2 minute read We don’t mean that in the sense that we’ve tried Test cricket and it should now be abandoned. What we’re saying is that Test cricket is essentially a shoddily-designed framework for testing all sorts of hypotheses and the lack of clarity is what makes it so compelling. Take India v
Continue readingCategory: Australia
Phillip Hughes against India’s spinners
< 1 minute read Around 95 per cent of cricket statistics are 85 per cent meaningless, but here’s a nice one: In his last 39 deliveries against spin, Phillip Hughes has scored zero runs and been dismissed four times. Earlier in the year, Hughes was overlooked for the Tests against South Africa because the
Continue readingAustralia add two spinners and subtract one
< 1 minute read Yesterday, we wrote about Australia’s firmly held belief that there’s a better spinner out there despite there being absolutely no evidence whatsoever that that’s the case. Today they dropped Nathan Lyon. But this isn’t exactly the cut-and-dried lack of faith in Lyon that you might think. Instead, it seems that
Continue readingFawad Ahmed and Australian spin belief
2 minute read If you don’t know who Fawad Ahmed is, he’s a Pakistani refugee who’s looking to get an Australian passport and he also bowls a bit of spin in his spare time. Now, before we continue, let us be clear that Fawad Ahmed might well be an excellent bowler. He might
Continue readingHow will Australia win Tests in India?
< 1 minute read England fans appear to be making the most of Australia’s eight wicket defeat to India, drawing all sorts of conclusions based on this one Test match. This shows a certain lack of awareness when their own team recently lost the first Test in a series in India by nine wickets.
Continue readingDoes MS Dhoni make Test cricket interesting?
< 1 minute read Speaking about captaincy in his interview with the Guardian, Ian Chappell said: “I also felt – and I think this is overlooked a bit – that it was your job to make the cricket interesting for the players. In doing that, you get the best out of your best players.
Continue readingIan Chappell’s view of squad rotation
2 minute read There’s an interview with Ian Chappell over at The Guardian (in which he comes across very well) and there’s a couple of things in it that we want to talk about. The first is Chappell’s view of the modern world of rest and rotation: “I can understand that you’ve got
Continue readingOne of Australia’s bowlers can kind of bat
< 1 minute read That’s the big news for the Australians today. Moises Henriques might well turn into the next Jacques Kallis or the next Imran Khan, but at present there’s a vague scent of bits and the distinct whiff of pieces in the air. Henriques is one of the better Test players born
Continue readingBuilding a cricket team Surrey style
< 1 minute read Ricky Ponting’s signed for Surrey. He also got fined the other day for throwing his bat after being dismissed. Mindlessly throwing the bat is how one or two Surrey batsmen approach first-class cricket, so he should fit in well. About this time last year, there were a stack of articles
Continue readingWhy is Shane Watson Australia captain?
< 1 minute read One answer would be ‘because Michael Clarke’s injured’. If you’re wondering what’s wrong with Clarke, a Cricket Australia spokesman said: “Michael Clarke has had his right hamstring assessed by team medical staff following the game and the team physiotherapist has confirmed that Michael has stiffness in the right hamstring.” There’s
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