Test XI Selection Thread

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After watching last night, i saw Paine is back into keeping for Tasmania, if i knew this, my team i posted would be different. Now my Sydney selection would be
Waston
Marsh
Kheweja
Hussey M
Haddin
Hussey D
Paine
Johnson
Beere
Siddle
Bollenger

When Harris is fit again, swap Dougie for Harris. Paine has traces of Gilly style in him, keeping and batting alike.
If the SELECTORS PLAY HIM NOW, he will be the next captain (should be). But i stress he needs to be played now to get alot out of him. I can;t wait for mitchell marsh to be ready for internation cricket as well
 
I have had enough of the faceless sellectors of our national cricket team. It begger belief with what is not going on in thier heads.
I for one had enough of the arrogance of Ricky Ponting before he was made captain, but I endured and followed the team.
With Michael clarke , he just anoys the crap out of me. He pesonifies arrogance to a tee.

No wonder the team faulters with dead set average leadership, I will not be following the team at all while that idiot is at the helm.

Sureley there are better players in the country than Clarke, there would be better club players out there.

I noticed he is now going to become a part time bowler ( whoopie ) Is he trying to be Steve Waugh he kept his spot in the team because apperently he could bowl, check the stats and see how many overs he bowed as captain versus when he was a player.

My next beef is with the coaching staff, what are you guys doing ? realy please let us know, Because from were the australian public sit all you do is talk.

What do you reckon
 
I am not a Clarke fan, let me get that straight, but I can't believe people are calling for his head.

He had a leanish series against India, but before that he was still being called the best and most consistent batsman in the Australian side, averaging 48 over a couple of years straight with nothing spectacular, just consistent.

Now he has failed in the Ashes and all of a sudden he must go, and must never be captain. If he isn't selected as captain, then who should be? And please, let's only pick players that should be in the side. It is Australian policy to pick a captain out of the best 11 players in the country, not insert a captain in because he is a good captain. You can't say White should be captain because he is not in the best 6 batsman in the country, I would say not even in the top 10. So who is your captain then?

Also, since it is such a long time until the next Test, I say leave this squad alone as they have. The series is practically over, just let these guys fight for what they are worth, no much point putting a young player in for one Test when they may lost form by next August. This Test is an emotional fight, let's see if these guys have the mental strength to try and do one over England. Just ask the question, why not?

Got an ODI series, a World Cup to take on and three domestic series to go on with. Wait and see what Ponting wants to do with regards to the World Cup and after that and wait see if the domestic performers keep performing.
 
Agree with Boris about Clarke and I'm not a fan either. There is no other choice. He has had three leanish series in a row but they can hardly chuck him out with Punter and Kat out injured (possibly forever) and three newbies, maybe even including Beer to make it a fourth in the team.

Just hope it isn't a swinging Sydney 'overhead conditions' test wicket for the bowlers or we are screwed.
 
Yes Boris you are right to let sleeping dogs lay for the moment. But don't agree over Clarke. You say he was the most consistant over a couple of years leading into his current form issues. Yes he was for a while even stronger but has shown when more is asked like going up the batting order his form has declined. Becoming the T20 captain is by no means a reflection of captaining test cricket but he has shown nothing in that arena. Our T20 performances have got worse. It all adds up to the same problems Kim Hughs had, as the responsibility grew his form left him and so did the teams respect. All the people commong out to defend him is a good sign that he has problems within the team so why would the selectors drive head first into desater because there is no alternative. There are always choices.
Ponting could stay for two more seasons if he could find some form lower in the order though i would hate to see him end up looking a fool, Hussey or Katich would both be good short term captains, they have respect and real spirit. Let's hope that come August this year we will see the future take the field and not the past.
 
nairbe said:
Yes Boris you are right to let sleeping dogs lay for the moment. But don't agree over Clarke. You say he was the most consistant over a couple of years leading into his current form issues. Yes he was for a while even stronger but has shown when more is asked like going up the batting order his form has declined. Becoming the T20 captain is by no means a reflection of captaining test cricket but he has shown nothing in that arena. Our T20 performances have got worse. It all adds up to the same problems Kim Hughs had, as the responsibility grew his form left him and so did the teams respect. All the people commong out to defend him is a good sign that he has problems within the team so why would the selectors drive head first into desater because there is no alternative. There are always choices.
Ponting could stay for two more seasons if he could find some form lower in the order though i would hate to see him end up looking a fool, Hussey or Katich would both be good short term captains, they have respect and real spirit. Let's hope that come August this year we will see the future take the field and not the past.
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He moved from 5 to 4 mostly because of Hussey's form troubles, and that's the spot he'll most likely stay for the rest of his career, if not move up to 3. He started well there against Pakistan, scored a couple of 50s against India and has now faltered for the Ashes. Not long ago he was being complimented for his consistency and now people are calling for his head.

By being the T20 captain shows he has leadership skills. The T20 team has, in fact, gotten much better. They went from being one of the worst teams in the world to getting to the final of the World Cup and blowing other teams away. He didn't score anything, but his captaincy was good. Same with the ODIs, he has been a good captain. Not great, but better than any other option. He hasn't got a chance in Tests because Ponting has played for a billion years straight, so I'm not sure how you could say he's "shown nothing in that area" when he hasn't actually been able to try it.

The next Test is in August (unless Bangladesh decide to play Australia just before). Hussey may very well retire before then, he hinted at it in a press conference. Katich probably won't play much of the remaining domestic series and if Hughes or some other opener scores big between now and then unfortunately it's goodbye Katich. Hussey has the worst captaincy record of any Australian ODI captain and has faltered in tour matches. He's got a great knowledge of the game but I think he's too intense and inward focussed. He concentrates very highly on his own performance, which is a great thing for a middle order batsman, but not for a captain. Love the guy, but he's not the next captain.

There shouldn't be any 'stop-gap' captains. Ponting isn't done for yet unless he calls it himself, but by next August anything can happen. Clarke has been groomed his whole career for this position, he's at the perfect age and has shown leadership skills. I don't really like it personally, but he is the obvious choice and I agree with the selectors.

Besides if Dhoni can become captain of India than anything can happen.
 
Clarke has made 417 runs from his last 18 innings@23.16 For the calendar year of 2010 he ended the with a Test average of 36.71.Clarke is allegedly the best bat in the country according to all of the experts, and yet he sends Khwaja in to face the music at number 3 while he hides at 4, and even with a good start he fails again!He doesn't seem to hesitate to do it in the 20/20's. The Poms must have been laughing their heads off. So how long is he allowed to struggle along? He gets a chance to make some cheap runs in the one dayers and will skipper the 20/20 team which is an absolute disgrace as he is not good enough to be in the team. Listening to him in the past couple of days he came across as immature and ill prepared. The ACB will be feel the heat next year when their Test attendances plummett as we have to put up with this Sydney centric selection policy.Hear Maddison has already been given him Aussie cap in a brown paper bag.Just give it a little time.
 
"He started well there against Pakistan, scored a couple of 50s against India and has now faltered for the Ashes". Boris are you talking about Clarke? He averaged about 9 against India and 34 against Pakistan in England.

With this series, his tenure of 4 is looking like a very bad move. As he is our skipper and will be once Punter retires properly, they are going to have to send him back to 5. Or he is going to keep struggling.
 
This is a freakin joke, 4, are you kidding, Clarke is crap, our team is showing itself for what it really is an old boys club.
ACB, field the best team for the job and stop this bullshit backing has beens like Clarke.
We have a huge amount of talent out there and our selectors are just too gutless to pick them.
Shame shame shame!
 
For the future:
1Watson
2 Whoever is making runs (here ends the number one contender status of hughes, who is not good enough at the moment perhaps ever)
3 Khawaja
4 Ponting
5 NEXT BEST PERFORMING PLAYER...NOT NECESSARILY ANYONE
6 as above (does not need to be an all-rounder)
7 Haddin (Paine is going to struggle to unseat him...but 5 or 6 beckons)
8 Insert spinner
9-11 insert fast bowlers (Hilfy,Johnson,Harris and the best bowler this summer...this ones for boris... Siddle)

We do not need a part-time spinner, this as a criteria of selection is putting Smith in the side and he is not good enough as a bowler, batsman or allrounder.
Obviously Ponting is not a selection for the future but his replacement will come from 5 who will be replaced by 6 and then we only need a number 6 when Ponting is gone. Apologies to Hussey and Katich but there is no room in the side for 3 older bats.
The structure of the side is as important as the cattle.
 
Have to agree with the likes of Laurie, Nairbe, Clocker & Jimbo. Clarke has clearly not done enough to earn the trust or respect of the Australian cricket public. Here we are worrying about Ricky Ponting, when his side-kick has been even worse.

Boris, in 23 innings at No.4, pretty-boy has averaged 19. What says he is the best we have for that spot, and how long do we have to wait for this "potential" to kick in?

Laurie, Tim Neilsen has got away with an even worse record than the selectors. I'm sure he's a popular bloke, but there's not a cricketing nation in the world that would accept the results and backslide he has overseen.
 
Reflecting on the current performance one could say a decision here and a bit of luck there but the truth is we had that in Perth and the rest of the series is a genuine reflection of where the team is at. We have lost two tests by outrages margins and are on the way to a third. Even the pom's at their worst were not this bad.
We are probably being a bit hard on the team as they are the result of some poor management. Why is Tim Neilsen receiving a 3 year contract extension?
As i don't believe i have the knowledge and experience to truly pick the best team i will through my dispair on the selectors and coach. Without a question if a coach was performing so poorly in any other team sport they would be out. I wonder if Border would do the job for a bit like Simson did for him. We need an older player who has the respect and awe of the team to bring some hard edge and had work ethic to the team. Lift the fielding and team unity then from there build your team. Never found any team i played in no matter the sport did to well when they had no unity or work ethic.
Please will someone sack Hildich. We have all been calling for some changes to both bowling and batting but the selectors have stuffed it up so badly. They have made bazar changes like dropping Hauritz only to use two others in the series three if you count Smith. There has been some misfortune with injury to Harris and Katich but the team feels confused.
If this was a young team learning to get there we would forgive, but it's not. Such lack of confidence has been building since the Simons incident in Sydney when the ACB failed the team. The board is weak, the selectors confused and the coach a joke.
 
lets get rid of the doom and gloom on this board, yes we lost the ashes but we have genuine raw young talent coming through the ranks.

There are some really young batsmen who are showing real signs at state level at the moment, Chris Lynn(20) and Nic Maddinson(19) look like 10 year+ batsmen, both look to have the credentials to succeed at test level, through them in with the likes of Usman Khawaja(24) and Phillip Hughes(22) up the top of the order looks like real promise. Steve Smith(21) is another who could bat at 6 when he matures a bit more, but i like him at 7 going forward and bowl a bit. All of these boys are young and the future of Australian Cricket.

Matthew Wade from the bushrangers(23) i actually rate higher than pain with the bat. According to wiki(not the most reliable) paine only averages 31 at state level and only one ton?... hardly any to go crazy for, Wade averages 37 and has made 2 tons and is 3 years younger yet no one mentions wade at all.

James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood all look prominent types with the ball and Mitchell Marsh and young alex keath as all rounders.

Lets not forget we just won the under 19 world cup... the talent is there, we just need to utilize and harness the talent, and we will be back to the glory days.
 
I know people want hughes to succeed but in reality he does not look good enough, I hope I am wrong but he his technique is ordinary.
Smith should not be playing if he is not selected as a bat or a bowl but asw a bits and pieces man, that we dont need. Our bowling has been ordinary but our batting has been woeful, with the way smith has been batting they got rid of one north for another. He may well make it but is not even close now.

All criticism of the cattle aside the biggest problem in Australian cricket is the lack of test cricket. When is our next test?
 
The next series is an away tour to Bangladesh in April consisting of two tests and three ODI's.

2011 is a very, very busy year for Australian cricket actually, I'll post more tomorrow.
 
Thumbs up said:
I know people want hughes to succeed but in reality he does not look good enough, I hope I am wrong but he his technique is ordinary.
Smith should not be playing if he is not selected as a bat or a bowl but asw a bits and pieces man, that we dont need. Our bowling has been ordinary but our batting has been woeful, with the way smith has been batting they got rid of one north for another. He may well make it but is not even close now.

All criticism of the cattle aside the biggest problem in Australian cricket is the lack of test cricket. When is our next test?
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I think they should stick with both of them. Test cricket is a learned art to some extent. They are both young and while they have technical issues, they are obviously rated by the selectors so they should show some balls and stick with them for the next 2 series. Same with Beer. It's nonsense to be picking players like puppies you think are cute, then dumping them quickly when you don't like the way they pull the lounge to bits. Let them learn how to cope at international level. It's not like the old hands in the team look a million bucks.

Seriously, Steve Waugh and Shane Warne would have been destroyed by this lot of selectors trying to pretend that we can still remain at no 1 with reactiveness and band-aids.
 
Happy for beer to stay and even smith and hughes, if they deserve it. Possibly the most unhealthy attitude shown by the selectors in recent times is the way hughes has been treated. He was always going to be the next opener in irrespective of form.

Smith and Hughes can stay, as I said, so long as they are performing and that means making runs... not looking wonderful before a combination of poor technique, questionable shot selection and inability to deal with the short ball (this goes for clarke, hughes and smith) undoes what may or may not have been a promising start. Equally a few useful overs are not enough to earn or hold selection.

While it is always good to develop from youth, to build a good team, the following should not be forgotten:
  1. everyone gets dropped, and often more than once
  2. the first young players you pick are not necessarily the best/right ones
  3. a half arsed youth policy is worse than no policy at all (i.e. we are still an old team)
  4. cementing positions reduces the sense of competition for places

On a totally different concept, one which will never get up...
With all the limited over cricket being played, and with specialisation in these formats growing more common what would be wrong with:
  • identifying players expected to be or would benefit from being test players only,perhaps hughes, clarke, siddle, beer, hilfy;
  • forming not quite Asutralia A team around them by adding Paine, George, and some of the many yong players out there who get plenty of limited over cricket in the domestic competiton and are not banging down the dorr for a spot in the national team;
  • arrange games involving smaller nations in quasi test competitions. For example 4 or 5 day games against Zimbabwe, other "minnow" nations and "A-teams" and use this as a means to attempt to bring young Australian players and developing cricketing nations into test cricket. Perhaps even an invitational game against the side which wins the shield for that year (yes nobody will come to watch but how is that different to the shield now?).
I am sure there are many problems with such a proposal but I would like to see more long format cricket being played with quality opposition (lets not forget the quality gap in the shield is wide) in diverse conditions. I don't care about 20-20 and am nearly as unconcerned with odis and don't think I am in the minority. Ask youself this, will winning all odis and 20-20 games against England make you feel good about the summers cricket? Thought so!
 
Ljp86 said:
The next series is an away tour to Bangladesh in April consisting of two tests and three ODI's.

2011 is a very, very busy year for Australian cricket actually, I'll post more tomorrow.
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if this is true be very intresting to see the make up of the batting attack, would be perfect place for some of our batsmen to get some test form and confidence under there belt. clarke, hughes, smith ect.

Does ponting come back in? if so for who? Will hussey retire from test cricket, i have a feeling huss will retire after the world cp in my opinion.
 
Until the team is picked on form and talent/ability rather than statistics, Australian cricket will stay in dire straights. By picking Beer i feel australian cricket is going in the right direction. I agree with thumbsup as teams should be specialised for that format of the game, e.g Cook isnt in the ODI team for England. I also believe a change in state cricket needs to be made by a larger amount of younger players getting a game, as too often than not older players are maintained in such teams thus delaying the impact of a young player, e.g michael hill captaining Australias Under 19 team but barely playing any games for Vics even though scoring a ton against England. Even bringing future stars on tour even if they dont get a game is a great way to further enhance their abilities by watching the countries best. Final point being, i think more youth players should be looking to play county cricket in the offside.
 
Sidvic said:
if this is true be very intresting to see the make up of the batting attack, would be perfect place for some of our batsmen to get some test form and confidence under there belt. clarke, hughes, smith ect.

Does ponting come back in? if so for who? Will hussey retire from test cricket, i have a feeling huss will retire after the world cp in my opinion.
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According to the ICC future tours programme, our next test series is in April against Bangladesh followed by a home series against Zimbabwe which will take place in our winter so the game will likely be played in Darwin and perhaps Cairns. However, I have read a few articles which suggest our next test series isn't till August against Sri Lanka so perhaps the future tours schedule is wrong.
 
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