Sri Lankan Tour of Australia, October-November 2010/11

[sifter132]

Yeah, I think the World Cup might be his Smith's only short term hopes at this stage. Aussies should be unchanged for the first Ashes Test anyway. Marcus made runs for WA and his record v Eng assures him a spot really if they were hanging onto him for this long. Hussey looked OK in the ODI and if he makes a few runs then he'll be back too. And if Hauritz bowls ineffectively for NSW and shows no form, they won't replace him with Smith, they'll just play 4 quicks, and get Kevin Mitchell working on a green wicket for Brissy

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

it's pretty funny everyone getting rested. the run up to the world cup is about the only time I care about ODIs.

they should hardly play any in the 2 years after a world cup, I just sort of "lol, who cares" when they start them a month or two later.

 

[sifter132]

So they've named the Australian squad:
Ponting, Watson and Johnson return for one-day action | Cricket News | Australia v Sri Lanka | Cricinfo.com

From the last squad in India here are the changes.
In:
Ricky Ponting
Shane Watson
Brad Haddin
Mitchell Johnson
Peter Siddle
Xavier Doherty

Looks like Doherty might be the cover for Hauritz for the first ODI where Hauritz will be playing for NSW. I can't imagine an aussie ODI side with 3 spinners in the squad...

Out:
Dave Warner
Callum Ferguson
Tim Paine
James Hopes
Doug Bollinger

Surprised there wasn't a spot for Ferguson somewhere. Warner and Paine being dropped aren't too surprising. Hopes being dropped is a bit more surprising, but I don't think he'll be missed much. Bollinger is resting up.

 

[angryangy]

I'm not surprised that Ferg is not part of a full strength batting lineup, but I am surprised that it is a full strength batting lineup. I guess it's such a short series that many of the key players don't have anything better to do. I was thinking maybe it'd be better to have Johnson and Watson play first class cricket, but considering their roles in India, then perhaps not playing consecutive days of cricket is a good compromise. Hussey's really the only one I would think should play a Shield game. He's not playing the T20 though, so maybe there's a chance he will actually do that.

 

[TumTum]

Doherty looks like a fast bowler in a spinners body. This guy means business!

 

[aussie1st]

Guess the selectors know what Ferguson can do already so if they want to bring him to the WC they know what they are getting. Hard to know what Hopes missing out means, are the selectors just trying players or is this approximately the squad for the world cup. Looks like the selectors finally see Smith as a batsmen rather than a bowler.

 

[angryangy]

I think Hastings being picked over Hopes means they're interested and they'd like to see what else he can do. As far as debuts go, Hastings had an extremely competent one and that is what makes it easy for the selectors to give him another go. For him to really knock Hopes or anyone out, he'll need to bat well.

 

[War]

Other than Nannes constantly being criminally ignorned for ODIs with certain key players missing. Its an ok squad.

Not sure what Hopes has done to dropped however.

Great to see Doherty getting a look in @ international cricket though. Given i dont see AUS domestic cricket, this would be the 1st time seeing him bowl since he impressed in the 2002 Under 19 WC & since then i always saw him as future AUS bowler. His career hasn't really stepped up domestically, but looking forward to seeing him bowl after 8 years.

 

[sifter132]

Hopes' bowling has been increasingly ineffective in the last 12 months. His last decent series was England 2009. Since then his figures against other top 8 teams are:
James Hopes from Sep 2009 onwards
So for those not clicking the linky, Hopes averages 69.10 and economy of 5.30 since England 2009.

I personally think Hopes is suffereing because of the attacking batting T20 cricket has pioneered. He used to go along under the radar between overs 15-30 and quietly strangle the batsmen at 4 RPO. Now though, there's plenty of footage of him getting belted out of the park and there's no need to feel constrained anymore. Eion Morgan for example was happy to target him at whatever stage of the innings a couple of months back.

Hopes' batting has been steady enough I guess, but it's certainly not enough to keep him in the side if his bowling is going to be mediocre. Australia already have a mediocre medium pacer who can bat - his name's Shane Watson.

As for Nannes, well I think he needs to take more Ryobi wickets - he just hasn't performed in the domestic ODIs. He's taken only 13 wickets in the last 3 seasons. Sure the guy's been injured a lot, but that's half the problem. If they are going to pick someone based on domestic form, surely Shane Harwood would be the guy to get a run.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Really would love to see Srilanka win the series 2-1

 

[War]

Hopes' bowling has been increasingly ineffective in the last 12 months. His last decent series was England 2009. Since then his figures against other top 8 teams are:
James Hopes from Sep 2009 onwards
So for those not clicking the linky, Hopes averages 69.10 and economy of 5.30 since England 2009.

I personally think Hopes is suffereing because of the attacking batting T20 cricket has pioneered. He used to go along under the radar between overs 15-30 and quietly strangle the batsmen at 4 RPO. Now though, there's plenty of footage of him getting belted out of the park and there's no need to feel constrained anymore. Eion Morgan for example was happy to target him at whatever stage of the innings a couple of months back.

Hopes' batting has been steady enough I guess, but it's certainly not enough to keep him in the side if his bowling is going to be mediocre. Australia already have a mediocre medium pacer who can bat - his name's Shane Watson.

As for Nannes, well I think he needs to take more Ryobi wickets - he just hasn't performed in the domestic ODIs. He's taken only 13 wickets in the last 3 seasons. Sure the guy's been injured a lot, but that's half the problem. If they are going to pick someone based on domestic form, surely Shane Harwood would be the guy to get a run.

All true on Hopes bowling. But given as you correctly highlighted that Watson's bowling is also proned to be attacked a bit. I think especially if the main 3 quicks get consistent opposition top order wickets. More often than not Watson & Hopes wont get smashed or target TBH. So need to drop him for Hastings, unless he really can do a better job than Hopes with the ball.

On Nannes in another country his T20 form this year would have gotten him picked in the ODI side already. AUS selectors making alot stupid styles with him IMO just because of his age & because they have alot of depth in the fast bowling ranks.

 

[angryangy]

Hopes' bowling has been increasingly ineffective in the last 12 months. His last decent series was England 2009. Since then his figures against other top 8 teams are:
James Hopes from Sep 2009 onwards
So for those not clicking the linky, Hopes averages 69.10 and economy of 5.30 since England 2009.

I personally think Hopes is suffereing because of the attacking batting T20 cricket has pioneered. He used to go along under the radar between overs 15-30 and quietly strangle the batsmen at 4 RPO. Now though, there's plenty of footage of him getting belted out of the park and there's no need to feel constrained anymore. Eion Morgan for example was happy to target him at whatever stage of the innings a couple of months back.

There's a bit of that, but there's also a big home and away effect, right throughout his career, especially with respect to defending totals. He averages 22 for Queensland at home. At a lot of Australian grounds, there can be a bit off the seam for bowlers at night and that's ample assistance to take lean figures if you're defending a good score. But even in Australia, he bowls less effectively in the first innings, where the opposition batsmen are less pressured.

 

[aussie1st]

All true on Hopes bowling. But given as you correctly highlighted that Watson's bowling is also proned to be attacked a bit. I think especially if the main 3 quicks get consistent opposition top order wickets. More often than not Watson & Hopes wont get smashed or target TBH. So need to drop him for Hastings, unless he really can do a better job than Hopes with the ball.

On Nannes in another country his T20 form this year would have gotten him picked in the ODI side already. AUS selectors making alot stupid styles with him IMO just because of his age & because they have alot of depth in the fast bowling ranks.

In the only match we have seen comparing Hastings and Hopes, Hastings came out on top quite easy. Hastings seems to be an effective bowler and his speed is actually quicker than I thought. Hes got the height over Hopes and was near the leading wicket takers for each format late season.

 

[sifter132]

All true on Hopes bowling. But given as you correctly highlighted that Watson's bowling is also proned to be attacked a bit. I think especially if the main 3 quicks get consistent opposition top order wickets. More often than not Watson & Hopes wont get smashed or target TBH. So need to drop him for Hastings, unless he really can do a better job than Hopes with the ball.

Well it's come down a simple matter of versatility, trust and total value I think. Watson is trusted more than Hopes - he gets all the hard tasks. Hopes is rarely ever seen bowling in the last 5-10 overs or in powerplays. Watson's been doing all the heavy lifting in that department. Sometimes those periods are the only times Watto bowls, which seems a bit odd to me and a waste of resources. It's like they need to give Hopes some overs since he's in the team and so they give him the normal 5-7 in the 10-30 over period, but anything more than that Ponting would rather go with Watson. It also doesn't help his case that Watson's a better batsman than Hopes either. I think the selectors are just realising they can get more value out of someone else.

Trevor Barsby is not happy though:
Australian news: Trevor Barsby blasts selectors over omission of James Hopes | Australia Cricket News | Cricinfo.com

They cite Hopes getting 2 MOMs this year. One was for skittling Ireland, which I didn't count in my stat breakdown and the other was for getting a rapid 57* v WI in Feb.

 

[angryangy]

Watson and Hopes aren't very comparable. Watson may go for runs sometimes, but he gets wickets. Hopes doesn't.