The Ashes Thread

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

First topic message reminder :

Some news from the Aussie camp

Chris Rogers will miss the first test with a head injury
Steve Smith has been promoted to bat 3 (hate it hate it hate it leave him alone)

[Corporalhumblebucket]

so go away for a couple of weeks to a wifi free zone and rteturn to fine wqe have won two tests in less than 5 days of total play.

Should go away more often.

 ...and Yorks strolling away with the Div 1 title - though that's probably not too much of a surprise.

[LondonTiger]

and Surrey's march to the D2 title continues apace

[LondonTiger]

Well, aussies struggling with Northampton's demon pace attack atm.

[GSC]

Not sure theres a lineup that wouldn't struggle to contain Northants 2nd string

[Gooseberry]

Well at least the aussies have found a solution to their all rounder conundrum.

century and 3 wickets for Crook

[Jetty]

Bowlers to open the batting? Three top scorers....

Marsh 68
Cummins 82
Lyon 41

[LondonTiger]

As Aus were 87-5, Cummins almost had more on his own!!!!

[Fernando]

Chris Rogers to retire from International Cricket after the final test.

[Gooseberry]

Yeah its had been talked about for some time that it was going to happen, I guess that was just the official announcement.

It really does leave Aus with a huge gap in the top 3. Rogers was only ever going to be a short term stop gap, and theyve got a lot more out of him than might have been expected.

SE Marsh too has likely played his last test, or will do this weekend if he gets selected (I'm not sure who else they drop to make way for his brother).

Theres talk that Smith wants to move back down the order, espeically as he will be taking on the added resposnibility of captaincy. But that leaves two top 3 batsmen to be found from guys who werent even deemed worthy of making this tour. Suddenly Englands woes with Lyth/Bllance/Bell dont look so bad.

It doesnt look like Khwaja will get another opportunity ... hes been scoring a lot of list A runs at least both domesticaly and for Aus A but hasnt made the ODI squad which suggests the powers have no faith in him at the highest level. His first class form doesnt do him any favours either even if he is failry well experienced playing in conditions across the world and the right side of 30.

The options for top 3 bats look like Bancroft and Burns

[Corporalhumblebucket]

Chris Rogers to retire from International Cricket after the final test.

I think Aussies missed a trick in not picking him for his recall several years earlier than they actually did.

[LondonTiger]

Aussie Openers since Langer retired:

CricInfo data



Looking at that, fascinated to understand why they did not persevere with Phil Jaques.

[LondonTiger]

Meanwhile, the guys who have come in at 3:

Yet More CricInfo Data

[JDizzle]

Watson averaging nearly 41 opening the batting, might not be the worst place holder if they need to bed in a new number three if Smith moves down.

Also, the fact that Glenn Maxwell has both opened and batted three in a Test match is brilliant.

[wisden]

Phil Jacques was in the side until he suffered a back problem in the west indies, and sadly wasn't the same afterwards

[GSC]

I doubt Australia can go back to Watson after scapegoating him for the first test

[wisden]

joe Burns next in line i would have thought...

[JDizzle]

Not sure, think the debacle that has followed has sort of taken some of the scapegoating away from him. Although I didn't realise he was 34, thought more 32ish, so he could easily pack in and play T20 for a few years actually.

[GSC]

No Anderson tomorrow unsurprisingly.

Just know Lyths going to make a pointless 50 to save him for a few more tests

[LondonTiger]

And no Rashid either.

Plunkett and Dilly can get on the Brighton train and join up with the yorkies.

[Steffan]

While this series provided some good entertainment I was a bit disappointed by the standard of cricket from both sides. Hope it improves in the next series

[Gooseberry]

Is it massively different to last time the Aussies came over?

England won but everyone told "us" that it was just papering over the cracks. I guess this time we are all too aware of the cracks and as surprised as Cook that they even won.

Its pretty clear Aus have some major cracks too, as well as some real talent. Their big issue is going to be that the problems of needing to replace players arent going to go away any time soon due to the aging nature of their squad. Losing Clarke, Rogers and Haddin is one thing ... Watson is likely to go too and both Voges and SE MArsh cant have many years left in them. Mitch Johnson and Siddle wont last past the next Ashes if that far either, although replacing bowlers looks a lot easier for them.
Having to replace players who under perform is one thing but coping with the decline and retirements due to age is going to really add pressure to bring through a new generation quickly.

The standard of play form both sides has been pretty patchy. The swings in form ridiculous too. Seems the pressure got to both sides at times. The gams havent really been that entertaininmg as a result, very one sided for the most part.
Limp ending thats been largely ignored and doesnt change the headlines, no redemption for Clarke, no point proven ( possibly because he still couldnt score any runs)

6/10

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