Corona Man wrote:[
Time to move on.
As stated earlier, we were beaten by a better team, full credit to them.
Now, I hope we can look beyond Warner, Wade, Paine et al, and start building a team to win back (I know we hold them) the Ashes.
What does that team look like?
Puckovski
??
Lab Rat
Smith (c)
Green
??
Carey - I guess
Cummins
Pattinson
Lyon
Hazelhoff
Coach - ??
Can we trust Smith back in the top job? I bet if he had his time over, and he caught a wiff of some ball tampering talk, in the rooms - he would say "we won't be doing that lads" and just shut it down. If & buts I know, and how different would the team look, and perform if only Smudge had stood up back in Saffers a few years ago?
Pattinson is coming up 31, if we're looking beyond Warner then I'm guessing he wont be around.
Carey is a frustrating one, it's there for him to grab, he just can't quite reach it firmly.
I think Smith captaining again would be a blight on CA's integrity.
Head must still be looked at, he's been dropped, Steve Waugh, Ponting, Clarke and Smith were all dropped at some stage and came back better cricketers, Head had to be dropped to make him have a good hard look at himself, he'll come back better for it.
If we're looking at youth to fill the batting spots, Patterson hasn't had a great shield season so far, we've probably only got McDermott, Whiteman and Inglis as possible choices, any other batting options are already in the squad or they're too old.