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Australia v England, 3rd Test, 16th December , 23.30


Sea to Shining Sea said:
Yep. He should be in the squad.

I’m not wholly convinced that Smith is anything like a natural keeper. He doesn’t seem to have the vocal energy behind the sticks or the energy between overs. He’s essentially a passenger.

Look at the difference with Carey and how active he is in the game (even aside from his skills with the gloves). It’s chalk and cheese
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I'd rather have Smith the batter avg 40+ and a more vocal and energetic keeper who averages 30 in the team.
 
Voice of fair play said:
Yeah keeping has been bad this series but I would not overreact and drop a player who has looked extremely promising in his career up to this point on the basis of one bad series.
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I’m not writing him off. The issue for all the younger players is the absolutely abysmal preparation.
Smith,Duckett, brook and some of the bowlers would’ve benefited from time in the middle. But that’s gone and has been done to death.

I’d definitely consider taking thr gloves off smith as I think he will prove to be a good batter without the keeping
 
hank evans said:
He’s had a couple of shocking decisions but despite this his batting is Miles off in this series. I’d take the gloves off him and see if he can just bat without distraction. But that probably means going back to Foakes and i can’t see it
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James Rew (10 1st class centuries)
Scotty 1978 said:
Wonder if Langer fancies being next England coach
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Would rather try and temp Ponting
 
I think Stokes stays on as Captain, not least because there's nobody else and Brook could do with not having the test captaincy in a world cup year.

I'm very doubtful Stokes makes it to the next Ashes but could see a transition year where he has an end point in mind.
 
hank evans said:
I’m not writing him off. The issue for all the younger players is the absolutely abysmal preparation.
Smith,Duckett, brook and some of the bowlers would’ve benefited from time in the middle. But that’s gone and has been done to death.

I’d definitely consider taking thr gloves off smith as I think he will prove to be a good batter without the keeping
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Yeah fair point James Rew could be given a go as looks a quality player.

Just think perspective needs to sometimes be put in place after a terrible series.

And Smith despite a bad series too good a player to discard imo
 
scotch said:
James Rew (10 1st class centuries)

Would rather try and temp Ponting
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I Forget him, got to wonder why he’s not been getting a sniff. The loyalty shown to Pope has been admirable to a point but he’s crippling the team and a better keeper who can bat and let smith just bat is required almost as much as anything else. We have been cooked in this series, I honestly see more in smiths batting alone than pope
 
All as expected really including the knock by Crawley which I said would happen, he's got a habit of doing this. Once again Brook throwing his wicket away, that is something that must be addressed as it's woeful that dismissal. Great catch to get Pope out but that should be the last we see of him now. Frustrating
 
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