Scape goats?

aussie1st

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Someone has to be made accountable whether it is the players, coach or captain. We can't go losing 3 of our past 4 series without someone paying for it.

Going through the players, Clark probably will struggle to make the side don't know if he will drop out of the squad though. Hussey would have saved himself with that 100, Watson can't go on opening with a straight ball weakness, far far too many LBWs in his mode of dismissal. Can't see anyone else taking the fall from the players. Can't see Ponting being sacked as captain for this.

So that leaves one group; the selectors. Ponting has already admitting the selectors made a mistake by not picking Hauritz and they made a huge blunder picking no specialist batter in the squad. They took too long to drop Hayden, played White as a spinner in India and the list goes on. The whole panel needs a clean out.
 

Therbs

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Someone has to be made accountable whether it is the players, coach or captain. We can't go losing 3 of our past 4 series without someone paying for it.

Going through the players, Clark probably will struggle to make the side don't know if he will drop out of the squad though. Hussey would have saved himself with that 100, Watson can't go on opening with a straight ball weakness, far far too many LBWs in his mode of dismissal. Can't see anyone else taking the fall from the players. Can't see Ponting being sacked as captain for this.

So that leaves one group; the selectors. Ponting has already admitting the selectors made a mistake by not picking Hauritz and they made a huge blunder picking no specialist batter in the squad. They took too long to drop Hayden, played White as a spinner in India and the list goes on. The whole panel needs a clean out.


The squad is still a pretty good one. Its the constant changing which lets Australia down. Get two openers in tehre and let them stay as a pair, whether Hughes or Jaques partners Hughes doesn't matter. Watson is not an opener and really needs his bowling to step up to stay in the team. If Hussey goes then a new batsman needs to be put in the team and left in tehre for at least a whole series. The selectors got a few things wrong and I believe they panicked. Dropping Hughes was a mistake, he needed to be backed. Clark probably should have been bowling fron the First test, but I was happy with the bowling group as a whole. I reckon Hilditch should make way for a younger selector. Warney would be great. He's very good at picking up on who is a good player.
 

Howsie

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Hussey saved himself with that 100 today, I don't think the selectors would actually drop him but I'd still think about it tbh. I don't think Stuart Clark will play another test for Australia, except for day one on in the 4th test he's look pretty average.

Also how much longer will Katich go on for, he hasn't set the world on fire this series. He wont be dropped now but you'd think the pressure would be on him in the coming series.
 

Hooper

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Yeah, aussie, your correct.

I'll give my verdict on all the players we used in the series:

Hughes - Dropped after 2 tests? Stupid selectors, showed no faith in him. Will be back.
Watson - Not an opener ffs, if the opposition pitches it up on off/middle he'll get himself out, doesn't have the technique of an opener. Suits 4, 5 or 6.
Katich - Not a good series, not a bad series. Didn't stand up in the tests we needed him.
Ponting - Tried his heart out but wasn't good enough in the tests that mattered.
Clarke - Legend, absolutely stood up this series and I am now ready to accept that this man is going to captain our side...
Hussey - Terrible, has been held on to long and is a definite scapegoat.
North - How were the partnerships with Clarke? Absolutely brilliant this series after question marks were raised, great effort.
Haddin - Did well with the bat, glovework wasn't 100% but was good.
Johnson - Went missing for way to long this series, very disappointing and was in danger of being dropped. Looked a shadow of the SA Johnson.
Siddle - Not great but not bad, can't drop him but he didn't do enough to warrant him taking the new ball for Australia.
Hauritz - Is clearly not a test spinner, should go back to NSW, we need other spinning options.
Clark - I was his biggest fan and after the first innings in the 4th test I was jumping all over the couch, but he did look flat after that and if he doesn't perform against Pakistan then he could be gone as well...
Lee - Should we have played him? We'll never know, but he was trying his heart out and imagine if he carves up in the ODIs? A lot of people will be talking... I reckon he still can do it at test level.
Hilfenhaus - Suprise selection for the first test and his swingers were very effective, was impressed by young Hilfenhaus and I think he deserves his spot in the side.


Well its hard to tell who should go because everyone played well at one stage of the series, but Hussey surely has to go...

The Australian selectors have made another shamble of a series here.
 

aussie1st

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Katich for whatever reason has struggled to bring his consistency from domestic cricket. He usually isn't one that makes a poor judgement or throws his wicket away. Hes a guy that stays in there for ages and makes big scores.

On the bowling, they can only get better and despite being inconsistent we had the top 3 leading wicket takers for the series. Siddle needs to get rid of the bad balls between his explosive spells. Johnson seems to need a lot of matches to get to his best. Hilfenhaus needs more experience bowling on conditions that don't suit him. Reverse swing didn't play much in this series compared to the last one so its hard to say if Lee would have had an impact or to say that was the missing thing from our bowling.
 

Covvy

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Hopefully Ricky Ponting isn't captain anymore. Sure he's a great player but some dumb choices happened over the whole series which has really cost us the ashes. Way back in the first test when he bowled two spinner at the end instead of a proper bowler, imagine what would have happened if we won that match!
 

mattfb

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The problem with the team is apparently Watson is a specialist batsmen - and an opener at that. Johnson can bowl his way out of bad form and is allowed to in the middle of the series. Stupid selections eg Hilfy. Yes it turned out a good decision but we got lucky. 9/10 those ridiculous decisions won't pay off.

Oh, and the biggest one - apparently someone told Ponting that North is a quality bowler.
 

Hooper

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Yeah, either Lee or Clark should of been in front of Hilfy at the start of the series...
 

Covvy

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Well I suppose it worked out well in the end. Hilfy was always gonna be dangerous if it was swinging.
 

mattfb

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Read what I said ffs. 9/10 those stupid decisions when a quality player like Clark is ready to play won't work. It was a dumb selection which luckily payed off.
 

smssia0112

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Clark should've been picked from the start, but even if Hilfenhaus was a good selection for the first test, Johnson should've been dropped earlier for Clark, there should have been a backup opener and a backup batsman instead of two all-rounders, two bowlers and one keeper.
 

woodzy

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First of all I think the last thing we should be doing is pin pointing individuals and highlighting their failures and looking for excuses to drop them just because we lost the Ashes. I think a fair few of Hooper's analysis are wildly exaggerations and unnecessarily extreme.

The problem is that given that our series stats do really highlight any massive failures it become hard to pin point and single out any individuals who should be removed. I think Australia lacks/ed a batsman who will make runs when we've got our backs against the wall, i.e the Allan Border type player who will come in at no. 5, no 6 and play a rear guard action. Ive said this before, Australia lost the Ashes because they lost key sessions/moments in the series. In saying that, I think the decision not to play Hauritz at The Oval has to go down as one of the worst in Australian Test History. The funny thing is that not playing him was a massive contradiction of Australia's horses for courses policy, where they pick players based on conditions. Now im not sure who made that decision, nor am I sure who has the final say on who gets picked. Ive always thought that the selectors provide Ricky Ponting with a squad going into a test match, and he chooses the final XI. So whether it was his decision or not I dont know.

In saying all this, there are a couple of changes id like to see made. Id like to have Phil Jaques opening the batting again as soon as possible; hes a classic opening batsman. Watson for me doesnt warrant a spot unless he improves his bowling to a large extent. He not an opener and struggles with the ball that pitches on the stumps and nips in to middle.

Also if we're going to drop Hussey in the near future, id like to see Brad Hodge given a chance. Hes been a champion player at first class level and has performed at test level; he deserves a chance. As for the spin department, I think Hauritz did a fine job; he did everything that was expected of him and I think he will keep improving. Anyone who says hes not good enough to be a test spinner is a fool.

The comment was made that Australian selectors have assembled such a large squad that they are being bogged down with selection. I agree with this statement but only with regards to our ODI team. I think thats one of the main reasons why we have performed badly in one day cricket over the last couple of seasons and as a result I have a major question mark over the selectors credentials. Over the last few seasons ive lost count over the number of players we've used in one day cricket, I dont think even the selectors know what our best xi is. Id say we've used no less than 30 players and as a result has created instability. We need to select a squad of say 15 and stick with it.
 

joshuaa21

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Give Beau Cason and Bryce McGain another chance, have 2 spinners in the side :laugh:laugh:p:p
 

Covvy

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We have quite a few alright spinners but no real test standard spinners. I reckon we need to try more the younger spinners. Doherty, Holland etc.
 

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