1st Test: Australia v Pakistan at Dubai (DSC) Oct 22-26, 2014

[TheParraboy]

(2 test series) 1st test starts Wed 5pm AEDT

Rogers and Clarke out of sorts in the warm up game a concern. Couldn't bowl out Pak A in either innings. Hopefully we turn up for the test

 

[8Ball]

Selectors look like they'll be going with:

1. Rogers
2. Warner
3. Doolan
4. Clarke
5. Smith
6. Marsh
7. Haddin
8. O'Keefe
9. Johnson
10. Siddle
11. Lyon

I'd prefer Faulkner in and Marsh out, and have Haddin bat at 6. Would be more of a genuine 3 prong pace attack, with plenty of spin options, although the batting would be a bit weaker..

With Doolan making a century in the A game, it looks a much stronger side against spin than we've had in the past. Warner, Doolan Clarke, Smith and Haddin all decent (or better) against spin. Rogers can grind it out.

 

[oldmancraigy]

Rogers has been in fairly shonky touch. Be surprised if he gets past 20...

 

[TheParraboy]

FFS, just let the kid play a while injury free and preferably some test matches before putting this on him...

Talk about getting a hard on for the bloke



http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan-v-australia-2014/content/current/story/791017.html

Brydon Coverdale

October 21, 2014


Mitchell Marsh can be a future captain of Australia, according to the current leader Michael Clarke. Marsh is likely to make his Test debut against Pakistan in Dubai on Wednesday and potentially has a long international future ahead if he grabs his opportunities, given that the incumbent allrounder Shane Watson is now 33.

But it is not just as a top-six batsman and fifth bowler that Marsh can contribute to the Australia outfit, according to Clarke. Marsh captained Australia to an Under-19 World Cup triumph in 2010 and if Clarke's assessment is correct, he could join the likes of Steven Smith as candidates to take over the captaincy after Clarke has retired.

"I believe Mitchell Marsh can be a future captain of Australia," Clarke wrote in his News Ltd column on Tuesday. "That might sound like a big call for a bloke who only turned 23 on Monday and has yet to play a Test match. But I have toured with him quite a few times now and continue to be impressed with his talent, knowledge and game awareness.

"His cricketing maturity is at least five years ahead of the date of birth printed on his passport. I don't have any plans to give up the captaincy yet - there's plenty more cricket left in me - but I genuinely see Mitch as future leadership material. When he sets fields, you can see that he is thinking not from the bowler's perspective, but the batsman's.

"He is assessing conditions, the batsman's strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities to exploit the latter. And when he is batting, he is not one of those guys running around without a plan. He is thinking about how to construct an innings. I also love how much he cares about the team. If Mitch has a game in which he doesn't get among the runs or wickets, he always goes out of his way to congratulate those that have. He doesn't get lost in his own little world. He is all about the team."

 

[madunit]

Rogers will likely survive the first session and then die in the arse against the spin.

It will be hot and humid and the pitch has had 2 short games played on it already I think (an ODI and 20/20). It has very little to no grass.

It should be a seamers paradise.

Sadly though, I heard Siddle talking about making himself stronger so he can bowl faster. Thats just dumb. He should focus on maintaining a good line and length. When he does that he's bloody top quality.

But too often he wants to bowl fast as hell and then he ends up banging it in short too often with a poor line and gets carted.

The Pakistani batting order looks pretty flimsy. Only Younis and Misbah are big threats, but the pressure on them to score the majority of the teams runs may burden them.

If we can win the toss, bat first, put on 500 odd and then rip through the Pakistani top order, they may struggle to reach the follow on.

 

[TheParraboy]

Rogers will likely survive the first session and then die in the arse against the spin.

It will be hot and humid and the pitch has had 2 short games played on it already I think (an ODI and 20/20). It has very little to no grass.

It should be a seamers paradise.

Sadly though, I heard Siddle talking about making himself stronger so he can bowl faster. Thats just dumb. He should focus on maintaining a good line and length. When he does that he's bloody top quality.

But too often he wants to bowl fast as hell and then he ends up banging it in short too often with a poor line and gets carted.

The Pakistani batting order looks pretty flimsy. Only Younis and Misbah are big threats, but the pressure on them to score the majority of the teams runs may burden them.

If we can win the toss, bat first, put on 500 odd and then rip through the Pakistani top order, they may struggle to reach the follow on.

Nothing to do with Siddle. Lehmann dropped him cause he wasn't fast enough, wants him bowling high 130s consistently to be selected, and I agree. Siddle is limp as a leaf bowling low 130s. He doesn't have the height of Mcgrath to get away with it


http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/765829.html

Peter Siddle is confident he is well on the way to regaining his place in Australia's Test team by boosting his strength and speed. Siddle was dropped from the Test side during the tour of South Africa in March and the coach Darren Lehmann said at the time that Siddle needed to lift his pace back up into the 140kph range instead of the low 130s.

 

[gorilla with a shotgun]

Needs to start eating meat again...

Here's hoping Cummins stays fit this domestic summer anyway

 

[madunit]

Nothing to do with Siddle. Lehmann dropped him cause he wasn't fast enough, wants him bowling high 130s consistently to be selected, and I agree. Siddle is limp as a leaf bowling low 130s. He doesn't have the height of Mcgrath to get away with it


http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/765829.html

If he could keep it pitched up and get some swing and seam movement off the deck, low 130's would be perfect and I think our pace attack needs that slight variation.

McGrath bowled in mid 120's for most of his last few seasons and was still effective.

McGrath is 1.96m, Siddle around 1.87m.

Siddle isn't exactly short.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Veggieman can consider himself very lucky to be in the side. I'm not sure how packing on 5kgs is going to get his pace up, rhythm and fitness are the keys to bowling as fast as you can, not power. Veggieman looks to me like one of these blokes that would do anything anyone asked him if it meant they were his friends. He'll be out of the system soon with the young pace talent coming through.

Mitch Mash touted as a future captain? Let's see him play a test or thirty first. Happy that he's in the side and hopefully he'll fire with bat and ball. That way we will never see the Peaheart that is Twatson in the test side again.

Rogers is always going to be the batsman in he side that everyone looks at to be dropped. He's old, hardly an athlete, wears specs, freckled faced. But he's done the job and no one is scoring a ton of runs to replace him.

Thank god they're saving big show for the ODIs and 20/20

 

[Twizzle]

If he could keep it pitched up and get some swing and seam movement off the deck, low 130's would be perfect and I think our pace attack needs that slight variation.

McGrath bowled in mid 120's for most of his last few seasons and was still effective.

McGrath is 1.96m, Siddle around 1.87m.

Siddle isn't exactly short.

all very true but McGrath was an exceptional bowler, you cant compare Sids to McGrath imo

 

[madunit]

I wasn't comparing them as bowlers, only their height.

Siddle is tall enough to be a good front line bowler, sending them down at low to mid 130kph if he's getting some swing and seam movement.

If anything, that's the ideal pace for him. It would also add to his endurance.

It's the slight pace variation that would give him the edge.

Having three blokes bowling 140kph doesn't provide any real variation, especially when they are all trying to bowl too fast and dropping it short far too frequently.

Siddle could very well replicate Stuart Clark and we need someone like that in our bowling stocks, an anchor to tie down one end.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Action wise McGrath released the ball a lot higher than Veggieman and so used his height better than the Veg.

I agree that Siddle would be a good 'into the wind' type of bowler but I'm not sure if he's got the temperament for it. Although he's a follower rather than a leader he's also a glory hound.

 

[madunit]

Lets be honest, Siddle will have to bust his arse to hit and maintain 140kph

Our other quicks won't be.

So why risk breaking him? why not just have plug up one end and let our properly fast quicks run riot at the other end? Gillespie did it well enough, actually made him a better bowler.

I think Siddle would improve if he wasn't trying to be Brett Lee.

 

[Red Bear]

Siddle doesnt get the Mcgrath bounce, which was what made mcgrath so effective - Pitching it on a good length but getting much better bounce than most due to heigh the ball was delivered on.

Siddle's best is pitching it up with a bit of swing. He's a fairly good bowler when he's on like that, and does a good job for the side. But it really makes the pace critical. At the slower speeds the slight movement doesn't have a heap of impact and batsmen can just knock him around. Unlikely to get smashed but unlikely to do much damage. He needs to be in that 135-140 range at least. He was dipping below that by the end of summer.

I like Siddle and hopefully he goes well. Generally reliable body wise compared to our better young bowlers, and heaps better than the only other quick on tour Mitch Starc.

 

[TheParraboy]

If he could keep it pitched up and get some swing and seam movement off the deck, low 130's would be perfect and I think our pace attack needs that slight variation.

McGrath bowled in mid 120's for most of his last few seasons and was still effective.

McGrath is 1.96m, Siddle around 1.87m.

Siddle isn't exactly short.

Don't kid yourself, McGrath was very lanky, got far more height than the 9cm height different

The big problem is - Siddle and swing/movement don't go in the same sentence when he is bowling low 130s, that's why he was dropped, he was ineffective. Rightly so especially with our pace bowling depth

 

[madunit]

I'm not kidding myself. You are the one that brought McGrath into the discussion, not me. You are the one trying to suggest that Siddle is short when he's actually quite tall.

Mitchell Johnson is about an inch taller than Siddle.

As I said before, Siddle could bowl swing and pitch it up and hover around 135kph and be equally effective. It worked for Stuart Clark.

I don't know why the notion seems so preposterous to you

 

[TheParraboy]

I'm not kidding myself. You are the one that brought McGrath into the discussion, not me. You are the one trying to suggest that Siddle is short when he's actually quite tall.

Mitchell Johnson is about an inch taller than Siddle.

As I said before, Siddle could bowl swing and pitch it up and hover around 135kph and be equally effective. It worked for Stuart Clark.

I don't know why the notion seems so preposterous to you

...and to Lehmann ;-)

thank f**k your not the coach nor a selector

 

[AlwaysGreen]

I think Veggieman is at a career crossroads. Not fast enough to hurry batsmen up, doesn't get the natural bounce to make things difficult, doesn't quite have the skill to shape it and be effective at his reduced pace.

It's lucky he got the teeth whitened and the new girlfriend when he did, his future is shield cricket.

Of course I and many wrote Notch off and he proved me wrong. But Siddle doesn't have the natural pace or awkwardness of the Notch.

 

[lockyno1]

No HAH we got this

 

[TheParraboy]

Cricket Australia tweet that Mitchell Marsh and Steven O'Keefe have become the 438th and 439th cricketers to play Tests for the country