Ashes: First Test

It's weird...no thread on T1 yet
Ashton Agar will play is the breaking news.

Big gamble from them and very harsh on Nathan Lyon.

yes this is a gamble...19 year old...debuting in a BIG BIG game.

I read this as " we don't believe Lyon makes any diffrence so let's gamble with that slot"

He he. Its about to kick off.

I think its great the aussies have stuck him in. Lets be honest they need to do something different

Lyon might not make a difference, but you can probably rely on him not to get thrashed everywhere. Can't say the same for Agar. No other cap presented, so no Faulkner.

Well bit a gamble from Australia. Though looking at the problem KP had with ojha in India, I think the same might be there in the mind while including him. Looking at the success of kane willimson three months back against poms, i feel this gamble will go Aussies way. He can also bat a bit.

His batting may have swayed it a bit but if his left arm stuff is rubbish England will pummel it like they did to Doherty in Aus.

Finn plays for England (according to Bumble!).

Seen Agar bowl a few times looks a fantastic young spinner. Very mature for a 19 year old.

Smith over Warner is no surprise. Smith was very good in India.

Surprised that Cowan got a gig ahead of Khawaja.

Shame Jackson Bird wasn't favoured over Siddle.

England bat first. Good luck Joe!

'The selectors have gone with this 11' - Clarke didn't sound overly pleased when we said this sentence or am I imagining things?!

OMG...they left out Bresnan...unbelievable display of postive intent from England

predos in the first innings-

England declare on 550 for 6

J Root 150

Steve Smith is my pick as the star of the series.......electric tempermanet...good bastman....and bonus leg spinner when the pitch is turning

My predo:

England 340 all out, Cook 70, Root 20, Trott 40, KP 80, Bell and Prior are out cheaply, Bairstow 20, then the tail end puts on another 100 between them.

Australia then post 340 themselves.

If the pitch is turning and they are going to Smith's leggies then England are well on top, but I do like Smith's attitude as both as batsman and fielder.

JDizzle wrote:'The selectors have gone with this 11' - Clarke didn't sound overly pleased when we said this sentence or am I imagining things?!

Clarke wanted his pal Warner in at 6 by all accounts.

 

Gerry SA wrote:

JDizzle wrote:'The selectors have gone with this 11' - Clarke didn't sound overly pleased when we said this sentence or am I imagining things?!

Clarke wanted his pal Warner in at 6 by all accounts.

so true

Clarke gets so much unfair cop for his selection skills. Lest we forget that as a member of the selection panel, he won 12 out of 21 tests as captain, before India spanked him. Much better than the masses would like to believe. I mean, he is still hovering around 50% as a captain, with a woefully under manned team. Sop credit to him. I also think Warner should play. If they didnt send him home I see no point of keeping him the touring team if he doesnt play. I am probably the biggest fan of both Clarke and Warner on the forum, though. So I am biased.

Trott likes roxette and romcoms..

Is he single and trying the sensitive approach!

Pattison to COOK>.............

WIDE

Wide  

alot of swing out there. but that first over was a bit lame

Not very threatening, wait for him to get his lines right, good amount of swing though, would have been interesting if England had bowled I reckon.

That was hilarious, they can no longer laugh at Harmy

GREAT SHOT COOKY!!

YES Hodge. Jimmy will be wishing he was out there at the moment

Some decent pace from both Starc and Pattinson, will be interesting when they get their lines right.

Get in Cooky!

Cook off the mark - he's currently 30th in the all-time run scorers list in Test matches, on 7,528 runs. If he can post another 700 runs this series (last Ashes series he posted 766), that would move him onto 8,228 runs, and into 22nd place all-time, just three runs shy of David Gower in 21st spot.

And to think, he has years ahead of him!

Anyone know where he is compared to Tendulkar at the same age or tests? Remember a couple of years ago he was ahead of Sachin.

700 runs in a series is some going- if he posts 450 he would have done well(remeber that you dont allways get to bat 10 times even as an opener). Last ashes Cook was just unbeatable. It was one of the finest batting performances I can remember- the average was probally over 120 from what i can remeber

No reason he can't do that again, he's been in impeccable form for years. I can't see him doing badly against this seam attack, he's faced much better in previous years.

Slow start by England, that's fine by me. We only need one innings to put this shower away.

Well yeah he could do..

However the pitch at the moment doesnt look batting friendly!

It doesn't but you'd prefer to not be batting last on it, think of Swann on days 4/5 with Anderson at the other end...

I don't mind if we only score 250 on Day 1, we do the same on Day 2 and take the three days to get Australia out twice for less than 500. Easily do-able I reckon.

Going against my prediction of course, but predos are meant to be sensible

Teams exactly as expected ...except of course for the Australian "wild card" punt on Agar , which does shock me.
Must have impressed the management , but this does seem a bit of a hopeful attempt at pulling a rabbit out of the hat , something Australia seem to have been trying a lot lately...we will see.

Swing on offer early so batting might not be too easy before lunch. Rather comically poor start from Pattinson but he is better than that and seems to be settling in now.

I think that 'Compton has class' comment was the start of the Joe Root sledging, insinuating that Root doesn't have class. Well he's doing okay so far Clarkey

kingraf wrote:Clarke gets so much unfair cop for his selection skills. Lest we forget that as a member of the selection panel, he won 12 out of 21 tests as captain, before India spanked him. Much better than the masses would like to believe. I mean, he is still hovering around 50% as a captain, with a woefully under manned team. Sop credit to him. I also think Warner should play. If they didnt send him home I see no point of keeping him the touring team if he doesnt play. I am probably the biggest fan of both Clarke and Warner on the forum, though. So I am biased.

Wouldn't say Warner shouldn't play , kingraf

But Smith had batted rather well in the warmups , so it would have been harsh to allow Warner to leapfrog him without match practice. He would also have been batting out of position...one gamble enough for day one ...

If Cooty can just stay in then the sun will shine eventually and they will be in batting heaven

Pattinson is a fiery type...big glare at Root after that ball...

...to which Root returns a happy laugh  

Don't think he is a natural target for sledging...

not sure if I want strauss on the sky team.

Cook out.  

Pattinson aggressive. I think I'd spend the entire time asking him how Darren is.

while pattinson has bowled well....it was an airy fairy shot by Cook that caused his demise

Okay, I take the blame for that

root will get a 150. trott in so no drams- he will only score 50 but he will hang about all day loong

Poor from Cook there. Didn't need to chase that. Ball just went across him and he was drawn in...

Had been a few little edges , but all kept down...that was a bit of a gift to Australia.

Time for Siddle. Has had a slightly disappointing lead up , but I think the Test situation will bring out his best.
Honesty is his big quality.

Curious lack of singles so far.

They have generally picked off the boundaries pretty well from the bad balls , but a lot of leaves and defending in between.

Drinks.

I need one after that shot from Cooky. Such a disappointing start, as captain you really need to stick around for a while. We'll really see what Joe Root is made of now.

Root is an absolute moon man. How can you sledge a guy like that, not gonna affect him. Seems to have that glazed/high personality where nothing can get him down.

Not quite a Shane Warne first ball from Agar! Thank God for that!

Looks to get a nice loop on it though.