1. Test Cricket - Steve Smith. Shadow batting? Work on shadow scratching the pitch markings. Silly nonsense. ‘Stay off the pitch’ is a good rule. He needs to be smarter than this and avoid any storms in teacups. After all, he created the opportunity for some awful commentary.
2. Captain Competence. Tim Paine’s poor judgement is an ongoing worry with ridiculous DRS errors and deep fields at silly times. Lack of attacking fields, especially as pressure mounts. He skippers like an Englishman or a New Zealander too often. Dropping catches seems to be a too regular occurrence too.
3. Cameron Green. Comparatively, great hands in the field often reveals a great talent. He needs to up his aggression factor with the ball. Rip in!
4. Indian resilience. Amazing strength and self belief right through the Indian order. All the injuries and omissions. They should never lose to us. Great depth nationwide.
5. Bug Snapple. We struggle to find two openers when India have a zillion options. Hazelwood has been exceptional this series. Cummins too. Labuschagne has also been outstanding. More reliable at number three than we have seen since David Boon. Composed under pressure and incredibly talented. (He was a Greg Chappell discovery!).
6. Warner Retirement? I get the feeling Dave Warner may surprise us all and retire from Test cricket soon. Young family and a wonderful T20 career to sustain him and his family.... he just doesn’t move his feet quickly enough and we have seen this at least three times now (including in the Ashes) and they are becoming more frequent with lesser space between them. Ominous. Having said that, a blistering Day 4 ton will suffice!
7. Aaron Finch. His T20 form as Australian T20 Captain has been woeful in the BBL. Appalling really. Is his time up?
8. The Broncos. Payne Haas arrested. There is something magical in a team who got the wooden spoon being given free rein on the Gold Coast. Great judgement by someone in team management. Payne needs to show more self discipline. It is poor on the field sometimes (eg. Origin 2020), so as a young man, it is time to grow up.
9. NFL. How good are the Buffalo Bills going? They have been caught up in the backdraft of the Patriots for many years and have one more win for an unlikely SuperBowl appearance. Bill Parcells would be proud.
A big test for Tom Brady tomorrow with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers! How long will their show continue?
10. EPL. ManU on top of the table and Leicester rallying hard. Liverpool v ManU is set to be a cracker overnight.
11. Australian Open Tennis. How predictable that lightweight spoiled brats behave so appallingly. They come from countries where they have made a hash of managing the dreaded COVID and expect total and open slather. Respect for the host country seems not to apply to some countries by a handful. Lots of others are simply toughing it out. These will be the ones in the finals following some hot Melbourne weather - not the COVID whingers. Some may need to head to the nearest airport.
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