England have got the batting practice they wanted before it starts - Ireland have just been throwing Pies and a hell of a lot of them
Ridiculous fixturing though , hardly a fair even chance and not a great thing for cricket but it’ll work for England
Will be interesting to see how Australia cope with the style of cricket England are now playing. As India’s Pant showed a few years ago in Brisbane, Australia don’t respond well to teams counter attacking them. They will need to have plans B, C and D to deal with an opposition playing with no fear.
Travis Head will be a critical player in this series because he is the only Australian batsman capable of playing in the same chaotic manner that the English batsmen have embraced. Head came in with Australia 4-30 in the last ashes in Hobart. He turned the game around in a couple of hours with a brilliant century.
Australia will need a few knocks similar to that from him.
There is a bit of a “Dads Army” feel about the Australian team as many of the players are on the wrong side of 30 and there doesn’t seem to be any obvious replacements.
Warner has already pre-empted his retirement, others will probably follow in the next 12-18 months.
It is important that Australia use their warm up game against India to get into form
the Test against Ireland told everything about McCullum’s plans and some reports are that there might be a few grounds that have had their boundaries shortened for the series
But that could also help Australia
The Squad is past veteran , it’s going to cause years of pain coming
Will be interesting to see what sort of pitches they produce. Maybe we need to have a plan to bowl a wider line if the batsmen are scoring fast to force them to take risks
No surprises with Hazlewood missing the WTC v India with injury…good to see Neser in the squad…and out of Cummins, Starc and Boland…Neser is the only match hardened out of them all…and he is going to miss out.
Ashes wise Aust may have a squad on the wrong side of 30…but could need some experience in the bowling dept re England’s Baz Ball philosophy. So far majority of the bowling attacks the likes of Duckett, Brooks etc have succeeded against have been pretty inexperienced…one would think Aust bowlers have enough nous to keep England’s attack attack approach in check…time will tell.
Leach is now ruled out for the whole series so that will force England to rethink their bowling strategy. They may need to play Anderson and Broad in alternating tests or risk overloading them. I’m sure Neser will get a look in at some stage as the Australians will be playing 6 tests in 7 Weeks and will have to manage their bowlers through this.
Reckon Eng might pick Warnies little protégé for Leach…
Unsure if the English openers can bat, to Duckett the follpwing field from first ball–
in out field
third man
deep cover
two gullies
top of off stump bowling
no short bowling
Ark it’ll be decided by Australia’s selectors - any fuck ups like their incompetent selection debacles in India will see a swift defeat
If you’ll notice Australia has poor selectors , most of whom were only just average players , who lack foresight and planning and it will be totally exposed very shortly
England will never have a bigger chance to smash Australia
Agreed Southerner. If England get on a roll in this series they will be very hard to stop. Australia need to win the first test.
I always wondered how some not very good players ended up as selectors. I figure that meant I have a chance to be a selector for Australia in the future because I’ll never play for them.
First mistake is being made already - not playing Neser instead of Starc…Neser is in the form of his life and Starc doesn’t have an amazing record in the UK with the Duke balls
Totally agree PH…Starc will be rusty as, whilst Neser is match hardened and ready to go. No in-between with Starc…will either be smashed by India’s batsmen or will smash India’s batsmen
If our selectors had any idea they would be using this WTC Final as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming Ashes.
Those that dont perform in those conditions dont play simple.
But unfortunately we tend to stick with players way past their best like Warner who has never really performed in England even when he was on top of his game, Starc similarly hasnt bowled anywhere near his best in England in the past and I reckon the English batsmen have earmarked him and Lyon especially to be smashed all over the park at all costs.
Anyways we shall wait and see what happens over the next 2 months, I for one will be sleep deprived thats for sure!
the coin flip tonight is one you’d very much like to pick
Yes southerner, I think this time of year you would want to bowl first in England - the wicket will flatten out over time but it may spin later on.
See the poms have pulled Moin Ali out of retirement for their first two tests. He hasn’t played first class cricket since 2021. It just highlights the fact our batters all need to bat long and deep. It’s all well and good for the poms to score at 5 an over, but if we make them bowl 100+ overs an innings they won’t get the rest they need when continually backing up in the field.
lost that and it is an Emerald green top
Wow this was a difficult decision to bat or bowl first.
There’s plenty in the deck on day 1.
Weather looks good and temperatures in the high 20’s on the weekend.
Could be a spinners deck day 4+5.
Great crowd in on day 1..Really like the English Cricket Ground’s.
Good partnership between Smith and Head has Australia in a decent position at tea. If they can convert their current score into 350 plus, they will be in a position to put some pressure on the Indian batsmen.
I can’t believe India left out Ravi Ashwin for a 4th pace bowler. There is no doubt the pitch will turn later in the match and Ashwin has always troubled the Aussie batsmen
incredible assault by Head , shown up just how poor the selectors are why he was dropped in India just mystifies now
in deep poo at 3-76 there probably hasn’t been such an innings since Gilchrist with the savagery
huge chance now
India didn’t bowl to well, lets be honest if you are going to win the toss and bowl you need to have most of your balls hitting the stumps, and 2 referrals for LBW against Marnus were clearly going over…
And to only get through 23 overs in the first session, when the wicket was probably at its best time to bowl is deplorable. There should be fines for being 5 overs short even after an extra 30 minutes. I agree with what Warnie used to say here, make it a 5 or 10 run penalty for every over short and sides wont be so lazy