The Ashes. Australia v. England.

[K]

M. Conn:

Brooding and mutinous: Cricketers our perfect ambassadors in selfish times

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/brooding-and-mutinous-cricketers-our-perfect-ambassadors-in-selfish-times-20211008-p58yb2.html

"Meanwhile, cricket’s two oldest nations have been bickering like children over who gets the better bedroom while the house is burning down. One demands strict conditions and comforts before it will agree to play. The other has, for months, been too fussy about unmet conditions to play at all. All they have really excelled at, during the long hiatus, has been in the sport of white-anting their coach.
...

International cricket seems not to know how endangered it is. Even before COVID, the depth of talent across the world was as meagre as it had been in a generation....

Australia last played Test cricket in South Africa and the UAE (against Pakistan) in 2018, in India and Bangladesh in 2017, in Sri Lanka and New Zealand in 2016, in the West Indies in 2015, and in Zimbabwe (remember them?) and Pakistan itself in 1999.
...

Since 2020, Australia has gained an international reputation for opting out. It declined South Africa’s invitation for a Test tour. Its best players, as a group, did not go on white-ball tours to the West Indies and Bangladesh.
...

For decades, cricketers did tour anywhere they were asked, often under terrible conditions, because they couldn’t believe their luck. They could represent their country playing the game they loved! Sometimes they even got paid for it!"

[Pies4shaw]

From Wisden's twitter:

[K]

^^^ That's the issue. Smith is a flat-track bully.

But worse: in the last few years, he's only been able to FTB against England. The other countries have worked him out. So even the very flat tracks are not enough for him to score against S. Africa, India, NZ, etc.

Lucky for him and his fanboys, about two-thirds of all his innings are against England IIRC. Can you imagine that?? There are about ten Test nations, and someone plays two-thirds of his innings against one mediocre nation... Sheesh...

This is 2021, not 1921. And England have been mediocre in Tests Smith's entire career. (They also deliberately made the pitches dead in the last Ashes, 'cos they feared being wiped out by Cummins and co, after Ireland bowled them out for 85.)

[K]

Moeen Ali retired from Test cricket last month.

"Moeen Ali has been awarded an ECB central contract for 2021-22, in spite of his retirement from Test cricket last month, while Ollie Robinson, Dawid Malan and Jack Leach were all included on a 20-man list of players spanning all formats, in what amounts to a significant overhaul of the board's previous policy of differentiating between red- and white-ball contracts."

(cricinfo)

Happy for Leach with all his health issues. Not happy for racist Robinson...

Malan is a curious case.

[Donny]

England squad: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

[K]

Baum:

Jumping the Ashes gun: let’s end the phoney war now

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/jumping-the-ashes-gun-let-s-end-the-phoney-war-now-20211014-p5902c.html

"... it is probable that England will get a harder time than usual from Australian crowds this summer. The way they held out for privileges forbidden to many locals for the last 18 months will go down like a raw prawn...
...

But when it emerged that not even the freedom of their own Yarra Valley winery might be quite enough to get them over the line, hearts hardened here. At a time when 60 percent of Australia couldn’t even go to their local bar, the reflex was that England could shove their list of non-negotiables up their AUKUS.

Meantime, a strain of neo-colonialism asserted itself in English media, portraying Australia as one giant prison exercise yard inhabited still by now docile convicts. Further, this meekness is a betrayal of our absurdly mythologised larrikin spirit.
...

Really, there’s no high moral ground here, just gradations of lows."

[K]

Conn:

Inadequate England squad signals negative mindset for Ashes

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/inadequate-england-squad-signals-negative-mindset-for-ashes-20211011-p58yy4.html

"Having talked themselves into how miserable it will be to tour Australia this summer, England have reinforced their defensive approach by picking a conservative squad.

However inadequate England’s batting is beyond Captain Colossus Joe Root, it’s the bowling where the tourists have missed the chance to add some flair and unpredictability.
...

With Olly Stone also ruled out through back stress fractures, England have only one genuine pace bowler in their squad, Mark Wood, who is 31 and has a modest Test bowling average of 33. With 21 Tests in six years, he has missed more matches than he has played because of injuries.
...

For the most part England picked a bunch of seamers in friendly bowling conditions during their summer and Root, a useful off-spinner, pitched in when required. That is unlikely to suffice in Australia.
...

... Root may yet break the record for most Test runs in a calendar year set by former Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf with 1788 in 2006.
...

The man with the best England Test batting average below Root’s this year is Dawid Malan. The 34-year-old was recalled for the last two Tests against India and averaged 35, an improvement on his career average of 29 from 17 Tests. The only other batsman to average 30 was opener Rory Burns, who has a technique which should not be exposed to children. Burns’ career average is just 32."

[Donny]

"England have dropped a pre-Ashes bombshell after adding talismanic allrounder Ben Stokes to their Test squad to travel to Australia this summer."

CA.

[Donny]

The issue of who will partner Warner in the first Test has become more interesting of late, with the form of Usman Khawaja.

He's scored 321 runs @ 81.50 in Shield cricket, this season. Even though he bats at #4 for Q'land, he has opened in Tests.

Will Pucovski still seems to be favoured but another concussion (his 10th) has clouded that issue.

Marcus Harris scored 3 centuries in County cricket and one in their one day comp. Although he was out for 9 in Victoria's only SS match, so far, he's batting strongly in the second dig (96* as I write).

It's between these 3. Bancroft and Burns look to be out of Selectors' thoughts.

Pucovski has a chance to impress, with the return match against NSW, before the Test team is announced, but so does Harris.

[Donny]

Harris went on to score 137.

[K]

‘We’re very grateful’: England players jet in to luxury quarantine resort

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/i-will-bite-my-tongue-paine-lets-latest-warne-barb-through-to-keeper-20211105-p596b2.html

[Pies4shaw]

[K]

^^ Look at FTB Smith's average against them in the last 4 years.

That was very, very, very clear in what I wrote. He had a flat-track bully phase, when he FTBed against most countries. Then in the last 4 years, he's failed even to FTB on the very, very flat home decks. He's only continued to FTB against England. (And there are reasons for that.)


You are suffering from cognitive dissonance. Look up Smith's averages in the last few years. Of course, we know that "good average" batsman Marny has been more than twice as successful as FTB Smith in the last two years. It shows how flat Oz Test pitches are when Marny can average over 80 for two years... while continuing to fail at Sheffield Shield level! It's harder to bat in the Sheffield Shield than in Oz Tests.


Smith dodged a bullet when the S. Africa series was cancelled this year. Rabada and Maharaj would have destroyed his defective technique, just like they did last time.

[Pies4shaw]

As I said, Smith averages 65 against England, 73 against India, 58 against NZ, 54 against Pakistan, 42 against South Africa and 163 against the West Indies.

It's just about time for you to think about trolling somebody else.

[Donny]

Aussie selectors had one message for the Vics quick, Scott Boland, on the eve of the season, and he has delivered with two standout performances

When Scott Boland was contacted by national selector George Bailey a couple of months back, the message he received was a simple one.

“He said: ‘Just keep taking wickets’,” Boland recalled.

And that’s exactly what the Victorian quick has done in his side’s two Marsh Sheffield Shield matches this year, collecting 15 scalps at an average of just over 10.

On Monday, he bowled Victoria to victory over a determined NSW outfit at the MCG with five second-innings wickets, including the final two in the last session of the final day.

More: https://www.cricket.com.au/news/in-form-victoria-sheffield-shield-fast-bowler-scott-boland-australia-ashes-selection-contention/2021-11-09