Mm.

So it's a big gamble.

Uh, but it, it, it says to me that they're just gonna back Labuschagne for as long as they can.

Uh, no ha- not having a backup opener for, for Renshaw and Head is interesting given what's going on there.

Uh, and then I did specifically follow up on that question with George as could Cooper Connolly bat top three in test cricket? And he said maybe in the future, um, not, not necessarily right now, but they think he can, which I f- again, I found staggering given he has batted at three once in his first-class career, which is only 21 innings old.

He did that in his last first-class game.

He was then actually dropped by Western Australia in the next game, which was his most recent available game to play in Red Bull Cricket.

Mm.

What?

Yeah, there's...

Well, we, we, we spent the weekend trying to work it out in Darwin, didn't we? [laughing] Over a few drinks.

Uh, yeah, and I'm, I'm sure the Aussie selectors had a long day yesterday.

In fact, I know they did.

Um- Yeah, there's, there's either two ways to look at it.

You can either go, this is stock standard, this Australian team, slow out of the blocks, coming in unders, which they like to do, the same as they did against India in 2024, '25, underprepared to make sure the guys were there at the, at the back end of the series, those long series.

Are we right to think that Renshaw simply comes in for Weatherald to open? And what is Matt Renshaw's relationship with opening the batting in Red Ball cricket in the last couple of years?

... and get sledged?

Uh, we don't know.

George Bailey was very careful not to give any hints on any batting positions today.

Uh, but, you know, it's sort of, it's Occam's razor, right? The most logical solution is the guy who's been, who has his best first-class record at four and five would slide up to five, where he played his best innings in the Ashes, by the way, last year.

Um, and Carey remains at six, where he was sensational, and Webster slides into seven, where he's got a very good record both at test and first-class level, and he's very comfortable playing that role bridging between the top order and the tail.

Uh, that seems the obvious thing to do, and yeah, then you can...

You know, those guys can be bedded in all the way.

... how's anything getting done?

What is happening? Is this as important as I'm pretending or saying it is?

Uh, it is, it is as important as, as you're pretending it or, or saying it is, uh, in regards to the future of Australian cricket.

However, uh, the confusion is Is right.

No one really knows what's happening.

There's a lot of talking and not a lot of advancement.

So yes, um, two things have happened in the last twenty-four hours.

Basically, the Australian Cricketers Union, which is, uh, or the Australian Cricketers Association, which is the players' union here, the equivalent of, uh, the PCA in the UK, uh, they have defiantly said they will not agree to the current proposal for privatizing the BBL, which is a self-determination hybrid model where each state will get a choice as to whether they want to pursue private investment in the short term or wait to see if they wanna pursue it later on.

What are we doing? We're kind of inviting, inviting the fox into the henhouse.

Why do you suppose people are pulling in different directions? And why do you suppose some people seem underprepared about this, and other people seem to be rushing it, and nobody is in agreement about it?

I can't get to the bottom of that.

I, I, I truly can't.

I haven't tried...

That's the one thing I, I've tried to understand in this, and I can't get to the bottom of how- The viewpoints of various people and, and one state and another state are so far apart on this.

I, I don't understand how you can be poles apart.

Like, there, there's degrees within the two positions that should also be found, and they're not.

What?

Mm

...

the question is, so what kind of fast bowlers or seam bowlers are we producing? You look at the leading wicket takers, it's all guys who bowl roughly 130K an hour on average.

There's very few guys with high ball speed there dominating.

Hatch is a, a plus 130K an hour bowler.

He's had a really good year averaging, um, twenty-one, thirty-seven wickets.

And Meredith's another, but he's a fair way down the list.

in incentivizing these kinds of wickets, which in turn hurt batters' prospects in terms of building big scores, and it actually makes life conducive to one twenty seam up.

Yeah.

Yeah, that for a team like New Zealand who build themselves on getting the most out, being better than the sum of their parts, and tactically squeezing every ounce of advantage they can have, working every match up to the right angle to give them the best advantage and the best chance to compete in games like that.

For them not to play McConchie and to bowl, uh, one over of spin in the power play, one over of off spin, which goes for five runs against a team that had struggled against off spin all, all tournament.

Uh, a team that had struggled at times against spin.

And even in the game, I mean, they only bowled...

New Zealand bowled, what did they bowl? They bowled seven overs of spin all up.

Um, six of those went for 30, or five of them went for 38 runs between Phillips and Santner.

Famous.

Mm.

They got 60 off 34 between them.

Australia's top order got blown away.

Um, and then last night they probably missed the other side of it maybe, but I mean, Senka was still clearing the rope and so was Kusul Mendez.

Like, uh, they- they've just got a whole heap of guys horribly out of form.

If you go through them, I mean, even...

It's weird, until last night, Travis Head in his previous 12 T20 odds was averaging 12.8 striking 125.

Mm

could have a short test match here [laughs] if they've, it's replicated.

Yeah, it was, it was bizarre.

I, I ...

Yeah, I mean, it ...

Because of the heat here, he does, and he's putting some m- um, water into the surface right now.

Uh, they do like to keep a little bit of moisture in it certainly early so it doesn't break up sooner rather than later.

Because when, when it gets dry, the big cracks open up, and that's when it can get uneven in terms of bounce and sideways.

So is he gonna be the man to look out for here, do you think?