Do you get the sense at all that those concerns around the batting do remain? And if they do, how are they gonna try and ease them?

Oh look, they definitely remain und- undoubtedly.

Um, I mean, to a degree it's been a result of difficult conditions in Australia and, and some other nations, particularly in Australia in the last, I don't know, four or five years.

Uh, the pitches have been tougher.

The, the reinforced, um, double-reinforced Kookaburra seam, um, the extra lacquer, uh, on, on the ball has, has played a role too.

Um, maybe some T20 temperaments coming into cricket and just some excellent bowling across the board.

Clearly, Australia's bowling has generally been up to, up to, you know, um, been enough to get them through and then some outstanding performances, particularly from Travis Head and Steve Smith at various points.

That said, obviously what, with what, uh, the South Africans are missing, does that then play into Australia's favor? If you, if you just l- look at the bow- bowling attacks here and use that to judge who's gonna win this first test in Durban, you, you think it's in favor of the Aussies?

Mm

...

they lost the World Test Championship final to South Africa last year, but ov- over- overall, they've been very successful.

That's not to say that there aren't issues.

And look, the Nick Maddinson selection in particular, that is, that has been a huge talking point.

It was a real shock, certainly to me, I think to a lot of people.

It's raised a lot of, um, [tsking] uh, concern or at least, um, set tongues wagging, riled a lot of people, particularly in the domestic cricket system.

Mm.

So what could we take from what we saw with, uh, the white ball, um, into test cricket?

Oh, look, it's hard to nec-necessarily, necessarily read too much.

I mean, there's not-- there's, there's some overlap between the test and the one day se- teams, but particularly given that Australia sort of eased some of the, some of the test bowlers into this series with Stark and Cummins only playing, um, not playing in Zimbabwe and only playing mi- um, minimal roles, particularly Cummins in, in the, uh, Pat Cummins in, in the one days in South Africa and Josh Hazlewood was r-rotated through there as well.

Um, look, I think there was some, you know, some decent signs for Travis Head, um, made, made some, made some reasonable scores, contributions across the matches, which is good to see.

Um, we've got, I suppose, a little bit of concern around the injury suffered to, um, Matt Renshaw and Cameron Green in the final game.

We're not quite sure on the severity yet.

Um, n-not necessarily expecting it to be overly serious, but, um, Renshaw got a knock on the wrist and, and Green, uh, had already been carrying a, overcoming a shoulder issue and, and, and now has some sort of abdominal, abdominal concern which potentially, um, impacts his bowling.

How do you think our test team, our test squad is looking and sitting as we sit here right now?

Yeah.

"I'm, I'm, I'm a, um, I'm a gun for hire." Uh, I think...

Look, could Mitch Marsh be a short-term success in test cricket again? Probably, yes, because his hand-eye and skill is that good, um, and he's so powerful, and his best is so good that it's...

You know, could he come off two or three times that 10 innings stretch? Probably.

Um, is that the best thing for the Australian team? I don't think so, and I think more the po- as much as anything, like this is a guy whose durability is, yeah, pretty limited.

I think they have to really...

They, they gotta decide with Mitch Ma- Like I think they have decided, and he's decided.

Can you see Marnus opening the batting at any stage this test series?

Yes

... field a team together at the last minute.

Um, so look, it's not unprecedented.

Um, I suppose with the Renegades [laughs] it's a bizarre situation because Cricket Victoria is obviously the, the ground, you know, owned by, um...

Sorry, Junction Oval is obviously the ground owned by Cricket Victoria, and it's their, their fortress.

And, um, it, it's sort of bizarre at a time when Cricket Victoria is washing its hands of the Renegades, that the Renegades will actually play at the Cricket Victoria run ground.

So I suppose you might have a quirky situation where Cricket Australia might be paying rent to Cricket Victoria to pay...

It's not that they haven't been listened to, I'm not sure they've been asked, but I, I just feel that they haven't been considered in all of this.