Oh gosh, I feel a bit of a rant coming on here:
reneker wrote:but I just have to seay how ridiculous is it that Usman Khawaja is being dropped for Ed Cowan is coming into the squad.
I dislike Ussie playing, but he's a New South Welshman.
I think there's been too much homerism towards New South Wales players. The last test against the Kiwis, 6 out of the 11 selected were from the Blues... and it's not like they were particularly form selections. Dave Warner is a great hitter and played well in the last innings, but there's no way he's going to do that consistently. Hughes is rubbish and didn't deserve to play any of those two games, no matter how many injuries there were. Khawaja was probably a form selection, but he couldn't really get going. Michael Clarke of course is an automatic selection and is probably the only exception in the bunch. While I like Brad Haddin, his form with the bat hasn't been great of late and his glovework at times can be downright dodgey. And Ben Cutting probably should have gotten a spot over Starc, who is really just a poor man's version of Mitchell Johnson.
I mean, the previous summer they even tried out Steve Smith! Granted he's a selection on potential, but if you're not going to utilise his spin bowling, he's a wasted selection because his batting technique is too questionable for him to be consistent.
Of the 5 non-NSW players selected, you had Ponting, who's Australia's highest run scorer of all time, Hussey who has been arguably their best batsman over the past 5 years, Siddle who has a knack of getting important wickets, Pattinson, who has been Australia's bowler of the summer so far and Lyon, who is probably Australia's best spin bowling option at this point of time.
I'd rather see Ponting get dropped; he has got to go.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one since it was written before the test, but he's been the only batsmen (apart from maybe Pattinson) who has been consistent over the course of this match.
Anyway, I don't mean to be argumentative, I'm just very opinionated when it comes to cricket. I've been watching it since I was a kid and it's probably my favourite sport, along with basketball.