1st Test: England v Australia at Nottingham Jul 10-14, 2013

[used2bcool]

I think Finn will be replaced with Bresnan. Not just because his form has gone to hell, but also because Alistair Cook seems to have no confidence in him. You could make a case for Onions as well, but England have preferred Bresnan over Onions time and again, and this won't be any different. I think Bairstow will get one or two more tests to sink his teeth in. Bell, after his excellent innings, can play the rest of the series in peace. I think those were the only selection questions for England.

England: 1 Cook 2 Root 3 Trott 4 Pietersen 5 Bell 6 Bairstow 7 Prior 8 Broad 9 Bresnan 10 Swann 11 Anderson

Australia, I think should replace Cowan with Khawaja. I don't think Khawaja is that much better, but at least he has age on his side, and Cowan looked miserable at Trent Bridge. I think they should also do whatever shuffling needed to get Clarke batting at five, since he seems to be in a better mental place there. I'd replace Starc with Harris. Agar's heroics mean that Lyon has to sit out again, which is unfortunate because I believe Lyon to be the better spinner. I don't think Warner's going be called back. So that leaves us with:

Australia: 1 Rogers 2 Watson 3 Khawaja 4 Hughes 5 Clarke 6 Smith 7 Haddin 8 Agar 9 Siddle 10 Harris 11 Pattinson

 

[Haarithan]

Give Finn another go considering it's his home turf, drop Bairstow, move Root back to #6, and bring back Compton to open with Cook, IMO.

 

[War]

Give Finn another go considering it's his home turf, drop Bairstow, move Root back to #6, and bring back Compton to open with Cook, IMO.

Ye i'm been in the camp that feels Compton should have been kept as an opener despite the rise of Root.

But i guess when your team has so much good options, you can make those tough decisions as a selector.

 

[ferg512]

Can someone explain to me what happened to Shaun Marsh? I know he had a really bad period where he got absolutely no runs (2011-12 I think) but I would probably pick him if he was available ahead of at least 3-4 batsman already in the Australian squad.

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Australia
As i've argued since the Australian summer George Bailey should be in the test team middle-order & the team would look much more solid with Bailey in the middle @ # 5 behind Clarke.

Not having Bailey (a natural middle order player) also puts AUS in the problem most people noted before the Ashes, of having to turn top order batsmen into middle-order batsmen. Do AUS really want to be batting Hughes @ # 5 & 6 for the remainder of this Ashes?

Couldn't agree more on Bailey, I also wonder whether Voges is another one in that camp.

 

[cricket_online]

What a fantastic Test and I hope rest of the 9 Tests (including the Aus leg of Ashes) are as tightly contested.

England need to take a closer look at Finn and maybe replace him with Onions, Tremlett or Rankin (don't think Bresnan is the answer to 3rd seamer's spot in Tests). Australia need to get someone like Khwaja or Warner in place of Cowan. Cowan doesn't look like scoring big and has to go. In fact I would have gone with Shaun Marsh and hopefully he gets a go in Australia.

 

[Hughesy_33]

What a fantastic Test and I hope rest of the 9 Tests (including the Aus leg of Ashes) are as tightly contested.

England need to take a closer look at Finn and maybe replace him with Onions, Tremlett or Rankin (don't think Bresnan is the answer to 3rd seamer's spot in Tests). Australia need to get someone like Khwaja or Warner in place of Cowan. Cowan doesn't look like scoring big and has to go. In fact I would have gone with Shaun Marsh and hopefully he gets a go in Australia.

I also think England should stick with Finn. Didn't have a great game but still got wickets. Also was poor captaincy having him in the outfield.

Marsh has blown a few chances with his behaviour off the field and also with injuries. A shame as he is much more talented than a lot of players.

Also have to say it was a great test match. A few things of note. Good test wicket. So sick of seeing roads where a side gets 500 first innings, makes for boring cricket. The wicket should be challenging.
DRS - Australia needs to learn how to use. Cook uses it perfectly.
Broad - So much unfair criticism of him. Really think he expected the umpire just to give him out. Then was in shock when it was giving not out. Such a split second decision.

 

[brem06]

Can someone explain to me what happened to Shaun Marsh? ..

Numerous hamstring injuries, failure when given opportunities, and general poor attitude haven't helped him. Shame, because he is an immensely talented player who will probably be remembered for being an average first class cricketer.

*edit* Marsh brothers dumped for ill-discipline

 

[Owzat]

Broad - So much unfair criticism of him. Really think he expected the umpire just to give him out.

If he was expecting to be given out then he should have been heading to the dressing room, players do not need the umpires to give them out if they know they're out and the pressure on the umpires is enough as it is without players waiting for them.

Anyway, that topic is done and dusted (in here, there is a thread )



I guessed this Test might be decided by the review system, it just seemed like that would be the way England would get the final wicket in this match in particular. Was he out? I'm not convinced by what I saw, a piddly Rs little dot perhaps on the bat and told there was a noise. What annoys me about the modern era of gimmicks is SLOW MOTION REPLAYS seem to have been thrown by the wayside. I'd rather see the edge than have a spot that might have indicated contact, and a noise.

But as I said before lunch yesterday, I think the interval decided it. England regrouped, bowlers refreshed, and of course the aussies do seem a bit wasteful of their reviews. But I again refer to the point, is it to get decisions right, to avoid howlers, or what? So the aussies are excessively using it in the hope they might not be out, or get a wicket, but England do sometimes too.

England have a decent system for deciding if/when to use it, have it down to what appears to be a fine art. Quick conference either between batsmen, or between key "witnesses" if you like to the delivery for wickets. It shouldn't be a "tactic" though, one England may employ well. Broad was out, with multiple 100s of balls being delivered and trying to take wickets, two referrals/reviews is not really adequate.

To me if any howler goes through it is wrong, and defeats the purpose, no matter how it came about it got through. I think it should have been given to the umpire or even third umpire as I've said before, the umpires should be neutral and not wasteful.

 

[Haynes123]

Australia clearly struggles with swing, it has been well documented over the last few years, thus, why don't play onions as he can clearly swing the ball. I do not know why Compton was dropped in the first place. You cannot afford to have both Root and Bairstow in you batting line-up as they both are clearly struggling to adapt to test cricket

 

[barmyarmy]

@Owzat - 2D replays are useless at showing edges, grounded catches etc. Deviation is about the only thing you have to go on.

 

[ferg512]

Was interesting to hear from Strauss on commentary how England use the DRS. If the keeper, bowler and captain all agree then they review it, I can recall at least once, maybe twice where Clarke didn't even talk to Haddin.

 

[barmyarmy]

Plus Clarke is at second slip so his angle isn't great.

 

[angryangy]

Can someone explain to me what happened to Shaun Marsh? I know he had a really bad period where he got absolutely no runs (2011-12 I think) but I would probably pick him if he was available ahead of at least 3-4 batsman already in the Australian squad.

His first class form hasn't yet recovered. He was in contention for limited overs, but he looked awful at that too when he got the call up.

 

[fade0508]

pressure on the umpires is enough as it is without players waiting for them.

I'm glad we won, and it was an amazing match, but I would prefer a less controversial 2nd Test !

Dar had a poor game but he is still one of the best umpires (the best until recently). There is no umpire in the world (including all the greats) who did not make poor decisions; I don't buy the argument that home umpires would have done better. I think they are all prone to mistakes and that is why DRS is needed. It's not perfect but % correct decisions have increased since its introduction and that is good enough for me.

I'm genuinely surprised by the amount of debate in the media about DRS. Have people forgotten what it was like before??

 

[used2bcool]

I wonder if Dar and Dharmasena are going to stand the entire series. The only other available umpires would be Erasmus and Tony Hill. Erasmus is probably better off behind the camera if he's to be involved at all, though I have nothing against Tony Hill. On the plus side, there's nowhere to go but up after this test.