Smokey_22 said:
But Gilchrist has never kept to murali so how do you know that?
I presume that Sangakkara wouldn't have been able to keep to Murali on the first time as well as he can now. Basically, if I had to choose a wicketkeeper to put in a World team on keeping ALONE, I'd choose him. Gilchrist would be my choice overall, though, because he is a better batter. In saying that, though, Sangakkara averages 49 in Tests with a S/R or 54. So he's certainly no mug with the bat.
Smokey_22 said:
Gilchrists form has been ordinary with the bat, but hardly a miserable failure. His scores have been:
26(22) 10(14) 49(69) 1(4) 30(49) 4(30) 27(36) 11(11)
They look like good starts to me, but oviously Flintoffs ability to swing away from him, from around the wicket has stopped him from adding to his starts.
By his standards, it is. Hayden is also averaging about 20 in this series, and people are more than willing to label his series as a failure. Like I said, perhaps it's the standards that Gilchrist has set for himself which have made me question his batting.
Smokey_22 said:
Defensive batting isn't in the Gilchrist dictionary. If it was, he'd be a shadow of his former self, and bowlers wouldn't be so scared of him. (He has been voted the most indimitating batsman by world bowlers.)
For the past 10 years the aussie batsmen have hit their way out of trouble. To start playing away from your instinctual game is where you get into the most trouble. Expect them to do exactly the same on thursday and go all-out attack.
Yeah, this is all part of the horrible conundrum he faces. As we all know, there's nothing better for a sportsperson than spending time in the arena. For a batsman, it's spending a good few hours out in the middle of an intense battle. But Gilchrist isn't a man who is willing to stick around ... if there's a ball wide of off-stump, he'll go flashing at it.
It's Martyn whose dismissals I've been particularly angry about. He's my favourite player in the team, but boy can he irritate us. He's the world's best batsman when Australia is 300 in front, but as soon as the going gets tough, Marto is sitting and watching from the pavilion.
Looking at him this series, he's managed to get to 25 or 30 with little to no trouble at all, and then just throw his wicket away. Either by getting runout, offering a lazy shot, or just losing his concentration.
As our number four, he should be prepared to come in and aim to bat out the whole day if he can. But he isn't doing this, even though he has the defensive panache to manage.
Oh well... I look forward to the Fifth Test with the hope that the sleeping giant will finally awake from its slumber and teach the Poms a lesson about cricket.
