Guard of honour
Australia's opening batter, David Warner, received a guard of honour from Pakistan's team at his last Test match. An emotional moment. You'd think Pakistan would be glad to see the back of him, seeing he has scored a triple century against them and a century before lunch.
He began the series facing an extremely negative article from Mitchell Johnson, claiming Warner didn't deserve a hero's farewell and after five years had still never really owned the ball-tampering scandal. But Warner's 164 in the first Test gave respite and allowed him a positive send-off.
His opening successor has been named as...Steven Smith. Which will take getting used to as Smith has been exceptional batting at 4. At 34 and after 105 Tests he has scored 9,500 runs at an average of 58, among the best of all time. Probably his best years are behind him and even though he wants the challenge, it's hard to see this being a great success.
The latest is that it's because bowlers since Neil Wagner have focused on a short legside line which slows Smith down, which he finds frustrating. He's looking to get into a situation where they can't bowl that way with the new ball.
It gets Australia's top six batters into the team, allowing Cameron Green's return to the middle order. That idea hasn't always worked well, like when India dropped Aakash Chopra to bring in Yuvraj Singh (Chopra's average was miserable but he did his job seeing the shine off the ball in a partnership with free-scoring Virender Sehwag, setting the game up for a powerful middle order).
The issue seems to be that the success of Australia's Test team has kept a generation out, Green excepted, and there are few or no clear successors. Matt Renshaw has been brought into the squad, but might not get a game unless someone gets injured. He's 27, so could be considered a longer-term prospect and he had the best Test credentials among the likely successors, the others being Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris. Previously, Bancroft's good recent Sheffield Shield results had made him the frontrunner. The man they want would be Will Pucovski, but he's not currently in the picture. I had thought of Joe Burns who had credentials but his selection would make the team a bit of a Dad's army.
Guard of honour
Australia's opening batter, David Warner, received a guard of honour from Pakistan's team at his last Test match. An emotional moment. You'd think Pakistan would be glad to see the back of him, seeing he has scored a triple century against them and a century before lunch.
He began the series facing an extremely negative article from Mitchell Johnson, claiming Warner didn't deserve a hero's farewell and after five years had still never really owned the ball-tampering scandal. But Warner's 164 in the first Test gave respite and allowed him a positive send-off.
His opening successor has been named as...Steven Smith. Which will take getting used to as Smith has been exceptional batting at 4. At 34 and after 105 Tests he has scored 9,500 runs at an average of 58, among the best of all time. Probably his best years are behind him and even though he wants the challenge, it's hard to see this being a great success.
The latest is that it's because bowlers since Neil Wagner have focused on a short legside line which slows Smith down, which he finds frustrating. He's looking to get into a situation where they can't bowl that way with the new ball.
It gets Australia's top six batters into the team, allowing Cameron Green's return to the middle order. That idea hasn't always worked well, like when India dropped Aakash Chopra to bring in Yuvraj Singh (Chopra's average was miserable but he did his job seeing the shine off the ball in a partnership with free-scoring Virender Sehwag, setting the game up for a powerful middle order).
The issue seems to be that the success of Australia's Test team has kept a generation out, Green excepted, and there are few or no clear successors. Matt Renshaw has been brought into the squad, but might not get a game unless someone gets injured. He's 27, so could be considered a longer-term prospect and he had the best Test credentials among the likely successors, the others being Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris. Previously, Bancroft's good recent Sheffield Shield results had made him the frontrunner. The man they want would be Will Pucovski, but he's not currently in the picture. I had thought of Joe Burns who had credentials but his selection would make the team a bit of a Dad's army.