We Don't Like Cricket... We Love It!

Steve Smith will resume his fight for a place in Australia’s Twenty20 World Cup team while Mitchell Marsh is inching closer to captaincy duties for the global tournament in the squad named for the series in New Zealand later this month.

Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Starc and Test captain Pat Cummins all return to the team for the three-game series that preludes two Tests in Wellington and Christchurch, while serving as a key marker ahead of the World Cup in the Caribbean in mid-year.

Smith, Head in duel to partner Warner at T20 World Cup

Australia’s T20 squad will head to New Zealand later this month, where Steve Smith will resume his fight for a place in the World Cup team and Mitchell Marsh will continue as skipper.

www.smh.com.au

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HaroldBishop said:

I don't know why they persevere with Smith in T20s.

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HaroldBishop said:

I don't know why they persevere with Smith in T20s.

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HaroldBishop said:

I don't know why they persevere with Smith in T20s.

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Sir Chadley said:

Great catch by the young lady in the crowd. Although Mark Howard kept referring to her as “him”.

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Sir Chadley said:

Great catch by the young lady in the crowd. Although Mark Howard kept referring to her as “him”.

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HaroldBishop said:

Went to Kingsgrove Sports on the weekend to get my oldest a few things and took my old Gray Nicholls Ultimate bat (Circa 1995) to get a new grip put on. The young guy's eyes that served me lit up, he thought it was the best thing ever haha, must have been like an antique to him. The bat was easily older than him.

Took it to the nets yesterday for the first time in over 20 years, the ball still pings off it nicely.

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Sir Chadley said:

Kingsgrove Sports is great, we go there all the time. It's always busy though, which is a great sign I guess. My boy does need new batting gloves but we've decided to wait until next season as he's not really troubling the scorers at the moment and bats 9, 10 or 11.

He did his bit with the ball on Saturday though - He opened the bowling didn't set the world on fire fist up wiht 0/12 off his first 3 overs.

The other team at one stage needed 38 off 60 balls with their best batsmen in and when they threw my boy the ball in over 29 (30 overs a side game), they needed 12 off the last two overs. He got the other batter out caught at mid off and then two balls later scattered the stumps of their best bat, ending up with 2-18 off four overs. We closed out the last over to win by 6 runs.

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HaroldBishop said:

I go to the Artarmon one as it's much closer for me, love it.

That's a great effort from your son, mate. How good!

My oldest (8) is absolutely loving cricket, he can't wait to play juniors next season, he's doing Master Blasters this season.

He has full kit now, we go to the nets at least twice a week. I have a few things to work on with his batting but his bowling is coming along really nicely. Bowling with decent pace and getting % on or close enough to the stumps. It's good for me too as I prefer batting haha.

He's trying out for the school cricket team (last trial is today). Will be hard to make as he's year 3 and the team is made up of year 3 and 4. Over 35 kids trying out.

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Sir Chadley said:

Thanks mate, certainly was an exciting finish!

So glad your boy is into the game. Always need bowlers mate, and if he's already showing promise at 8 with pace and accuracy, that's a bonus. Yes to make the top teams he needs to be able to bat as well so keep working on it. The school tryout will be hard but it is all good experience and even if he doesn't get in, he'll be ready for when he goes into Year 4.

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HaroldBishop said:

Yeah I won't be disappointed if he misses out, tbh he's so determined I think he'd use it as motivation to keep practicing in the off season.

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Sir Chadley said:

That is great to hear he is determined and passionate HB. I wish my boy was like that. He has so much more talent than I ever did but he doesn't want to go to the nets, he doesn't like training, won't take any advice from anyone and won't try out for reps. Could be typical teenager syndrome but who knows.

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This week I returned home from a couple of months in Australia covering their summer of cricket.

There was not much optimism in Australia that it would be a great Test summer because the two touring teams, Pakistan and the West Indies, had poor recent records down under. But it was actually very competitive, as proved by the Windies pulling off that stunning win at the Gabba.

Australia remain a very good side. Pat Cummins is an outstanding leader, and when they need a big session to turn a game, they usually find it. That was why I was staggered when they lost in Brisbane, and that game was a sign for me that England have a great opportunity in the Ashes in 2025/26.

I know we have only just had a great Ashes series, but the next one is not too far away – especially for Australia. Starting with two games in New Zealand next month, they only have 11 Tests before England arrive. England have 20.

I could see Australia being quite a jaded team by then. David Warner has become the first of that set of great players to retire, and the rest are in their 30s now, so the age profile is a concern for them. Time passes and minds start to turn to what comes next in life. This group of players has won everything going, so what motivates them?

I know well from experience after 2005 how quickly things can unravel when a Dad’s Army team plays in the Ashes. You can look over the hill very quickly.

They need to start rotating their great bowling line-up to bring in some fresh faces and a fresh mentality to the group. They have no replacement for Nathan Lyon, who will be 38 by that series and is already suffering muscle injuries. There’s no one waiting in the wings to do anything like the job Lyon does in Australian conditions. Todd Murphy is a promising bowler who can do it in India when it’s ragging. In Australia, if Lyon got an injury, they would be worried.

I was amazed that in the West Indies series they didn’t rotate the team just slightly to bring through one or two new players. With two all-rounders at No.4 (Cameron Green) and No.6 (Mitchell Marsh), they could easily have played a second spinner in Adelaide. Tanveer Sangha looks a decent leg-spinner. For the pink ball Test in Brisbane they could easily have rested one of the big boys, and played Xavier Bartlett or Lance Morris.

By the end of the Ashes, Mitchell Starc will be almost 36, Josh Hazlewood will be 35, and Cummins will be 32. They are great players, but that is the sort of age where they cannot just peel off all five Tests like they have in the past, and injuries will creep in. They need to find back-up. I can’t believe they haven’t taken Bartlett to New Zealand because he looks a serious bowler.

I’d also be concerned about the batting if I was Australian. I think there are some scars in that batting line-up. In five Tests this summer, they scored two hundreds. Normally they make two hundreds in the first innings of the summer! They got 487 against Pakistan in Perth, but other than that there were no really big scores. Both Pakistan and West Indies came with decent, if raw attacks, and looked like they would bowl Australia out on pitches that did a bit but not loads.

I think Steve Smith will prove to be an outstanding opener with Usman Khawaja, but the question is around the knock-on for the middle order, where he was so brilliant. Marnus Labuschagne is in a lean spell, has been found out a bit technically, and perhaps the luck he enjoyed at the start of his Test career (when 50 per cent of the chances he offered seemed to be dropped) has run out.

Travis Head is a brilliant risk-taker, but you have tough periods if you play that way, and against high pace he looks vulnerable. Alex Carey too. I think Mitch Marsh is a really good player, who is technically strong and is a great reader of a situation.

I understand why Cameron Green is being backed at No.4 because he has an outstanding record there for Western Australia. But he is so vulnerable to the ball on or around off stump early in his innings. A Jimmy Anderson-style bowler, probing away with a little bit of nibble, will cause him all sorts of problems. He’s got a lot of work to do to be comfortable with that. I don’t see loads of other batsmen knocking the door down, although in a few years Jake Fraser-McGurk could be a firecracker at No.5, and Aaron Hardie looks a very technically proficient all-rounder.

So for me it’s very obvious what England need to be working on. They need two bowlers who are operating above 135km/h every single ball, they need an attack leader with real consistency, and then a spinner to hold an end. I have no doubt they would have considered who could fill each role already. They need to catch well too, which is the most basic truth in cricket. If Pakistan had caught the ball, they would have won at Melbourne, and maybe Sydney. West Indies dropped loads in Adelaide. They were not far off Australia with bat and ball, but their fielding was horrendous at times.

Another factor with Warner’s departure is that Australia just seem a really nice team to play against. There’s no mongrel, no Aussie larrikin in the team. There used to be about eight of them, then it went down to one in Warner. I’m not sure any of them are like that now.

England have loads to work out before they go to Australia, but they are on an upward trajectory and if the current management team is in place they have a chance. After COVID-19 scratched their chances of watching the last tour, I honestly think that there could be 25,000 Brits travelling over. Based on what I’ve seen in recent months, it will be must-watch cricket.

England are a great chance in next Ashes – Australia are in danger of decline

The Australians run the risk of becoming a jaded, aged team by the end of next year. You only have to look to 2006/07 to see what the results of that can be.

www.smh.com.au

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