And do you think it's a little bit of, it's hard to say in a T20 format because it's all crash and bash, but is there a little bit maybe of a race to 2.0, maybe a little bit of like basketball with brains type thing with Jake? Is it a little bit more maturity there or do you think it's much the same and it's just going to be tested at international level?

It's hard to know.

I don't know their sample size is big enough.

You know, he's obviously been in red hot form for South Australia in the one day cup.

The caveat on that is all of that damage is being done at Karen Royal Noble, which is a run feasting round.

High scoring, teams are getting close to 400.

His list day record at that venue is off the charts and he averages 20 everywhere else.

But do you think they're trying to find that little kind of bit of magic with that X-factor that Maxwell brought?

Do you feel this is the end of his career?

You never say never because he's at a similar place where Usman Khawaja was in 2019, age-wise and career-wise, where Khawaja had been in and out a lot.

He'd been dropped a lot more times and recalled a lot more times.

But... you know, similar numbers, similar types of periods, a different style of career.

Labochagne, obviously, was extraordinary over his first 35 test matches, basically, and then declines being equally as extraordinary the other way.

Kawaja a little bit more up and down.

But at that stage in 2019, you might have said when Kawaja lost his place to Labochagne on that Ashes Tour in a team that was coached by Justin Langer under a slightly different selection panel, that Kawaja would have never played again and he returned two and a half years later and ended up having another four-year run where he went on to be the best test batter in the world for part of that time and I would say Labashane's going to be fitter and stronger than Kawaja was for that period so there's no doubt he'll be able to play into his late 30s and have the hunger too.

Any thoughts as to how close he is to the end?

Do you feel this is the end of his career?

You never say never, because he's at a similar place where Usman Khawaja was in 2019, age-wise and career-wise, where...

You know, Kawaja had been in and out a lot.

He'd been dropped a lot more times and recalled a lot more times.

But, you know, similar numbers, similar types of periods, a different style of career.

Labashane, obviously... was extraordinary over his first 35 test matches, basically, and then declines being equally as extraordinary the other way.

Kawaja a little bit more up and down.

Any thoughts as to how, how close he is to the end?

The three changes that the Aussies have made, your thoughts?

Yeah, they haven't been confirmed yet, but a couple of reporters, Tom Morrison and Dan Cherney, have gone with it overnight.

That's – that they've made those changes.

We'll wait and see if they're confirmed at the toss.

They're interesting in the sense that certainly I think with the Maddison out for Green was the obvious one.

So Renshaw will go back to the top of the order.

That's been confirmed.

So how much do you expect Cooper Connolly to bowl if he plays?

The three changes that the Aussies have made, your thoughts?

Yeah, they haven't been confirmed yet, but a couple of reporters, Tom Morrison and Dan Cherney, have gone with it overnight.

That's – that they've made those changes.

We'll wait and see if they're confirmed at the toss.

They're interesting in the sense that certainly I think with the Maddison out for Green was the obvious one.

So Renshaw will go back to the top of the order.

That's been confirmed.

But I have a feeling that Marnus has done enough to be able to hold his place in a batting line-up that was going to have significant change anyway, and you don't want to destabilise it too much.

What did you make of the selector's call to pick him? What does it say about the stocks in batting in first-class cricket in Australia? And is there anything we can do differently to make sure that when we get caught in a situation like this in future, we have a clear option to go to and we're not plucking a guy who's basically been rehabbing a serious illness for the last 12 months?

Yeah, it's raised a lot of eyebrows around the country and obviously not just with the fans, but even speaking around the States, a lot of them were shocked.

caught by surprise and completely bewildered by this pick.

Now, you've got to give credit to this selection panel in what they've done over the previous 12 months.

They've been accused of disrespecting first-class cricket with this decision.

However, if you go back to previous Ashes series and you look at the names that they brought into the site, so Weatherall, best opener in domestic cricket for 12 to 24 months, Webster, they picked him as the best all-rounder in shield cricket when he came in against India the year before and then again in the Ashes.

Marnus Labuschagne had been left out of the side in the winter tours of 25.

Are you concerned that in future test cricket will just not draw crowds at all?

What did you make of the selector's call to pick him? What does it say about the stocks in batting in first-class cricket in Australia? And is there anything we can do differently to make sure that when we get caught in a situation like this in future, we have a clear option to go to and we're not plucking a guy who's basically been rehabbing a serious illness for the last 12 months?

Yeah, it's raised a lot of eyebrows around the country and obviously not just with the fans, but even speaking around the States, a lot of them were shocked.

caught by surprise and completely bewildered by this pick.

Now, you've got to give credit to this selection panel in what they've done over the previous 12 months.

They've been accused of disrespecting first-class cricket with this decision.

However, if you go back to previous Ashes series and you look at the names that they brought into the site, so Weatherall, Best Opener in Domestic Cricket for 12 to 24 months, So they picked him as the best all-rounder in Shield cricket when he came in against India the year before and then again in the Ashes.

Marnus Labuschagne had been left out of the side in the winter tours of 25.

Are you concerned that in future Test cricket will just not draw crowds at all?

Is it a case that, uh, Pat Cummins made it very clear to everyone that it was h- him that put Renshaw at five? Um, and is that just a case then that the only other opening options were Cooper Connolly opening the batting, but he had the sniffles, uh, Sam Harper opening the batting, um, or Nick Maddinson, given that Inglis broke his, uh, finger, Green abdominal injury? Is that what we got to?

The mechanics of this selection are as intriguing as anything this panel has done, and it has caused a significant stir in Australian cricket.

Probably the most, uh, eye-raising, eyebrow-raising decision they've made in the five years I've been covering them It seems like from afar, so I, I don't have great insight, not being on tour.

My colleague Andrew McGlashan is there.

He was in Potch.

He spoke to George Bailey with Louis Cameron.

They had a conversation after the Maddinson selection was made.

Mm.

For listeners in the UK who haven't necessarily been following the Big Bash sale process massively closely, could you give us a bit of a... or could you explain a little bit what stage we're now at of the sale process?

So the Cricket Australia board has actually approved, uh, the self-determination model, which is basically each state can, can make a choice as to what they want to do as far as inviting private investment into their BBL teams.

And, and it's, uh, it should be stressed they're not selling the competition as a whole.

It's very much the same as the, the Hundred process.

The, the states have leases, um, of each of the clubs, and they can sell stakes in those leases.

So it's, they're called team participation agreements, and you can basically sell a percentage share of those participation agreements.

You can also put all sorts of things in place to determine what part of those team participation agreements from commercial rights and ticket sales and broadcast revenue, um, is in there as opposed to, you know, control of team or whatever.

And why has this process been so divisive among state associations? Why are some so against it, and clearly the Renegades are so for it?

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

as four changes.

Here we go.

I don't know what they're going to do, honestly.

Are you excited by that? It's interesting.

It's interesting for a team that's 3-0 up to be contemplating as many changes as four heading into Boxing Day.

What do we call it in footy? Throwing the magnets around.

Yeah, something like that.

Yeah, yeah.

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?