TOPIC:

Just to re-confirm what BH has said about Holland's selection being at least open to question: the man has a first-class average of 38. IN addition to that, they have take over the guy from Portugal and M. Marsh. Why do you need two medium pace bowlling all rounders in Sri Lanka, especially when one of your spinners is the aforementioned, Holland?

Just think, back in the time the chairman of selectors played, selection was much more simple: they picked the best six batsmen and best four bowllers, one of whom would sometimes be a spinner dependding on local conditions. What a novel idea.

Grassy wrote: Can anybody tell me if Fawed Ahmed stepped under a Ladder or trod on a black cat?

Why isn't he tweaking his craft in the Baggy Green,ahead of Lyon?

He's a VICTORIAN.

I LOVE test cricket, but being a realist, the "general sports loving theatre going public", only have interest in the Ashes. Sad but true

Really hope someone like Bancroft can develop and take that opening spot....at least the kid knows how to grind and is prepared to grind when the circumstances call for it.....

as for Ahmed Grassy....not too sure he would of done any better than Holland.....surely Zampa would of been a better bet.....at least he spins the farking thing....Lyon is a guy with over 200 test wickets but seems to struggle on the sub continent...he seems to bowl better in places like Oz, NZ, Eng and SA......

Great to see Starc back though, touch wood he stays fit.....that has been the only positive thing to come out of this series.....and that Burns and Holland won't be touring to India next year!!

I doubt whether I will ever see Australia ever win another Ashes Series in England in my life time.
This kamikaze 20/20 batting in Test Match Cricket that I have been witnessing for a couple of seasons now you can get away with on the flat tracks that are consistently produced in Australia but once they get on the kite to Asia or England they are made to look like the schoolboy cricketers that in reality they probably are sadly!
Sheesh how many Tests have we lost lately have finished inside 3 days?
And Freeze the fact Lyon has 200 Test wickets with an average of 35 too I might add shows the quality of off spinners produced in Australia over the last 30 years. Thank fark we had a couple of quality leggies during the 90s & early 2000s otherwise Bruce Yardley or Ashley Mallet would still be considered our best spinners since Richie!

Beasley Hutton wrote: I doubt whether I will ever see Australia ever win another Ashes Series in England in my life time.
This kamikaze 20/20 batting in Test Match Cricket that I have been witnessing for a couple of seasons now you can get away with on the flat tracks that are consistently produced in Australia but once they get on the kite to Asia or England they are made to look like the schoolboy cricketers that in reality they probably are sadly!
Sheesh how many Tests have we lost lately have finished inside 3 days?
And Freeze the fact Lyon has 200 Test wickets with an average of 35 too I might add shows the quality of off spinners produced in Australia over the last 30 years. Thank fark we had a couple of quality leggies during the 90s & early 2000s otherwise Bruce Yardley or Ashley Mallet would still be considered our best spinners since Richie!

Spot on BH we don't have players these days who know how to put there heads down and get thru the tough periods and then take advantage later when the bowlers get tired. They all seem to think they can get after the bowling in the first over and don't like it when the conditions are not what they get in almost every venue here.

Grassy wrote:

UNKA2 wrote: I LOVE test cricket, but being a realist, the "general sports loving theatre going public", only have interest in the Ashes. Sad but true

.....and they should be the last in line to get Tickets to The Ashes,Unka!

Agreed mate, people go for the "event" these days NOT for sport. AFL grand final with all "the corporates" yet poor Joe Bloggs who goes every week, has little chance of a ticket ( unless he pays EXTRA, for one of those"guaranteed" tickets in his membership).

If Australia are serious about being competitive in the sub continent they need to stop producing flat tracks at home that even I could get a few runs on. They also need to play more warm up games in unfamiliar countries so they get used to the pace and bounce prior to the test series. The shot selection of the batsmen in this series has astounded me. Even Adam Voges who I rate highly played a dangerous reverse sweep from the first ball he received and eventually perished to the same shot. The Sri Lankan spinners had them all muddled in their thinking and decision making.

They will all be hero's again soon once they are back on their flat tracks at home, being called great batsman and all will be forgotten.

There is only Mitch Stark I think that would go close to getting a game in our great sides of the 90's and early 2000's.
No batsman would be even looked at.

A first up reverse sweep shot in those circumstances perfectly sums up the influence of T20.......Australia are crap at that format anyway......why Voges would think such a shot would come of some use in those circumstances astounds me.......and he is 36/37 years old!.....heaven help the younger batsmen looking on!