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Shire

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Not only are Johnson’s comments completely sensible, but I’m sure they’re informed by his own experience in the Australian side. He came into a side that had seen several prominent retirements, and would quickly suffer the effects of a couple more. Twelve months either side of Johnson’s debut, the Australian side lost Damien Martyn, Justin Langer, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. Two of those (Warne and Gilchrist) were irreplaceable, once-in-a-lifetime players and McGrath was a generational fast bowling talent who was just as important to the success of the side, but who everyone knew would eventually be replaced (by Pat Cummins about a decade later).

Johnson, in just his 18th Test, was the most experienced bowler in a bowling attack that had a combined experience of 23 Tests. Compare the side which won the Ashes in a 5-0 whitewash, and the one which set out for South Africa two years later, and only Clarke, Hussey and Ponting were a part of both playing XIs.

He knows what he’s talking about, here.

Johnson doubles down with pressure on ageing Aussie team to perform or perish: Time for ‘a period of dramatic change’

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1d

I certainly think that the previous efforts of all three have been held against them, but it’s ridiculous to think that anything could be made of Renshaw or Bancroft’s previous forays into international cricket. Renshaw was originally dropped from the side as a 21 year old, which should be the end of that discussion, and he was set up to fail earlier this year, being forced to play in the middle order on Indian pitches that were spinning square from the first ball.

Bancroft hasn’t played Test cricket for four years and has fixed technical issues that were limiting his performance at international level.

Harris has the most recent proper crack and things, and while he was unlucky to get dropped after top-scoring at Melbourne, he seemed to be the same old Marcus Harris that everyone was accustomed to – just an alright batsman and a passenger in the field. It was only fair that Head and Khawaja both squeezed him out of the side, as both have gone on to have fantastic runs of form.

Banging down the door? Renshaw makes selectors sit up and take notice in Warner race with classy century

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3d

Manuka Oval is always a bit rubbish, it was just more rubbish than usual.

Banging down the door? Renshaw makes selectors sit up and take notice in Warner race with classy century

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3d

Easy to be cool and calm when you know that you’re untouchable. He’s not actually in danger of being dropped, so any and all criticism is like water off a duck’s back.

'Wouldn't be summer without a headline': David Warner's classy response to Johnson sledge

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3d

Yeah Bancroft’s two seasons of 50+ average in Shield weren’t enough to convince the selectors that he should replace the guy averaging 28 over a three year period. Clearly his fault.

Banging down the door? Renshaw makes selectors sit up and take notice in Warner race with classy century

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3d

I know that the pitch was slow, but surely Renshaw could have gone after the bowlers after bringing up his 100. That was an excruciatingly boring day’s play.

Banging down the door? Renshaw makes selectors sit up and take notice in Warner race with classy century

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3d

We’ve put out a few rubbish pitches over the last few years, but never to cynically put ourselves at an advantage. Indeed, the greenest pitches have been served up to England and South Africa – the two teams that would benefit most from them. The worst of our pitches, imo, have been the placid pitches made to ensure that Tests reach a fifth day on the basis of gates, rights and advertising money.

'Not what you want to see for Test cricket': Aussie stars sound franchise alarm ahead of international summer

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4d

Pierson’s batting is better than “gritty”, to be fair. Impressed me big time in those Australia A games in Sri Lanka last year.

Maybe Pakistan will put up a fight after all: Masood monsters PM's XI with masterful ton

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4d

Just went on to score 200. Great start to the tour, regardless of the pitch.

Maybe Pakistan will put up a fight after all: Masood monsters PM's XI with masterful ton

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4d

Test matches lose money for the New Zealand board. Agreed that we should do more (an extra game or two and cover the costs) but the lack of games isn’t entirely on us.

Do Australians love Test cricket or just watching the baggy green side win at home pretty much all the time?

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5d

Agreed. I’ll be listening to ABC over Triple M for any radio coverage, regardless

Johnson 'low act' branded 'un-Australian' as Triple M reinstate fast bowler despite Warner brouhaha

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5d

A lot of people are quoting what Warner said verbatim without bothering to read between the lines or inject a bit of context. Regardless, everyone involved looks bad at this point.

‘Quite disgusting, childish, condescending’: Johnson blasts Bailey over mental health comment as Warner feud gets nastier

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6d

Bancroft had technical issues which he looks to have corrected. Renshaw was selected as a very young man.

Harris has no excuse lol

'Bunnings would sell out of sandpaper': Bailey reacts after Johnson delivers brutal sledge over 'arrogant' Warner's farewell

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1w

Fantastic article. Some of the stats boffins on here have looked even more in-depth into things like this, figuring out if players performed when it really mattered by removing dead rubbers from Test records, etc. This would require even more work, but I’d be interested to see how some of the best players performed when you only take into account live series, world cups and that sort of thing. It’s probably a bit harder with ODIs since there are so many meaningless bilateral series – just look at the ODIs we played against England after the T20 World Cup as a prime example. So it begs the question of what is considered “meaningful”, but I’d love to see you take a crack at it.

Paper giants? - how to rank the best ever ODI batsmen

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1w

Warne was our best spinner since O’Reilly. Lyon stepped into his shoes valiantly (after much chopping and changing), but obviously isn’t of the same calibre. Ergo it’s probably fair to say that Warne was not a “once in a generation” player, but without any exaggeration, “once in a lifetime”.

'Bunnings would sell out of sandpaper': Bailey reacts after Johnson delivers brutal sledge over 'arrogant' Warner's farewell

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1w

Davies has impressed in every innings so far barring the second against Tasmania, and that was playing with a fractured finger on a day where nobody made runs, so he’s excused. Otherwise, it’s 129, 67, 62 and 81* at an S/R of 80+. A very exciting young player with a bright future ahead of him.

Green mounts Test recall bid with runs for WA, Blues blow Tassie away as 24 wickets fall in a day, Vics on top of SA

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2w

Sorry, but do we NEED Green and Marsh to be in the same team? Four right arm pace bowlers is a bit over the top.

Selectors line up three-way battle to replace David Warner in strong PM XI

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3w

Green is the likely successor to Smith at #4. That leaves the #6 spot open for a more aggressive hitter or possibly another all-rounder such as Hardie. This is assuming that Head doesn’t move up the order, which is possible in future, but he’s clearly very comfortable at #5 at the moment.

Selectors line up three-way battle to replace David Warner in strong PM XI

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3w

20 or 30 short? So we needed to score the 25th highest total, OR BETTER, for full member vs full member in a T20. Good to know.

Inglis equals fastest century, Smith fires at opener but India sneak home in final-ball thriller

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2w

Harris is a passenger in the field, and we really don’t need anymore of those.

Selectors line up three-way battle to replace David Warner in strong PM XI

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3w

Wonderful, but depressing, insight. Thanks.

Sheffield Shield Round 5 Wrap: Who made their case for a Test spot?

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3w

Uncharacteristically so. We were back to our usual level after the Sri Lanka game, you would say, but it went to another level in the final. You could see how badly the guys wanted to win. One dreams of the side playing with that intensity in every game, although I do think that’s unfeasible for a whole host of reasons.

'India still best 50 overs team in the world': Former star blames 'sandpaper pitch' and toss of the coin for World Cup loss

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3w

More than batting or bowling*

'India still best 50 overs team in the world': Former star blames 'sandpaper pitch' and toss of the coin for World Cup loss

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3w

“Captaincy is not only about tactics, it covers a lot of other aspects. Cummins has brought an element of calmness in his leadership. He has maximised his players’ performances with this element.”

I’ll quickly latch onto this comment to actually talk about another captain, because it IS a very good point. People have often said that anyone could have captained the Australian side that was under SR Waugh in 99-03, but many former players (Langer and Gilchrist, for instance) have spoken about how important Waugh was as an inspirational, respected figurehead that created an ambitious, winning culture within the side.

I thought that Cummins finally put in a complete performance as captain in the final. Great fields (aided by sensational fielding), well-timed bowling changes (after some shockers in previous games), and he led from the front with some fantastic bowling. Hopefully he can keep it up, although I suspect something will have to give and he’ll need to give up the captaincy in one of the formats in order to stop it from impacting on his own performance as a bowler. I’m prepared to eat my words, but I’d rather Pat average 21 in Tests with the ball under a different captain than average say, 25, as captain.

'He has delivered with bat, ball and leadership': But Pat Cummins is a captain who still never seems to get his dues

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3w

Australia won because they put on an absolute ground fielding exhibition, easily saving the 30-40 runs that India wanted to score in order to post a competitive total. More than batting or fielding, that was the difference between the two sides. Australia were desperately flinging themselves around the field to save every single run that they could in order to put pressure on the Indian batsmen, and the Indians cracked under that pressure.

'India still best 50 overs team in the world': Former star blames 'sandpaper pitch' and toss of the coin for World Cup loss

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3w
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