually Australian, right? Ronchi is a Kiwi (and is also all but retired), and Wessels is a South African who plays exclusively in England. He was only born in Australia because his dad was playing for QLD at the time. Neither are going to switch back to Australia again.
There’s literally nothing wrong with Carey, not least something so bad we have to try and pull blokes from other countries to play for us. This is exact same rubbish we criticise England for.
Marsh, Wade and Carey must be given time
(perhaps other than the threat of rain)
Yeah you might be forgetting a really critical component here called the Test Championship
Should Paine have let Warner chase Lara? Part 1
No comparison. Should Australia and another country be neck and neck in the Test championship come semi-finals time, every single point could be absolutely crucial. Rolling the dice against that just to pursue one personal record is so incredibly foolish; it could sacrifice literally the entire competition.
Should Paine have let Warner chase Lara? Part 1
There’s just something about that Harris …he’s just got that intent
Burns must finally be respected by Test selectors
He’s gonna need a fair season’s worth of consistent performances before we can really judge him as a prospect. That’s always been Swepson’s problem – he can have a phenomenal spell one day but a really mediocre day the next, he’s just got too many poor balls in him to take the next step up.
As for Warne rating him; I don’t particularly take his left-field suggestions seriously anymore. After Michael Beer and Scott Borthwick both failed I grew sceptical – but now since he’s endorsing Riley Meredith because he’s quick (an attribute covered by all 3 of our frontline pacers) and D’Arcy Short because he can bowl some “handy” spin (even though if he’d ever be picked it would be as a batsman) I’ve really started to avoid his views on Test selections like the plague.
Can this young leggie finally live up to the hype?
Cricket is a unique sport in that players aren’t necessarily in the action 100% of the time. Whether they’re waiting to bat, waiting to bowl or waiting for a chance in the field, you only get a limited time to make an impact and you naturally are mentally on edge when waiting. But one good ball and your innings is over and you don’t get to bat; one bad over and you don’t get to bowl; one dropped catch and you can’t stop kicking yourself for the rest of the day. On a professional level, the pressure of getting dropped because of one or two bad moments is immense.
The mental breaks I speak of can often allow intrusive thoughts to ruminate and manifest in one’s mind, which is why the prevalence of mental health issues seems to be more commonplace in cricket than most other sports. It’s a wonder it’s really only become publicised now.
Cricket handling mental health breaks well. So far…
If Australia’s picking blokes with a career average of 35 because “he can’t do any worse”, I fear to see who we pick when we actually don’t have 40+ FC average runscorers knocking the doors down. Give me Burns, Head or Khawaja any day, thanks
Australian Test candidates flop against Pakistan
Looks terrible, but I actually think that sort of strike rate is pretty standard. England, for one, is even worse.
47 Test debutants since 2010. Only 4 are certainties. Some have dropped off the map completely, like Haseeb Hameed and Scott Borthwick. At least most of the guys you listed had somewhat distinguished first class careers.
Australian Test candidates flop against Pakistan
Australia’s T20 team has worn black for a while now; the first T20 uniform I remember Australia wearing was the predominantly grey (might be wrong though) so I guess they’re trying to do something different
Langer has Australia purring in T20Is
Quotas were officially implemented in 2016 but were unofficially adopted well before then. That’s where my Duminy comment came from.
Dude I said it before and I’ll say it again: Ngidi is not a first XI player yet. He’s played 4 matches. I feel like I’m repeating my arguments all over again but I’ll paste my previous explanation on Bavuma here: You’re kinda forgetting that fact that Bavuma is seen by CSA as the poster boy for black cricketers. There have been plenty of fast bowlers of colour from Ntini to Rabada and Ngam to Ngidi but Bavuma is a pioneer – the first full-caste black batsman to not only play for the Test team but also to score a hundred. To remove him from the team is to a remove a pillar of culture from the team.
Mitchell Marsh’s continual selection is a disgrace, but that’s only due to his novelty as an all-rounder; Shaun Marsh actually has a reasonable FC record (a lot better than Bavuma); and James Vince and Joe Denly have only played 13 and 8 matches respectively, so they haven’t had nearly the volume of chances Bavuma has had (plus Denly had a decent Ashes).
43 internationals is a laughable amount of chances for someone considered to be a “project player”
Why quotas help, not hinder, South African cricket
I don’t think you really answered my argument there mate, you just tapped onto one throwaway line.
What you’re trying to say is that sport transcends politics, and society, race, person, etc. and that’s absolutely right. It does. But that doesn’t mean quotas are the answer.
“funding hasn’t been forthcoming in those areas, they will force investment in those areas”
1. Isn’t that kind of an oxymoron?
2. Guess who’s in charge of said funding? Cricket South Africa. Who’s in charge of implementing quotas? Cricket South Africa. This says to me they have their policy all wrong. Just my read though
Why quotas help, not hinder, South African cricket
Imraan Khan. Played 1 match as an opener against Australia if I remember correctly. Really mediocre FC record (average of 36 or something). Dala wouldn’t even have a look in if Abbott, Olivier and to a lesser extent Viljoen and de Lange didn’t move to England. Piedt and Shamsi are far inferior to Simon Harmer. Only Maharaj is a good enough tweaker to match him.
And Bavuma? I think you can connect the dots. I mentioned him in my comment before.
Why quotas help, not hinder, South African cricket
Again, I appreciate the socio-cultural circumstances that have necessitated a change like this; my point is simply that it’s just not the right thing to do. You pick a cricket team to play cricket. You pick your eleven best players and you play. Sport and politics don’t mix.
Investment in less privileged communities should come in the shape of trainings, skill sessions, funding, incentives to introduce it into black-dominant schools – and if, after all of this, the coloured players are good enough to make a team? You’ve done your job. If not, that’s as far as you should go. To go further would border on favouritism, which is not just on the players who would otherwise be there in a meritocracy.
Why quotas help, not hinder, South African cricket
Bavuma
Shamsi
Dala
Piedt
Khan
That’s just off the top of my head
I also love JP Duminy but there’s absolutely no way he’d have played the amount of games that he did with his mediocre Test record without being a Cape Coloured. In his prime he really only had Amla and Philander as non-whites.
Race-based selections pale in comparison to systematic racial oppression, but it’s still a wrong. You just can’t do that.
Why quotas help, not hinder, South African cricket
You could very well play Akram as a no.7, the guy has a test double and averages mid-20s
My all-time Pakistan Test XI