Test Series V. India; Post Mortem

[AlwaysGreen]

First things first, the captaincy. Paine was always a stop gap filling in the vacuum after the SA debacle. Now he's a debacle himself.

So who takes over? Smith? Does he want it? He's proved that he's lacked leadership, has anything changed?

Cummins? He's already overburdened and you can see that his rise to the best bowler in the world has reduced his batting abilities. I don't want to see his bowling suffer because he's the only alternative.

Head was the most likely but his batting is not up to scratch and he needs to concentrate on that just to get back in the team.

Lyon? He won't be dropped despite his poor performances lately so he might be an alternative as he seems to have a good, albeit ugly, cricket head on his shoulders.

Labuschagne? Too weird and inexperienced and weird.

The only other alternatives out there are Khawaja who was dropped for poor form (much like Head, playing lazy shots when in) who looks like his days in the green cap are over. Then you've got the Marsh brothers and we'll end the discussion there.

All that considered I have no idea except they won't push Paine, unless he retires we're stuck with him

 

[TheParraboy]

I think our fielding let us down in 2nd and 3rd tests massively.

We inexplicably dropped sitters, crucial game changing sitters at that. Rahane dropped few times on the way to his ton in the 2nd test, Pant dropped 2-3 times by Paine 3rd test. Plus others

We hold onto the ones we are expected to catch and we at least win one of those tests, decent crack at the winning the other

Going into the 4th test, 2-1 up, we have a different mentality and so would India (desperate to win, rather than just look at draw as the initial option).

 

[Mr Angry]

Paine ain't much chop.

Green does not bowl at the stumps.

Warner's moe is tragic.

They have a Justin Langer stand, talk about desperate for an icon.

My Kingdom for a wrist spinner.

Victorians suck.

India can play cricket.

 

[Bazal]

One comment I heard came from Harsha, he said people keep saying this is our B, C side but a lot of these players have played plenty of India A cricket the last few years and as such weren’t overawed when the time came to play. We on the other hand treat the Sheffield Shield like a Red Headed step child all the while bowling our collective loads over the Big Beat off.


Yes India have their IPL but they don’t comprise their first class cricket competition over it. The 20/20 disease is infecting the games at junior levels as well. Coaches continually promote the 20/20 over the more conventional through the V style players. I had a chat to a friend who’s son was overlooked for the QLD U 17’s side even though he was the leading run scorer in all competitions his last 3 seasons. The reason why is isn’t aggressive enough and he leaves too many balls. The young bloke is an opener as well, fair f**king dinkum these are the idiots coaching the future no wonder all the players coming through are front foot plodders.

This is something I've been saying for years. Why the hell don't we have regular A tours?

Sure, maybe not during Shield season or at least not over the whole season, but why aren't we sending an A side over to India for the winter? They could play India A or Indian FC sides, and play Afghanistan.

Why not send an A side to South Africa or NZ at the start of the season?

Why do we not have U-19s tours or something? It's not like we're short on cash. Why not bring Afghanistan and Ireland out here for a one off Test and a tour against an A team and a youngsters team?

On top of that, why don't we incentivise players to go have a season of County over the winter?

The schedule should be an easy fix....start with the Shield in like end of Sept or start of Oct, into a six week BBL window over the holidays, tack the ODD comp at the end of the season.

 

[mozza91]

We need more levers and kale infused smoothies.

We need less Matt Wade.

 

[Old tiger 79]

We need more levers and kale infused smoothies.

We need less Matt Wade.

He has to be the first casualty actually

 

[Bazal]

We need more levers and kale infused smoothies.

We need less Matt Wade.

We need to get even more transcendental tbh

 

[The_Frog]

It took an awful lot to go wrong to lose this series with 2 overs to bowl. I wouldn't panic.

 

[Old tiger 79]

We need to get even more transcendental tbh

Are you being facetious brus?

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Batting. The usual. Too reliant on Smith and Labuschagne. However there were some bright spots.

Warner- looks like age has caught up with him but he'll have a few good days left in him on roads.

Pucovski- jury is still well and truly out. Looks the goods but has a lot of stuff going on that can derail him.

Labuschagne- lucky at times but he made the most of it.
Smith- Smith
Wade- needs to go, his duck was a fitting end.
Green- needs to be persisted with because he's definitely a talent. Is he an allrounder? Bowling needs a helluva lot of work.

Paine - kept us in the Adelaide test and a contributor.

Bottom 4. Cummins needs to down to 9 or 10, Starc if he's in the team to 8 with a licence to play his natural game.

Incoming to replace the likes of Wade? No idea but maybe give McDermott a go (jesus, I'm Warnie ).

 

[gUt]

Now if JL said he has 11 blokes hurting in the sheds that is something Stick might say

Australian coach Justin Langer says his team will begin the process of reviewing its shock series loss to India, admitting he and the side are "hurting" after the result at the Gabba.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01...rs-after-australia-india-series-loss/13072044

Justin Langer stands by Australia's bowlers after India incredibly claims series victory at Gabba

 

[AlwaysGreen]

It took an awful lot to go wrong to lose this series with 2 overs to bowl. I wouldn't panic.

Yep, don't panic we lost a test against India by being bowled out twice against bowlers with a combined 4 tests between them and then they ceased down 300 plus on the last day against an attack with close to 1000 test wickets between them.

And we lost 2 tests with their regular skipper and best bat absent.

Don't panic

 

[Eelectrica]

Starc should never have been selected for the final test.

Paines lack of player management skills has been revealed.
Cummins is our top bowler but he just had nothing left at the end of the day. Starc just 11 overs bowled in the second innings.
Not good enough.

I think if you've get defensive bowlers, they can be used while the strike bowlers get re-energized for a other assault. Gotta be in the lookout for wickets at all times of course.

Paine's keeping skills have plummeted.

 

[Smug Panther]

Lots of people throwing Warner away far too early. The bloke played injured

 

[JJ]

Yep, don't panic we lost a test against India by being bowled out twice against bowlers with a combined 4 tests between them and then they ceased down 300 plus on the last day against an attack with close to 1000 test wickets between them.

And we lost 2 tests with their regular skipper and best bat absent.

Don't panic

I'd certainly be concerned...

I think they should look at the team song, the colour the changing rooms are painted, and what crystals JL is hanging... the answer is there somewhere

 

[Eelectrica]

Definitely need more 'A' tours.
I figured they'd been put on ice for now until the pandemic is over.
We're playing too much T20, not enough long form.

Thst ssid the value of T20 can be seen in the way India went about the chase. Knowing they could crank it up when needed in the last few overs.

 

[Bazal]

Definitely need more 'A' tours.
I figured they'd been put on ice for now until the pandemic is over.
We're playing too much T20, not enough long form.

Thst ssid the value of T20 can be seen in the way India went about the chase. Knowing they could crank it up when needed in the last few overs.

Even prior to Covid our A tours were sparse at best. I would legit pay to see all four days of Afghanistan Vs Australia A at Manuka for eg, and how much would Afghanistan love to host Australia A at their fancy new stadium in India? Seems a no brainer to me. Pop on a few games against Indian sides and suddenly you've got 6 or 7 four day games in the subcontinent for a bunch of young players.

No reason we can't send an A team to England and Ireland, or to SA either

I enjoy T20 as entertainment but I firmly believe it should be franchise comps only, no international T20 apart from a World Cup.

 

[Valheru]

First things first, the captaincy. Paine was always a stop gap filling in the vacuum after the SA debacle. Now he's a debacle himself.

So who takes over? Smith? Does he want it? He's proved that he's lacked leadership, has anything changed?

Cummins? He's already overburdened and you can see that his rise to the best bowler in the world has reduced his batting abilities. I don't want to see his bowling suffer because he's the only alternative.

Head was the most likely but his batting is not up to scratch and he needs to concentrate on that just to get back in the team.

Lyon? He won't be dropped despite his poor performances lately so he might be an alternative as he seems to have a good, albeit ugly, cricket head on his shoulders.

Labuschagne? Too weird and inexperienced and weird.

The only other alternatives out there are Khawaja who was dropped for poor form (much like Head, playing lazy shots when in) who looks like his days in the green cap are over. Then you've got the Marsh brothers and we'll end the discussion there.

All that considered I have no idea except they won't push Paine, unless he retires we're stuck with him

It should probably be Smith but I doubt that will happen.

None of the others are suitable.

If he is up to it, I would just give it to Paine's replacement, that being Alex Carey.

 

[undertaker]

Yes India have their IPL but they don’t comprise their first class cricket competition over it.

Differences:

1) IPL has an exclusive 6-7 week window, where they aren't competing against any matches the Indian national side plays, hence allowing the best players in India to compete in the IPL. The BBL season, on the other hand, directly overlaps with when Australia plays their home tests/ODIs/T20Is. Therefore, the BBL is in direct competition with the tests/ODIs/T20Is.

The lack of flexibility from CA to allow the players in the Australian national side to play in the BBL whenever they're not playing a test/ODI/T20I for Australia prohibits the best players in Australia of participating in the BBL.

2) BCCI can afford to allow the IPL to have an exclusive window, as cricket is by far the #1 sport in India. On the other hand, cricket in Australia has to compete against NRL, AFL, rugby union and soccer. BCCI could hold the IPL in India at any time of the calendar year (outside of the monsoon season) and it would still attract high ratings and viewership whilst the elite T20 players are competing in the tournament. However, BBL can't do that as the only time they can get success is if their tournament is scheduled during the NRL/AFL's off-season.

3) Nearly all of the cricket venues in India are exclusively used for the sport of cricket. The 5 major test venues in Australia all have AFL clubs as tenants, hence restricting use of cricket at those venues to October-February

 

[The_Frog]

The 5 major test venues in Australia all have AFL clubs as tenants, hence restricting use of cricket at those venues to October-February

The use of cricket grounds for AFL has also led to changes in pitch characteristics, especially for drop-in pitches. This is why we're seeing record fourth innings chases like yesterday. Something is wrong when a spinner with just on 400 Test wickets cannot trouble batsmen on a 5th day pitch. Much the same happened in Sydney, where it used to turn square years ago.

However, BBL can't do that as the only time they can get success is if their tournament is scheduled during the NRL/AFL's off-season.

This means they've got from October to March. Rather than run it IPL style over a few weeks (at which time all international cricket worldwide shuts down, not just in India), maybe they should look at integrating the Sheffield Shield into the full season, even if they just play a couple of rounds in January. You want your Test team to have every opportunity to do well, after all, and it makes it difficult if there's no first class competition running to draw players from.