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Beasley Hutton wrote: The only thing worse than the Australian batting and selecting has been the putrid display of umpiring by a way past it Dar and the other bloke who is just not up to Test match cricket officiating.

They are awful BH. They have made at least 6 clear mistakes today.

they need to put erasmus at one end and a pom or aussie at the other; the best NZ umpire is not the best either otherwise I would suggest him.

Siddle is showing up our so called batting order with some good old fashioned grit and determination to get behind the ball . Just thank goodness for Smith otherwise we would have been skittled for under 100.

Bit harsh there BH on JL mate.....Siddle's selection was a masterstroke mate....for Aust batting line up.....that score is 100 odd more than most people thought Aust would get.....including the Poms......yep Paine's shot was a shocker.....we all know who played/playing the captain's knock in that Aust innings so far....thank fark for Smith, Siddle and Jimmy's 37 yr old calf......anything over 200 a god send...250 a win for Aust big time....

Whilst Ponting has an influence we get TWO Taswegians, both keepers & keep out a promising Sth Aussie keeper.
Warner plays like wet sand paper & in the ODI's was no where like the Warner of old. He was very slow & unsure until the rabbits bowled.
He didn't look comfortable & should have been out earlier caught but Poms didn't appeal for DRS. Both openers were poor but Paine was worse.
Siddle & Lyon may have won the match as they had the guts to support Smith.. Smith should be Captain next test & Paine DUMPED.

Smith is not allowed to hold a leadership position for 12 months after his return LS. I do agree with you that Carey is pretty stiff to not be in this batting line up.

Carey's 1st class batting record is not that great - 29 so you cant have him playing as a batsman on that record.
Paine is the skipper and you cant drop him after he has held the side together over the last year as their is no other captaincy option.
whether Wade is up to it who knows but he scored runs in every format last summer and the no.6 spot is probably a raffle between he, Labaschagne and Marsh.
the top 3 all failed and Head got another start and didnt go on, need more out of those 4.
be nice to see Usman step up and have a big series, promises a lot but doesnt seem to be consistent.

With Paine MO I feel like we are the England team of the late 70s early 80s with Mike Brearley- only in the team to Captain!

why are people worried about getting runs from our keeper when the top order is failing ?

MarkOlsen wrote: why are people worried about getting runs from our keeper when the top order is failing ?

No argument there MO, if I were a selector Khawaja has the second innings to save his Test Career or he would be banished for good has been a poor performer outside Australia for far too long whilst Wade should have only been considered if replacing Paine as keeper as there is no way he is a Test batsman alone despite his Big Bash/SS form last year.
Smith is a lock, Warner has probably got enough credit points to stay, Bancroft looked ok before the sandpaper incident but pressure from Harris & Burns should keep him honest and Head as you say makes plenty of starts but doesnt go on with it enough but I guess at least he is making a start. As for Paine he has only 1 first class hundred in 15 years of playing first class cricket and that was 13 years ago he reminds me a bit of Bob Taylor & Rod Marsh late in his career really struggling with the bat at Test level. I hope it isnt another Healy/Gilchrist type scenario where we hung on to Healy for a couple of seasons too long when we should have dropped him for Gilly long before he eventually was retired by the selectors!