Wednesday, August 24

wed, 24th

It’s just another test, Ricky? It better not be, matey, cause if you guys play as carelessly (and, dare I say, overconfidently?) as you have been, it might not be that easy as just another test for the (erstwhile?) juggernaut. But Tait's playing, and that's exciting. And if McGrath fails the fitness test, this could be a dodgy test for them...

Meanwhile the much awaited(?) Rest of the World squads have been announced. I too had polled in my selection to cricinfo. I can’t believe Shoaib has made it to both sides, and though he will probably be entertaining,
this juggling of entertainment and form/skill is something that can only be proven right or wrong in hindsight. Vaas must surely make the side but he doesn’t. I would still prefer Sangakarra in both forms of the game, and surely Inzy could have been slotted in there somewhere? (And what's with squads of thirteen?)

5 comments:

Ashwin Ramachandran said...

Like the Afro-Asian selections, the ROW team is again a show-pony rather than a work horse. Not to belittle the quality of the Smiths, the Tendulkars and the Laras. I genuinely think that this team has what it takes to beat the Aussies. But it's not hard to guess that Kumble and Inzy are not the sponsors' favorite poster boys and would never have been in the fray even if they had performed well, or in Inzy's case, is still performing well. It will interesting to see Murali return to Australia after all the heckling he's received over the years. Hopefully the Australian PM won't shoot his mouth off again.

Anonymous said...

Well it may work both ways with tait, avinash. If he is like the Blee of a couple of years ago, he might just get thrashed for runs- in any case thats not much worse than Gilly or Kasper. Worth the risk, in my books.

ashwin, first off- please no plurals with the names Tendulkar and Lara, ok :) please!
But yeah this is nowhere near as pointless as the Afro Asian teama0 that was a farce. Picking Inzy would probably have meant dropping Sachin )ODI) and they weren't going to do that
Murali down under? very interesting...

Ashwin Ramachandran said...

"first off- please no plurals with the names Tendulkar and Lara"

Point well taken :).

Anonymous said...

Is it just me or were the Aussies really shit today? It reminded me of the awful team of the mid 80´s and i think the score flatters them.If it wasn´t for luck (Strauss),rain (trescothick) and english complacency (Vaughan) they would be up to the necks in it.

Anonymous said...

yup Tait did pretty ok on his outing, given the pitch conditions. Y'know sub 400 might be a good score, but that really depends on what the weather is going to be like. If we *knew* it would rain then Engalnd would be far more comfortable.

Yeah chris, a bit of luck for the aussies- and I know what you mean. They looked really listless. Cricinfo talks about how they don't look like the team who are going to win at all and how they are underconfident. I dont know about the latter, but they sure look nothing like the side we have grown used to over the last couple of years (heck, longer)