Roar Rookie
Joined December 2017
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Mitchell Marsh’s unhappy set of scores against India meant he had to go. But some commentary on The Roar and elsewhere has poured vitriol…
While maximising rest for bowlers seems logical, pacemen today are only bowling around half the number of balls that their predecessors did.
Surely the yardstick of success has to be relative to opportunity and the strength of competition.
As James Anderson hangs up his boots, debate has swirled around as to where he fits in the pantheon of Test cricket greats. He’s…
Some of you may have watched the recent Fox Sports Series 'A Brief History of Australian Cricket: the Eighties'. If not, I’d definitely recommend…
In recent debates over who should replace David Warner to open for Australia, I’ve seen suggestions that Cameron Green’s form declined in the Ashes…
This article follows up a recent piece setting out a way of measuring and comparing performances in one-day international cricket over the decades. It…
In the wake of Australia’s World Cup win, Mohammed Kaif and others suggested that India still had the best team on paper, evoking fond…
The condition of Indian pitches remains a growing concern in international cricket.
There goes 45 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. I’m talking about two rugby internationals at the weekend: France-Australia and England-Argentina. 45…
It’s a tough life being a professional cricketer. Take the English cricket team, for example. Acting coach Paul Collingwood said last week that the…
I recently tried my hand at comparing cricket and baseball from various angles – how the games are played, player numbers, audiences, global spread,…
Defying my predictions, the Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros to take the 2021 Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series 4-2 on Wednesday. As…
This article tries to size up cricket and baseball in terms of their revenues, salaries, spectators and viewing numbers. I will leave to explore…
This third article in this series comparing cricket and baseball looks at the respective traditions, quirks and controversies of cricket and baseball, including sportsmanship,…
This week marks the opening of US Major League Baseball’s playoffs, good timing for a second article comparing aspects of cricket and baseball. The…
As well as being a cricket fan, over the years I’ve occasionally dived deep into baseball, particularly Major League Baseball (MLB) in the USA.…
The question of how to interpret a player’s career statistics has featured in several Roar articles recently. Renato Carini has challenged conventional views with…
Overtaking anybody on this list shouldn’t be a point of discussion. It’s only how many you drop or miss that counts, perhaps taking into account degree of difficulty.
Quiet achiever Carey starting to enter rare air of Australia’s all-time wicketkeeping greats
Interesting, though a few byes here and there are irrelevant compared to the impact of a dropped catch. It’s a pity cricket hasn’t recorded those as a stat.
Quiet achiever Carey starting to enter rare air of Australia’s all-time wicketkeeping greats
Why? He was our best ever keeper.
Quiet achiever Carey starting to enter rare air of Australia’s all-time wicketkeeping greats
Andrews might be OK, but who knows? Has played a grand total of 7 first class games for a total of 10 wickets at 79. So you’d be picking him on some notion of BBL form, like Connolly. Although Connolly looks ok watching him in the BBL. But so does Zampa. Swepson would be the obvious choice to replace Kuhnemann – he doesn’t have a great first class record but neither does any other Aussie spinner turning the ball from leg.
Aussies make call on Smith’s elbow injury as Warner puts forward shock candidate to fill spin void
Yep, at 7. An amazing thing I hadn’t realised is that Greg was picked as first change bowler, with Gleeson the fourth as spinner. A contender for our weakest bowling lineup of all time outside the WSC period and SA rebel tours: a declining McKenzie, Froggy Thomson, Greg and Gleeson. Chappell bowled 24 miserly overs for 1 wicket in the first innings but only 4 in the second while Stackpole bowled 15. Stacky had debuted in 1964 at no.8 bowling spin like S Smith. Ian Chappell batted 7 in that game. Greg had a respectable record as a change bowler but had only taken a bit over one wicket per game in the 99! FC matches before his debut- at the tender age of 22.
Will Australia have the Galle to play just one fast bowler in Sri Lanka - Starc or Boland for solitary role?
Lunacy to open with Head unless they drop Khawaja. But why bother anyway? Silverware is overrated. A series is a series. And Travis could do with experience playing spin in the middle order.
Aussies surely can’t repeat churn and burn McSweeney mistake with Konstas if Head goes to opener
Does anyone know why there are two matches at Galle ? Very odd. I don’t care what anyone says, shaving all the grass off a 5 day pitch and making a Bunsen burner from day one is blatant pitch doctoring.
Don’t think it’s correct to say that Boland thrived at the MCG before they brought in the new Kookaburra in 2022. His Shield average at the MCG up to 2021 was 29. Pattinson’s over the same period was 21, Siddle’s 14 and Tremain’s 27.
Will Australia have the Galle to play just one fast bowler in Sri Lanka - Starc or Boland for solitary role?
Great points Bush, though I wouldn’t say Aus and England were terrible throughout the period of Windies dominance. Australia were pretty good in the early 80s and started to turn it around by the end of the decade and had a good team in in the early 90s. England had a decent team at times, certainly not terrible except against the Windies and in 1989.
Numbers don’t lie when it comes to the majority of Aussie Test team being in fading final phase of their career
Except the evidence for the majority of the team fading isn’t there: Marsh is gone, Head and Marnus are too young to assume they are in the last third, Smith and Cummins still doing great, Hazlewood and Lyon are in their best phase to date, Carey doing fine and Konstas, Green and Webster still in early phase.
Numbers don’t lie when it comes to the majority of Aussie Test team being in fading final phase of their career
Interesting stats and points. Although the actual headline is a bit exaggerated/i.e. wrong when you look at the table. The only ones who you can clearly say are in the fading final phase are Khawaja, Smith, Starc and maybe Cummins. Marsh is out now and his final phase was his best. Marnus is too young at this stage to say that he’s in his final phase. If he regains some form, he might only start his last third in 3 years time. Likewise Head. Smith’s final phase is still of the same standard as some of the best ever, as is Cummins’s. Add Konstas and Webster. Lyon and Hazlewood have been great, Carey fine.
So actually the only question mark is Usman, who looked very shaky against India, and maybe Starc but his decline is minimal (though distorted by his pink ball figures). And we have Boland as the best option to replace him. So it’s hard to know what they’re supposed to do if they want to win Tests, apart from tap Usman on the shoulder before the Ashes, or Marnus if he can’t regain form.
Numbers don’t lie when it comes to the majority of Aussie Test team being in fading final phase of their career
Good call. The Champions trophy is indeed pretty meaningless. Certainly no reason to keep Stoinis in the team longer term – he averages 18 in 26 games since 2021, 17 in 14 World Cup matches. McSweeney has done very well over the last couple of years in the one-day cup. Make sense to give him and Konstas a go. Looking at Konstas play spin in the BBL last night, he looks like he needs a lot more experience to master attacking spin, but enough of a base to develop from. He’ll certainly learn quickly in the SL Tests. But they need a second spinner in Pakistan, which should be Agar.
Ageing ODI side worse than Aussie Test team when it comes to futureproofing - Konstas should be put on fast track
Curiouser and curiouser. The guy who plays no red ball cricket and is probably too old for longer term plans is unlucky not to be selected for SL?
Maxwell makes surprising admission over selectors’ controversial tour call as Stars roll Renegades
The big surprise is only one spinner, no Agar.
Cummins no guarantee to make Champions Trophy, Marsh recalled despite form slump, young Renegade axed
He didn’t really lose form. Just got a lot of good leg cutters and got edges in the Tests. Didn’t play them much worse than his teammates. Has had a great 2-3 years in ODIs and has a great record in the sub-continent.
Cummins no guarantee to make Champions Trophy, Marsh recalled despite form slump, young Renegade axed
Marsh averages 44 at a strike rate of 104 in 26 ODIs over the last 3 seasons, second only to Head and Warner. Averaged 56 in 15 games in India in 2023 including the World Cup with 100s against Pakistan and Bangladesh. Could be useful in Pakistan?
Cummins no guarantee to make Champions Trophy, Marsh recalled despite form slump, young Renegade axed
Why is Marsh a surprise? He’s an incumbent and a successful one. Since 2022 he averages just under 40 with a S/R of 96, which is great. His ODI average in Asia is 50 with an SR of 107. What’s getting out a few times in Tests to seaming leg cutters got to do with it? Meaningless in relation to white ball form. As for “he has continued to struggle, picking up in a golden duck returning to the BBL.” Ah, the old sample of one?
Cummins no guarantee to make Champions Trophy, Marsh recalled despite form slump, young Renegade axed
He’s unlucky despite having played only two red ball games in 5 years? He got 5 and 0 in his only match in Australia 2 years ago. You can only judge Test potential by first class performance. No point talking about his last 10 Test innings when they were all over 7 years ago. His average across ten Tests is a meagre 26. And no point comparing with Warner just in India, the hardest place to play, and he played more recently.
Maxwell makes surprising admission over selectors’ controversial tour call as Stars roll Renegades
Good question. It was only 25. But the stat above was for batters who ended up with a long term average of 35. Marsh’s career average is only 28.5. So he fits the profile of a risky selection. Of course, not many succeed who start with an FC average under 35 because selectors rarely pick anyone with such a modest average.
How do you solve a problem like Marnus? The four options facing selectors as dry spell turns into drought
I confess I have that figure to hand SCG and can confirm you are spot on – 1805, almost double Bumrah with one more Test.
OK, Bumrah: Indian star stupendous against Aussies but not the greatest of all time by a visiting bowler
Good point.
How do you solve a problem like Marnus? The four options facing selectors as dry spell turns into drought
Hi SCG. There was an article about it on Roar at the time. The absence of Smith and Warner suspended meant the selectors wanted/needed to make more of a gamble.
How do you solve a problem like Marnus? The four options facing selectors as dry spell turns into drought
I would have thought it’s more usually “ deliberately combative or uncooperative”. Which is what the Bolshevik coup was, chucking out the socialist led provisional government in the belief that only they had the key to salvation. And f-ed up Russia for a century, still paying the price.
How do you solve a problem like Marnus? The four options facing selectors as dry spell turns into drought
Spot on about Shield pitches BG.
How do you solve a problem like Marnus? The four options facing selectors as dry spell turns into drought
He was actually picked for Australia averaging 33. Of 64 Australian batsmen making their Test and first class debuts since 1918 who averaged over 35 across their career, only one who batted in the top 6 made their debuts with a first class average under 35 – Kim Hughes with 34.6. So Marnus was a bit of a gamble in statistical terms, one that really paid off. I think you will find that batter’s careers typically don’t regress to the mean, but Marnus could be an example .
How do you solve a problem like Marnus? The four options facing selectors as dry spell turns into drought
Healy definitely in for Gilchrist, their peers would say the same, but the others sound right by reputation, Jack Blackham was regarded as a genius in the 19th century, maybe wouldn’t stand out today, but probably deserves a spot ahead of the very short-lived Taber.
Quiet achiever Carey starting to enter rare air of Australia’s all-time wicketkeeping greats