Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

[sydneybluesfan]

The Keeper that CA was looking to fill the gap was Tim Paine. He is a superior gloveman, to pace anyway, and a potential top order batsman. Unfortunately he has been ruined by some less than stunning form and a lot of injuries. At this point in his career, I don't think he is ever going to be the player that CA expected him to be.

With Paine out of the picture, CA had to look elsewhere. They went for Wade because his betting was better AT STATE LEVEL than his competition. His batting for Victoria has been excellent. But he has NEVER been able to bring that level of batting to his international career. Seriously, his batting numbers are worse than the man he replaced.

At this point, I think CA is waiting for one of the younger keepers to come up and demand a spot. It hasn't quite happened yet, but with Wade moving back to Tassie and a number of new keepers appearing, CA might get what they are looking for.
The question is what to do in the meantime?
I am not sure I would want to sacrifice Handscomb by having him keep on such surfaces as they provide in Bangladesh. The ball is never going to come through. The ball will spin in the first over. He has probably never kept under these conditions.
However, we may have no choice as long as Wade continues to struggle.

I agree with all that.

The issue for me is, can Handscombe do any worse than Wade?? Probably not. And by making that move we allow ourselves to pick another batsman [who can also bowl] to bolster the batting line up, which continues to crumble in the middle when under pressure. You then replace JH with SOK.

The Wade experiment has been a bust, and we should do something different. But I have no confidence that the deadheads on the selection panel would ever admit they were wrong and drop Wade mid tour.

And I also agree with LP that the tactics from Smith with his bowling changes continues to be amateur hour - he really is poor with his choices and when to make changes and mix things up. He doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes which is what bugs me, and Boof is not the sharpest tool in the shed which doesn't help either....... 

[ElwoodBlues1]

I agree with all that.

The issue for me is, can Handscombe do any worse than Wade?? Probably not. And by making that move we allow ourselves to pick another batsman [who can also bowl] to bolster the batting line up, which continues to crumble in the middle when under pressure. You then replace JH with SOK.

The Wade experiment has been a bust, and we should do something different. But I have no confidence that the deadheads on the selection panel would ever admit they were wrong and drop Wade mid tour.

And I also agree with LP that the tactics from Smith with his bowling changes continues to be amateur hour - he really is poor with his choices and when to make changes and mix things up. He doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes which is what bugs me, and Boof is not the sharpest tool in the shed which doesn't help either.......

Langar is going to be the new coach sooner or later....not sure he is an improvement in the sharper tool category though....

[LP]

They just need to make one change, change the captain.

He can stay as a batsmen, but he has to go as captain.

[JonHenry]

They just need to make one change, change the captain.

He can stay as a batsmen, but he has to go as captain.

They should make one change. Sutherland

[Professer E]

Dunno, we are the best team in the world.... On our own decks.  Indias bats look great when pace bowling is rendered valueless.

[LP]

Handing Smith the captaincy is like handing the opposition your game plan in advance. He has no flair, no inventiveness, he seems incapable of any form of dynamic decision making and repeats the same formulaic approach over and over again.

I rate him as a worst Australian Captain in the past 40 years, worse than Yallop or Hughes given the state of the current test match opposition, which says something as Test Match Cricket is at it's lowest ebb since the impact of the war years!

[malo]

Talk about imploding.....what chance Ben Stokes to play 1st Ashes rest? Lucky not have a manslaughter on his hands.

[laj]

Dunno, we are the best team in the world.... On our own decks.  Indias bats look great when pace bowling is rendered valueless.

There's no stand out side at the moment so winning away is a tough ask. I'll be glad for us just to get off the sub-continent. We seem to be always there at the moment.

[LP]

WTF???

When Wade was keeping for Victoria it was all about him being a spud and needing replacement with Neville or some other. Now he's a Tasmanian it's "Give him another chance!"

In the meantime Carey and Neville have failed to make inroads on Wade despite Wade's recent shield failures.

The irony for me, if Handscomb chooses to be keeper he'll get the job ahead of the others regardless. But it's probably a career dead end for Handscomb as it would almost certainly rule him out as Australian captain, a job he should have for the next decade replacing Smith!

[DJC]

WTF???

When Wade was keeping for Victoria it was all about him being a spud and needing replacement with Neville or some other. Now he's a Tasmanian it's "Give him another chance!"

In the meantime Carey and Neville have failed to make inroads on Wade despite Wade's recent shield failures.

The irony for me, if Handscomb chooses to be keeper he'll get the job ahead of the others regardless. But it's probably a career dead end for Handscomb as it would almost certainly rule him out as Australian captain, a job he should have for the next decade replacing Smith!

Handscomb has made it very clear that he won't be keeping in tests.  Apart from "hurting too much" he feels that keeping would stop him batting at 4 or earlier, and that's his preference.

Apparently Wade is likely to lose the Tassie gloves and play as a specialist batsman if he misses out on test selection.