Who's next?

[Seamer]

If you had to choose on form, Bevan wipes the floor with the lot of them. But unfortunatly, like Hodge, he is the wrong side of 30, and as Australia has to look to the future, you can discard the both of those guys. I personally think Katitch is the type of player you need when rebuilding a team, not for a team that is already on top. He has failed to fully take advantage of his chances to date, and has a habit of sooking to the media when things don,t go his way.
I say give Katitch one more chance, and if he fails, plump for a young bolter that has an aggresive aproach like they did with Clarke.

[Leafy Seadragon]

The problem is there's no other Michael Clarkes waiting in the wings. He was the one player big things were expected of before his debut although admittedly few thought he'd start that well. The others we would expect to probably hold their own, but the amount of debate is indicative that no one player stands out.

There's a few that I think could do well, pretty well all named prior, although I think that Boof might still have a chance to make the tour given his experience and record in England. Though I must admit, even as a big Lehman fan, I think thta its time the team moved on.

[Beny]

He has failed to fully take advantage of his chances to date, and has a habit of sooking to the media when things don,t go his way.

Was I the only person watching the tour of India?? Remember when he proformed exactly the role we are talking about here and fell only a few runs short of a ton? He had a fantastic tour! Even before then he has proformed well...

[Zainub]

And he's done well in the one-day games he's played too, and done the so called dirty buisness of rebuilding an innings after the top five have been skitted out for not many a few times. He makes quite a lot of 70s-90s , and at this point perhaps his only criticism can be your conversion rate. But he's done enough in my opinion to suggest he's one for the future. I would deem it unwise if Aus exclude him of their plans, future plans that is.

[Paoli]

Yeah what i meant was WHO will be the backup when you have a lineup somewhat like:

Langer
Hayden
Ponting
Clarke
Martyn
Katich
Gilchrist
Warne
Dizzy
Kaspa
McGrath

Lee, MacGill, Watson and......Hodge or M.Hussey. I say Hodge but M.Hussey on his ODI form looks the front runner..Any thoughts??

ps Hodge only just turned 30 and still could have a good six years

[Zainub]

I've not seen enough of either Husey or Hodge to comment my self Paoli but I presume both are very good, almost equally good, at least that is what I can tell from statistics and things I have heard and read. May be they could just toss and coin with heads for Hussey and tails for Hodge and then see what happens ... (Thank God I'm not a selector!)

[Beny]

Hussy is a bit too attacking for me. He's a lower order batsmen or a number 7....

[Seamer]

Originally Posted by Paoli69

I say Hodge but M.Hussey on his ODI form looks the front runner..Any thoughts??

ps Hodge only just turned 30 and still could have a good six years

P69. Your faith in Hodge and Victorians in general is admirable. But in all fairness, Hodge and Bevan(who, strangely you failed to mention) are roughly the same age, and Bevan has had far more experience in international cricket and county cricket than Hodge. And form?
You could go for Hodge who has had a reasonable season
Runs HS Ave 100 50
735 204* 61.25 2 4
or Bevan who has had a Bradmanesqe season
Runs HS Ave 100 50
1109 190 92.41 6 2
Who do you think the selectors would go for?

Personally i would discard both and look towards the future in Hussey
Runs HS Ave 100 50
654 223* 59.45 2 1
or Thornely
Runs HS Ave 100 50
780 261* 70.90 3 3
Hodge will never play for Australia. Too many better batsmen of his agegroup. The selectors will likely go for youth though, and rightfully so

[Seamer]

Originally Posted by Beny

Was I the only person watching the tour of India?? Remember when he proformed exactly the role we are talking about here and fell only a few runs short of a ton? He had a fantastic tour! Even before then he has proformed well...

For starters Beny, his overall returns in tests are lacklustre
An average of 41.1 and only 1 century from 23 innings is not good enough.
As far as the India tour goes he got runs in Bangalore and Nagpur on batting friendly wickets when the team did,nt necessarily need the runs.
On the difficult wickets in Chennai and Mumbai, when Aus were under pressure and NEEDED runs from him, he choked - badly - looked like a rabbit in the headlights. Up until that time i had an open mind on the guy but after those timid displays, i knew he was,nt the man for Australia.
For the record, on the Indian tour, he scored 276 runs at 39.42 including only two half centuries from eight innings. While not bad, you could hardly call that a fantastic tour

[acker]

Seamer

I would have thought Mike Husseys younger brother David would still be firmly in contention for Boof Lehmans recently vacated spot also.
And maybe the tradition of brothers playing simultaneously in the Australian international teams like the Chappel's and Waugh's before them may continue with the Hussey brothers , also an advantage is that they look very capable of playing all forms of inernational cricket test , one dayers and 20/Twenty.