Who's likely to be in the Ashes 2010/11 in Australia

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Okay, my bad - I was looking at his strike rate, not his average. However he's still clearly one of our top 3 batsman along with Katich and Watson - He's out-averaged Ponting for something like three years running.

I don't think he belongs in the T20 side either, and I have misgivings about his captaincy ability, but I cannot fathom how you can say he's the worst player in the team. What about North, who averages 20-something in the last year? What about Hussey, who has an average of somewhere in the 30s from our last 20 Tests? Is NSW bias keeping them in the team?

Are you sure this is not just sour grapes from Clarke getting the nod over Hodge back in the day? Clarke has his failings but that's a heck of a lot of vitriol against someone who's been one of our more reliable performers in recent years.
 
When you say Clarke has been one of our most reliable performers then I will challenge it. Again it seems to me that when Australia get off to a good start he chips in with his scores. When he is needed he fails. I have yet to see Clarke come in at 3/20 and dig in and make a big score.He is a front runner.Ponting has been struggling for a few years and his best is past him, but he still miles ahead of Clarke as a batsman.Australia then relies on Clarke and when he fails we are exposed.Hauritz bowls pies and yet he still plays. Clarke does a North and makes a score just when people start to question his position in his team.North was only ever meant to be a temporary fill in whilst we developed other spinners, but he happened to make runs and take some wickets.He has made centuries, and gives another option until someone better comes along.They have to give Smith a go and get Cam White into the team.The Australian selectors need to be replaced and Greg Chappell needs to get some urgent young blood in the team.I admire Clarke for one thing.He was smart enough to avoid bowling too much after taking 6/9 in India.He can live off that performance for the rest of his life!
 
I think that's a bit rough. He may not be known as a clutch player, but he's played his share of important innings. I can think of at least 4 matches in the last 12 months against Pakistan (Melbourne, Hobart, Leeds and Lords) where he's come in with the score under 100 and he's pretty much salvaged the innings.

When I think of players who never contribute when the chips are down, he's not a name that comes to mind.
 
Caesar said:
I think that's a bit rough. He may not be known as a clutch player, but he's played his share of important innings. I can think of at least 4 matches in the last 12 months against Pakistan (Melbourne, Hobart, Leeds and Lords) where he's come in with the score under 100 and he's pretty much salvaged the innings.

When I think of players who never contribute when the chips are down, he's not a name that comes to mind.
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Bit like Collingwood, who also comes in for a lot of stick. For some reason players these days are though of as being rubbish if they don't hit run-a-ball centuries every other Test.
 
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