Theyāre going to dominate world cricket for the next 15 years? :lol: :lol: :lol: :rolleyes:
Hopefully the century knock for Alastair Cook in Adelaide will restore some confidence but the doubts persist.
England looking in good shape for the Gabba on Thursday week and unlike the last couple of Ashes series in Australia should benefit from a proper series of warm up matches.
Australia named a 17 man squad today, to be whottled down to 12-13 for the first test. What a farce. Thereās a full rounf of Sheffield Shield games to be played this wee and an Australia A V England game. Completely pointless to name a (17 man!) squad now, they should have waited till next week. Some injury concerns over Michael Clarke (back, but scored a ton for NSW at the weekend), Simon Katich (scored 94 for Randwick yesterday) and Dougie Bollinger (played grade cricket yesterday). Ryan Harris could well force his way into the team, heās on fire at the moment in Shield cricket and will play in the A game against England, if he does well there, he could be picked. Its an uncertain and not very confident Australian outfit going into these Ashes. Thank christ Greg Chappell was appointed as a selector.
INCOMPLETE!
Stop shouting Lazarus, whats the problem big man?
Doesnāt Harris have a knee injury? No place in the 17 for the great Philip Hughes. Ferguson and Kuwaja are called up. Can Kuwaja become the first muslim to play for the racist all white Australian cricket team? Expect they will go with the tried and trusted for the Gabba but if it does not go well there may be some changes. Hussey for sure must be nervy now and will Clarkeās back hold out? E&W strangely composed at the moment which E&W should worry about. they are even thinking of resting the three first choice quicks and sending them up to Brisbane early to acclimatise.
Finn, Broad, Anderson and Swann are now all confirmed to be heading straight to Brisbane and are skipping the Australia āAā final warm up match.
So they will only have Monty, Bresnan and Tremlett as bowlers? and collingwood maybe and therefore Morgan to get a bat?
Looks like the Tans will be down a nation as Morgan aināt gonna get a game no matter what:
RUTHLESS England left Eoin Morgan out in the cold again last night as they gave their Test match batsmen another chance.
The men who will fill the top six places against the Aussies in Brisbane next week were all chosen for the final warm-up match against Australia A.
One-day star Morgan has not faced a ball in three weeks on tour.
But batting coach Graham Gooch insisted: āI donāt buy this āgive everyone a gameā idea. You pick your best team.ā
Englandās second-string attack were given an immediate chance when skipper Andrew Strauss won the toss and chose to bowl.
ENGLAND v Australia A: Strauss (capt), Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Collingwood, Bell, Prior (wkt), Bresnan, Shahzad, Tremlett, Panesar.
Glad to see Gooch has his priorities right. The important thing is that they pick the team most capable of beating Australia A. Not that they give batting time to a couple of the back-ups in case someone gets injured or anything ridiculous like that.
Ian Bell in terrific form here again in Hobart. 165 n.o.
Philip Hughes got 2. He could do with a few lessons from Graham Gooch in the art of opening the batting.
Hardly matters, heās not even in the extended 17 man squad.
Australiaās preparation going into this series has been laughable, pretty much every player has failed in shield cricket over the last week. Theyāre in serious trouble and no one seems to have the first idea what the starting X1 will look like. Injuries, poor form, lack of confidence, panic, will all play a part in the eventual selection. The only bright news appears to be Mitchell Johnson, who scored 121 yesterday for WA. Thats Mitchell Johnson, the bowler. Heās outscored most of the combined batting line up in shield cricket this week.
EW and the rest on the other hand appear to be coasting along very smoothly with a pitch perfect preparation. Theyāll never get a better chance to win an Ashes on Australian soil. Iām sticking with 2-1 to them, it could be worse though.
I have yet to see any other predictions, get on with itā¦
It seems to be going too well for England at the moment. Hussey scored a century today and Johnson added a michelle to his century. Bell scored 192 for a finish. Prior got 27 but he has not had a lot of chances to bat so far.
Anyone know if Xavier Doherty is any good? His first-class numbers look less than stellar anyway. Gutsy call to drop Hauritz, but only the right one if they have someone better to replace him with.
Iām going for 2-2. England win in Brisbane and Sydney. Aussies in Perth and Melbourne.
Doherty has taken 84 first class wickets at an average of 48. Looks like a gamble.
Pietersen has developed a real problem with lefty spinners. Will be interesting to see how Doherty fares against him. Tremlett has looked really good and could force his way onto test team at some stage. Iād worry a bit about Anderson in Australia when the ball is not swinging.
On all known form guides, England should really paste Australia. Of course, its still the England cricket team weāre talking about and at the same time its tailor made for them to implode under the weight of such high but justified expectations. All said, I do feel this current crop are beyond that.
First test in Brisbane is massive though and if Australia did win there, it could change the whole dynamic of the series. Len Huttonās touring Marylebone Cricket Club in 1954/55 were the last side to lose an Ashes opener at the Gabba and come back and win the Ashes.
Head on the block time, Iām going for England to win the series 3-1 and could well have the Ashes retained by Christmas. England to win Tests 1 & 3 in Brisbane & Perth, second test in Adelaide possibly a draw, Australia possibly to win the Boxing Day test and Englandās undoubted advantage in the spin department to prevail in Sydney.
Starts tomorrow (this is like Christmas Eve).
Hereās a guide on how to keep awake ladies, sounds like an average enough day for Bandageā¦
Doug the Rug is out of the Australian team for the 1st test I just read.
A bit of rain about so pitch might do something. Nasser Hussain won the toss and put Oz in 8 years ago, they made 600+. If E&W win the toss they should bat, declaration of intent etc. Clarke passes fit to play. Fitzy, have you been pratising Englands āsprinklerā dance yet? Really looking forward to it now
You do know they have won plenty of Ashes series of Australian soilā¦