Am I the only person who thinks that the selectors have lost the plot?

surely watson isn't an automatic "in" what has he ever done in green and gold ??

You're worried about Watson? What about Mitchell Johnson???? I'd definitely have Watson in the squad, but as for Johnson, seriously, what the hell are they thinking???

And still no Jaques. It's obvious that they simply don't want to give him any more chances to show up their golden boy Katich.

agree with you about katich... surely jacques or hayden are better options at top of order... i couldnt bring myself to comment on mitchell johnson a joke. do u think dizzy gillispie would be impressed !!!

Not so worried about Gillespie at this stage. I just hope they haven't forgotten about him completely!!! Perhaps he'll have a chance for the test squad if McGrath doesn't go. There's a couple more Pura Cup games before the Test side leaves for SA.

I would have dropped Simon Katich for Phil Jaques. And surely either Gillespie or Kasperwitz deserve another chance ahead of Mitchell Johnson. And nothing against Brag Hogg, but wouldn't you choose Stuart MacGill instead for your spinner. I just can't work out how they keep turning him down.

Unfortunately, sometimes it looks like they're more interested in keeping their favourites in the team than picking the best team for Australia. I firmly believe that they simply will not give Jaques another go in the near future because deep down, they know that if they do, he'll show their "favourite" Katich up yet again as he did in the one opportunity he got this year.

It's a similar sort of situation with MacGill. He's simply not one of their favourites. It was scandalous the way Ponting treated him in the tests this year. In the second innings in Adelaide, he didn't even get a bowl until 7 wickets were down and Warne had already bowled about 30 overs for 5 wickets. It looked to me like a conscious effort was being made to make certain he didn't get a bag of wickets, because he was going to be left out of the next test in Perth.

By the way, Hohns and some media people today mentioned that Phil Jaques' poor fielding could be the reason he's not in the team. WHAT? Have they seen Katich???

My one day squad of 14 would be something like this:

Jaques
Gilchrist
Ponting
Symonds
Clarke
Cosgrove
Hussey
Watson
Hogg
Lee
Bracken
Clark
and 2 out of White, Lewis, Tait, Gillespie

I dunno.

I don't have a problem with the team. Katich is very boring so I'd rather see Jaques in there for interest sake. But from a winning team point of view they can't really leave out Katich. His VB form was pretty good, if dull.

Name..... Mat I NO Runs HS.. Ave.. SR.. 100 50 Ct St
SM Katich 10 10 1, 413, 107* 45.88 68.71 1, 4, 3, -

And Johnson is alright, isn't he? It's good to blood some new players. I'd probably leave out Mick Lewis though.

The Big problem with Katich Stats is the Strike Rate. Most games he just wasted balls where others were getting strike rates of 90+.

Name..... Mat I NO Runs HS.. Ave.. SR.. 100 50 Ct St
SM Katich 10 10 1, 413, 107* 45.88 68.71 1, 4, 3, -


He is in the there for 1 reason and that is the hard tough games where not many runs are scored ... but he is a liability in the games where we need to score 300+ as he just can't bat that quickly. Jaques on the other hand is IMO a more exciting and better player, but may not be the right player to play with Gilchrist. I would probably drop Katich or Clarke (its a tough choice) and replace them with Jacques. At this stage I would drop Katich.

My 12 would be

Jaques
Gilchrist
Ponting
Symonds
Hussey
Clarke
Lee
Bracken
Macgill
Tait
Clark

Super Sub : Watson

You're spot on there Wesmip1. Katich's strike rate is just too low. If the Australian team as a whole had a strike rate of only 68.71 like Katich, we'd only score around 206 runs in a 50 overs match. Hardly a competitive total. I will say that maybe Katich has proven himself worthy of a spot in the test side, but surely not so in limited overs. I guess in racing terms, Katich would make a better stayer than a sprinter.