The Australian cricket non-official thread!

Matty76 said:
Well, a lifetime has seemingly passed since Australia last played Test cricket (it was five months ago!) but happily this aftenoon the Baggy Green Brigade are back in action. I think that this series against Bangladesh will be brilliant - their spinners can definitely do damage. It is interesting to note that Australia will play six left handed batsmen.

The line-up: Warner, Renshaw, Khawaja, Smith, Handscomb, Maxwell, Wade, Agar, Cummins, Lyon, Hazlewood. I look at this team and see vulnerability in the batting: Renshaw, Handscomb, Maxwell and Wade remain "hit and miss" for mine and are ripe for the picking.

We might be thankful that this is only a two game series!!
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Yay! It does seem like so long since we last played Test cricket, doesn't it? Oh well, it's finally back!

I think Khawaja, Maxwell and Wade are the three guys who I'm most worried about in that batting order. Khawaja, in particular, I think might struggle. Personally I'd have given Cartwright a go, but I can see why they want to give Khawaja one more chance in the sub-continental conditions.

Oh, and Agar's in! So keen to see how he performs after so long since his last Test. I'm backing him in for a couple of big performances :)
 
Yeah, this is what I feared this morning. Just your typical top order collapse template against probing spin.

1. Opener plays back and is LBW, the following a DRS escape the previous delivery.
2. No. 3 blocks and attempts a panicked, suicide single
3. Night watchman plays and misses a straight one.

All bases covered. Steve Smith looked livid upon leaving the field at the end of the day - I think it's time to say that he is our only true A-Grade, all-wicket international batsman. It will be once AGAIN up to him to dig Australia out of this hole, although even a chase of 150 in the final innings will be difficult, judging by the way the pitch misbehaved today.

To be fair, I love Test cricket like this.
 
Matty76 said:
Yeah, this is what I feared this morning. Just your typical top order collapse template against probing spin.

1. Opener plays back and is LBW, the following a DRS escape the previous delivery.
2. No. 3 blocks and attempts a panicked, suicide single
3. Night watchman plays and misses a straight one.

All bases covered. Steve Smith looked livid upon leaving the field at the end of the day - I think it's time to say that he is our only true A-Grade, all-wicket international batsman. It will be once AGAIN up to him to dig Australia out of this hole, although even a chase of 150 in the final innings will be difficult, judging by the way the pitch misbehaved today.

To be fair, I love Test cricket like this.
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It certainly makes for better viewing (or reading online, as the case may be) than the Bangladesh of the old days.

Speaking of such things, what do you guys think of the new Cricinfo format? I think it is terrible - so much so I'm searching for other viable options. I could even live with just the front page changing to what it is now, but the new scorecards are horrendous in my opinion. I'd do just about anything to get the old format back.
 
Agree completely mate, a man takes half his bloody life to try and find the relevant information. There is a Cricinfo app anyway, so leave the desktop site AS a desktop format and design the app to suit iOS users. Simples!!

I'm not sure that there would be better all-round content on other cricket websites though - it's just that you need a cut lunch and a thermos to get where you want to go using the new format.

I'm a grumpy, nit-picking 41 year-old who can't cope with change!! :-)
 
Mate, it's just the bewildering bloody predictable frustration of the whole thing. How many sub-continental tours in a row is this now where the batting has not coped with conditions? Pakistan in the UAE, Sri Lanka, India and now this ham-fisted first innings in Bangladesh. There's no patience attached to any of it. Where's the Alastair Cook-like bloody-mindedness to protect your wicket and remove as many risks as possible?

It's funny, I was watching Shannon Gabriel batting against Ben Stokes last night and it was SWING, SWING, defend, SWING, SWING, defend. It's no different to the way some of Australia's batsmen approach spin bowling.
 
If they bring in Afghanistan as a test team, 5 of 10 tours will be subcontinent tours. Time for a cricket Academy on the sub continent methinks.

And possibly no more tours for our Dave Warner.
 
The Mad Hatter said:
If they bring in Afghanistan as a test team, 5 of 10 tours will be subcontinent tours. Time for a cricket Academy on the sub continent methinks.

And possibly no more tours for our Dave Warner.
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Afghanistan have been confirmed as a Test team - I think I read their first Test might be later this year.

Good to see Ashton show the so-called specialist batsmen how it's done. Shows that the pitch isn't impossible to bat on if you put your head down. Shame he ran out of partners.
 
Least Wade is making me laugh he just asked Smith if Tamim talked to him. Smith said no and Wade said youre not a good player then he only talks to good players
 
I know I said I could see why they brought Khawaja back into the team... but geez, surely that's just about the end of him in the sub-continent. Definitely time to see what Cartwright's got in those conditions.
 
What a spectacular, thrilling Test that was!! Well played Bangladesh, they won the decisive moments - right back from the precarious position of 3-10, where Australia might have reasonably expected to dismiss them for 150 or less.

Our first innings batting ONCE AGAIN proved to be a hurdle that the bowling line up couldn't clear, hobbled as it was already by Josh Hazlewood's injury. I still felt that the bowling was far too light on - I refuse to accept that Glenn Maxwell is a viable "fifth bowler" option.

Hilton Cartwright might well have been a more suitable selection and there is talk that he will play in the second Test with Steve O'Keefe.....who I thought had his cards marked after his Steve Waugh Medal incident. It's amazing what defeat does to selection policy, isn't it?
 
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