Posted by: nestaquin | April 1, 2008

Australia Name Squad for Caribbean Tour

There could be little argument that this is the strongest squad available with the stand out selections being Beau Casson as the second spinner, the deserved recall of Simon Katich and the debut tour for Shaun Marsh.

Stuart MacGill returns from injury, Brad Haddin finally steps out of Adam Gilchrist’s shadow and Cameron White gets another chance to prove himself at the elite level.

Michael Hussey’s younger brother David gets his first chance on an overseas tour while Ben Hilfenhaus and Ashley Noffke will battle it out for twelfth man duties.

COMBINED SQUAD

Nathan Bracken

Beau Casson

Stuart Clark

Michael Clarke (vc)

Brad Haddin (wk)

Ben Hilfenhaus

James Hopes

Phil Jaques

Mitchell Johnson

Matthew Hayden

David Hussey

Michael Hussey

Simon Katich

Brett Lee

Stuart MacGill

Shaun Marsh

Ashley Noffke

Ricky Ponting (capt)

Andrew Symonds

Cameron White

In the days ahead 99.94 will look at the Test and ODI squads in more detail.

 

Posted in ODI, Tests, West Indies, australia, cricket | Tags: , , , , , ,

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Responses

Are you concerned that so few young players appear to be pressing the thirty-somethings? When those thirty-somethings were all-time greats, that was a big ask, but can the same case be made now (amongst the bowlers anyway)?

By: The Tooting Trumpet on April 2, 2008
at 5:52 am

Totally and completely unconcerned Toots. The selectors have picked the players in form and they are all deserving.

It would seem that in Australian cricket, 30 is about the prime age for selection. The turnover of players, especially quicks is there if you look closely. Only Brett Lee is left from the 2005 Ashes and I expect the bowling line up in 2009 to be Lee, Clark, Johnson, Hilfenhaus and Bracken. Noffke and Tait are in the mix too.

That’s a good blend of relative youth and experience.

Hilfy’s team-mate Brett Geeves is playing beside McGrath in the IPL and we all expect him to return a better bowler. Mitch Johnson has forgone the IPL riches to continue his improvement with Cooley and Lillee and Noffke just keeps getting bags of wickets. Tait who is only 25 could also comeback better. Returning from adversity is a theme in Australian sport and I wouldn’t write Tait off just yet.

So as we say down south, no worries mate.

By: nestaquin on April 2, 2008
at 10:23 am

Clark’s numbers for each year look interesting here http://stats.cricinfo.com/statsguru/engine/player/4582.html?class=1;orderby=default;template=results;type=bowling.

If he were a batsmen, I’d be suggesting that he had been worked out a bit.

I knew you wouldn’t be worried, but I just wonder about all the bright young things who were waiting for the old guard to step aside and seize their chance. Turns out the ones waiting were not so young (Haddin, MacGill, Jaques, Hussey, Noffke, Katich). And the Pura Cup Final saw some oldish attacks too. Can the bowlers in particular, stay fit? English ones of that age can’t, we know that!

By: The Tooting Trumpet on April 2, 2008
at 11:48 am

Toots, that link went nowhere but I think I understand the gist of your argument. Big Stu has 68 wkts at 21 in 15 Tests. They are very good figures considering 14 of those Tests were against SAF, ENG, SRL and IND.

He’ll get a bag or two against the Windies and will no doubt trouble the feeble Kiwis later on this year.

I think they can stay fit because at most they only play 11 First Class matches a year. Whereas in England they play a whole lot more.

Example:
Sidebottom Aged 30 119 matches
Bracken Aged 30 63 matches

Rather than the age of the bowler I think a better indicator may the wear and tear on their bodies.

By: nestaquin on April 2, 2008
at 3:20 pm

Sorry about the link. Here is the main stats for Clark to which I refer.

year 2006 42 wickets at 17.76.
year 2007 17 wickets at 23.23
year 2008 9 wickets at 38.55

But they should improve as you say - can’t play England all the time!

And I agree about the age being less important than the matches - I guess the overs disparity would be even greater.

By: The Tooting Trumpet on April 2, 2008
at 6:21 pm

So it appears another New South Welshman, Doug Bollinger (now with added hair!) will be touring in replace of an injured Hilfenhaus. Bad luck to Ben but I’d be fascinated to see how Doug performs in the test arena should he be given the chance. His stats last year in State cricket were superlative.

By: Pete on April 18, 2008
at 5:04 pm

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