It's certainly an...interesting team. I've seen worse, though.
I have to say I don't get the Clarke loathing, any more than I get the Ponting dislike (or, for that matter, the absurd fawning over Warne - a more complete arsehole than either of the others combined on their worst days could ever hope to be). I don't put much stock in rumours and polls, either. I'm not overly fussed about the bloke but I don't get why he's supposed to be such a jerk. Eh, to each their own. His stats had been pretty good up until recently but he's hardly Robinson Crusoe in the poor form department.
Changes should have been made to the side last summer, if not earlier. They weren't, and it's too late now. Remember that the Shield competition has been in limbo for a few weeks, so it's not as though bowlers in particular have much proper match time under their belts. Get this disaster of a series over with, rather than devalue the green cap any further with wholesale changes. Who is there to pick, anyway? After that...well, if there aren't
very significant changes in Australian cricket generally, the 80s are going to look like a golden era for us.
The Beer selection is a joke. I won't hold my breath waiting for any of the selectors - and I'm including Chappell now - to grow a pair and admit that dropping Hauritz was a mistake. He'd made a better fist of the spinner's role than any of the (now) nine others they've tried since the bloated ego Warne retired. By selecting someone who made his first class debut in October and had
never even been to the SCG until a few days ago
, the selectors have just made themselves look even more stupid than they already had (that's actually no mean feat). Maybe he'll bowl well. It's more likely he'll be belted out of the ground.
The Khawaja selection is more like it. Even though the Shield comp is much feebler than it used (and ought) to be, he's at least clocked up some decent performances since he came into first-class cricket. From all accounts he's technically sound and he can occupy the crease - qualities in very, very limited supply among our batsmen in recent times. It may be significant that he's played very little limited-overs stuff for NSW.
The bowling is an even bigger worry than our increasingly feeble batting. The same fast bowlers who've done stuff-all for most of the past two or three years are still there, despite doing little or nothing to justify their selections. Again, there aren't a lot of other possibilities available but continuing to reward mediocrity isn't working, either.
There's a lot of things wrong with Australian cricket and they're not going to be solved any time soon. No one planned ahead during our long period of success - whether they were stupid enough to believe that top-shelf and once-in-a-generation players (I despise Warne, but no rational person could deny his greatness as a bowler) would just keep popping up or what, I don't know, but it doesn't work like that. We used to sit back and laugh at the English county system, where blokes would play forever because the money was so good - well, we've adopted that system ourselves now, thanks to player greed and the cricketer's association screeching for even more at every available opportunity. Kids would apparently rather represent some (AFL) club than their state or country. These - and other problems - aren't going to go away in the short term, if ever.
For all that, some perspective would be good, particularly from the media. People have said all these things before. The wheel always turns and it's our time to be at the bottom of the heap. Things have to change but there's no need to go overboard. Yes, we lost the Ashes and that sucks. But no one has died, been permanently incapacitated, pronounced terminally ill or anything else along those lines. If we'd won them back we wouldn't have cured cancer or AIDS or done anything else of lasting significance (and England's success hasn't done those things, either). It would be great if we'd done better, but the world hasn't ended because we didn't.
Here's hoping we have a bit more of a go this time around, anyway.
I don't think he's worth a place in the side, but if I were a betting man, I'd have a lazy fiver on Mr Image Crisis top scoring in a dead rubber test. 
I'm old enough to (barely) remember the days of Mo Matthews, Fat Cat Ritchie etc... At least that side had Border, a young S.Waugh. They were at the very bottom of world cricket, but often out-enthused their opponents, and prided themselves on being the best fielding side. They'd beat the current Aussie team, no risk.
. Hold onto your hats for another innings defeat.
