Australia v India: SCG fourth Test, day four – live!

I think that he thinks he’s taken plenty already. To some degree, maybe there’s only so much you can do with players who aren’t equipped for the rigours of Test cricket. You can drill it into Travis Head that he shouldn’t play massive swipes at the ball when he’s trying to bat out time in a Test, but if he keeps doing it anyway, is that the coach’s fault? I think we need a bigger sample size.

What is notable is that the cohesive feel of all those Perth Scorchers and WA sides, where everyone knew his role and was confident in fulfilling it, is missing from this side at the moment. And the endless backing of players on personality rather than progress is definitely part of the Langer method.

Covers are still on, and none of the groundstaff are hanging about anymore. A general sense of funk has settled over the ground, and not in the George Clinton sense.

“Wasn’t Greg Chappell a selector last time Australia lost an Ashes at home, and probably responsible for such masterstrokes as Michael Beer?” asks Aditya on email. “Not to mention ruining Indian cricket 2005-2007? Why is he being allowed to ruin Australian cricket again?”

I’ll take that as a comment.

As for India – well, they’re really just getting going. Their first-class system is so broad and well populated, with players getting a serious diet of months of cricket to hone their skills. There’s a range of conditions now, with plenty of tracks conducive to fast bowling as well as the traditional spinners’ wickets. So India now has a good bunch of fast bowlers, but equally has batsman who can face good fast bowling. When the IPL arrives, it comes after months of competitive four-day cricket. So players known from the IPL, like Agarwal or Bumrah or Pant, can come into Test cricket and still get it right.

Gosh, there has been a lot of searching of the souls in Australian cricket in the past 12 months. Former players, broadcasters, supporters, everyone is trying to figure it out. The only people we’re not hearing much from are those at the top, in terms of why the current malaise is as it is.

There is a publicly mutiny brewing about selections, with people entirely fed up with having players picked or ignored with no adequate public explanation. That’s fair enough: the members of the panel mostly hide, rarely offer anything bar brief statements, and leave the coach Justin Langer to be the public face of most of their decisions. But it’s not just about who to pick. It’s not like there’s a production line of great options to bring in.

More broadly, a lot of people in cricket who I’ve been speaking to recently think that the production line is broken. They see a system where cricket clubs are struggling to feel relevant, when ‘talent’ is identified in early teen years and plucked out of clubs to go into high-performance training pathways. And talented kids get a rails run into age-group teams and so on without necessarily earning it through performance.

These sort of factors, plus the gutting of state second XI teams that then entered the Futures League era, one of Greg Chappell’s galaxy-brain revelations, where most of the team had to be under 23. That pushed good developed cricketers out of the system and lowered the standard in general.

And we’ve seen that same approach come into national selection since Chappell joined that panel, picking young prospects on hunches rather than performance, while other players who had performed missed out. Sam Heazlett, Hilton Cartwright, Marnus Labuschagne, even Mitchell Marsh to a fair degree.

Some of these problems are pretty obvious, but they’re not even being acknowledged as problems by the current custodians. Those advocating for solutions are saying that even if they start fixing the system now, it’ll take five to ten years for that to reflect in the calibre of players available in state cricket and to reflect in national performances on the field.

My word it will. If it lasts another two days.

The whole square’s covers are now down again. I can’t even tell if it’s raining from up in the stand, or if the windows are just a bit filmy. It must be very light if it is. No one’s bothering with an umbrella except for the fourth umpire.

“Re your recent update which included the line ‘The tractors are still out in the middle’: that’s really no way to speak of Australia’s middle order.”

Olly, please. Pat Cummins is an Aston Martin. (Peter Handscomb might be one of those funny three-wheeled cars that looks totally impractical but somehow continues to function.)

There’s this. But also if the ball gets damp, it might ruin any chance of swing or seam, and make it hard to grip for the spinners. So it might aid Australia for the time being by neutering the bowling.

Umpires Gould and Kettleborough have just walked to the middle, hat-less (shocking I know), and walked off again. No movement in the middle, where one small cover remains over the pitch, but the covers for the square remain rolled up on a trailer.

Ian Forth is prognosticating. “I know there are matches against Sri Lanka to go, which might confuse things considerably, but was musing on what the opening line ups for The Ashes might be.

“Australia: Warner, Harris, Khawaja, Smith, Handscomb, Head, Paine, Cummins, Lyon, Starc, Hazlewood.

“England: Jennings, Burns, Bairstow, Root, Buttler, Stokes, Foakes, Ali, Woakes, S. Curran, Anderson.

“Australia’s 7 and 8 better then their 5 and 6. But England’s 9 and 10 better than their 1 and 2. Any thoughts yourself?”

As it has been for England for a while, a weak opening partnership doesn’t necessarily cripple their chances, because they have such a versatile middle and lower order. Interesting that Broad would miss in Ian’s team, when he’s monstered the Australians on three consecutive visits. I’d think that spectre alone might keep him in the side, though of course Woakes offers more with the bat. Curran can’t be kept out, he’s just the sort of player who could take an Ashes series by the scruff.

As for Australia, well. The obvious questions are around the batting. Top four, yes, but England could gobble up Handscomb with his approach, and Head has been so loose and unreliable that I don’t think he can go. Glenn Maxwell is the obvious option who’s played a lot of county cricket. Joe Burns is known as an opener but made his Test debut at six. He’s better equipped than most against the moving ball.

So is Matt Renshaw, who is the player I think is best equipped to survive against England. He’s the one I’d like to have opening the batting, but recent circumstances with his poor returns have made that difficult. If he can get his head together and have a strong second half of his Shield season, he might pose a dilemma. Or he should come in against Sri Lanka and try to make his way back.

But it’s Australia’s bowling that doesn’t get questioned so much. In England, is there much value in using Mitchell Starc? He’s been out of sorts for almost a year. He’s not bowling penetrative spells. And in England, pure pace doesn’t usually do the job. You want bowlers who can seam or swing the ball, less glamorous and less fast options like Peter Siddle or Chadd Sayers. That’s where I’d be looking.

I spoke too soon. The hessian has just gone back down with a tiny bit of mizzle drifting across the ground. As we know, umpires can’t restart play until the atmosphere is completely dry.

That’s 12 minutes from now. The sky is still cloudy but has lightened a bit. The rain is holding off. The tractors are still out in the middle.

A few Bronxies around the ground as the big covers come off. At last, at last. And now the hessian is being rolled up. Stand by.

“Good morning Geoff.” Good morning, Ruth Purdue, up and at ‘em as always. “Predictions on Australia’s first innings total?”

If they ever get on, you mean? I’m going to be optimistic and go for 280.

Just had a wander around the internal roads around the ground, and there are good numbers of people milling about and coming in for a day’s cricket. Sadly their shorts and shirtsleeves look a bit thin up against a fairly cold wind and the persistent drizzle. There are no clouds on the radar, so it’s coming from imaginary clouds that only we can see. A collective mass delusion at the Sydney Cricket Ground. In years to come I can say that I was there. And you can say that you read some live text updates from someone who was there.

GET ON THE RAIN TRAIN!

(It’s raining.)

There’s a conference ongoing in the middle of the ground between umpires, match referee, ground staff. But no movement. “This is where Test cricket shoots itself in the foot,” says Dirk Nannes on ABC radio. I tend to agree.

New word: there’ll be an inspection at 10:15. And now there’s misty drizzle falling around the SCG, a few beads on the glass.

Yes, that’s right. At 9:56am the umpires have decided the light is insufficient to start play. It is pretty gloomy. Is it gloomier than last night? Not sure about that, but I don’t have the light meter. There are thick clouds overhead, and they might clear soon. Or empty themselves.

If you’re not in the geo-blocked zones (apologies there) this might be of interest: what Peter Handscomb did differently. One thing we noticed was meeting the seamers further down the wicket: his point of impact was half a metre further down than it was in Perth before he got dropped.

A cracker of a one-day game over the Ditch overnight: Sri Lanka were 128-7 at one stage chasing 320, but they ended up getting bowled out by New Zealand for 298. Thisara Perera went to town and made 140 off about 70 balls. Find the highlights of that one, I suggest.

In other good news for women’s cricket: this. Well done to Brisbane.

The Australian Cricket Media Association had its annual dinner last night. Congratulations are in order for the recipients of the two annual awards: Emerging Women’s Player of the Year going to Sophie Molineux, and Emerging Men’s Player of the Year to Marcus Harris.

Interestingly both play for the Melbourne Renegades, Victoria, and Australia (despite being a consensus award and most of the ACMA members coming from New South Wales).

Oops, they did it again. The Australian top order, that is. Had the chance to make a statement and instead mumbled into their shirt collars. If you’d like to catch up with yesterday, here’s my piece.