TOPIC:

Southerner Australia desperately needs a leg spinner, in the test side.

Beasley Hutton wrote:

George Bailey and co have selected a 15 man squad for the Ashes series coming up-

Warner
Harris
Labuschagne
Smith
Head
Kwahaja
Green
Paine (C)
Cummins (VC)
Starc
Hazlewood
Lyon
Richardson
Neser
Swepson

Looks like the selectors have continued with the consistent let downs Harris, Head  & Khawaja for the opening and number 5 position respectively.
No doubt the vocal Eastern States critics of the Marsh brothers getting chance after chance will be equally as vociferous with those Eastern States boys named above being selected who consistently fail when the heat is on or was it just another attempted dig at WA again?!

I was expecting worse BH......yeah Harris, Head and Uzzie  selection does highlight Aust lack of depth of batting....though Uzzie does average 48+ in Australia from memory....and has started the season well......though batting middle order.....to me Marsh is very much a confidence player......pick him in the 15, see how he goes in the Aust v Aust A games.....if does well stick him in at 6 and elevate Green to 5.....if not play him v English Lions......Harris is riding off his County success......one hundred so far this year.....no different to Hunt, Street etc around the country......Head sadly was a fave of mine and of similar  ilk to Maddinson.....though the latter has improved his game batting middle order with Vic.....pity Paris got injured, would of loved to see him in the A side......not to be. Hopefully Bailey and Dodemaide can keep JL in check selection wise.......don't want a repeat of that India series last year.....as for Paine.....yeah he is the skipper, but was really hoping he would of been struggling with his rehab and delayed his return.....allowing Inglis, Carey or even Philippe an early crack as WK......

I see Paine has stood down as Captain after a sexting scandal from a few years back.
Fair dinkum the Captaincy was the only thing keeping (so to speak) him in the Test side....bye bye Tim!
Time now to blood Inglis or Phillipe as our next wicketkeeper for the future.

Yes interesting times BH. Alex Carey would be in the conversation as well but I wonder who will take over as skipper? A good time to pass it onto Pat Cummins or maybe Steve Smith as an interim measure.

What suprised me most is he is staying on as a player.Surely its time to move to a new keeper considering his age and the fact he has not played a game for 11 months?

premiership hangover wrote:

What suprised me most is he is staying on as a player.Surely its time to move to a new keeper considering his age and the fact he has not played a game for 11 months?

Spot on PH, and it is not like he is the best keeper/batsman in the country either.
Piss weak leadership again from CA who should just move the bloke on now anyway what is he rising 37yo?
Time to give a young promising keeper/batsman the opportunity to cement their spot for the next 10 years if good enough like an Inglis or Phillipe.

no idea of who will be chosen here - another terrible mess

I'm not sure Paine holds a place in the side,post captaincy.Not the behaviour of the most elite Australian sporting starus.
Steve Smith has done his hard time over sandpaper gate.Time to reinstate imo.
Smith-Captain...Alex Carey 1st ..Josh Ingliss 2nd for Keeper.

Carey gets first crack as keeper in my opinion, has the best batting technique of the keepers and is good with the gloves.

Cummins as captain and smith as VC

I am staggered that a married man in his 30s would think nothing about sending a dick pic to a work colleague. That is an action you would expect from hormonally driven teenagers.
It may solve a problem for the selectors in that Paine as a player is not good enough to keep his spot either as a keeper or batsmen and the captain needs to be worthy of his place in the team. I suspect that Smith may get the job back and I hope Carey gets first go at the keeper and not Nevill as has been indicated previously.
All this chaos just 3 weeks out from the series reminds me a lot of the build up to the 2010-11 ashes when Australia picked a squad of about 20 players and the team played like a rabble. I fear that the same may happen this summer.