Thursday, November 19, 2009

Australian Squad for First Test announced

Batsmen
Ricky Ponting (capt)
Simon Katich
Michael Hussey
Michael Clarke
Marcus North
Brad Haddin (wk)

Bowlers
Mitchell Johnson
Nathan Hauritz
Peter Siddle
Ben Hilfenhaus
Shane Watson
Doug Bollinger

Only one change, Stuart Clark is out, Bollinger is in.  Which is a bit of a shame for Clark, who has been putting respectable performances but let’s be honest, after what Bollinger turned in on the 6th ODI they were obligated to give him his second Test Cap.  Alas, Brett Lee is still out for the count with that elbow spur, but still having two proper quicks in the attack will be a treat. 

Hopefully Haddin can get his head around batting again, because his last few performances that I can see have been uniformly uninspiring.  The rest of the batting line-up should hold up though, with Ponting and Hussey back in form.

Dunno yet who is 12th man but if I were to make stupid bets, I’d opt for Hilfenhaus or Siddle.

7 comments:

  1. It's be Bollinger who is 12th man. It might not stay that way the whole series, but they can't drop any of the other three.

    Hilfy was the leading wicket-taker in the Ashes, so how can they drop him and Punter just loves Sids, plus in theory, MJ brings batting skills to the no 8job, which none of the others have. Bolly will just have to wait.

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  2. Well, thats quite likely, Vim.

    Still, I think having a pair of full-fledged quicks in the line-up instead of a brace of medium-fasts must be pretty tempting, especially when facing a West Indies line up that has been practicing on very slow pitches up till now.

    Maybe I'm just biased because I'd like to see him in action on a test level again :)

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  3. Mitchy for 12th man - not for any particular performance reasons but because that photo we saw last time he was 12th man was a gem!

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  4. He's never, ever going to live that photo down :)

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  5. Hey fellow West Aussie - which part of Perth are you from?

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  6. South of the river :) Yourself?

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  7. Went to school in Middle Swan then off to the NW - Joondalup. North of the river girl all the way.

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