Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Here's the contract list for the next 12 months:

Ashton Agar
Joe Burns
Alex Carey
Glenn Maxwell
Steve Smith
Dave Warner
Tim Paine
Matthew Wade
Kane Richardson
Jhye Richardson
Aaron Finch
Josh Hazlewood
James Pattinson
Mitchell Starc
Nathan Lyon
Adam Zampa
Travis Head
Pat Cummins
Lambshanks

The big omission is Usman Khawaja. And Dave Warner is the only established Test opener.

I'm not really sure how much cricket we'll actually have. As things currently are, any foreign team visiting these shores would have to undergo two weeks of quarantine, although in six months time, that may no longer be the case. The situation here is looking up, although we don't need any more cruise ship fiasco's.

I hope everyone is well, and have lots of toilet paper.

I think Burns has huge potential still!

Khawajas form has disappeared for a while now. IF we were honest, we would probably say he scored a few average boosting runs on pitches that were roads, but as soon as hes out of his comfort zone on a track that does a little bit, it all comes unravelling quickly. He averages something ridiculous like 20 away from home too, over a indicative amount of tests, so unless the pitch is a 600 all out one, hes pretty useless.

The Professor wrote:I think Burns has huge potential still!

Again, hes another player who looks the part in situations where batting is at its easiest, as soon as the ball moves its a different story.

Mitchell Marsh is also on the list, I missed him. I guess it was between him and Stoinis for the last spot. Stoinis is a gun, but he has been misfiring for a while. As for M3, if I had as many chances as he's had, I'd probably have a social disease by now.

If Mitch Marsh's coffee shop walk didn't endear him to Langer then nothing would.

was Lambshanks in the last contract list?

Durhamfootman wrote:was Lambshanks in the last contract list?

I don't believe he was. He'll be on top dollar now though.

none of them will have a county contract to press their claim for inclusion this year

sussexpob wrote:Khawajas form has disappeared for a while now. IF we were honest, we would probably say he scored a few average boosting runs on pitches that were roads, but as soon as hes out of his comfort zone on a track that does a little bit, it all comes unravelling quickly. He averages something ridiculous like 20 away from home too, over a indicative amount of tests, so unless the pitch is a 600 all out one, hes pretty useless.

Agreed in tests. I'd have said he was handy in ODIs, but looking at the numbers, his performance there is pretty ropey too - SR 84 doesn't cut it these days (hell, we were arguing about whether Joe Root with a 50+ average at 90+ SR since 2016 should be in the England team on the basis he doesn't always score fast enough). I'm probably being biased as he had a decent run of form in ODIs last year in India and UAE in the run up to the WC (and a poor WC itself). Hasn't done much else in the format it seems. So clearly the right call to move on from Usman, given his age that's probably his Australia career done, but he'll have another 4 or 5 years earning reasonable cash on the T20 circuit,

There aren't many openers these days that don't struggle when the ball moves. It's the nature of the modern player, especially those that play 3 formats. Cook is one of the better openers of the last 10 years and he still struggled. Warner is awful when there's swing - look at his record in the last 2 Ashes. But much of the world (subcontinent, West Indies and these days Australia too) the ball does bugger all through the air after the first five overs or so, so openers can get away with dodgy technique - they only get exposed in England, South Africa, New Zealand, or against top quality attacks. And as we saw this summer, the ball doesn't always do that much in New Zealand as it's reputed to. Depends on the venue.

The Kookaburra has never moved much in the air, its the state of the pace and bounce more than anything thats caused these dross pitches. Still remember Pat Cummings digging in bouncers to Dawid Malan at Perth, and some were bouncing to the keeper on the way through, whereas established legend says in the 70s a few fast bowlers could hit the sightscreen on the full with a half tracker at pace. As soon as the bounce is slightly not true, a bit of nip off the deck, and you see what happens.... Englands batting line up gets humiliated by a county trundler from Ireland

Was really hoping that Khawaja was going to kick on from this test against Pakistan.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/188 ... ae-2018-19

Sadly he did not. This innings proved to be the exception to his test career.

You can applaud Kawaja in that series for trying to face his technical demons head on by tryin something different, but at the time it didnt look like a method that would return continued success. He got some luck during that knock, on another day he could easily have gone early

Aussie squads for the series v India. Already some new names not in the contract list in Pucovski and Green.

Test squad: Tim Paine (captain), David Warner, Will Pucovski, Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Matthew Wade, Cameron Green, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, James Pattinson, Michael Neser, Mitchell Swepson, Sean Abbott.

ODI and T20 squad: Aaron Finch (captain), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.

No one called Marsh in either squad.

Pucovski averages 247 in SS cricket this year. With those figures, could be the new Adam Voges.