Australia vs Pakistan (Tests and ODIs)

[PowerBug]

NOOOOOOOO AUSTRALIA LOST MY FAVOURITE UNIQUE RECORD IN THAT TEST MATCH :'(

Team declares in their first innings and loses by an innings



I'll have to be content with: Australia are the only team to declare in the first innings, THEN make the opposition follow on, and lose the match :P [1981 test in Leeds with Botham made 149 and Willis 8/43]

[PowerBug]

Australia's Third Test squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Hilton Cartwright, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Steve O'Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade

Agar or Cartwright at 6 for the next test.

[Jay]

Don't like either SOK or Agar additions to the squad. SOK is 32, and yeah he keeps it tight but he's not a wicket-taker at all. We need to pick a spinner with a better strike rate considering Lyon, Hazelwood and Bird aren't exactly strike bowlers. We also need to work out how we're going to take 20 wickets a match in India - SOK isn't the answer.

Agar averaged 78 with the ball in Shield last year (granted, this year he's doing better), and is going at 19 with the bat this year. He's still got a lot of work to do. But I'd prefer him to SOK for the Sydney test just because it's better for him to play in a test match than T20 and he still has some potential, SOK is the old, safe, boring option. Problem with Agar is that he's not good enough to be our AR batting at 6/7 yet though, so if we bring him in we'd probably have to play Cartwright too and bat him at 6 so he can spell the quicks as well.

My guess is the changes for Sydney will be Agar and Cartwright in for Bird and Maddinson - which would certainly be better than bringing SOK in. I'd prefer to just drop Maddinson for Head and use his offies as the other spin option though. Although Cartwright getting a game would be good because we might need him in India if the selectors insist on needing a 3rd seam option when we're playing 2 spinners.

Personally, my XI for India would be:
Renshaw
Warner
Khawaja
Smith
Handscomb
Head
Wade (Clarke thinks he's a good player of spin - would be his last chance though)
Starc
Hazelwood
Lyon
Holland

I'm pretty confident in saying that Holland is the 2nd best spin option we've got so it sucks that he's injured at the moment, but he should play in India if fit. That just leaves the no.6 spot as a bit of a tricky position to fill, but I think Head makes sense as he's in the top few batsmen in the Shield and can chip in with offies. Selectors might decide that it should be an AR that bowls meds which in that case Cartwright probably gets the nod. The number 6 has got to be able to bat well though, I know Head can and it'll be good to get a look at Cartwright next test hopefully :)

[Nige]

Boof hinted that they'd play two spinners and backed Agar as a capable no.6 so the one hit wonder will probably be coming in for Maddo.

[Gigantor]

Personally, my XI for India would be:
Renshaw
Warner
Khawaja
Smith
Handscomb
Head
Wade (Clarke thinks he's a good player of spin - would be his last chance though)
Starc
Hazelwood
Lyon
Holland

I'm pretty confident in saying that Holland is the 2nd best spin option we've got so it sucks that he's injured at the moment, but he should play in India if fit. That just leaves the no.6 spot as a bit of a tricky position to fill, but I think Head makes sense as he's in the top few batsmen in the Shield and can chip in with offies. Selectors might decide that it should be an AR that bowls meds which in that case Cartwright probably gets the nod. The number 6 has got to be able to bat well though, I know Head can and it'll be good to get a look at Cartwright next test hopefully :)

What about Turner, is batting better than Head atm, is an actual number six and has shown he can dig in when the top order fails then counter attack when needed. He is a brilliant fielder and bowls more than handy offies. He would have bowled more but has spent the majority of first class career in the same team as other all rounders like Marsh, Cartwright and Agar.

[Jukes]

Marsh, Renshaw, Khawaja, Smith, Handscomb (wk), Turner, Agar, Bird, Starc, Hazlewood, SOK for India

Too many big calls? They won't win a test there anyway

[PowerBug]

http://www.cricket.com.au/news/pakistan-fined-for-slow-over-rate-misbah-ul-haq-wahab-riaz-boxing-day-test-mcg-icc/2016-12-30

It's amazing how Australia manage to avoid fines all the time but other teams don't :P

[Ringo]

http://www.cricket.com.au/news/pakistan-fined-for-slow-over-rate-misbah-ul-haq-wahab-riaz-boxing-day-test-mcg-icc/2016-12-30

It's amazing how Australia manage to avoid fines all the time but other teams don't :P

Agree PB Somehow we must manage to catch up in the eyes of the match referee.

[PowerBug]

http://www.cricket.com.au/news/pakistan-fined-for-slow-over-rate-misbah-ul-haq-wahab-riaz-boxing-day-test-mcg-icc/2016-12-30

It's amazing how Australia manage to avoid fines all the time but other teams don't :P

Agree PB Somehow we must manage to catch up in the eyes of the match referee.

This is what bugs me with the over rate stuff. You're given 6 hours to bowl 90 overs, and then they let you have 30mins on top of that if you're slow, but with no penalty. So Australia are 6/7 overs down on the rate, but bowl them in the last 30mins so they are fine. That's dodgy to me.

It didn't say which day they were short on, I'd assume Day 4.

[Bill Manspeaker]

http://www.cricket.com.au/news/pakistan-fined-for-slow-over-rate-misbah-ul-haq-wahab-riaz-boxing-day-test-mcg-icc/2016-12-30

It's amazing how Australia manage to avoid fines all the time but other teams don't :P

Agree PB Somehow we must manage to catch up in the eyes of the match referee.

This is what bugs me with the over rate stuff. You're given 6 hours to bowl 90 overs, and then they let you have 30mins on top of that if you're slow, but with no penalty. So Australia are 6/7 overs down on the rate, but bowl them in the last 30mins so they are fine. That's dodgy to me.

It didn't say which day they were short on, I'd assume Day 4.

you'd think there'd be some leniency on that, day 4 was the really humid one yeah? plus it rained the second half of the day

[elephants]

Boof hinted that they'd play two spinners and backed Agar as a capable no.6 so the one hit wonder will probably be coming in for Maddo.

lel why do you dislike him so much?

[Nige]

Boof hinted that they'd play two spinners and backed Agar as a capable no.6 so the one hit wonder will probably be coming in for Maddo.

lel why do you dislike him so much?

Hahah, I don't even dislike him that much tbh, more that I reckon he gets pretty over-hyped/overrated.

Also because he's not Victorian and my #vicbias is strong.  :P

[elephants]

Boof hinted that they'd play two spinners and backed Agar as a capable no.6 so the one hit wonder will probably be coming in for Maddo.

lel why do you dislike him so much?

Hahah, I don't even dislike him that much tbh, more that I reckon he gets pretty over-hyped/overrated.

Also because he's not Victorian and my #vicbias is strong.  :P

haha I don't even think he's that highly rated tbh. And he was born in Melb so you Vic barbies should be all over him ;)

[Jukes]

Let's just hope he can improve his bowling average down from 124 (making Xavier Doherty look good). Definitely has my support to take #6 (him or our other Ashton)

Gotta go for the test record for the most Ashton's in a team surely

[Gigantor]

Let's just hope he can improve his bowling average down from 124 (making Xavier Doherty look good). Definitely has my support to take #6 (him or our other Ashton)

Gotta go for the test record for the most Ashton's in a team surely

Might as well get all four WA all-rounders in there plus Whiteman while your at it :)

Warner
Khawaja
Smith
Handscombe
Cartwright
Turner
Agar
Whiteman
Starc
M.Marsh
Hazelwood

Thats a good looking IX  ;D ;D ;D  (Marsh is batting like a #10 at the moment  :P )