Bang Test tour of Oz, Aug 13-26

[bigfluffylemon]

Marnus seems to have been living on borrowed time for ages.

There's a pretty good case that his average was over inflated by a number of factors during his golden run (exclusively home tests during the covid era when touring was tough, some weak attacks and flat pitches, some significant luck with getting dropped a lot), but even with that factored in, he was legitimately a decent batsman for a while, if not as solid as the stats suggest. You don't score 11 test match hundreds, including against India, New Zealand and England while being rubbish. And when he was dropped he started scoring runs for fun in the shield. But something's not working at test level, and it's well past time Australia gave someone else a decent run. 3 years since a hundred is far too long.

[bigfluffylemon]

I just asked statsguru, and for reference, since the start of 2023, Marnus has the 12th worst average of any top 6 batter to have played 20+ innings. No batter from England, Australia, India, South Africa or Pakistan has done worse (the poorer performers have been almost entirely from West Indies and Bangladesh, plus Tom Blundell - and many of the poorer performers have the excuse of being keepers or all-rounders rather than specialist batsmen).

Yes - even Zak Crawley has a better average and more 50s and hundreds than Marnus in that time.

Also, how the *modded* is Babar Azam in the top 10 batters in the world rankings when he too hasn't scored a hundred since 2022?

[alfie]

Think Marnus is being given plenty of rope at least partly because of the opening pair problems. They don't want too much more messing about with that top three and since Smith clearly doesn't fancy moving up one they are reluctant to drop in another new "hopeful". Some advocate moving Green up the order but until that ton in Darwin he was struggling to justify a later spot so that wasn't overwhelmingly attractive either.

A lot hinges on whether Head is going to remain a fixture as opener , does it not ? My own feeling is he is better placed back in the middle order , despite some explosive displays last year in the Ashes. But with the dearth of new opening prospects he seems to be stuck where he is for now. You don't usually get to replace a Warner and a Khawaja overnight...

Regardless , you'd think Marnus is in sore need of a Big Score or two.

[sussexpob]

Think Marnus is being given plenty of rope at least partly because of the opening pair problems

The opener problem is itself just a manifestation of the detritus of batting that the shield has seemingly become, and I think Marnus is getting a game still because there is literally no one in reserve making a case to come into the team. Jake Weatherald and Sam Konstas are great examples of what happens when you rummage through bargain bin players trying to find something that isn't there, both are just not technically good enough at all. Konstas has time on his side, but I dont have a clue what the selectors seen in him, he can't even defend gun barrel straight balls on his wicket. Having watched McSweeney recently in the CC, I think he looks like a better player than both, but he was taken apart by India in his first series.

Renshaw and Handscomb were the only people to score runs in the last Shield year, and Handscomb's boat has sailed. Given the lack of options, Renshaw deserves another shot, lets see if he can take it.

[sussexpob]

Observing from a far, it does seem that Cricket Australia need to ponder some very difficult questions about why the batting numbers coming out the shield are so abhorrently poor. Are we seeing too many drop in pitch nightmares making batting impossible? Is the standard of coaching and technical quality in the game reducing that much?

Whatever it is, they need to fix it, because there is a possible scenario given age, form, fitness and general long term quality concerns that Australia could conceivably in 12 months time need 8/9/10 new players. If they can't find a single player up to the standard in the batting department, then how will they find 5?

Tough times are coming for Australia cricket.

[GarlicJam]

Tough times are coming for Australia cricket.

Can't see it any other way.

The worst thing about it all is that is has been so foreseeable for so long.

[Durhamfootman]

perhaps the powers that be were duped by England being so utterly useless?

[GarlicJam]

that has helped, but you guys can't take all of the credit.

We've done a lot of it ourselves, you know.

[sussexpob]

The worst thing about it all is that is has been so foreseeable for so long.

Bailey and MacDonald have copped a lot of stick about not accepting the tide coming in until potentially too late, which may have a lot of truth in it, but I am also inclined to ask what are they supposed to do when players like Jake Weatherald are apparently the best around? The maladies of Australian cricket seem to be coaching below this level, as players just aren't technically good enough, and then they get to the national team and seemingly don't have a setup to improve. The stats on batting output under Langer and MacDonald are chalk and cheese, I think every single player across the board has declined in that period. Marnus is literally averaging below half what he was under Langer, and while you can blame age for the decline of some players, Marnus should be around his peak... he instantly went from World Number 1 to unpickable rubbish as soon as Langer walked out the door.

I don't have a vendetta against Weatherald, but just look at his technique between the end of the Ashes and this last game. In the Ashes he setup almost crouching at the crease, his weight forward and very low. He turned up to this game standing much taller but being completely square on. When playing straight deadbat balls, his bat is actually angled up and facing out to the offside..... how can a central contracted player reinvent their whole technical game to be so fundamentally flawed? Any coach in a net before this test should take one look at that and be "no, not good enough for an elite player". He should have been nowhere near the last test batting like that.

I mean, I think it was Ponting who made that point in the game, but about his short leg fielding. He had some incredibly weird stance in the field in the last game, and Ponting said "who the hell signed that off"... and its true. At what stage did he bust out that extravagant, counter-productive rubbish and not a single coach be like "Jake, what you doing mate". This is basic stuff, this is what coaches jobs are. Does MacDonald do any technical work with players.

I see Weatherald as a sign of a completely failing standard of coaching in the Australian game. I cant think of any era in my lifetime Australia would have picked someone who looks like such a train-wreck.

[GarlicJam]

I am certainly not pointing the finger squarely at McDonald or Bailey, Sussex.

Of course they are large cogs in the machinery.

I am biased towards Georgie, and I have been generally approving of McDonald's endeavours. I think both of them have copped a lot more crap than they have deserved, over the years.

No, as you say, there are just not the viable options waiting in the wings, knocking on the door,, let alone banging it down, ready for a couple of bad innings by an incumbent to be their opportunity.

This has been the case for some years now. Surely we have had people (possibly ex-cricketers) who have been taking decent coin to be able to have titles like player development, futures programs, high performance, etc. Surely the board of CA as well as the CEOs over the past decade have been aware of this general decline and have proposed policy/directional changes.

Surely their judgment has not been clouded by the dollar...?

I never considered a connection between batting skills and the change in coach, and am still sceptical about a strong connection (Marnus has always been an outlier) - the fact that the team/s have been travelling better under McDonald's leadership has helped here.

I do think that Bailey and McDonald have fallen into the old trap of sticking with players for too long, too often. Not giving those dodgy prospects much of an opportunity to prove themselves, but where that line is drawn is a tough decision.





And we haven't got to The Great Replacement, Bowler Edition, yet...

[bigfluffylemon]

Australia back with a vengeance...

[bigfluffylemon]

39/9 - Bangladesh need 5 runs to avoid their lowest ever test score.

About as convincing a response to losing the first test as you could ask for from Australia...

[GarlicJam]

39/9 - Bangladesh need 5 runs to avoid their lowest ever test score.

and they managed 25 - finishing on 64

do you think the Bangladesh squad spent many of the last 6 days celebrating?

[Durhamfootman]

a trip to Noosa perhaps?

Aus 50-3 after 10 overs, so pitch might be difficult

[bigfluffylemon]

Marnus fails sgain