We have plenty of players like that in England :)

Lagershandy started out as an opener, did he not?

I might be clutching at straws a little bit now but is the 'Finch as opener' experiment completely done now? What about Joe Burns?

I always thought Ussie got the rough end of the stick a bit. Always the first to be dropped etc.
Certainly when compared to the charmed run both Marsh boys got in the national team.
He actually has a good average as an opener, I think he'll go straight in as opener if Warner pulls out.

Yes he did. Think they’d be a bit loathed to put him in as an opener though.

Can’t have two shit Burns’ playing in the one match can we. His card is marked for quite some time I would think.

Agree on the Marsh bros. They were kissed on the proverbial dick in terms of opportunities. Drove me mad tbh. Khawaja is in great form and yes he does have a decent record opening but technically he gets found out at that level at times. Harsh but true.

Ol’ Finchy will never play a test again. He’s white ball only and for good reason. Far to hit and miss. Technically he definitely gets found out at that level. Gifted player but has been tried and tried with very similar results.

Remember seeing a one day game against australia maybe 2008/09 or so when Steve Smith was a leggie that could bat a bit :)

They’re world wide now Razor. White ball has really affected the way red ball is played now. Much for the worse to I might add.
I will say I think it’s given the bowlers more scope for improvement, but batters no. Have a look at Buttlers dismissal, putrid for a five day game. He wasn’t on his own though.

He was brought in as a leggie too. They soon realised he could bat better than he could bowl. Quite a story that.
I know I know. There’s more there but you lot can **** off if you think I’m going there.

But we keep playing the same player(s) who have been found out at Test level. Picking Finch might help level us up a little :D

To be honest Aki, red ball is full of average players nowadays, especially batters. At the moment though, our average players are better than yours and we have Smith, Marnus and Warner to bat and a very solid bowling lineup.
You have Root with some relatively inexperienced bats and a solid bowling lineup, but chose not to play two them who are in your best eleven. Mind boggling.

See also his T20 opener partner at Surrey, Jason Roy…..

Yep, the red ball game is certainly no longer a priority. It's very sad seeing it in such decline in favour of the short formats, where money and razzmatazz is chiefly what young cricketers seem to want. Fortunately the quality players you mention are still wanting to play in all formats.

I'd say that the Aussie attack is the best in Test cricket, only India are comparable.

Word is that Richardson will play and Warner likely to play as well.
On the England front. Stokes was firing in net practice and apparently a lot of wickets fell with the English bats (not so good). One of your lads got sconed (hit in the head) as well, apparently ok though which is good to hear.
Likelihood of Broad, Anderson, Wood and Ollie to play which means you'll want to bowl first if you dont have a recognised spinner as Adelaide does turn a bit on days 4 and 5. Root can bowl a few offies but can anyone else bowl out of your bats? Or do you think the 4 quicks and Stokes will be enough.

Broad & Anderson in the 12, Wood left out

Malan can chuck up a bit of leggie filth. Half a bowler each, him and Root possibly.

Both likely to be more economical and effective than Leachy

No one to test Warner's rib cage then.

All this talk of using a "part time" spinner in Test cricket is barmy, it is crucial to have a main line spinner in the line up for a balanced bowling attack.
The facts to consider are (1) The Australian heat which can be very sapping on energy. (2) We have our Two best bowlers Anderson and Broad who are at an age when they should have been putting their feet up years ago, but the fact is we desperatly need them and where would we be without them? also we now have Stokes back in the fold as an important part of our bowling attack, which suggests ALL Three of these players need to be treated carefully in how they are used so as to get the best out of them.
And this is where the inclusion of a "proper" spinner takes that burden away as he would be capable of comfortably bowling 25/30 overs per innings which then provides the pacemen with much needed rest and eases the burden on them. Yes we know Joe Root can do a job for say 6/8 overs but it need better at this level, also how much more of a burden can/should we put on our One true World class batsman.
Unfortunately we have just not been able to unearth a Test quality spinner for some time now, and that has been of a real concern when playing Test cricket and is something we must try to rectify as soon as possible, but how often have we said that.
But as for this Ashes series especially in Australia, we always knew it was a bridge too far with this current unpredictable and sub standard group of players apart from possibly Four of the usual we know who players.

Depending on the pitch, of course....

But the bottom line is :

1 - We don't have one. We haven't had one since Swann retired 8 years ago.
2 - The ECB white-ball priority & red ball schedule is not conducive to us finding one.

Travis Head talking about how spin plays a massive part at his home ground. It would be bafflingly unfair to pick Leach for Brisbane then drop him for Adelaide, which is exactly why they will do it probably.

Matt Parkinson should be playing if a spinner is to be selected. Why he isn't in the squad (along with Saqib Mahmood) is incredible. Yet Dom Bess is there instead, another who offers next to nothing in terms of control or variation to take wickets.

Leach isn't a top international spin bowler though. Play the 4 seamers and let Root bowl 12-15 overs. He would probably keep it tighter than Leach and be more of a wicket threat. The pink ball will move about and Anderson, Broad, Robinson and Woakes all get plenty of movement.

As others have said Parkinson should be out there instead of Leach or Bess.

Can someone please work out what time the lunch interval will be our time tomorrow morning. I'm trying to plan my alarm call and am too lazy to do it myself.

6am surely...just add two hours

I promise I'm not as stupid as I may currently seem

10.5 hours difference between UK and South Australia.

WHAT IS HAPPENING.

4am start. 6am lunch. Our time.

Day-Night game starting at 4am it says here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/...res/2021-12-16

Two hour first session until 6am, 40 minutes for lunch and middle session to start at 6:40am presumably?

Well he would say that, wouldn't he?

With apologies to Mandy-Rice Davies for the mis-quote....

10.5 hour time diff though. So would lunch be 6 or 6.30?!

BBC says start time is 04.00GMT. Australia start time likely to be strange as it is a day-nighter. 04:00 start London = 2:30pm Adelaide.

Lunch 06:00 our time.

Is south Australia one of the last place son earth to have bloody half hour time zones?

I believe India does too

You learn something new etc.

Iran and N. Korea too methinks.

ebyeeck getting savaged here.

Blimey, one tiny gap in my vast general knowledge base, and I am getting hammered.

But tbf South Australia's also factors in the 25 years behind :D

Agree and this is the elephant in the room of test cricket.

Butler needs to re learn how to play defensive strokes to be fair

Have you had Day 5 of the 06-07 Ashes test in Adelaide surgically removed from your memory?
It's always turned Day4/day5

That assumes a) The game lasts that long & b) We have someone who can actually spin the ball.

I wasn’t questioning Lyon’s ability, it was more the suggestion that Root’s ears would pick up & that him and Silverwood would base our attack around it :p

Nope you have us spot on and looks like we will be Donald ducked

Cummins potentially out due to being close contact with a covid case for

Just read that..................grrr. That will make Steve Smith captain which will put a smile on your English faces:D

Be a big loss for us if Paddy doesn't play. Not sure who'll be next in line if Richardson replaces Hazelwood. Mitch Marsh probably:S::clown::frown:

:)

Good old smith won the toss and choose to field/ which quite honestly surprised me

I can’t believe we can bowl so many maiden overs.

I am beginning to think Stokes is a mistake for this tour.

His bowling is very erratic albeit he only bowled 2 overs….he is not looking 100 percent

That Last Over didn’t suggest that.

My vex worked haha, maybe it was a looseners one too many

**** sake Jos.

The more you watch that the worse it looks. Basic wicket keeping.

Outside. What happened? Did he drop one?

Gloved down the leg side. Dropped Warner.

:love:Buttler. My favourite Englishman atm.
:pwolfie

Yep, poor drop that. Now watch Lagershandy go on and score a double ton

Type of attritional batting we’ll surely see from England too

Mind you he took a blinder of a catch to dismiss Harris

Proper test match batting.

Yup….. lol

Warner (spits) is playing very well

We are behind the over rates again…..joy more fines

How can you plan for two years with an army of well paid analysts, and end up picking the wrong team match-after-match; overlook the importance of fielding, and then persist in bowling way too short for the conditions?

Overdue a rash of sackings throughout the ECB.

EFA

Who is the most annoying Aussie commentator?

I’m going King Warnie atm.

To be fair to King Warnie, he does slag some Aussies players too, maybe the one’s who don’t kiss his arse. But he is annoying and I am going he is making Boycott good

Getting absolutely no luck at all here.

Nope, looks like Smith was right to bat first

Amazed he was given the captaincy. Cricket Aus have short memories.

Forget that, you may be missing a captain next test, or the one after.

He was vice captain, he was given that as a token gesture to satisfy a lot of influential people in the Australian game.

Nobody was expecting Cummins to ever not be available.

Unfortunately who else is there you would select get in for one test?

I am not surprised.

He has apologised, cried on tv, said sorry to his father his dog, his bin man and now it is water under the bridge. Pics of dic got rid of a Paine and Cummins is injured and here we are :)


I have no problem with him being a captain, it is the Austrian cricket boards moral compass and if they think he deserves it, so be it

It's amazing the countries the game is expanding to!

Shame the ashes isn’t in Austria

Its all part of the plan, watch now as you take 9 wickets in the evening session with Jimmy swinging his pink balls around.

Tell me about it, I could drive there!

Morning all!

This is going to be another long, hard, first innings grind for us, isn't it?

Think suspensions are a thing of the past.

Lagershandy ?

Give the captaincy to Butler.

It´s starting to look far too comfortable for these two batsmen currently, i can see a 400 plus total leaving us chasing a lost cause.

Pitch looks absolutely dead

When did that change?

Don't think he captained his Under 12 team, let alone a test team. Khawaja is his state captain.

Since the World Test Championships came in. Thinking was, punish the whole team, not just the skipper

Probably a better option, especially as he's in form and maybe should be in the team anyway. Just a personal opinion, but I think giving it to Smith is a backward step.

Wonder if the planning for the next Ashes has started?

The Vaughan report?

Blast our damned luck.

All the talk over the last few years has been Archer, Wood and Stone bowling in Australia at 90+mph. Only one of them is fit and we don’t play him. I know he has had injury problems but you have to play him if he is fit.

HAHAHA

Going Forward Unit.

Finally a wicket. Can we keep them to below 500?

Labuschagne is so ******* lucky. He’s played and missed about 15 times, been dropped and then just gloved one up in the air only for it to fall short of Buttler

Doesn’t matter.

Unlikely we’ll get anything above 280.

I don't hear so much talk over here about England picking Saffers in their team Not sure why.

If we can’t post a score on this deck with Hazlewood and Cummins out we might as well come home after this test