Latest / Death by Multimedia / Episode 140: Where do Smith, Finch and Warner Fit in T20 Landscape

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Episode 140: Where do Smith, Finch and Warner Fit in T20 Landscape · Death by Multimedia

0:01
You're listening to the casual mancatter on thoughts from the
0:05
Metal Cabin Australia. Somewhat surprisingly to some,
0:10
including me, maybe mostly me, one Last year's T20 World Cup,
0:16
an achievement that relied heavily on players who had
0:19
decided against playing any international T 20s in 2021
0:23
prior to that competition going ahead.
0:26
While continuing to mine the riches of the IPL.
0:29
Despite this, in achieving this victory, the team has set itself
0:34
up for a repeat performance in this year's T20 World Cup, which
0:38
will be played in Australia during October and November.
0:43
As of the recording of this episode, Australia has won all
0:46
four of their matches in the local series against the young
0:49
Sri Lankan team, with both sides rotating players due to injuries
0:53
and COVID infections. And while not everyone will
0:57
agree, Australia's victorious run for me has come from a
1:01
combination of some good play but also a complete lack of luck
1:06
for the Sri Lankan contingent. The current squad and
1:10
performance does raise the question as to what sort of team
1:13
Australia will go into the tournament with in eight months
1:16
time. Given the short turn around in
1:19
tournaments, one could have been forgiven for thinking.
1:22
That a very similar 11 would line up in his first match that
1:25
played in that final a few months ago.
1:28
And yet already there are questions being asked over
1:31
several members of that team and whether or not a refreshed
1:34
lineup would be required not only through current form or the
1:38
lack thereof, but given the different conditions that the
1:42
tournament will be played in. On today's program, I'll run the
1:46
rule over a number of scenarios and as the title suggests.
1:50
Have a look at how Australia's three longest serving members
1:53
fit into the team as it now stands, and whether or not they
1:57
will still be in the running come October.
2:00
So if you're interested in the opinion of someone who is not
2:03
Shane Warne and doesn't carry all of the biases of Victorian
2:07
mates or handpicked players he wants to force into the team
2:11
through his constant praise of them, then join me as we move
2:15
into another edition of The Casual Mancatter.
2:18
Right here on thoughts from The Metal Cabin.
3:07
You know there, and thanks for allocating me another 20 minutes
3:10
of your day to listen to me ramble on about whatever cricket
3:14
thing comes to mind as I go. So today I want to talk about
3:18
the Australian T20 team going forward and where they're at at
3:22
the moment, I guess. And this comes off the back of a
3:26
lot of conversation, I guess, especially in the last couple of
3:29
games where we have the commentators on Fox.
3:33
Talking about certain players and where they fit into this T20
3:38
Australian team. And of course if you listen to
3:42
it's interesting to know that certainly in the last night's
3:45
game and the 4th game there was a bit of conversation back
3:49
between Mark War and Shane Warne.
3:51
Who are the main commentators when asked by asked by Cath
3:55
Lachlan in regards to whether a certain place should be in the
3:58
team. Now we all know that.
4:02
Shane Warne has decided that Steve Smith shouldn't be in that
4:04
team, whereas Mark War, obviously from NSW, feels as
4:08
though he still has a role to play.
4:10
On the other hand, Mark War has questioned with Aaron Finch has
4:13
done enough to retain man in a team, whereas Shane Warne has
4:16
ignored all that and just said well he'll score a big score in
4:19
the next game, which was last night, which he didn't, which
4:22
he's now focused on the 5th game and he'll put all this to bed.
4:27
So I thought we'd. Just have a little look at where
4:30
the team is at now and where they were when they won a few
4:33
months ago because it's an interesting way there's there's
4:36
more to it than than it might appear on the surface as to what
4:41
is going to be your best team going into that tournament.
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Now obviously they'll pick a squad of however many that is.
4:47
It may be 15, it may be 16, I don't know.
4:50
But you need to get the balance right and.
4:54
For the one the squad that they or the team that they won the
4:57
World T20 Championship with a few months ago, it was
5:01
interesting that many of those guys hadn't played any T20
5:06
international cricket that year. And Australia had played ten
5:09
games where they played fifteen games, in fact, because they'd
5:11
been in New Zealand and then they'd been to the West Indies
5:15
and then they'd been to Bangladesh.
5:18
Now, of those players you had. Guys like Warner, who hadn't
5:24
played, you had Steve Smith, who hadn't played.
5:29
Maxwell and Steiners had sort of made appearances in New Zealand,
5:32
but nothing after that. And Cummings and Hazelwood
5:35
hadn't played in any of those games.
5:38
So what constitutes a good team to go into that tournament?
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Because then? All those guys who I mentioned,
5:48
or most of those guys were mentioned.
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In fact, seven of the 11 that played in the final of the World
5:53
T20 Championship had been playing in the IPL just before
5:57
it. Warner, Marsh, Smith, Maxwell,
6:00
Steinus, Cummins and Hazel all played in the IPL.
6:04
There was only Finch, Wade, Stark and Zampa who hadn't
6:09
played in that I PL. tournament beforehand.
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Now that won't be the problem this time because the IPL is
6:15
going ahead as usual in April and May, unless he gets called
6:19
off again and tried to be squeezed into another place.
6:24
But those players, Are they going to be the right fit going
6:27
into the Australian team now? I guess at the moment, And as
6:31
the title of the episode suggests, the three main ones we
6:34
have to talk about in the batting at least, are Smith,
6:37
Finch and Warner. Now, Warner's not playing in
6:39
this series against Sri Lanka. He's been rested.
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And his form suggests that he'll be a part of that no matter what
6:47
happens now. He hasn't always played the two
6:50
20s, but in his last 2220 internationals, which stretch
6:54
backs stretches back to 2018. Sorry, the 2019.
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Since his return after suspension since, like 20 games,
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he's scored one century and nine half centuries, along with a 48
7:08
and a 49 so. As an opening batsman, he has
7:13
done his job even though he's forming the IPL.
7:16
Going to the tournament last year was horrendous and he was
7:19
dropped by his IPL team on the world stage.
7:22
He's done the job, so you would expect that Warner is going to
7:26
fit right back into this team when it comes to the T20 World
7:30
Championship. He's also still excellent in the
7:33
field. He's always the fittest looking
7:36
guy out on the field, so I don't think there's much doubt that
7:39
he. Will remain in the team.
7:41
Now the possibilities that they could leave him out, he'll be 36
7:46
by the time the tournament starts.
7:48
So you're starting to think how much longer he can go on.
7:51
But I bring him into the conversation because he's not
7:54
playing in this series and who knows what's going to happen
7:57
further down the track. So given that's the case, you
8:03
would expect that the guys who have already locked up their
8:05
positions in that top six would be Warner.
8:09
You'd expect March to continue at 3, Maxwell at 4, and Stoinis
8:14
at 6:00. So that leaves two positions in
8:18
that batting order. And of course those two
8:21
positions have been taken up by Aaron Finch as captain at the
8:25
top of the order and Steve Smith in the middle order.
8:29
But are their positions as locked in as those other four?
8:37
Just reach out and catch it, Jeffrey, what a magnificent hit
8:44
look. The simplest scenario is to say
8:45
that Aaron Finch has been the captain of this team for a very
8:49
long time now and has done the job at that level for some time,
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and that Steve Smith is still arguably the best batsman in the
8:57
world in whatever form of cricket you play.
9:00
So therefore you would think that he must also be in the team
9:02
and he's fooling. He's second to none.
9:05
We saw. In the game the other night
9:07
where he knocked himself out trying to save a ball from going
9:09
for six where he actually caught it and then was still able to
9:13
get back over the boundary to try and stop a six.
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So he's feeling doesn't come into question and in T20 cricket
9:20
you need Fieldsman, there's no doubt about it.
9:23
And that's where part of their problem lies.
9:25
At the moment we have 3 wicket keepers in this team and only
9:27
one of them can keep and therefore the other two, as good
9:31
fieldsman as they may be, are not going to be our best
9:33
Fieldsman. So if you look at Steve Smith's
9:38
position and we can go with that one first, he's probably biggest
9:46
person. The person who is most likely to
9:48
try and take his place at the moment is Josh Inglis, who has
9:52
been excellent in this series and especially was in that game
9:54
last night where he scored forty runs off 20 balls and he came in
9:58
and did a job very easily that at the moment.
10:03
At least Steve Smith doesn't appear to be able to do, and
10:06
there's Steve Smith's ability to hit boundaries and hit loose
10:08
balls to the boundaries seems to have been compromised in recent
10:12
times. In this form of the game, he's
10:14
not really sure where his best spot the bat is and I don't
10:17
think the Australian team know where his best spot the bat is,
10:19
whether that's a three or four or five.
10:24
And Josh Inglis came in with a clear mind and played his role
10:29
perfectly in that match. Now that's not to say that he
10:33
won't be worked out very quickly by other teams and forced to
10:36
change the the way that he plays, but certainly Steve
10:40
Smith's biggest problem in retaining his spot in his team
10:44
is probably coming from Josh Inglis.
10:47
Now if we look at the other way and we go with Aaron Finch,
10:51
obviously as a captain he deserves to get more
10:56
consideration because as the captain of the team, the team
10:59
he's leading is winning. And so much as in the way of,
11:04
let's say Mark Taylor back in the days when he was not scoring
11:08
runs but leading a winning Test team and the same happened for
11:13
Ponting for a while, I think you need to look at the fact that
11:17
the captain deserves better consideration if his team is
11:21
still winning. So in this situation, Aaron
11:24
Finch. Has had a weakness forever with
11:28
that front pad and and the gap between bat and pad. 2 balls
11:32
that are pitched up and assuming around a bit.
11:35
And he certainly seems to have problem against certain types of
11:39
spin bowling. Certainly leg spin bowling has a
11:41
lot of problems with. So these are problems when
11:45
you're coming towards the end of your career rather than being at
11:48
the start or at the middle of your career and the fact that he
11:52
hasn't dominated an innings for some time.
11:56
Is cause for concern, especially when you have so many people who
12:01
are trying to get a spot at the top of the order, and Ben
12:06
McDermott is the number one consideration for that.
12:09
Now, Ben McDermott has been given a lot of opportunities in
12:11
recent times over the last 18 months, but he's only just
12:15
starting to come into himself. He's only starting to come to
12:18
terms of the fact of what his game is and how he plays.
12:22
If that works best for Australia at top of the order, then that
12:25
means he's either playing at the top of the order or he's not
12:28
playing at all. And the same can be said for
12:31
Aaron Finch. He's always been an opening
12:32
batsman in this team and it certainly doesn't seem to be a
12:35
position for him further down the order.
12:37
So again, it comes to you either open or you're out of the team
12:42
now in Josh Inglis who opens for in the BBL and has done for some
12:47
time and opens. In the one day team for Western
12:50
Australia as well with joshing Josh Phillippi, he also could
12:55
play a role at the top of the order.
12:56
He could also be one who could play at the top of the order.
12:59
And the other consideration is still Matthew Wade who despite
13:02
how well he went at #7 for Australia in the T20 World Cup
13:06
when they were looking for a finisher and they found a
13:09
finisher in both Steinis and Wade at six and seven.
13:14
The opportunity's still there for Wade to go back to the top
13:16
of the order where he started doing so well in that team.
13:19
So for Aaron Finch, he's starting to get marginalized in
13:24
the fact that there are other options now at the top of the
13:27
order, whereas for so very long there haven't been those options
13:37
real place right through the England captain.
13:40
What a start for the Aussies. Now it's just complicated.
13:45
A little bit further, shall we? So the last two games, Ashton
13:49
Agar has been asked to open the batting and has done an average
13:55
job and looked in considerable discomfort against the very fast
14:02
Sri Lankan pair last night. So I don't think that that is an
14:07
option going forward. I think if Agar's going to be in
14:11
that team, he basically has to bat at 7:00 and has to take on
14:14
that role of finisher as. Matthew Wade has performed, but
14:19
I think it's quite obvious that we need Ashton Aga in this 220
14:23
team as a bowler and as a fieldsman because he has been
14:26
terrific. Now they made the point last
14:28
night that the two games he's played in this series he has
14:32
bowled. He's 8 overs complete and has
14:34
got gone for no more than a single of on a delivery.
14:37
There's been no twos, threes, fours, all sixes hit off his
14:40
bowling in eight overs in those two games and.
14:46
The option of having him batting at 7:00 and also bowling overs
14:53
is an amazing thing for this Australian team because at the
14:58
moment as we have it, you, if you're picking your best team,
15:01
your best four bowls would play. So that would be, you know, star
15:04
Cummins, Hazelwood and Zampa. And then you've got to find a
15:07
fifth option which would be between Steiners, Maxwell and
15:10
then Marsh once he comes back into that team.
15:13
Now that's fine. Stornis has ball well in this
15:15
series as well himself. Maxwell's got his usual couple
15:19
of overs here and there and done a job.
15:21
And Marsh? We don't know yet because he's
15:22
been rested from this series. So that option still can apply.
15:27
They can just play your 4 fast balls, 8 not bat 8910 and 11.
15:32
You have your finisher there at 7:00, which at the moment has
15:35
been wide, and you have your fifth bowler split between three
15:39
bowlers. But what about if you had Agar
15:42
in that team and you could just basically say those are our five
15:45
bowlers and then if you need an extra bowl, if someone's going
15:48
for runs, then you can use one of your other three bowlers.
15:52
The big thing with that is that Agar would need to be able to
15:54
perform with the bat at #7 in the same sort of way that Wade
15:58
has done in the last six months, and that's probably the hardest
16:02
part about it. But Australia would have to back
16:04
him in to do that. And then by doing that, they
16:07
would have to be able to say that, well, if Matthew White is
16:10
still going to be a part of this team, if he's still going to be
16:13
the keeper in this team, then he's going to fit to fit in
16:16
somewhere else. And that's probably only at the
16:19
top of the order, which means what do you do with Aaron Finch?
16:23
I think the answer then is obvious.
16:26
So this is where there are a lot of questions that can be asked
16:30
going forward and it's a great problem for Australia to have as
16:33
to what their best team is. But it puts enormous pressure on
16:38
certainly Smith and then certainly Finch as to whether
16:41
they fit into this best 11 that Australia can put on the field.
16:47
And then if they do, if you want to squeeze them in and that
16:50
means others have to move out, does that mean that a guy does
16:53
miss out? Or do you then force Wade out of
16:56
the team? And does that mean McDermott,
16:58
who has been the best T20 batter in the Big Bash over the past
17:02
two years? Once again doesn't get a chance
17:05
in the Australian team. What does it mean that Josh
17:08
Inglis, who has been touted by one particular commentator as
17:12
the best keeper batsman in Australia, does that mean he
17:15
still doesn't get a game? So there's lots and lots of
17:19
questions and how do you put those pieces together?
17:21
So there's 141516 players there that you're trying to squeeze
17:25
into 11 and how do you do that without compromising the team?
17:32
They're compromising the camaraderie that the team
17:35
currently has and by not putting Australia in a position where
17:39
they don't have the right strength in either the batting
17:42
or the bowling to continue to win games.
17:45
The bat out at Longon but he needs to be 25 seats back.
17:55
I'll be honest with you, I think it's it's pretty safe to say
17:57
that the selectors and the new coach are likely to go down a
18:02
very conservative route, but we don't know.
18:05
Before we get to October. We still have one more game
18:07
against Sri Lanka on the Sunday night, Sunday afternoon.
18:12
And if Shane Warne's theory comes true and Aaron Finch comes
18:16
out and school's a big school, then he's held his position and
18:20
everything is fine and dandy. We still have games in Sri
18:24
Lanka. To play as well and we also have
18:28
220 games in Pakistan to play. So there are lots of
18:33
considerations to happen with this team and with the players
18:37
in the team before we get to the naming of the squad and the
18:40
start of the T20 World Cup in Australia.
18:42
But they're going to be very interesting conversations now,
18:47
obviously. You would just expect that Aaron
18:49
Finch will just be held onto as Shane Warne says, and they said
18:52
he's the captain, he's the one taking us to the tournament.
18:56
And that Steve Smith, we said, well he's still our best batsman
18:59
and fieldsman, so he must play in that team, which would then
19:04
obviously get to the point where they say, well, we need to have
19:07
Wade as their finisher. So that leaves Ashton.
19:10
I go out of the team and so the team would basically be exactly
19:13
the same as the one that won the World Cup.
19:16
Final last year, but surely if we're going forward and we want
19:23
to keep this team revitalized and keep the team focused on
19:28
winning, then the pressure has to be on these players now.
19:33
Perhaps not Warner, as was said in the as I said of the title,
19:38
but certainly Smith, Finch and Wade have to be looked at.
19:44
Surely Australia can't afford to play 3 wicket keepers in the
19:48
same team. It is more likely you can
19:50
probably only have one that. That means that some players,
19:55
who perhaps deserve their spot as batsmen only, will not make
19:58
that team with the bowling side of it.
20:03
As I said, Ashton Agar looks like an absolute natural in this
20:06
team. And somehow you have to squeeze
20:10
him in. Now he's not going to push out
20:11
one of those other four fast bowlers or fast the main
20:15
bowlers. You're certainly not going to
20:17
get in front of Zampa and he's not going to finish in front of
20:20
those 3 fast bowlers. But surely the fact that he's in
20:24
the team as a as a left arm orthodox and he's feeling which
20:28
is so good and his hitting ability.
20:32
We just do. We have to just back him and say
20:35
at #7, he's the one that we believe can do the job when it's
20:39
necessary and hope that our top six do the job anyway before
20:43
getting down to Agar at 7:00. So A-Team where perhaps you have
20:51
a difference of opinion where you have Warner and say
20:55
McDermott opening and then you have.
20:58
Marsh and you have Maxwell and Inglis in that team and then
21:01
storing us and then Agar at 7:00 and then Stark, Cummins,
21:05
Hazelwood, Zappa, which basically gives you 8 bowling
21:09
options at any one time at any match on any service as depends
21:13
what's happening. And yet we still bat down to
21:16
Agar at 7:00 and then Stark at 8 and Cummins at 9 and surely if
21:21
we have to bat that low we can't expect to be winning too many
21:24
games. Is that the way I'd go?
21:29
I think it's open for consideration and we still need
21:32
to look at the performances over the rest of this year.
21:35
But we certainly shouldn't be locking in and just saying that
21:38
the 11 who played in the final last year are the 11 that we're
21:42
going to go with this year because these other guys have
21:44
done enough to deserve consideration in front of the
21:50
old timers, let's put it that way, and as much as Matthew
21:54
Wade. Did his job as wicket keeper and
21:57
batsman in the last one is, is it worth keeping him When we
22:02
have a guy like Josh Inglis who looks as though he can do at
22:05
least the goodest job as why it has done?
22:08
Are we just keeping him in because he was a member of that
22:11
team last year? And is that the way we should be
22:13
looking at this team? And in that respect, it's the
22:17
same for Steve Smith as well, as much as he was a part of that
22:20
team if he's not going to provide something different in
22:24
that middle order. So we then need to look at
22:26
someone else to do that job. And then we come to the problem
22:30
at the top of the order and he's if Finch isn't doing the job
22:33
with the bat, even though he's the captain, do we have to say
22:36
we need to go with someone like McDermott who looks as though
22:39
he's going to be able to blast the team better than Finch is
22:43
currently doing, not like he has in the past.
22:47
That then raises the problem. Who is the captain of this side?
22:52
That's too much for today. Let's not go any further with
22:54
that. So there you go.
22:56
I've just raised some issues and throwing some names out there
23:02
and let's see what happens. It could be all solved by the
23:05
time you listen to this. You could have had the 5th T20
23:08
and Finch could have scored 100. They could have said that
23:11
Smith's injury is great and he's all ready to go again and we
23:15
don't have to worry about anything.
23:17
We'll see Anyway, thanks once again for listening through to
23:20
my ramblings. And I hope that you'll come back
23:24
for our next edition of The Casual Man Katter right here on
23:28
Thoughts from the Metal Cabin. Yes, on the thick outside edge.
23:34
Tell me a story. Walking pal.
23:36
Australia right on top of you. I love them all.
23:38
I want to book them. Get them up here.
23:40
You have been listening to a metal cabin production.