@alien said:
what happened to phil hughes and phil jacques. i used to think those 2 were pretty good batsmen.
Jaques hurt his back and lost his spot to Phil Hughes. Once you do a back, your pretty much gone. Hughes came in averaging 80 into the last Ashes. Got dropped when his average fell to 55 and replaced with Watson. Watson was only supposed to be a stop-gap. However he has excelled there and they don't want to mess with it. However they don't want to mess with a poor middle order either. Changes had to be made against Pakistan in England so the team would have cohesion in this Ashes with both the Indian and Pakistan series.
North is way to hit-and-miss and Watson with his all-round duties would be the perfect 6\. Hughes should have been brought back in. Hussey has really struggled. Ferguson getting injured I thought would open the door for Cameron White who at the time was our saviour in the ODI format. His still getting big scores now. It all happened when he put his bowling in the back-seat. White should have been the 5 just like Hodge should have gotten in earlier. Khawaja I think is still a little green. Let him score more runs in Shield. Next number 3 in my opinion.
The biggest issue is the selection of the bowlers. Siddle over Bollinger. Disgrace. Bollinger is our number 1 bowler. Pace, swing, bounce, attitude, smarts and hard-work. Hilfenhaus is the number 2\. Superb swing bowler. Will hopefully knock Strauss and Cook out for nothing each time. Johnson hasn't held any real improvement since his debut. He went backwards after South Africa where he looked the next cricket superstar. Than come the Ashes and he did nothing. Surely the spat between his mother and girlfriend was an influence. However he hasn't recovered it since. That just must have been his zone.
Than you have Siddle. Hard-work, yes. Attitude, yes. Pace, yes. Swing, no. Composure, no. The bloke tries as hard as anyone. He can rush a batsman and can get something out of a close to lifeless pitch. However, he has never swung a ball on purpose and doesn't have any idea on how to deal with an aggressive batsman. The Sri Lankans took it to him at Melbourne and he was ordinary. Nothing. This was Matthews and Malinga. Not Sangakarra and Jaywardene. His a favourite of Punter cause he bowls to a plan and tries hard. Like no-one else does that?
The dumb thing is Doherty over Hauritz. Thats juts panic stations. Doherty has been a fringe state player for years. Shows some form and cements a state spot. Gets an ODI when Hauritz is injured and gets 4 wickets. Seen as the net saviour after showing Hauritz loyalty and confidence. Dumping his is dumb. Will Doherty last longer than McGain, Casson, White's leg-spinners? Hauritz had the spot and was doing a good job. And you took it away from him after one ODI.
I think the selectors are off their heads for me continually picking green players and not dropping players way out of form. North and Hussey should be very thankful. As should Johnson who has been a passenger. Ponting needs to pull his head in and realise the short ball is causing him some problems. Lucky Clarke, Katich and Watson have been performing. Lets go through the list of thoughtless selections. White as a spinner. Peter George. Steve Smith as a spinner. Josh Hazlewood going on tour. Mitchell Starc in the ODIs. Graham Manou. John Hastings. Daniel Christian. Are these blokes the next performing best? Do they deserve it?
Why hasn't George Bailey been given a go. Who did James Hopes sleep with? Can Dirk Nannes only bowl 4 overs in match?
