England V Australia Ashes 2013

July 2013 The First Test begins
I will speculate
Australia will take over what looks like a very good attack for English conditions
However the batting will be fragile and will perhaps be the difference between the 2 teams

Im going left field with what I would adopt as a selection process
I want a reliable hard fighting team to take on the Englishmen
I will be brutal and hard line on my team and squad

Michael Clarke needs fighters who play a consistent hard nosed level of cricket
Cant afford hit and miss , frontrunners, inconsistent players, or players of limited playing ability

Im going to accept any criticism , after posting my Ashes line up, and squad

Watson [only as an opening batsman , who bowls occasionally]
Silk
Burns
Bailey
Clarke
Hartley
Faulkner
Starc
Siddle
Pattinson
Lyon

Ive got some blue mooners batting in the top 4
But I want fighters not iffy players
Jordan Silk impresses, and values his wicket , looks a Test cricketer
Joe Burns, and George Bailey are probably not good enough, but neither is the current top order batters [the cupboard is bare]
Ive picked Chris Hartley because he is a good keeper and a reliable batsman

From the Indian squad the following players can relax and watch the AFL and NRL or whatever in our winter
Smith
Haddin
Maxwell
Johnson [The Duke ball baffles him]
Warner
Wade
Hughes
Doherty

These guys are too unreliable in some facets of thier game
Only 1 of these players should be in the Australian team at any given time
2 of them in the same team is a liability

Im also leaving Cowan behind
He does play to the best of his ability, is reliable, but he is likely to finish up with a Test average of about 30
Ed is a short term fixit as an opener until anyone with any ability is ready to take his spot

The rest of the squad can consist of the following

Fast bowlers
Hilfenhaus
Cummins
Harris
Bird
Sayers [longshot]

Allrounders
Marsh
Henriques

Spinners
Ahmed
Agar

Batsman
?
?
?

Keepers
Paine

I really have no ideas who else I could take as batsman
Perhaps the guys I have sacked !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of the sacked cricketers Matty Wade is the one that I would reconsider
But he needs to improve on his sloppy keeping to spinners
I might take him as a back up keeper in England as he will keep to the quicks a lot of the time
His batting is good for a young keeper at this level

I know Im dreaming with some of my selections
This current team needs rebuilding , sooner than later

Ashes prediction
3 England
1 Australia
1 Draw

IF we fluke good bowling conditions maybe could draw 2-2

Just take the Tasmanian team over to England. At least we know how to make a match last 5 days!

Scrappy wrote:
I really have no ideas who else I could take as batsman
Perhaps the guys I have sacked !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What about Callum Ferguson? I know that he doesn't make enough 100s, but he did average 40 this Shield season. Not too many of the other batsmen throughout Australia have got close to that this season.

ANd he did perform well when playing one day cricket for Australia quite a few years ago now.

Callum Ferguson

Ferguson ,as mentioned , needs to convert starts into big scores
That is the reason why I cant select him in an Ashes squad

The way I see it , next season could be a defining season for Ferguson
A very good SS season , and you never know , a baggy green cap
However, a poor season , and perhaps even back to District cricket

The one thing about Ferguson , he is a wonderful batsman from a spectators point of view
He times the ball as good as almost any batsman in the SS

Scrappy wrote:Callum Ferguson

Ferguson ,as mentioned , needs to convert starts into big scores
That is the reason why I cant select him in an Ashes squad

The way I see it , next season could be a defining season for Ferguson
A very good SS season , and you never know , a baggy green cap
However, a poor season , and perhaps even back to District cricket

The one thing about Ferguson , he is a wonderful batsman from a spectators point of view
He times the ball as good as almost any batsman in the SS

I haven't got the figures in front of me, but I would have thought that Ferguson has had a better season than either Burns or Bailey. The other player very stiff not to get a look in is Chris Rogers. He has a career average of nearly 50 in the Sheffield Shield and again this year has been the second best batsman in the competition behind Ricky Ponting.

Which Marsh are you talking about as an allrounder? I personally think that they are the two most underperforming cricketers in Australia. Their records are very poor.

Smith battled hard in India. He'll be in the squad and rightly so.

You can leave Henriques out, not up to Test standard.

redandblack wrote:Smith battled hard in India. He'll be in the squad and rightly so.

You can leave Henriques out, not up to Test standard.

agreed 100% i was amazed 'Moses Howard' got a tour let alone a test, he did bat well in one test but even domestically he is too hot & cold

Chris Rogers is unfortunately too old now , played 1 Test and got a very poor umpiring decision against him , what might have been for him
Agree , he is one of the best opening batsman in the country , but it must frustrate him now watching some players getting cheap gigs at present

Mitchell Marsh is the allrounder , Ive specked him on potential
But like his brother Shaun, is injury prone


Shaun Marsh is a glorious timer of the ball when he gets going , but he falls in the Phil Hughes , Graham Wood, Marcus North , catagory , their per innings failures outweigh their good innings

redandblack wrote:Smith battled hard in India. He'll be in the squad and rightly so.

You can leave Henriques out, not up to Test standard.

Steve Smith
He will most likely be in the touring team to England , on his above average efforts in India
He showed he can play spin adequately
But facing Anderson, Finn, Broad and company might be more difficult for him ?

R+B you are a self professed legendary wicket keeper
Is it time Australia selects a reliable safer keeper than Wade and Haddin ?
I look at it this way, bowling is the Australian strength , and Im thinking Australia needs to catch everything to win the series

A legend in my own lunchtime, Scrappy

I don't think Wade's much of a keeper. Haddin is a show- pony keeper, makes a speccy out of a simple catch.

I'd play Paine.

From what I read, our test batting depth is paper thin.
You may as well throw all the names mentioned, bar Clarke into a lottery and select them that way. Wouldn't be any less effective than what the current selectors are doing.

I would have thought that Warner is still is worth a look on grassed decks.

But who the hell knows???

Scrappy wrote:Steve Smith
He will most likely be in the touring team to England , on his above average efforts in India
He showed he can play spin adequately
But facing Anderson, Finn, Broad and company might be more difficult for him ?

Maybe, but he deserves his chance. Also, if he's not chosen in the XI, his fielding is well above average.

Steve Smiths Test batting

EG
159 runs
54* best
31.80 ave

PA
100 runs
77 best
25.00 ave

IN
161 runs
92 best
40.25 ave

The Pakistan series was played in England
Has overall stats in England
259 runs @ 28

His Test career against all nations
420 runs
92 best
32.30 ave

Has probably only batted top 5 in India ?
Would say his digs were batting 7 most times ?
If so the 32.30 average is OK

33 Australians playing in the IPL in the lead up to The Ashes Series, after the Indian Tour,when this summer finishes.

England have 2 playing IPL.

That is why I think Scrappy is being generous to us in only predicting a 3-1 defeat to the Aussies.

It could so easily go 5-0. And that would be QED against Australian Cricket.

It might be unfair, but in one way I draw some parallels between Australian Cricket and the state of our national swimming.

Almost a classic 'reward before achievement' scenario.
Sort of like, 'pay me and I will perform', rather than 'perform and we will pay you'.

In both cases the team has reached the top riding on what their predecessors achieved, and are used to the attention and rewards, but when some discplined and concentrated application is necessary to achieve, they have been found wanting.

Do egos get in the way? Very possibly. This has been well documented in the recent review into Aussie swimming. As for cricket? Well how would you feel when you've come off a test series debacle in India and the same country is prepared to pay you close to a million bucks for IPL. You'd probably think you're not travelling that bad I reckon.

Booney wrote:33 Australians playing in the IPL in the lead up to The Ashes Series, after the Indian Tour,when this summer finishes.

England have 2 playing IPL.

Says it all really, the green baggy cap and winning the Ashes just aren't the holy grail it used to be.

Adelaide Hawk wrote:

Booney wrote:33 Australians playing in the IPL in the lead up to The Ashes Series, after the Indian Tour,when this summer finishes.

England have 2 playing IPL.

Says it all really, the green baggy cap and winning the Ashes just aren't the holy grail it used to be.

Agree with you there AH, especially not when you use it as a money-spinner and play it back to back within the period of a few years, or months even.

howthewestwaswon wrote:

Adelaide Hawk wrote:

Booney wrote:33 Australians playing in the IPL in the lead up to The Ashes Series, after the Indian Tour,when this summer finishes.

England have 2 playing IPL.

Says it all really, the green baggy cap and winning the Ashes just aren't the holy grail it used to be.

Agree with you there AH, especially not when you use it as a money-spinner and play it back to back within the period of a few years, or months even.

of those 33, how many are still playing domestic cricket in Australia ?? (not including big bash cricket)

20 retained from last year:
Gilchrist, Hodge, Hogg, M Hussey, Lee & Tait not state players.
Ricky Ponting also picked up (not sure if he's playing for Tas again).

Of the others: Hilfenhaus, Nannes, Harris, D Hussey, S Marsh, Haddin, Pattinson, Hughes, Johnson, Maxwell, M Marsh, Faulkner, Watson, Christian, Henriques & McKay play or are around the mark in one format at least nationally.

The scrubbers are: Laughlin, Pomerbach, Richardson, Lynn, McDonald & White

Australia have named a 16 man squad for this years ashes:

Michael Clarke (c)
Brad Haddin (vc)
Jackson Bird
Ed Cowan
James Faulkner
Ryan Harris
Phil Hughes
Usman Khawaja
Nathan Lyon
James Pattinson
Chris Roger
Peter Siddle
Mitchell Starc
Matthew Wade
David Warner
Shane Watson

Good to see Bird and Harris get a spot. They could both be useful bowlers in England if there is a bit of swing about. Wade is lucky to be there, his keeping is below par and his batting is hit and miss. If we do not have a standout wicket keeper-batsman then we should pick our best gloveman. Missed chances have cost us dearly in the last 6 months.

Not far off the best side possible.

I was amazed Bird didn't get a contract, as I thought he'd be ideal in England, so happy to see him here.

UncleHuey wrote:Good to see Bird and Harris get a spot. They could both be useful bowlers in England if there is a bit of swing about. Wade is lucky to be there, his keeping is below par and his batting is hit and miss. If we do not have a standout wicket keeper-batsman then we should pick our best gloveman. Missed chances have cost us dearly in the last 6 months.

Missed chances have cost us for more than six months. Haddin's poor keeping cost us the first test at Cardiff in 2009. Sure he made a 100, but England were left 9 wickets down in the second innings after Haddin had missed 5 chances and let through an inordinate amount of byes. The difference between his keeping and a genuine gloveman like Manou when he got a game was stark. And yet I think that Haddin is a better keeper than Wade. But if we followed the Australian tradition of playing the best keeper, Hartley should currently be the man.

For over 100 years Australia always picked the best keeper and only let trifling things like batting come into the equation if the two glovemen were equal.

Remember when we used to laugh at England when they had one world class cricketer in the country, Jack Russell and instead they played Alec Stewart as a keeper. It cost them time and again.

Sorry about the rant, but having been brought up watching Grout and Jarman (and then Knott and Taylor for England), I cringe at the lack of quality in wicketkeepers these days.

The four you mentioned in your last sentence brought back memories.

It would be nice for younger fans to have seen them to see what good wicketkeeping really is.

You rightly cringe at the current lack of quality. I cringed last season when Wade said he wasn't worried about mussing a vital catch because "it deviated too much"!

There is a thing called technique that helps with those, Wadey

if it keeps raining in England as it is with the Champions Trophy Tournament we might not get embarrassed in the Ashes series