Ashes 2025/6
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@Donsteppa said in Ashes 2025/6:
Wonder if Khawaja has done enough to save his Test career at the expense of Green, when Smith is back.
Inglis will go. If they are smart they will drop Green to 7.
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Point for discussion. Are there no top quality test players under 30? Starc, Head, Carey, Archer, Root, Stokes have been the standout players so far and all over 30. Is the focus on T20 producing a generation that can't bat or bowl for long? Answers on a postcard
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I think yes. They have all the shots but don't know when to use them. I think the riches on offer and the fact that young players can really only make money on the T20 tour is playing the patience out of them.
Guys who are happy to hit the top of off over and over (not a great trait in T20)
Guys who are happy to bat time when needed.Throw in there are only three nations that play bulk test cricket and this is where you get to
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Travis Head is a way better player than his record suggests, and that is probably a black mark against him. He'll go through real lean patches of pretty 30-odds and then peel of a succession of good hundreds. An aveage of almost 43 isn't shithouse, but you watch the ease with which he scores, and how tough he seems, and the shot selection he possesses, and it should probably be 5 better.
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I think T20 is so pervasive now on TV and streaming, a few of us increasingly curmudgeonly junior helpers are seeing changes in how players of all ages approach batting.
A reverse sweep to a hattrick ball in Intermediate grade cricket last Saturday being one of many little things. I shudder to think how many dozen laps of the field that would have resulted in back in the 90's
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@KiwiPie said in Ashes 2025/6:
Point for discussion. Are there no top quality test players under 30? Starc, Head, Carey, Archer, Root, Stokes have been the standout players so far and all over 30. Is the focus on T20 producing a generation that can't bat or bowl for long? Answers on a postcard
The ECB have handed late July and August (the time when the weather and pitches are most suitable for cricket) over to The Hundred which is an even shorter game than T20.
Longer cricket formats such as T20, 50 overs and 4 day county games have been pushed to the edges of the season when weather and pitches are more variable to the clear detriment of the development of the England national teams.
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Two most obvious things England can do to make themselves more competitive for the next Ashes tour to Australia.
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Play some warm-up games in Australia's to acclimatise to local conditions.
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Work hard on catching. Dropped catches have killed them in this series.
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@KiwiPie said in Ashes 2025/6:
Point for discussion. Are there no top quality test players under 30? Starc, Head, Carey, Archer, Root, Stokes have been the standout players so far and all over 30. Is the focus on T20 producing a generation that can't bat or bowl for long? Answers on a postcard
With Australia, it's hard to tell.
They've got 15 guys in their squad and only Green is under 30.
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With everybody fit it's probably Ravindra, Philips, O'Rourke and maybe one of Smith or Sears.
On top of that we have Fisher, Hay and Mariu who are on the outskirts of the squad, Foulkes who's currently in the squad but I don't think has done enough to displace the guys currently injured. Curtis Heaphy also showing promise at domestic level.
An all under 30 side:
Mariu
Heaphy
Matt Boyle?
Ravindra
Tim Robinson
Hay
Phillips
Smith
Foulkes
Sears
O'RourkeBowling is okay, struggled a bit for batting. I don't see anyone who looks ready to bat at 3. Finn Allen obviously a factor in white ball, but took Robinson ahead of him for tests since Robinson is actually playing plunket shield and doing well.
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@Donsteppa said in Ashes 2025/6:
I would have said the world.
He makes Ben Stokes look like Garfield Sobers
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Green has the potential to average in the mid 40s with the bat and early 30s with the ball, which would put him right up there, and his numbers at every level except test indicate he could do that. But he just hasn't been able to make the step up from FC. I'm not sure he has the powers of concentration (like most young players these days) to excel at in the test arena against bowlers that will consistently challenge you, he often seems to get out making a mistake.
Somewhat related, but I think younger generations these days are growing up in an environment (with the internet, social media and now AI) that does not foster practicing concentrating for long periods of time, in any field, sports or otherwise. Tiger Woods superpower was his ability to concentrate for very long periods without making a mistake, and the same ability is needed in tests. Modern test cricket is probably a little bit symptomatic of wider society; it's not random that a lot of test sides these days are full of over 30s with younger players preferring T20s which are more in line with the quick, short, instant gratification type of entertainment these days.
I'd be interested in stats on % of drawn tests each year as well, but I don't have time to look that up right now. It feels like there is a LOT less draws these days with batsmen scoring faster and getting themselves out a lot playing aggressively.
