England in Australia

[irottev]

Australia should NOT change their team, and if they do it should be Clarke for MacGill.

Watson is not a world class player but about all but 1 really of the rest of the team are. He doesn't deserve a spot when the current side is winning and performing well.

 

[BigCrickNan]

Lovely to hear the Barmy Army in unison at last. It's just great to know that no matter how bad the team are doing, the Army and the rest of the England fans are always behind the team.

its the beer

 

[brad352]

Australia should NOT change their team, and if they do it should be Clarke for MacGill.

Weakening our batting to that extent for the sake of having an extra bowler isn't worth it

Watson is not a world class player

Why?

 

[BigCrickNan]

Weakening our batting to that extent for the sake of having an extra bowler isn't worth it


Why?

He hasn't given great performances at the top level?

 

[brad352]

He hasn't given great performances at the top level?

He's played 2 Tests, so that's a useless basis for comment. In 52 ODI's he's averaged over 30 with the bat mostly coming in at 7 and needing to slog- since moving to open and having a chance to build an innings he's averaged 37.5. In his last 15 ODI's he's averaged 18 with the ball. I'd say they're pretty good results.

I can't think of another country that wouldn't be falling over itself to get a young all rounder averaging over 50 with the bat and around 30 with the ball in quality first class cricket into their team.

 

[Kal-El]

You'd drop Clarke over Martyn wouldn't you? Clarke only made a half-century and came in when we were at about 450 while Martyn missed out and was in the original starting XI in the first place.

Read my post again, I said we should drop Martyn.

 

[genghis_khan]

I can't see Australia making any changes...the two temptations (MacGill, Watson) have already been mentioned here about 1 million times so i wont bother. All i will say is dropping Clark over Lee would be a total disgrace.

Personally i hope no changes are made, the only possible one is Clarke for Watson but who knows.

 

[andrew_nixon]

This hasn't been updated with stats from the latest test, but this table should say it all about Giles.

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Records/Tests/Overall/Most_Wickets.html

In the history of test cricket, only three bowlers have taken more than 100 wickets and have a bowling average worse than Giles.

 

[angryangy]

In all honesty, why should Australia even make changes to their side? I mean, why change a winning team expecially when the victory was so convincing? The only two players who should even be considered for the drop are Gilchrist and Lee as they both contributed little to the game, although Lee did get the important early wicket of KP today.

'Resting on one's laurels' I believe is the term. Just because we win one match doesn't mean we have a universally indominable team. Plans can and should be attacked. This means not only should the defeated team look for weaknesses that they can exploit, but the victorious team should be flexible, both to conceal weakness and to take advantage of any new conditions.

It's been pointed out that it would be odd to say to Watson "we picked you ahead of Clarke, but since you missed out, we're going with Clarke". It's also been noted that Watson allows for not only two spinners, but also two express pacemen. The selectors are comfortable picking any aggressive option if they believe they can get tight overs from Watson.

MacGill would certainly count as protecting a possible weakness. Australia don't need Warne to be a target and Pietersen alone might be able to put him in that position. MacGill is not only a diversionary target who can take the heat off, but he relishes that head on challenge. He is much more comfortable than Warne when the batsman is trying to score fast. Also, with Adelaide and Perth looking as dry as they've ever been, we should expect wickets that will be good for spinners. Pura Cup results so far certainly suggest this.

 

[sifter132]

Drop Gilchrist? are you mad?

So what? He failed in 1 innings, plus he is in the team to do a little thing call wicketkeep instead.

To be fair, it hasn't just been 1 innings and I'm turning to the stat book again The only Test century he has scored in the last 2 years was against Bangladesh. Apart from that he has only scored 2 fifties and has averaged about 25 over this time (18 test matches). Take out the Bangladesh series and it's 21.5 over 16 tests. THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Sure he's been a great batter, but he's starting to become a has been in Test matches.

I think the media should put some pressure on him. We've all seen Justin Langer's performance after he knew Jaques was breathing down his neck. Let's see Gilly perform when someone starts reporting Brad Haddin's recent performances. Haddin's been averaging around 50 in the Pura Cup over the last 3 years, and he is the future keeper, why not bring him in now and keep Gilly fresh for the World Cup?

 

[cricketmad09]

Australia should NOT change their team, and if they do it should be Clarke for MacGill.

Watson is not a world class player but about all but 1 really of the rest of the team are. He doesn't deserve a spot when the current side is winning and performing well.

I never have and never will like the idea of playing 5 bowlers. So definately no. Drop a bowler for him, or dont play him at all.

 

[valvolux]

With Watson ruled out I can't see any changes being made. Martyn looks in superb touch, give him a break. Remember he was our best batsmen before the ashes and only bad luck prevented him from maintaining that form. Gilly is indeed a worry, but that was a pretty good ball he got - he's been working over time at the one that moves away towards slips...as Mahmood showed in India and Hoggard again here, he has to also keep his eyes open for the one that comes back in.

1 - Saying it'll now be all over by lunch on the 5th day is an opinion, not fact.

2 - They probably don't find the song that bad to be honest, it's just a continuation of Cricket Australia having no respect for England. You didn't see us playing songs at tea and lunch saying how crap Australia was, did you? You didn't see us splitting up all your parties of fans on purpose, did you?

Leave the chanting to the fans. Cricket Australia clearly felt they needed to step in as Australian cricket fans haven't got the ability to match their English counterparts.

Hey, it's pretty easy to say they didn't split the aussies up because the fact is they barely let any in. I think you'll find a lot of Australian supporters are separate from their mates as well. Not an ideal situation, but if their plan was to quieten the English fans it certainly has worked...to the point where they're going to have a sook and go back home. I think they played that tune at tea because they were led to believe before the series that the Barmy Army were a witty bunch of lads who had a song book full of clever songs about the Australians. At least that's what they kept telling us.

As it turns out all they had was "barmy army" repeat x 1000..."people always ask us, who we are, where we come from etc. etc." and "England, England, England". Hardly the repertoire of the "best fans in the world". Anyone can get drunk, wear a silly hat and annoy the bejesus out of everyone around them.

 

[cricketmad09]

To be fair, it hasn't just been 1 innings and I'm turning to the stat book again The only Test century he has scored in the last 2 years was against Bangladesh. Apart from that he has only scored 2 fifties and has averaged about 25 over this time (18 test matches). Take out the Bangladesh series and it's 21.5 over 16 tests. THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Sure he's been a great batter, but he's starting to become a has been in Test matches.

I think the media should put some pressure on him. We've all seen Justin Langer's performance after he knew Jaques was breathing down his neck. Let's see Gilly perform when someone starts reporting Brad Haddin's recent performances. Haddin's been averaging around 50 in the Pura Cup over the last 3 years, and he is the future keeper, why not bring him in now and keep Gilly fresh for the World Cup?

So you admit that Gilchrist is a better option than Haddin? Then why keep him out of the most important series for Australian cricket in history?

 

[Sureshot]

Damn, couldn't even see a hundred in this dismal Test match for England. Saying that though, Hoggard's due a big 'un...

And just in case people moan about Jones 'failing' again, just take a look at Strauss' and Flintoff's batting first.

Yeah he got some runs didn't he. 55 in the match was it? Not too shabby. If he does that in each test I'll be content.

Good to see Giles cement his place for the next game....

 

[aussie_ben91]

Read my post again, I said we should drop Martyn.

Read my post carefully. I questioned why you'd drop Martyn over Clarke. I then explained that Clarke didn't do anything earth-shattering to deserve a place over Martyn when Martyn's proven throughout his career why he deserves his spot and only a few tests ago saved Australia against South Africa but even when their was more then enough runs on the board for Clarke to bat for himself and maybe get a not out century before I noted the fact that Martyn was in the already selected squad for the Gabba test while Clarke was merely replacing Watson.