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Joined January 2013
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So why didn’t Warner play in the county games after the first and third tests?
With the urn retained, how do we approach the fifth Ashes Test?
I like the batting line-up, but if you want to win the series, at least one (if not both) of Hazelwood and Cummins has to play.
The XI Australia must pick at the Oval
I think England’s test side most desperately needs a different personality (and better tactician) as captain and should let Root (who is, in some ways, an English version of Smith personality-wise) concentrate on batting. The problem is who? Stokes is their spiritual leader and has some great fight, but has had too many off-field issues (to say the least) and is already carrying too much of an on-field load to be able to take that role. Buttler seems like a good guy with a decent cricket brain, but is struggling to cement his spot in the team and just lost the vice-captaincy. I almost think it has to be Burns, who has apparently captained his county well and seems to have some fight. Quite tricky for England. Australia might have a similar (or even worse) problem in October 2020, unless a batsman with leadership credentials establishes himself: here’s looking at you to consistently make some big runs in your next six tests, Travis Head.
England fourth Ashes Test player ratings: No standouts for the hosts as the series goes begging
Good article, Ronan. I know you’ve been a big fan of Warner’s for a long time, so I was hanging out for your analysis of why his batting has been so bad this series — and a credit to you for writing it. He may not even get a second innings now, so that might be curtains for his test career in England.
Warner has lost the plot – and his off stump
Still no mention of Warner’s place in the team, Ronan. According to you he doesn’t even have to compete in the stacked field of openers, yet is averaging less than Khawaja this series, has looked like getting out constantly throughout the series and has more than five consecutive away test series in which he’s been quite poor. And this untouchable status even after Cape Town… I just don’t get it.
Marcus Harris deserves this chance at Usman Khawaja's expense
What’s Warner averaging outside Australia in the last 5 years with how many hundreds?!?
Usman Khawaja axed for fourth Ashes Test
Let’s be honest, if Ussie had had Stokes’ luck, he’d have a couple of hundreds too by now.
Usman Khawaja axed for fourth Ashes Test
“the other bats have simply performed better” — at least three bats have performed worse than Ussie on every metric.
Harsh to drop Khawaja for not going on with it when he’s averaging more than a player like Warner and looks much less likely to get out. Strange that Warner should have extra brownie points after what he did in South Africa.
Usman Khawaja axed for fourth Ashes Test
All the talk is about our batsmen struggling against the moving ball, but we actually seem to be losing the vast majority of our wickets all series when it’s a bit dark, particularly by failing to hit straight ones. It’s so bright in Australia compared to England, that many of the players simply might not be that used to picking the ball up in such conditions. Fortunately it looks like it will be brighter for the second innings…
Warner's ugly but crucial Ashes innings
Yes, South Africa 2014 was obviously his bright spot in terms of overseas performance (as Ronan points out in the article), but that was a long time ago now!
Warner and Khawaja face make or break Ashes Test
Hi U, I know you’re not a big fan of Paine, but he’s what we need right now as a captain in pretty extraordinary circumstances and still the best ‘keeper in Australia to spinners. Given Head’s form so far this series and Carey’s world cup, I don’t reckon you’ll see any more of Paine after this summer’s tests — he’ll be almost 36 by the time the tests after than (against Afghanistan and India) roll around late next year. He seems like a quality individual and was unlucky with injuries, so I hope for his sake he pulls off this Ashes series at least.
I think I agree with you on the bowling attack and would go with Cummins, Pattinson and Starc, pulling Starc off immediately if he can’t control the swing of the new ball and bringing him back on with the old ball as an enforcer (if he’s bowling fast enough in the nets) or for reverse (if that ever happens). Hazlewood looked a bit flat again in the second innings, so might not be up for back-to-back matches and, while Siddle was still good, they almost seem to have started to work out how to deal with him. I guess the Starc vs Siddle decision will depend on how green the pitch is again, but visiting teams have made lots of runs in past years at Headingley and this August doesn’t seem to be a time for making raging green tops.
Warner and Khawaja face make or break Ashes Test
Further to my comment way down the bottom, here are the unadulterated statistics of our top-seven batsmen in this series:
Batter:Runs/HS/Average/Average balls per innings
Bancroft:44/16/11.0/40.5;
Warner:18/8/4.5/12.5;
Khawaja:91/40/22.8/33.3;
Smith:378/144/126.0/195.7;
Head:135/51/45.0/72.0;
Wade:118/110/29.5/49.5;
Paine:66/34/16.5/36.3;
Labuschagne:59/59/59.0/100.0
Khawaja isn’t even that far off Wade in terms of runs scored and averaged and well ahead of Bancroft and Paine. Warner is in another postcode, at least Bancroft has seen off the new ball for an average of 28 more balls per innings.
If Smith is fit for Leeds, Bancroft will probably miss out with Khawaja and Warner opening (with Warner’s performances, Khawaja has been effectively opening anyway), but it’s clearly Warner who should be under the most pressure.
Warner and Khawaja face make or break Ashes Test
Good news, though his way into the test team seems to depend less on his exploits with the bat and more on (1) showing that he can keep well to spin; and (2) Travis Head establishing himself as a batsman, so he can take over the captaincy from Paine (which he’s happily doing for now).
Warner and Khawaja face make or break Ashes Test
Fair call, but wouldn’t this equally apply to Warner? The only innings of his under pressure I can remember was against NZ in Hobart many years ago and I think Khawaja’s more recent effort in the UAE was probably better, partly because we didn’t lose the match. When has Warner stood up in tough conditions overseas and got us an otherwise unlikely result? Most of Warner’s tons in my memory were made on hard roads in Australia when both teams made or looked likely to they should make 500-odd, and I don’t remember him even making too many of those in the last four years.
Warner and Khawaja face make or break Ashes Test
So Warner hasn’t even managed to make it to 10 once, has constantly looked like getting out (since his first ball of the series not given out LB when he was) and is averaging 4.5, while Khawaja has made two decent contributions out of four including a very important one in the second innings at Edgbaston, looked generally fluid and is averaging 23, yet you have Khawaja on his last chance and Warner isn’t? I really don’t get this Warner favouritism sometimes.
Warner and Khawaja face make or break Ashes Test
Seriously, Ronan, hiding Warner’s abject lack of run-scoring by combining his paltry number of runs with Khawaja’s? Of those 109 combined runs, only 18 are Warner’s, meaning he’s averaging only 4.5. Khawaja has made 91 at 23, which is, while not amazing, in a different category to Warner’s performance. I also note the lack of stats in support of your broad claim that Warner has a “far superior test record to Khawaja” — I’d be interested in the actual numbers.
Plenty of people on here use spurious statistics to help their favourite players, but your articles are usually much better than that.
Warner and Khawaja face make or break Ashes Test
Nice article with plenty of deserved praise for Josh who was truly excellent last night. But there were also things that bode less well for Australia in the day’s play…
Will you also be writing an article on Warner at some stage, Ronan? I know you’re a massive fan, but to many of the rest of us, it’s not that surprising to see him look like a lamb to the slaughter in overseas conditions against decent test bowling. Is there a new technical fault in your opinion? Why didn’t he play the tour game if a lack of red-ball cricket was the problem last test?
Our openers are a massive concern for me and I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended the series with Uzzie opening and Labu at 3.
Hazlewood fires in Ashes comeback
I don’t know why Warner was rested from the tour game. It’s not like he was out there batting for a lot of the First test and he’s hardly had any red ball cricket in a year.
If Justin Langer is right, Tim Paine doesn’t want to win the toss at Lord's
If this is true, Starc is going to struggle to get a game this series. Probably his own fault for being so expensive in the warm-up and tour games, but quite remarkable given his white-ball form.
Pattinson left out of second Test squad with Starc, Hazlewood included
How many did Burns play and miss at or edge in his first innings hundred?
Archer can have a big impact on the Ashes
Paine took a very good catch off Lyon last night. Carey needs to show that he’d be more likely to pouch that than spill it before they can give him the test gloves.
First Ashes Test rests on Smith's bat
Yes, it really jagged back, when nothing really had done so in the ten previous overs. Unfortunately for Ussie, he’s edging them rather than being lucky enough to play and miss right now. He looked excellent last night and could yet have a very good series. Even if we lose this, I’m optimistic about how our 3,4,5 are batting. Of course, they’re occasionally going to get a great ball in England so we need more from 1,2,6 and 7.
First Ashes Test rests on Smith's bat
I’m not sure England bowled that well at all, to be honest, the Aussie bats and the umpires made their bowling look better than it was. Stokes was spraying balls everywhere, resorted to some weird kind of body-line tactic by the end and got a wicket with his only quality ball. Ali wasn’t that threatening and often bowled too short or too full. Broad was quick and beat the bat a lot with his leg-cutters, but got one of the luckiest test 5-fors you’ll see (Warner and Pattinson given out to (bad) balls sliding down leg, Paine putting a pie down deep square let’s throat and Smith cleaned up slogging; only the Bancroft wicket was a good ball). Woakes bowled best and got scalps executing quality plans, but looked very manageable on a track like this when the ball got soft and he was a little tired.
On this pitch, Australia will have to bowl a lot better than an admittedly unluckily understaffed England to win this test.
Steve Smith once again saves Australia from Ashes embarrassment
We wearily raised this on the live feed. I was too young for Hughes but the value this one of Smith’s among the best Australian test innings for the difficulty and the context. Steve Waugh has some candidates, with his 200 at Sabina Park after his equally remarkable 60-odd against Ambrose on a green-top the previous test for sending us to the top of the tree. Michael Clarke too, not just that South African innings you mention, but also his debut hundred in India to help us conquer the final frontier and I have a vague memory of one crisp innings with everyone falling around him in England. From memory, Mark Waugh also played one ridiculous and almost out-of-character test innings in South Africa, but I can’t remember the context. Dean Jones in Madras and Usman Khawaja in the UAE last year probably also deserve a mention for lone hands in tough conditions and match situations.
Steve Smith once again saves Australia from Ashes embarrassment
So, with what is coming out of Langer’s mouth, it seems like Warner is going to play and there’s no mention of Khawaja returning. I’m very proud of the team for retaining the ashes, but will be terribly disappointed if the management so flagrantly plays favourites instead of selecting on form and merit.
With the urn retained, how do we approach the fifth Ashes Test?