The Ashes 2021 - 2022

[sam_ahm]

Well....... That ended quickly

[Tinah09]

I guess almost every team has one of these blokes who despite providing ample evidence that they have no business playing international cricket, the selectors for some odd reason will find a reason to pick them.

Stand up Aussie opening batsman Marcus Harris, statistically the worst Australian batsmen post world war 1 (WW1).

Marcus Harris test update.

Last 13 test innings:

11
14
8
19
13
6
3
9
5
38
3
9no
3

141 runs at 11.75
vs England it’s 64 runs at 8.

All this while Usman Khawaja (8 test centuries @ 40.00 ave) twiddles his thumbs on the bench!

[cricket_22001]

I here what you’re saying but Khawaja isn’t an opener. He would be a manufactured one if he took Harris’ spot & after last years debacle of Wade opening, I don’t think the selectors want to travel down that rabbit hole again.
Which is the illusion of how strong Australia is at this time. When Warner doesn’t play, who is there? A few young ones around ( Street, Hunt, Ward) but they aren’t tearing the house down with runs. Pucovski did but he can’t get himself on the field. Renshaw is the one we needed to succeed but he has reinvented himself in the middle order.
Plus when Australia needed Khawaja to stand up as our premier bat when Warner & Smith were banned, he didn’t. The selectors have long memories & don’t like to look bad. Still Khawaja averages 52 in Oz as opposed to 24 away.

[sam_ahm]

Khawaja absolutely deserves to be in there, he has opened in the past and also in ODIs if I remember correctly. Moreover Khawaja cannot do worse than Harris anyways, so you can't play someone just for the sake of playing an 'opener'.

Meanwhile looking Rory Burns, probably England need more South Africans in the side to do better

[Tinah09]

England once again getting a major league beating from the Aussies. A second string Aussie bowling attack no less. Jos Butler 26 runs off 207 balls (SR of 12), this is shameful, cowardly batting yet couldn't even post a respectable score or save the test match. Maybe England needs to poach more South African batsmen because the British batsmen coming out of their academies and county streams are substandard to say the least.

[jaybro]

The Aussies are cruising to another 4 or 5 nil win here, England's batting is so weak, I can't ever remember their batting being so bad?

For this reason I don't see any point in bringing Usman back to open, this is a great chance to use an Ashes series as a chance to give someone younger a chance to show if they're good enough to be a test opener. Australia are going to need to replace Warner soon as well, so in reality they need to find two test openers.

I think this is why they're persisting with Harris, they genuinely see him as the best option they have, so they're committed to seeing him improve and progress. It would be nice if he could score some runs to repay their faith though.

Other options could be Renshaw, Street or Hunt, I like Matthew Renshaw but IIRC he hasn't been opening for a while now? Hunt & STreet look promising but they're still young & inexperienced, hopefully they can get on an A-tour soon. Another candidate has emerged, Tasmanian opener Tim Ward who is actually leading the Sheffield Shield run charts this year. He's only played six first class games though so way too early for a test call up.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

To get success in Australia, batters had to be an excellent backfoot player which is missing among English batsman

[cricket_22001]

. Maybe England needs to poach more South African batsmen because the British batsmen coming out of their academies and county streams are substandard to say the least.

Dare I say Muyeye? Ouch!

[jaybro]

. Maybe England needs to poach more South African batsmen because the British batsmen coming out of their academies and county streams are substandard to say the least.

Dare I say Muyeye? Ouch!

That's what they normally do mate

[Kriterion_BD]

Good to see you back Jaybro. Where are all the other OG posters?