titan_uranus

When I saw the result, my heart sank. Not because I see this as signalling we're in for another bad year. Because I knew the ridiculous reaction it would spark on Demonland.

Exactly. If you missed a deadline in your job, you'd get punished. It's not on. Remember, this is a 16-man party. The other 12 got it done. Why didn't these four? Above this kind of thing? Lazy? Dumb? Whatever the answer, it's not good enough, and they deserve to be punished. Dropping them for a Test might actually correct their poor attitudes. I'm convinced that there are attitude issues in Australian cricket at the moment that are hampering our progress. This probably goes deeper, but even if it doesn't, it's fair and reasonable. Wearing the Baggy Green is a privilege, not a right. These players have forgotten that.

To be honest, that Watson didn't do it doesn't surprise me. FIGJAM. I have no problem with this action being taken. Make Watson realise he's not God's answer to Australian cricket's problems, for one. If the others also didn't do what they were meant to, then so be it.

I didn't see a single second of play from today, but if we were competitive in disposals (meaning we got our hands on the ball) and inside 50s (meaning we got the ball relatively close to goal), then that's an improvement on last year, where our uncompetitiveness stemmed from not actually getting our hands on the ball and not getting it inside 50 enough. With more practice, and a full strength line up, these disposals and inside 50 numbers will translate into better performances.

Amazing from NZ! Guptill may not get back - Rutherford looks good. Can't believe Fulton is playing Test cricket again, let alone doing well.

Nice to see that it's not just us who are struggling pre-Ashes.

i understand that putting Clarke at 3 or 4 gives us more runs for less wickets. But it doesn't get close to solving the true problem; we need 6 batsmen, we have 1.

Having watched some highlights, I'd start by dropping Maxwell. He's awful. Not even close to Test quality. Our obsession with all-rounders leads us to play people like him (Steven Smith is another). He's so far off being good enough, it's almost funny. I'd also drop at least one of the top 4. Watson would be my preferred choice, but it'll be Hughes I think. The replacement I guess has to be Khawaja. Bowling-wise, replace Maxwell with Lyon. Should never have been dropped. Doherty's terrible, but we need two spinners, and Maxwell's not even close to a Test spinner. Doherty doesn't get on the plane to England. In terms of Henriques, who is batting at 7 (and therefore not a good enough batsman), but bowling as a third pacemen (and therefore not a good enough bowler), he has to bat at 6 or be dropped. If we are clamouring for an all-rounder, he has to be able to bat in the top 6 or be a frontline bowler. Not a little bit of one and a little bit of the other. I should say, though, that I don't read this as an automatic loss of the Ashes. England is totally different to India, and we'll be able to bowl England out with our pacemen, who are just as good as theirs. Yes, we'll have issues with spin, but Robin Peterson and Rangana Herath didn't tear us to shreds in Australia, where pace is better, and if we can deal with Steyn/Philander for two out of three Tests here, I think we can deal with Anderson/Finn over there.

I don't like it. The answer is not to put Clarke at 3 or 4 and shift a crap batsman down, or debut another crap batsman at 5. It's to find batsmen who are good enough. To me, it's papering over the cracks. Anyway, that's not the issue. As I said, we can bat Clarke where we want, but we're going to be beaten every time in India if we only have Clarke. Warner's not good enough. His flashy 100s look good, but he can't play spin. Hughes is worse, and is likely to be dropped. If he goes this time, he may well go for good. Cowan consistently shows technique, but consistently gets out. Not sure where he's going to go. Watson simply isn't good enough, and shouldn't be in the side at all (his batting average is terrible for a batsman, he's not bowling, so that's that. IMO he should be dropped first, but that's not going to happen). I have no idea, however, who to replace anyone with. IMO Shaun Marsh is a great batsman; his form last summer was abysmal but I wonder if something mental was affecting him. His form is returning and I think he could get back in. Usman Khawaja is like Cowan; looks good, doesn't score enough. George Bailey is just OK, David Hussey too old, Cameron White not much better than Watson. Alex Doolan is a flash in the pan. Andrew McDonald is good enough (and, unlike Henriques or Maxwell, a genuine all-rounder), but injured I think. I'd pick him in a heartbeat to bat at 6 and replace Henriques or Maxwell if he was fit. Australian batting is not in a crisis. Yet. But it's heading that way.

He shouldn't do it. He's batting brilliantly at 5, keep him there. We wouldn't be worried about our best batsman being at 5 if we didn't have a terrible top 4. The answer is to fix the top 4. None of Warner, Cowan, Hughes or Watson have shown long-term consistency, nor the required technique or ability to score runs, to be a proper Test batsman. They can't all stay.

I didn't see a ball bowled yesterday, but I can imagine what happened. The pitch was flat, Siddle and Pattinson bowled their hearts out but didn't extract any movement, rendering them virtually useless, Doherty was economical, which is his speciality, but bowled maybe 2 threatening deliveries all day, whilst Maxwell tried to be attacking but had no consistency and was attacked by Vijay and Pujara. We got nowhere by dropping Lyon, and now we're in a worse situation than before. Doherty is not a Test bowler, Maxwell is not close to a Test all-rounder, and in India we need much better than that. Thanks .

Can't see how dropping Lyon helps anyone except India. For one, Lyon loses confidence. For another, Doherty is terrible. Poor move, IMO. Batting is still very poor. Cowan surely is running out of chances, Warner is very hit-and-miss, Hughes and Watson don't inspire confidence, and we've taken two all-rounders with us, shortening the depth.

I'm happy to say I think my batting is better than my bowling. But I'm also going to stand by my bowlers. Steve Finn is now a regular in the England side, having gone past Stuart Broad into the number 2 paceman slot behind Anderson. He can swing the new ball, but also bowls well with the old ball. Trent Boult is no star and has only just started his career, but he seems to be getting better, and he swings the new ball. Jackson Bird also swings it, and, whilst he's not in Australia's top 3, he would get a game for most other sides, I'd reckon, based on what he showed in Melbourne and Sydney. With Herath as the spinner, and back up from Hafeez, I think 20 wickets is achievable. No world-beaters, that's for sure, and there are going to be other teams who have my bowlers covered, but I'll get the job done, I think.

And Hilfenhaus. For this reason, I think we will be mighty competitive in the Ashes. Unlike in 2009, we'll be able to take wickets. Batting obviously needs to improve, but I don't think we'll be scrogged like we were four years ago.

Definitely a choke, the chase wasn't huge, we had the batting power, but our top order didn't fire and we left too much to the end, and even then, we needed 9 off the last two overs with 3 wickets in hand. Should have got the job done, I think. And it was at the MCG, home ground advantage. Stosur is a worse choker, though, I'll pay that.

Victorian Bushrangers - biggest chokers in Australian sport?

Yep, more than happy to admit my tail is longer than most of the other teams'. Boult and Herath are both capable of scoring a quickfire 30 off about 25 balls, but overall it's definitely a long tail. Unlike others, I don't have someone at 8 who's capable of lasting a while to complement the top order. Haddin I'm not worried about - his current form is good, and he wasn't dropped for form (although he should have been...). Given where I got him in the draft, I was happy with that.

Alright. Let's see how my team stacks up. Alviro Petersen (RSA) - 1589 runs at 38.75, 5/5 (50/100) Mohammad Hafeez (Pak) - 2002 runs at 35.12, 8/5; 34 wickets at 33 Cheteshwar Pujara (India) - 813 runs at 58.07, 1/3 Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI) - 10,696 runs at 51.67, 61/27 Ian Bell (Eng) - 5699 runs at 46.71, 34/17 Dean Brownlie (NZ) - 547 runs at 34.18, 4/1 Brad Haddin (Aus) - 2257 runs at 35.82, 10/3; 160 catches, 4 stumpings Rangana Herath (SL) - 186 wickets at 29.95 Trent Boult (NZ) - 30 wickets at 31.43 Steve Finn (Eng) - 70 wickets at 28.22 Jackson Bird (Aus) - 11 wickets at 16.18 So on paper the averages and stats don't stand out as amazing, but let's dissect. First of all, I have the world number 3 batsman, Chanderpaul, a proven star. He heads my middle order, ably supported by Ian Bell, who has come into his prime, is world number 16, and whose average has climbed past 45. I have India's most promising young batsman, Cheteshwar Pujara, at 3, a man who plays like Rahul Dravid and has better stats at this early stage in his career. He dominated England with consecutive centuries and looks likely to hold the number 3 for India for a decade. I've also got New Zealand's Dean Brownlie, who is coming off a great tour of South Africa, knocking off a 50 and a century against the best bowling attack bar none. Opening, I have South Africa's stylish Alviro Petersen, who with Graeme Smith forms, IMO, the best opening partnership in Test cricket at the moment, and Mohammad Hafeez, who has captained Pakistan and who also is my spin-bowling all-rounder (a bit of a golden arm for the Pakistanis, actually). My keeper is Haddin, a man who would get a game for most other countries as keeper, and whose form is still good enough to play Test cricket. More than happy to have him coming in at 7. Bowling-wise, I have the world's number 4 ranked bowler, Rangana Herath, who has tussled with Saeed Ajmal for the title of best spinner over the last two years. For pace, I have one of Australia's new pace prospects, Jackson Bird, who starred in his two chances against the Lankans, plus Steve Finn, England's tidy yet consistent wicket taker, and Trent Boult, a left-armer who has taken most of his wickets in his last 4 or so Tests, and who can also add handy lower order runs (e.g. see the Hobart Test of 2011). Overall, the numbers don't stand out, but keep in mind I had to pick last in Round 1, and last in the final round too.

Standard problems in India. Batsmen can't play spin (over the summer England's batsmen had no trouble whatsoever with Ashwin, Harbhajan or Jadeja, only Ojha troubled them), bowlers struggled to take wickets. Yes, we played pacemen, but does anyone honestly think Xavier Doherty is any better, despite being a spinner, than Starc? Of course he isn't. The raw fact is, we don't have any decent spinners, and our pacemen aren't good enough to pick up all the slack. England dominated India's weak batting line up because they had Swann and Panesar. Lyon isn't half as good as either of them. Doherty isn't half as good as Lyon. We're going to struggle if Pattinson, Siddle and Starc can't take 8 wickets, to go with Lyon's 2 he'll generally get. But more importantly, we're going to struggle if we can't bat against their spinners.

Sorry, still haven't had time to sit down and spruik my team. Tomorrow, hopefully.

I haven't got time at the moment to write up my side, I'll do it later tonight. Suffice to say, I think I can compete with any other team here, but I wouldn't be upset if my team wasn't voted the best, as there are some other equally strong teams.

Lyon chipping in nicely with Tendulkar and Kohil. Timely wicket of Kohli, too. Still in front by 56, with a chance to knock off the tail hopefully and not be too far behind.

We really need to get one of these two out early (preferably Tendulkar). Their tail starts now, pretty much. Jadeja, Dhoni and Ashwin are the next three, they're all 'all-rounders'. They can all bat a bit, but none are proper batsmen. I'll feel a lot better once we take one more wicket.

From left field slightly: Pick 88 - Dean Brownlie (NZ) He's the highest ranked batsmen (who isn't Bangladeshi) remaining. His stats are equal or better than any other remaining batsmen, and he recently managed a 100 and 50 in four innings against South Africa, in South Africa. He also looked decent enough against us last summer. I'll take that for 88.

So whose pick is it?