Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

England's warm up in Wellington has run into bad weather. Only one other tour game before the first Test.

Gone back in time, Arthur!

Ha. Soon be Bodyline!

Thanks! Squads. Aussies for first two Tests.

Tim Paine (c, wk), Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Steve Smith, David Warner.

England...

Joe Root (capt), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

8-12 DEC 00:00
Brisbane

16-20 DEC 04:00
Adelaide

25-29 DEC 23:30
Melbourne

4-8 JAN 23:30
Sydney

14-18 JAN 02:30
Perth

All done in under six weeks.

So... Khawaja's back.

And Paine's been sacked for sexting. Can't go to Wee Davie or the Bleeched Bradman, so apparantly Pat Cummins is next.

Or Marnus.

Might as well check their social media history before taking over.

In an interesting twist of fate, Queensland captain Usman Khawaja asks South Australia to follow on in their match, losing a chance for Khawaja to have a last innings to state his case...only for his main competition for the middle order slot, Travis Head, to take centre stage and score a 100.

Marcus Harris is a surprise inclusion for Australia. After a duck and 1 in his last game, and being flat out annihilated so far in tests, I'd expected not to see him around the team.

The worry for England is, while guys like Khawaja and Head might look vulnerable, I think their home records are very good.

typical that England, fed up with being served warm up opposition as far removed from what they are ever likely to face down under, decide to warm up against the lions only to have to settle for all but 29 overs of the match being washed out. You couldn't make it up really.

I think there's one more 4 day warm up still in the pipeline, but these guys haven't faced or bowled a red ball in 3 months. Organisation for overseas tours continues to be shambolic and doesn't bode well for the series

It has been unusually wet in southeastern Australia in the last few weeks. I'm talking wettest ever November unusual. So it's hard to blame the organisers too much for warmups being washed out. But it does continue a pattern of inadequate Ashes preparation.

As an aside, with the Tim Paine saga, when you look at the history of off-field nonsense in the run-up to Ashes series, particularly Ashes in Australia, I do sometimes wonder if they do this deliberately. One-sided series in prospect, therefore the organisers need to drum up some interest in advance with some inane off-field stuff (last time was awful). So they get some of the players to engage in some antics deliberately to make the headlines.

I can just imagine the call:

'Tim, you know you're a bit past your sell-by date in the Australian side, and we're planning to move on from you as test captain, but obviously you can't resign willingly just before the Ashes. How about we dig up some minor scandal that you'll resign over? Don't worry, it won't be anything actually damning (in fact, it'll probably increase your standing with a lot of Australian male fans, and there will be plenty of outrage in your defence), and we'll give you a nice severance package. Then we can promote the series and give the Poms a false sense that not all is right in the dressing room, before we crucify them as usual in Brisbane'.

The Aussie press will get the flamethrowers out if they believe a side even has a remote chance of victory in OZ.

Their current silence speaks volumes about the expected competitiveness of this series. They cant even be bothered to have a dig at us, because lets face it... they dont need to

And Paine stands down from all cricket, (my joke above was rather ill-timed)
https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/59345925

Guessing it's stress. I feel sorry for him. The conduct did not deserve that.

I agree. And i think this is the end of his cricket career.

CA have not handled this well.

As for his replacement, I can not see the reasoning in picking Carey. His form does not justify a baggy green in the test arena.