New Ashes thread

[BratPack]

Australia have two chances this summer. None and flower all

Not if we go in with that attitude! Unaustralian to not believe in your cricket team. BP is a knob.

[Nige]

Maxy better get a call up when they play here. Will help the batting dramatically.  8)

[henry]

Maxy better get a call up when they play here. Will help the batting dramatically.  8)

No thanks. Not a test player and never will be while warner's in the team for as far as I'm concerned. Not a good enough bowler to be picked as one, not a good enough batsman to be picked solely as that either. I can see why people like him, but getting 50s off 30 balls will not help at all when your team needs to grind out runs in trying circumstances, as we saw in India where he did nothing at all with the bat.

[Jukes]

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8706319

YESSSSSSS!

[Cicjose]

How amazing would that be for England Jukes

[Hawka]

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8706319

YESSSSSSS!

Joke if he does we have like 6/7 better bowlers

[Cicjose]

they'll pick him as a batsman.... ::)

[me]

They were a shot Cic, as i mentioned only yesterday, could easily be 3-1 Australia right now, if it wasn't for Stuart Broad in the first test, the weather in the 3rd, and Stuart Broad again in the 4th :P


in reply to "me" some additional points:
The same 4 umpires will be doing the tets in Australia. Word is Billy Bowden might join them to make there 5 to pick from.
If England are 3-1 up and all their guns misfiring then htat's a problem for Australia, more than England ;)
The crowd doesn't mean much because the Barmy Army are louder than the Aussies anyway :P

Should be a very interesting return series. :D


My man Gary Ballance scored 139 in the 40-over comp for Yorkshire last night. Avg of 60 in FC and List A this season, and 30 in T20. Deserves a call-up for England. :D

my point wasn't that there would be different umpires, just we might get the "rub of the green" seeing as we're playing at home. i know most don't subscribe to home ground advantage theory when it comes to umpiring, but after seeing us get routinely screwed by umpires in 2005/2009 and now 2013, we might be due to get some going our way... based on all the cricket i've seen all around the world, generally the home team does get the better calls, remember india v australia here in 2008, we got so many shockers go our way (remember symonds nicking the ball not out by steve bucknor and then he gets a big ton) ... however in india, i've seen games where guys like harbhajan singh get half their wickets when they're really not out (probably had something to do with stadiums packed full with rabid fans) ... in a perfect world i'd like the umpries to get everything right and not actually start affecting results like they have in this series, but i'd much rather england start getting a few dodgy calls than us all the time ...

on the other point, at least half the reason why most of the england batting "guns" are misfiring is that we've actually bowled to most of their weaknesses this series, as compared to recent ashes series, like in australia last time when we (for example) bowled terrible short lengths and a lot on the pads to trott and cook in particular. assuming we bowl as well as we have in this series, i can assure you england won't be getting the same volume of runs here later this year.

in relation to my comment on crowd impact ---- granted, the barmy army do make a strong showing over here, however they definitely won't have the same impact or be able to create the same pressure cooker cauldron that the crowd has made in england --- it's been pretty obvious this series that australia's extremely mentally fragile batsmen cannot handle game situation or crowd pressure (even 2009 mitchell johnson is an example of this)

it's important to remember that although this england team is above average, they're definitely not world beaters and can be beaten if australia put in a respectable, competitive and competent performance (although that's certainly not a given) ... in the series in australia, maybe, just maybe, australia might be able to press home advantages that we may get that we haven't taken at all in this series

[pyronerd]

they'll pick him as a batsman.... ::)

wouldn't be any worse than our current middle order :-X

[elephants]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRRGy_EQqAA

Another reason to hate Stuart Broad. The nerve of the man to challenge in that situation :P

[PowerBug]

Who'll be paying attention to the tour match starting tomorrow? I will, because my man is playing in it. :D Been talking him up to all my friends to the point where they walk away whenever i mention the name Gary Ballance. I hope he performs, otherwise i'll cop it. :P #Morenervousthanheis #gun Averages 60 in 4 day matches and in 40 ove matches this season. :D

[stew42]

Bring this young lad back  :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drYspbvaD3w

(It's Glenn McGrath btw)

[Cicjose]

Yeah and lets bring our old mate back as well   ::)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPqGzl-o81c

heaven forbid the selectors know who plays in the state competition anymore

[elephants]

Woah Cic, Benaud played for Australia not England. There's no way you can call him 'our'

[BratPack]

At least the one day squad is a step in the right direction, they got rid of that useless hack Nathan Lyon