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Mike with the likes of Jhye Richardson, Lance Morris, Spencer Johnson, Will Sutherland, Todd Murphy etc (injuries dependant) waiting in the wings and all still pretty young in terms of Test Cricket it is not the fast bowling stocks and off spin replacement that have me worried it is the batting.
How many young batsmen around the country are bashing the door down for Test selection???
Pucovski was one but the concussion issues have limited his output of late who else???
There was a time in the 90s & early 2000s where we literally had another 4 or 5 sides worth of batsmen alone we could have chosen from- Taylor, Slater, Boon, Border, M.Waugh, S.Waugh then Ponting, Hayden, Martyn, Langer, Moody, Gilchrist, Katich, Hussey, Rogers, Law, Love, Maher, Symonds, Cox, DiVenuto, Lehmann, Blewett, Elliott, Hodge, Clarke etc.....an embarrassment of riches all coming off the production line....
Is T20 cricket alone to blame for the drop off in quality red ball batsmen being produced in this country or lack of development, lack of games on challenging wickets, etc many, many questions I want answered by CA!!!

Good point re the batsmen. Looking at the list of top run scorers in last seasons Shield competition  there are a few prospects there. Apart from Cam Bancroft who finished 300 runs ahead of everybody else but whose card seems to have been marked there was Daniel Drew (656 runs), Caleb Jewel (652), Matthew Short (623), Beau Webster (596) Jake Lehmann (531) and Tim Ward (517). The top 10 also includes Peter Handscomb, Hylton Cartwright and Sam Whiteman who would be in the veteran category. There is also Henry Hunt  in the top 20 who has put together a few good seasons for SA. Teague Wylie and Nathan Mcsweeney are others who have impressed

There is potential there but there have been no opportunities given to these guys at the top level yet although some of them have been selected on A tours.

If test cricket continues the way that England have been playing it maybe 20/20 batting skills may be a help to these guys rather than a hinderance!

The Aussies got lucky with the weather.
England have only themselves to blame with their early declarations and selections (should have played Woakes & Wood) from the start.
Finally Cummins is not a captains asshole. He has no idea which has affected his bowling. He won't last nor will Ronald McDonald.

premiership hangover wrote:

Hello good game to watch - even if it meant watching swimming and golf during the rain breaks.

The following is part of an article on Fox sports that I felt i would share - its really relevant and we probably all need to stop and take stock regardless of our feelings over the past few days.

Winning and losing is only concerned with the facts, which speaks to Australian supremacy this series, regardless of England’s late push.

Test cricket is played with the elements, and tactics are shaped accordingly. When the first ball is delivered, there are no guarantees the last comes with the sun setting five days later, or with a 20th wicket for one team.

Blind ignorance to the fact weather can play a leading role is to fail to play Test cricket as the game exists.

On Monday, much of England will feel beaten by the weather, and not Australia. But that is to criminally undervalue experienced operators like Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Mitch Marsh.

Their influence is worth far more than just dumb luck. It’s more accurate to say that England was stifled at Old Trafford by, yes, the weather — but also by Australia’s opportunism to use it against their enemy.

England blasting 592 in its first innings was jarring for its explosiveness, but its influence on the entire series has been overstated.

Australia lost the toss in Manchester and was sent in to bat knowing what the grim forecast was, and that a draw was enough to retain the urn.The visitors then batted the entire opening day and eventually posted 317. That’s nothing to scoff at, and it was enough to put England up against it early — a point that has seemingly been lost.

England admittedly then blitzed Australia’s bowlers, seeking to only bat once, while it swiftly made inroads into the middle-order in the second innings.At 4-108, Australia was ripe for the picking — if only England’s bowlers could continue the dominance in the overs available on day four.

That’s when Labuschagne, who had been battling his own demons this series, dug deep to make a crucial century and frustrate England further.So, too, did Mitch Marsh.

Only 30 overs were possible on day four, and Australia had played them expertly. When combined with Australia’s first innings display, more than enough was done to earn a draw. They’ve certainly been earnt for far less.

The fact is Australia has dominated England for longer than it has been dominated, outplaying the hosts in the first two Tests, while playing the circumstances just well enough to avoid defeat in the fourth.

“The Ashes are ours on merit and we shouldn’t spend the day apologising for it,”

Bring on the last test Thursday - I think one side will turn up and one wont. I hope its the Aussies playing the series right out on Thursday.

Couldn't agree more PH, since when do we need to apologise for winning more tests than the Pomms? In the first 2 tests the Pomms couldn't catch a thing, as they say catches win matches. The simple fact is that Australia made less mistakes in the first 2 tests than England, end of story. Like the first 2 tests, the 3rd was a very close run thing with both sides in it down to the wire, this time the Pomms made a few less mistakes. The pomms went all or nothing in the 4th and dominated with the bat and did better with the ball and if thgere had been 4 or 5 full days, would have won comfortably, but cricket is played in the open and Manchester is a wet city, nothing to do with us. Many tests there and in Australia, particularly Sydney and Brisbane have been rain affected, whoopdeedoo, get over it, it worked in our favour this time, in the past it worked in the Pomms favour (2013?) so all's fair in love n war. They are still bleating about the "run out" FMD it's like they think it decided the series, well if Bairstow was paying attention and acting like a professional cricketer who values his wicket, he wouldn't have continuously wandered out of his crease. Eventually we were going to get him. He and the England coach have both done exactly the same thing previously, something the pommy press have conveniently forgotten.

Lets hope the 5th test gets 5 fine days of great competitive cricket so either we win the series or the pomms draw it.

quite a serious gap in quality of the bats next in line and the ages are a bit skewiff
there's 1 & 2 to fill , that's huge
and then there is what Smith is going to do 
not that many bright young prospects 
then there's the Green slot , we are flush with all-rounders
need to throw the sink behind Morris , Johnson & Meredith

Seagull, i find the runout situation farcical. While the poms were on their high horse about the run out saying things like "we would never want to win a match that way" I did notice that late in day 4 when root took a catch from Cam Green that clearly bounced, they were keen for the umpires to take the decision upstairs and not use the judgment of the fielder to help them decide if it was out or not.

I bet if it was given out, they would not have called Green back and said "Wait a minute, we didn't take that catch and don't want to be remembered for winning that way," I bet they would have celebrated hard.

Its all well and good to take the high moral ground, but Gilly is the only cricketer i can remember that walked that path regardless of the situation.  

Definitely going to be an interesting next 18 months for the Aust cricket team....not all doom and gloom as some folk are indicating....the 90s was am incredible era for Aust test quality batsmen....never seen before and will most likely never be seen again. Sadly the cricketing horizon is changing due to T20.

Definitely not the 90s production line of batsmen but Pucovski, Renshaw, Harris, Bancroft, Ward and Hunt are in the mix as possible immeadiate replacements for current opening duo in Warner and Uzzie. Labuschagne, Green and Head probably locks for 3,4 & 5 over the next 4- 5 years. Marsh is only 31, and hopefully maturing as a batsman like a fine wine at 6. Carey and Inglis can raffle the number 7/keepers spot.  Short is only 27 and had a good season last year for Vic. Youngsters in Wyllie and Kellaway hopefully will project upwards over the next few years. No doubt a few unexpected gems like Labuschagne may come from no where and put their hands up.

Bowling wise Cummins if relieved of the captaincy has a few more years left in the tank.....Richardson if fit definitely capable of having a decent test career. Johnson and Morris are the speedster Aust will hopefully get some success from. Victoria had a pretty young pace attack from memory and they made the finals for the 2nd year running. 

Spinning wise Murphy, Rocchicioli and Sangha look the standouts. Connolly hopefully will be given more shield opportunities this year. 

Voges surely is the next off the rank coaching wise. McDonald will see out his contract, can't see him getting flick as yet. Ponting would be a great choice, but his commentary life is probably a better paid gig and more family friendly orientated.

 

premiership hangover wrote:

Seagull, i find the runout situation farcical. While the poms were on their high horse about the run out saying things like "we would never want to win a match that way" I did notice that late in day 4 when root took a catch from Cam Green that clearly bounced, they were keen for the umpires to take the decision upstairs and not use the judgment of the fielder to help them decide if it was out or not.

I bet if it was given out, they would not have called Green back and said "Wait a minute, we didn't take that catch and don't want to be remembered for winning that way," I bet they would have celebrated hard.

Its all well and good to take the high moral ground, but Gilly is the only cricketer i can remember that walked that path regardless of the situation.  

Spot on again PH. Who's to say if Bairstow was called back or the umps went against us, wouldn't get bowled or caught the next ball, it's all a load of petulant BS.

Very unlikely most of this side will defend the urn for Australia in 18 months; Root may be captain in the next series for the English. AD Cook and two others, had the score 500-1 at Brisbane. Over to you Key and Mccallum.  Never before has there been such bad captaincy in an Ashes series. Starc should refuse to bowl to a field that has no 'slippers'.

The wheels have really only fallen off for Cummins since Eng were 7/142 at Headingley.....up until then, Aust were 2/0 with a lead of 180 odd, on track to a 3 zip Ashes series win.

Folk seem to think, what Eng did to Aust in that OT first innings, was the first time ever.....the did it v Pakistan, SA and NZ before that......

But yeah Cummins short comings have been polarized 10 fold captaincy wise....who is next to captain the side will be intriguing, if indeed Cunnins steps down.