Rest of the World

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I figure a thread for cricket stuff from around the world that doesn't warrant a series-thread is useful

Lol at that Aussie test squad - how have they omitted Glenn Maxwell?

Seems like Glenn Maxwell's international career close to being over. Australia announced their Test squad for the series in UAE and despite being without the suspended Smith, Warner and Bancroft, Maxwell is still jettisoned. Peter Siddle makes a comeback whilst Aaron Finch looks set to finally make his Test debut

Australian cricket has depth.....and will still be competitive...and soon fight back to top position
Yeah aussie have given up on Maxwell, FTB, limited over slogger like Indians have on Rohit

Finch seems set to open which seems crazy. I'd have thought you'd want him batting 5 in Tests.

KP_fan wrote:Australian cricket has depth.....and will still be competitive...and soon fight back to top position
Yeah aussie have given up on Maxwell, FTB, limited over slogger like Indians have on Rohit

I think you're about to see in this upcoming series that Australian cricket really doesn't have depth KP_F

Seems like one rule for everyone excluding Maxwell tbh. Last year they told him to score runs for Victoria, and scored plenty. He's then not selected for Australia A as he's considered to be safe for the UAE series. Now Langer says Maxwell needs to prove himself for Victoria again. It's like a cheesy soap opera

Well they won't win in UAE ...but they wouldn't win there even if all the big guns were available.

They'll be hard to beat at home though. As India will find , I think. The batting is really going to miss Smith , of course. But if the fast bowlers are fit in the summer I'm not writing them off...

Maxwell isn't a Test player , in my book. Not going to worry Pakistan with the ball , and too unreliable with the bat. Slightly surprised to see Siddle back but he's a very honest player and I don't think he'll let anyone down.

Alfie - Maxwell has a first class of 43(outside of this uninspiring test record) so he can certainly play a bit. No's all rounder that we can agree on, but he's been mismanaged by cricket Australia

I’m not sure he’s a test player either - but as Nathaniel points out he’s done everything they’ve asked of him, and still aren’t picking him - kind of makes a mockery of everything they say really...

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:I’m not sure he’s a test player either - but as Nathaniel points out he’s done everything they’ve asked of him, and still aren’t picking him - kind of makes a mockery of everything they say really...

I am not sure he's been mismanaged...he can be rather a "difficult" sort of chap , which seems to count against him somewhat ; but I think the truth is they don't think he is one thing or the other : not a real all rounder (and with three spinners in the party they don't need his offerings ) but neither do they see him as a top five bat.
You could say he might fill a hole in present circumstances ; but Australian selectors don't usually think like that. They are interested in finding an all-purposes four-five batsmen to take to England next year - and they don't think it's Maxwell. Neither do I .
The interesting thing is they're taking Khawaja despite his record in Asia . Seems to point to a desire to play the same team no matter the conditions rather than chopping and changing. Hmm : time will tell if this is wise or not...

Yeah so reading into its its more a communication / muddled thinking issue thats upset people than thinking he genuinely is a must pick option.
Not taking him on the A tour gave the impression he had done enough in Shield cricket (rather than going off and earning more playing in silly T20 leagues) which is what they had said he needed to do to win back a place. To then not get selected without having been given a chance on that A tour is rough. They could've just told him they were over him.

I think we are in all agreement though that hes not good enough in either discipline to play, aside from trying to balance the side..which ends up weakening it. Hes not even a Moeen.

As for their top order...well without their golden boys its looking as troublesome as Englands.

India - 285/7 from 50 overs.
Hong Kong - 104/0 from 19 overs.

Surely not?

135-0 now...

And it looks to be a case of Hong Kong falling just short.

206/4 now. 79 needed off 48 deliveries.

Good effort from Hong Kong - a side on the rise, and proving again why the 10 team world cup is a ludicrous idea. The associate nations are getting stronger, and need to continue to get exposure to games against the better sides

India scared and scarred by HK....play full strength in pace bowling
in a rare India-Pka game
absolute Patta Pitch

Less than 24hrs after nearly getting embarrassed by Hong Kong, India have rolled Pakistan for 162. The whole attack seems a different proposition when Bumrah is playing.

Pandya seems to have sustained a back injury and was stretchered from the field

FTB dhawan in his comfort zone......and having a gala time

Afg has Pak on the hook chasing 258
Old fashioned ODI where 250 used to be defendable

Afghanistan continuing their extraordinary rise in this year's Asia Cup. Comfortably demolished Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, before falling just short against Pakistan. Now, currently, they're humbling the Bangladeshis once more.

They're a very handy limited overs team, underlined by the stupendous bowling of Rashid Khan. Outside chance of winning the next World Twenty20 competition, which will be held in...er...2020.

Pakistan's talentless top 3 finding it considerably hard to score runs against top opponents as opposed to minnow bashing Zimbabwe.

Pakistan's talentless top 3? Come on Nathaniel

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8037/scorecard/1022375/india-vs-pakistan-final-icc-champions-trophy-2017

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/10617/scorecard/1000895/australia-vs-pakistan-5th-odi-pak-tour-of-aus-2016-17

Anyone can post meaningless stats James. Babar's slowness cost Pakistan the victory as I was told by many Pakistani friends. Fakhar has played one decent innings against India, the rest of his career has been all about minnow bashing Zimbabwe

saw pak's new sensation shaheen afridi....is quite brisk.....135 slowest and 144kph fastest...is very tall...almost 7 feet....very high arm action (like Amir)......or a bit higher...and hence gets the ball to kick of a length

His action is reminiscent of Bruce Ried....more like a faster  version of Ried

The games in this Asia cup have been played on a Retro template of mid-late 80s and early 90s....where 250 was a good score.....and on bad days teams were consistently struggling to get to 200

Ind squash pak
and Afg going again to the wire

and like the last game.....Afg stumble again.....in the last over
experience they need....to get over nerves


Pak-BD game's a s.f now and Ind-BD a dead game
super-4 ain't a bad format

Ex Zimbabwe captain and coach Heath Streak has written to the ICC calling on them to disband Zimbabwe cricket in an attempt to make sure all debts are paid to all who are owed..... good movew IMO, this should have been done a long time ago

Moh Shahzad 95* as Afg is 111-4 i. 22.4 ovrs

140-5 and he has 108 of them now

Afg take another game into the last over.......and tie it vs India this time

Afg has got potential

India were too casual

A nearly tournament for Afghanistan. Fell short in three games, but could have easily won all three. Shame they're not in the final.

Pak get 240 to chase today vs BD to get into the finals and that appears like a par score for this course

Bangladesh had two contributions..other than that, others fell away again...bad;y missing Tamim

Pak going down....186-9
250 is a big score on these pitches that are slow and grip a bit....not at all easy for stroke making....not easy for power hitting either

Well done Bangladesh for getting to final, missing shakib now though

BD , froze and choked to 222
now India at 134-3 has recovred from 83-3....looks like going throuhg
250 is really a good score on these slow pitches

Very much enjoyed the Asia Cup. A proper, even contest between bat and ball - much better than ODIs played on pancake tracks, where 300 is the minimum requirement.

India got over the line with careful, composed batting. Bangladesh will be kicking themselves having been 120/0 at one stage.

Another important tournament for Afghanistan, too.

Duty281 wrote:Very much enjoyed the Asia Cup. A proper, even contest between bat and ball - much better than ODIs played on pancake tracks, where 300 is the minimum requirement.

India got over the line with careful, composed batting. Bangladesh will be kicking themselves having been 120/0 at one stage.

Another important tournament for Afghanistan, too.

True...a very competitive tournament....a good format of super-4 and very good pitches because getting more than 250 wasn't easy

game score reminiscent of 1980s and 90s....where 250 used to be good score and 220 also defendable

India is very much dependent on top-3 in ODis to get them a big score....they lost momentum by taking it easy vs Afganistan
Bhuvi's batting is what India missed in the lower order in tests vs Eng

Harsha Bhogle Chose Asian XI. It goes like

Rohit Sharma(c)
Shikhar Dhawan
Ambati Raydu
Mushfiqar Rahim
Shoaib Malik
Mohammad Nabi
Ravinder Jadeja
Bhubhneshwar Kumar
Rashid Khan
Jasprit Bumrah
Mustafizur

I pretty much agree with him.

Rayadu ain't even convincing in the Indian XI
leave aside Asian XI
Imam-ul Haq batting at 3 would have been a better choice

SA have collapsed to 58-4 only chasing 118

Karun Nair and Shikar Dhawan don't make the tour to the West Indies..... don't understand what Nair has done to constantly be over-looked, a comment from the selectors about it would help, it just dosen't make sense

I thought that Nair's continual exclusion was because Shastri doesn't rate him? Hence why the bloke who's name i can't remember debuted at the Oval despite being a late call up. Anyhow Dhawan was a liability out of Asia so probably the correct call to blood a youngster before the Australian tour. I hope Shaw gets a go, there's incredible hype surrounding the boy

The explanation on Cricinfo is that the selectors rate him but the team management don't. So rather than send him and have him do literally nothing for 2 months as he did in England they are going to have him stay home and do ...pretty much nothing.
Once Vihari played and did well Nairs chance look even slimmer of actually getting to play a test regardless of whether hes selected for the squad or not.

18 year old opener Prithvi Shaw to debut seeing off Mayank Agarwal. India reverting back to 5 batsmen, keeper and 5 bowlers. Poor chap Vihari dropped, Rahane should've been chopped. Kuldeep or Thakur the one slot to be determined.

Kemar Roach misses the first Test for the Windies

South Africa beat Zimbabwe to seal their ODI series. South Africa in tatters at 101-7, when Dale Steyn hit a career best 60 to carry them to 198. Zimbabwe struggled on what was a fairly indifferent pitch and crumbled to 78 all out. Tahir with a 6fer including a hat trick, Steyn also bagged a couple

Prithvi Shaw blasts a run a ball century on debut. The hype was real

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:Prithvi Shaw blasts a run a ball century on debut. The hype was real

Fourth youngest to register a debut Test century, third fastest on debut (99 balls) and second-youngest Indian (Tendulkar) to make a Test 100. Eighth first-class century - and he's not quite 19. Interesting to see that he's played a lot of school and club cricket in England, although perhaps wise of the Indians not to let him loose against Jimmy Anderson this summer and let him make a debut at home.

sirfredperry wrote:

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:Prithvi Shaw blasts a run a ball century on debut. The hype was real

Fourth youngest to register a debut Test century, third fastest on debut (99 balls) and second-youngest Indian (Tendulkar) to make a Test 100. Eighth first-class century - and he's not quite 19. Interesting to see that he's played a lot of school and club cricket in England, although perhaps wise of the Indians not to let him loose against Jimmy Anderson this summer and let him make a debut at home.

All the England openers played a lot of school and club cricket in England and it didnt help them against bowlers below the level of Jimmy

Caveats about the pitch, intensity/importance of the match, quality of the opposition ( Bishoo first innings) aside its really big for India to find an opener who has the potential to be functional at test level. Their drought in that area has mirrored Englands. Early doors and we have seen that even getting a triple century isnt enough to guarantee one a place in the side long term.

Maybe next time India tour England it will be a case of Burns vs Shaw to be the new Cook.