God help me - the Test Cricket thread

[LP]

100 percent correct, its a collective effort.
High level cricket relies upon having the skill sets to execute plans, and that's the problem I have with Starc.  Part of that is sustained pressure, and he releases it too often by bowling junk.  Sure, he gets wickets with Jaffas and that's a legitimate approach to taking wickets, but he seemingly doesn't worry about the other rubbish and that hurts the collective bowling effort.  He is also deadly when conditions suit (eg the night test Adelaide) but so often on flat decks he's old rope.  I thought he was a highlights package bowler in the ashes (images of him getting carted) and was staggered when he received a gong.  In the two most recent home series vs. India he shouldn't have played the last games, he was below par and we lost both.

I suspect the CA wear this because if they don't they will further kill Test Cricket, the only thing that even gave the Pakis a sniff was Starc letting them off the hook with 90% pie chucking.

But that might be the trick for him, because somewhere in the remaining 10% is an unplayable delivery when conditions suit and when he is switched on, you just have to wear the rest. It's that last point that is the most burring, because often the pie chucking seems attitude based not a result of the conditions or pressure, it's like he switches off and body language exposes a Laissez-faire approach, I assert that is what is most grating to cricket die hards.

We grew up watching blokes like Sobers, Lillee, Ambrose, Garner, Willis, Hadlee give batsmen nothing, the idea of a half-ar5ed spell was anathema to them, they were dirty on just releasing one bad delivery. Not only did you have to survive, but getting runs off them was like growing algae on a rock for a daily feed!

Now in context look at the batting records tumble, can you imagine if blokes that did dominate like Richards, Simpson, Walters or Border were batting now getting 2 or 3 lose pills an over or having a Cummins type try to bounce them out on the modern pitches, pitches that look like relative batting paradise compared to the 60s, 70s or 80s?