If you fill a test team with predominately T20 and One Day players; then don't be suprised that they can't play beyond one day. Shame selectors
Martin - 9 years ago
This Australian team is no more than average, they hammered a very poor and demoralised English team, beat SA who are in transition and after thought all was good, . It's not.
Batsmen play Tests like it's a limited overs game and seem unable to tought it out or leave the ball outside off stump, Mitch Johnson has a great plan A but if the pitch isn't reponsive he might as well not be there and Lyon gets wickets off the back of Johnson's bowling so ditto above.
They'll have nice green bouncy tracks this summer and will probably win to 0 so all will be forgiven and forgotten then.
Jungle - 9 years ago
Sure the pitch was a spinners paradise.
Yes, it was an ugly hot. You would think we would've prepared for it though!
Did we think we'd be playing on a pitch that would give us an advantage?
This series was an abject failure in team selection, batting order and use of the bowlers!
We weren't just beaten. We were comprehensively thrashed!
Was this our best possible team? I thought we weren't going to chop and change team selection and fiddle with the batting order anymore. Not this series!
The selection and use of Maxwell was most confusing. Steve Smith is played down the order to make way for a T20 specialist. I always thought that your two best batsmen fill the 1st and 2nd drop positions. I would think that Clarke and Smith should be filling those positions but our Captain thinks otherwise.
If we're talking blips on the radar then the last series against England is the blip. We caught England on the slide as their form since has shown.
This series our team has looked just like the way they played under Mickey Arthur.
The common denominator in leadership since then is Michael Clarke!
Good luck Aussies this summer!
GC - 9 years ago
Lack of commitment and graft:
Our bowlers didn't seem to have the will to plug away at off-stump or just outside (a-la Glen McGrath) - set a 7-2 field and make the batsman come to you...
Similarly our batsmen are careful for 3 or 4 overs then want to score at a run a ball - a few of them need to watch some old Geoffrey Boycott tapes, bat all day. Dare I say it make the bowler come to you if he wants a wicket.
Test cricket is a 5 day game and patience is a powerful virtue. The shorter versions of the game are fantastic and entertaining, but test cricket is a test for a reason. It's fine when you are on top and conditions are in your favour, attack all you want, but sometimes, like in this series you have to graft, and make your opponent beat you instead of smashing your way to defeat.
Having said all that - a huge credit must go to Pakistan, not only have they thrived in the conditions they have torn apart an opponent unable to adjust their style or method. A quality side is one that makes the most of its opportunities and takes advantage of being on top in the contest. They have won every facet and practically every session of the series. Well done!
Matt - 9 years ago
Spinner selection, Nathan Lyon has failed in these conditions before. His record on spin decks is terrible. Yet they keep playing him. Vic leg spinner Ahmed would be better suited to those conditions. Aussie selecters will never learn
Rodney - 9 years ago
Where do I start? First point to make is I have no concerns with Aust playing in the Sthn Hemisphere or in England. So, they will have no issue this summer.
2. Pick a test team, players who know how to graft out an over, hour, half day putting extreme value on their wicket...it's a five day game. Pick the team for the conditions, not the same team every game
3.Force all Sheffield Shield teams to play a spinner in every team...and never as 12th man
4. Instead of running around making obscene amounts of money in unimportant T20 comps, send the batsmen & spinners to India or Sri Lanka to play in their domestic completion to learn how to play/bowl spin. If need be, Cricket Australia should pay the teams to pick our players
5. Prepare dusty pitches in Aust for training and bring over even 2nd class spinners from the subcontinent for training
6. Pick a spinner or two and stick with them. Don't chop and change after 1 test...just as well we didn't do that with SK Warne!
That'll do for now!
Simon - 9 years ago
1. Team selection - wrong players for the job
2. Bowlers - Seem to have forgotten what those 5 bits of wood at the end of the pitch are for.
3. Clarke - Still fails to set the right field for the bowler (Ponting had similar problem after McGrath & Warne left)
doikus - 9 years ago
Losing the toss and Michael Clarke's form. How long can he play limited cricket in the lead up to a test series and still maintain his spot in the side? If he is injury prone, he is a liability. The pitch was designed to blunt our attack and then turn late to favour theirs. If we had won the toss, Clarke would still have had to make runs and lots of them and we still don't have a top class spinner who can bowl a side out on a turning pitch.
Chris - 9 years ago
A relevant question in test cricket is: "If you are batting and you play out a maiden over without taking risks...who is the winner????"
For a long time we have been unable to bat out an over or a tough half hour with the sole purpose of not being dismissed. All our batters are like this. Players who come in, bat carefully for a few overs to get set, then get out between 10 and 30 while pushing for runs....like so many of ours do (Smith, Maxwell, Clarke, Haddin etc) are not valuing their wicket. Just bat for time and survival for a while!
George - 9 years ago
It is a game. Get over it. Remember some one wins and someone comes second. Pakistan won this time. They didn't the other times. So what.
Tim - 9 years ago
Firstly Pakistan have played exceptionally well.
The toss of the coin and first use of the wicket helped enormously.
No need to panic though. Aussie form on dead wickets is not flash and the reason is not rocket science. We just lack that 'c lass' spinning option that would thwart opposition preparing spin friendly wickets.
Remember Aust got smashed by India on the same dead wickets and then bounced back a short time later.
Aussie Jim - 9 years ago
RE Pitch built for the Home Team: Unfortunately not all countries can afford groundskeepers for each cricket pitch and the water resources to make each and Every ground into a green-top like Australia. There is no issue with the way the pitches are prepared as it is what occurs on every pitch in that country.
RE Australian team: Unfortunately we have an ideal that the one team fits all concept, i.e. each player is the best in only their respective position for all conditions. Simply not true. I don't know who to select, but in Test matches it's about grafting runs not a 100 Strike Rate.
RE Pakistan team: They have shown how to play Test cricket - wear out the opposition whilst they're in the field, and then have an easier time bowling out fatigued batsmen. Perfect strategy for a 5-day game. Has nothing to do with batting is better at the beginning than the end. As it doesn't explain Pakistan's better 2nd innings over Australia's 1st innings.
Comes down to plain mental toughness. Australia wasn't prepared to dig in at all, more prepared to tee off then play out a session
Also, the lack of any ability to play spin bowling in anything but domestic conditions is a crime
Paul - 9 years ago
Heat is not an excuse cause perth is like that, in my pov, australians did not adjusted their pace to slow/lifeless pitches of UAE where Pakistan have been playing in UAE for the past 5 years regularly.
Another factor is the arrogance of the top order, who they hell they think they are? instead of digging in, they are playing like they own the game or something.
Again, to sum it up, not getting climatised to a different pitch + lack of attittude from the players is the contributing factor, it is also captain's job to see to all that but Clarke himself is full of ego!!
Tony - 9 years ago
Why blame batsmen and bowlers when the pitch is a 2 day paradise and then a dust bowl spinners dream? If Australia won the tosses, maybe it would be all so very different, but they did not, so the best of batting went to Pakistan, and they get the best of bowling too making Australia have the 4th innings. It is a HOME game for Pakistan, so the pitches and conditions are all perfectly set up for them, like the pitches that are prepared in Australia, they are what they like.
Tills familiaris - 9 years ago
The weather is atrocious. Pakistanis only have atrocious weather so why would they care about Abu Dahbi? You can't play cricket in an oven !!
If you fill a test team with predominately T20 and One Day players; then don't be suprised that they can't play beyond one day. Shame selectors
This Australian team is no more than average, they hammered a very poor and demoralised English team, beat SA who are in transition and after thought all was good, . It's not.
Batsmen play Tests like it's a limited overs game and seem unable to tought it out or leave the ball outside off stump, Mitch Johnson has a great plan A but if the pitch isn't reponsive he might as well not be there and Lyon gets wickets off the back of Johnson's bowling so ditto above.
They'll have nice green bouncy tracks this summer and will probably win to 0 so all will be forgiven and forgotten then.
Sure the pitch was a spinners paradise.
Yes, it was an ugly hot. You would think we would've prepared for it though!
Did we think we'd be playing on a pitch that would give us an advantage?
This series was an abject failure in team selection, batting order and use of the bowlers!
We weren't just beaten. We were comprehensively thrashed!
Was this our best possible team? I thought we weren't going to chop and change team selection and fiddle with the batting order anymore. Not this series!
The selection and use of Maxwell was most confusing. Steve Smith is played down the order to make way for a T20 specialist. I always thought that your two best batsmen fill the 1st and 2nd drop positions. I would think that Clarke and Smith should be filling those positions but our Captain thinks otherwise.
If we're talking blips on the radar then the last series against England is the blip. We caught England on the slide as their form since has shown.
This series our team has looked just like the way they played under Mickey Arthur.
The common denominator in leadership since then is Michael Clarke!
Good luck Aussies this summer!
Lack of commitment and graft:
Our bowlers didn't seem to have the will to plug away at off-stump or just outside (a-la Glen McGrath) - set a 7-2 field and make the batsman come to you...
Similarly our batsmen are careful for 3 or 4 overs then want to score at a run a ball - a few of them need to watch some old Geoffrey Boycott tapes, bat all day. Dare I say it make the bowler come to you if he wants a wicket.
Test cricket is a 5 day game and patience is a powerful virtue. The shorter versions of the game are fantastic and entertaining, but test cricket is a test for a reason. It's fine when you are on top and conditions are in your favour, attack all you want, but sometimes, like in this series you have to graft, and make your opponent beat you instead of smashing your way to defeat.
Having said all that - a huge credit must go to Pakistan, not only have they thrived in the conditions they have torn apart an opponent unable to adjust their style or method. A quality side is one that makes the most of its opportunities and takes advantage of being on top in the contest. They have won every facet and practically every session of the series. Well done!
Spinner selection, Nathan Lyon has failed in these conditions before. His record on spin decks is terrible. Yet they keep playing him. Vic leg spinner Ahmed would be better suited to those conditions. Aussie selecters will never learn
Where do I start? First point to make is I have no concerns with Aust playing in the Sthn Hemisphere or in England. So, they will have no issue this summer.
2. Pick a test team, players who know how to graft out an over, hour, half day putting extreme value on their wicket...it's a five day game. Pick the team for the conditions, not the same team every game
3.Force all Sheffield Shield teams to play a spinner in every team...and never as 12th man
4. Instead of running around making obscene amounts of money in unimportant T20 comps, send the batsmen & spinners to India or Sri Lanka to play in their domestic completion to learn how to play/bowl spin. If need be, Cricket Australia should pay the teams to pick our players
5. Prepare dusty pitches in Aust for training and bring over even 2nd class spinners from the subcontinent for training
6. Pick a spinner or two and stick with them. Don't chop and change after 1 test...just as well we didn't do that with SK Warne!
That'll do for now!
1. Team selection - wrong players for the job
2. Bowlers - Seem to have forgotten what those 5 bits of wood at the end of the pitch are for.
3. Clarke - Still fails to set the right field for the bowler (Ponting had similar problem after McGrath & Warne left)
Losing the toss and Michael Clarke's form. How long can he play limited cricket in the lead up to a test series and still maintain his spot in the side? If he is injury prone, he is a liability. The pitch was designed to blunt our attack and then turn late to favour theirs. If we had won the toss, Clarke would still have had to make runs and lots of them and we still don't have a top class spinner who can bowl a side out on a turning pitch.
A relevant question in test cricket is: "If you are batting and you play out a maiden over without taking risks...who is the winner????"
For a long time we have been unable to bat out an over or a tough half hour with the sole purpose of not being dismissed. All our batters are like this. Players who come in, bat carefully for a few overs to get set, then get out between 10 and 30 while pushing for runs....like so many of ours do (Smith, Maxwell, Clarke, Haddin etc) are not valuing their wicket. Just bat for time and survival for a while!
It is a game. Get over it. Remember some one wins and someone comes second. Pakistan won this time. They didn't the other times. So what.
Firstly Pakistan have played exceptionally well.
The toss of the coin and first use of the wicket helped enormously.
No need to panic though. Aussie form on dead wickets is not flash and the reason is not rocket science. We just lack that 'c lass' spinning option that would thwart opposition preparing spin friendly wickets.
Remember Aust got smashed by India on the same dead wickets and then bounced back a short time later.
RE Pitch built for the Home Team: Unfortunately not all countries can afford groundskeepers for each cricket pitch and the water resources to make each and Every ground into a green-top like Australia. There is no issue with the way the pitches are prepared as it is what occurs on every pitch in that country.
RE Australian team: Unfortunately we have an ideal that the one team fits all concept, i.e. each player is the best in only their respective position for all conditions. Simply not true. I don't know who to select, but in Test matches it's about grafting runs not a 100 Strike Rate.
RE Pakistan team: They have shown how to play Test cricket - wear out the opposition whilst they're in the field, and then have an easier time bowling out fatigued batsmen. Perfect strategy for a 5-day game. Has nothing to do with batting is better at the beginning than the end. As it doesn't explain Pakistan's better 2nd innings over Australia's 1st innings.
Comes down to plain mental toughness. Australia wasn't prepared to dig in at all, more prepared to tee off then play out a session
Also, the lack of any ability to play spin bowling in anything but domestic conditions is a crime
Heat is not an excuse cause perth is like that, in my pov, australians did not adjusted their pace to slow/lifeless pitches of UAE where Pakistan have been playing in UAE for the past 5 years regularly.
Another factor is the arrogance of the top order, who they hell they think they are? instead of digging in, they are playing like they own the game or something.
Again, to sum it up, not getting climatised to a different pitch + lack of attittude from the players is the contributing factor, it is also captain's job to see to all that but Clarke himself is full of ego!!
Why blame batsmen and bowlers when the pitch is a 2 day paradise and then a dust bowl spinners dream? If Australia won the tosses, maybe it would be all so very different, but they did not, so the best of batting went to Pakistan, and they get the best of bowling too making Australia have the 4th innings. It is a HOME game for Pakistan, so the pitches and conditions are all perfectly set up for them, like the pitches that are prepared in Australia, they are what they like.
The weather is atrocious. Pakistanis only have atrocious weather so why would they care about Abu Dahbi? You can't play cricket in an oven !!