Tough years ahead for us.

[chef]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

The other thing that really hurts Australian cricekt is the benign state of our wickets. They just aren't challenging. What is the point in producing tracks that are so flat it inflates the ability of the batsmen? No wonder guys like Trott and Cook are clobbering our bowlers. When there is no sideways movement and the ball doesn't bounce after the shine has gone its like batting on concrete against a tennis ball!

Cook's record is phenomenal. He is a class act.

[Mantis]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

Cook's record is phenomenal. He is a class act.

His record in this series is 'phenomenal'.... but before that he was just an honest player who saved his bacon with a century at the Oval during the English summer, if he had failed there he probably wouldn't have even been a member of the touring party.

[chef]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

His record in this series is 'phenomenal'.... but before that he was just an honest player who saved his bacon with a century at the Oval during the English summer, if he had failed there he probably wouldn't have even been a member of the touring party.

And his record for scoring 100's

15 100's before his 26th birthday which is equal with Bradman and only behind Tendulkar.

[Mantis]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

And his record for scoring 100's

15 100's before his 26th birthday which is equal with Bradman and only behind Tendulkar.

Missed the fact that to achieve this feat he has played 34 more tests than Bradman had played at this age and only batted 67 more times.

Whoopdy f*****g do.

[chef]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

Missed the fact that to achieve this feat he has played 34 more tests than Bradman had played at this age and only batted 67 more times.

Whoopdy f*****g do.

Good for you mate.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

Cook's record is phenomenal. He is a class act.

Would Cook have gotten a game in the Australian side 5 years ago ahead of Haydo or Langer? I don't think so. He is quality yes, but like the criticism ofetn raised against Haydo and Langer the attacks he faced were weak.

The flat Australian pitches, poor bowling and atrocious field settings have inflated his record against us.

[lemmon]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

Good thread and one that has to be discussed, as Antonio Gramsci said "A crisis arises when an old order is dying but the new order is yet to be created". We are seeing this struggle at the moment, largely due to a lack of forethought during the golden years but I dont think the drought will be as long are most as saying. We wont have the same 20 year downfall that the West Indies have suffered thanks to the strength of the domestic and club competitions that ensure competitiveness and talent. The kids coming through are in my mind good enough to get us back to the top, Khawaja, Hughes, Marsh, Smith, Lynn (who I rate really highly, solid head on this boys shoulders) will form the backbone of our batting lineup for the next decade and hopefully raw bowlers like Hazelwood, Pattison and Starc will continue to come on. The turnover must start as soon as possible with kids like Khawaja, Hughes, Paine and Smith already good enough for international cricket and the sooner they get into the team, the quicker they acclimatise and the shorter the painful period will be.

[lemmon]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

Missed the fact that to achieve this feat he has played 34 more tests than Bradman had played at this age and only batted 67 more times.

Whoopdy f*****g do.

Because we have so many 26 year old batsmen with 15 test hundreds to their name, think Ferguson, Marsh, White...Oh wait sorry, my fault.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

Good thread and one that has to be discussed, as Antonio Gramsci said "A crisis arises when an old order is dying but the new order is yet to be created". We are seeing this struggle at the moment, largely due to a lack of forethought during the golden years but I dont think the drought will be as long are most as saying. We wont have the same 20 year downfall that the West Indies have suffered thanks to the strength of the domestic and club competitions that ensure competitiveness and talent. The kids coming through are in my mind good enough to get us back to the top, Khawaja, Hughes, Marsh, Smith, Lynn (who I rate really highly, solid head on this boys shoulders) will form the backbone of our batting lineup for the next decade and hopefully raw bowlers like Hazelwood, Pattison and Starc will continue to come on. The turnover must start as soon as possible with kids like Khawaja, Hughes, Paine and Smith already good enough for international cricket and the sooner they get into the team, the quicker they acclimatise and the shorter the painful period will be.

Totally agree but the golden years stopped 4 years back. The 'new order' should happen immediately after the last England home series and now we've lost 4 years of development and about to lose a second Ashes series. They still hang their hat on the Pakistan series last summer when really the all results and records should be wiped.

[Mantis]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

Because we have so many 26 year old batsmen with 15 test hundreds to their name, think Ferguson, Marsh, White...Oh wait sorry, my fault.

This has more to do with the way we select a team than lauding Cook as the next coming of Bradman.

Ferguson = 0 tests
Marsh = 0 tests
White = <5 tests

Cook = 62 tests

[mighty_west]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

Missed the fact that to achieve this feat he has played 34 more tests than Bradman had played at this age and only batted 67 more times.

Whoopdy f*****g do.

He also has an average of around the 50 mark, not bad for someone "saving his bacon" i would have thought.

[Mantis]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

He also has an average of around the 50 mark, not bad for someone "saving his bacon" i would have thought.

The saving his bacon comment comes from the 110 he made in the 2nd innings of the match v Pakistan @ The Oval. In his previous 8 innings of the English summer he had scored just 116 @ 14.5 and another failure in this innings would have seen his spot in the side under immense scrutiny (because the English selectors actually drop out of form players), but because of this century he survived.

I am sure a failure or 2 at the start this Ashes campaign would have seen him dropped, but as we have seen he has batted extremely well in the first 2 tests and has boosted his average from 42.78 to the current mark of 46.28.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Tough years ahead for us.

The saving his bacon comment comes from the 110 he made in the 2nd innings of the match v Pakistan @ The Oval. In his previous 8 innings of the English summer he had scored just 116 @ 14.5 and another failure in this innings would have seen his spot in the side under immense scrutiny (because the English selectors actually drop out of form players), but because of this century he suvived.

I am sure a failure or 2 at the start this Ashes campaign would have seen him dropped, but as we have seen he has batted extremely well in the first 2 tests and has boosted his average from 42.78 to the current mark of 46.28.

Isn't it funny to see Australia now playing the role of the team that players save their careers against and play themselves into form, a role once reserved for the likes of Bangladesh, New Zealand, and more recently the West Indies? Couldn't have happened to a nicer team.