Ashes 2019

[crashlander]

Paine must go - his decision to bowl cost us the Test match and the Series win.

What the f.. was he thinking? Very little.

Time Paine has always been a stop gap Captain until someone else comes out of the woodwork. Unfortunately, nobody really has as yet. Being Captain has hurt his game, both batting and fielding. His replacement as a keeper is probably not far away. But who will Captain after him is an issue with no obvious answer as yet.

As for your specific question, bowling first on this pitch was an extremely poor idea and it probably cost us the match. Instead of being able to bat our way to a decent total and control the game, we were reacting all of the time, not setting the agenda.

I think Paine will learn from his mistakes, but I am not sure he will be there long enough for that to be important.

Why the f... were Warner and Harris retained? Diabolical decisions.

Really, apart from Smith, and to a lesser affect Wade, the batting this tour has been very ordinary. Had Smith not been so dynamic, we would have lost, no two ways about it. The bowlers dominated the series on pitches that were bowler friendly.
I think you will notice that the batsmen will improve when we play at home. Warner, when the ball doesn't move around quite so much, will be a much stronger option.
The reality of the situation is simple: we have one top batsman in any conditions (Smith). The rest make up the numbers. We will see just which ones come to the party when the season starts in Australia.

Why was Starc overlooked for the 125k an hour man Siddle. Stupefying.

This was not a decision that I can explain. Sidds has been a warrior for a long time, but his present pace is questionable when there were guys like Starc available. I would like to have seen Starc play to get him back into decent form the the Summer.
My only suggestion is that this test, a dead rubber, was given to Sidds as a reward and a final game.

To be fair, I think the entire team was off the boil in this game. Having won the previous game and retained the Ashes, the overriding will to win just wasn't there.