New Zealand vs Australia: 1st Test, Day 3 AS IT HAPPENED - Aussies bats collapse again as Black Caps surge back into contest

Well, Tassy scraped home against the Vics Don. A great effort by them and Maddinson ....so it looks like it's up to your guys in the last round to see who plays off in the final Should be an interesting game... I think Harris also reminded people he's around

Facts? Nothing in this exchange requires facts. You don't refer to them. You don't need them for what you try to do. Develop an interest in cricket. That will help you.

Yawn as usual no facts from don just personal attacks. Same old same when he's beaten on facts. Bancroft failed twice for WA in shield btw and Bartlett took 5 against WA. Spot on there Donny

Not much sense in that spurt on the keyboard. Nothing said apart from you advertising that cricket is not your game. You're better off reading 5 year old stat sheets.

Oh donny, what a silly comparison. limited to WA mindset as usual. Shield form at home in Perth is no comparison to international form. We saw Bancroft get beaten in England time after time . He’s had chances. Im not against his selection but one could argue he’s a flat track specialist. Renshaw has great form in NZ and England and not had enough opening slot chances. Rotation can work. Aussies beaten by India in SCG twice. Lyon and Starc have poor averages there. Not enough shield cricket for form nowadays , your living in 1980 to 2010 mindset with a huge WA bias as usual . We all know you cant see past a WA border and would have your own country as WA if you could. Good to see you avoid the direct thread after Jeffs post to miss my notifications. Oh donny good to see you haven’t changed. Players get great confidence out of international test cricket that a match at the WACA at home against interstate teams without international Aussie players present cant always provide on a pitches that never see test cricket anymore. Great to see Lyon and NSW bowling boys clean up in NZ again. I have always rated green but we have a lot of ageing players and no cricket for 9 months. you’ll be waiting for shield cricket that is too late for India matches next summer . India has beaten our “non rotation” xv side twice at home so some conditions and locations require different players that may not have had many shield matches before it due to the nature of cricket schedules nowadays. So I think Morris Bartlett renshaw and/or Bancroft deserved test time for Australia this summer and in New Zealand at specific grounds. Time to prepare for the future. There are some underperformer. Now back to your WA rants Donny.

Jeff your principles are outdated on the schedules of rare test cricket now. I agree form can change in 9 months but there is little form to go by at first class red ball level . International test experience integrates players within the squad and builds huge confidence. Getting the baggy green on is another level to shield cricket so dont agree with you there one bit and shield form doesnt equate to foreign form at all . Plenty of evidence of that so you are wrong there. There is simply no subsitute for International test match experience though. Rotations do and can work we’ve seen it with Boland or Patterson at mcg. Murphy abroad. Marsh coming in to England line up with knowledge of the fact he has batted well in England before and not at shield level or in Australia at times. So respectfully I think you are wrong . First class cricket has fallen back and not enough of it and weakened sides come to WA at times despite you bias to your state . A match for WA is not much of an acid test or form line for match against India at home. Not enough Shield cricket. Players lose FC time to simply being in the Australian Squad in different formats. In any event, Labuschagne, who I’ve been a form of is out of form . Renshaw has great NZ and English wicket experience. I think a rotation would do Labs some good. A pair of 1s is not good enough . Head isn’t far behind him with dismal form outside of the home turf knock in Adelaide book ended by poor form in the ashes an poor form either side of Adelaide at home. The squad need to know they are not instant selections. I think you are incorrect here . Warners constant selection was a mistake on form as well as sets bad precedent. The averages over 12 months dont lie .

Exactly this, Jeff. Cricket is not like footy where you need to blood players into systems. It's a simple case of when form or injury rules one of our best eleven out, you select a form replacement from one of the Shield sides.

Murphy? Why? When he starts being as penetrating and as prolific as Rocchiccioli, maybe he'll be looked at. Murphy needs to succeed at Shield cricket first.

Playing a single Test match against NZ in Christchurch will have no bearing on how a player will match up against India in Australia 9 months later. FC cricket is still FC cricket. You either have it nailed down as a FC cricketer or you don't.

The problem with your theory Jeff is that nowadays there’s little test cricket . There is no doubt there are some grounds and conditions that don’t suit starc and even Lyon (scg) . India have put them to the sword twice . Morris and Bartlett have been amazing in the formats they have been able to play in . in one years time starc is 35 as an extreme pace bowler and is ideally suited to being rotated for sure in longer series . lyon 37 in November . smith and khawaja 35 and 37 respectively this year . Hazelwood prone to the hamstring issues and niggles over 5 test series . I’m a huge fan of them all but they have lost two series at home against India in an row after never losing st home and a test at Brisbane to windies . there is no dress rehearsal for a team like India and nothing like the confidence and experience a test cap and exposure would give the two young quicks. There are batting issues in the last 12 months with head and labuschagne for sure the numbers don’t lie and their is definitely selector bias . That said this xv is a world class line up but there are some clear signs of deteriorating performances on a home deck lately and away to nz and lack of suitability to certain conditions and ageing with a few of them and here goes another 9 months shortly due to t20 scheduling largely . All in all I think some rotation and debuts especially if series retained would be very wise as one can question whether s fee replacements and youth msy be more effective now. warner hanging around way to long did not help for me on such a poor average the numbers were clear . that tells me there is an issue with the selectors

He obviously is. That's a pretty crouched stance.

Eventually yes of course, but he would need to see it out of the hand and he doesn’t appear to be looking at that height

Regardless - it’s still well and truly NZ’s day. A part time offy took 5 and they bundled Australia out for 160. It’s still unlikely they get near a win, but they certainly won the day.

Poor decision making with that stroke 2nd innings. I'll back Smith to recognise that and adjust.

This is wildly negative and objectively not based in reality. Sure, we haven’t put in many full-team performances recently but we are the #1 ranked test team and reigning WTC champions. Despite your wild pessimism, we are also still heavy favourites to beat a very solid test team away from home. What more could you possibly want that justifies such an absurdly negative comment?

Don't need to be playing in a Test match to assess their viability. Nor to give them game-time exposure by playing one Test. Playing in the Shield is just fine for both those matters. It's more of a question whether those mentioned should be playing on merit ahead of others currently in the Test XI. But they don't need to play a single Test match to "get experience". Granted, there is substance to the argument that playing in the Test side helps players evolve, but that takes an extended run...one or two Test matches exposure won't add much to those players abilities nor will it tell the selectors much. So rotating players in and out of the Test side in the hope that 1 or 2 Test matches exposure will provide those players with personal game-changing outcomes to their abilities isn't going to happen.

What nonsense you talk Bloodman. This is one of and probably Australias best ever test team, WTC champions for the first time, winning away which few test teams do. The team is playing great, doing everything you could possibly want and you want to throw in newbies for some nebulous reason known only to you. Thank goodness our selectors know the value of a test cap. Journos write potentially controversial pieces because they need to engage and a headline and some fall for their " feed the kids" articles.

Cam Green only second top scorer. Again.

Well Pant would be first picked in my World Xl. The closest I've seen to Gilchrist in changing a game as soon as he comes in. Unfortunately with Jurel doing so well for India he is going to have to fight his way back into the team. As for Warne, commentary he was never good at, just a bloated ego at work, as is Botham. Great cricketer and person but not on comments. He was so in demand he never had to try.

nz was the perfect opportunity to go by Morris or even Bartlett a run and those the two openers waiting a run . selectors wont budge . silly as India stitched the first xv twice in last two series in aus and now will go in cold December without the flexibility of assessing Morris white etc