Poor batting costs Australia WTC final, who comes in now for West Indies series and all the picks from the WBBL/BBL drafts

• Recap Australia's WTC final lose to South Africa and find out where it all went wrong.
• The Aussies look ahead to their test series against the West Indies, with George Bailey already confirming two changes to the starting XI.
• Find out who was picked up by which team in the WBBL and BBL drafts.
• See how the Aussies are going in the MLC T20 tournament over in the US.

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome to another edition of the Ashes to Ashes podcast, where we delve into everything related to the Australian and England cricket teams, both men's and women's, as they gear up for another Ashes campaign. And they're always gearing up for an Ashes campaign. I'm your host, Newsquest journalist and avid cricket fan, Patrick Glover. We're back after a couple of weeks break so we've got plenty of cricket action to get through but we're going to do things a little bit differently this week and we're going to have two episodes. So we're going to start with Australia, we're going to have a look at the World Test Championship final and their tour of the West Indies which starts in the next couple of days. We're also going to take a look at the Big Bass Draft and see how that went down as well as look at some of the Major League Cricket action that's been happening over in America and then later on in the week we're going to focus on the England and India series which is underway at the moment the county championship is also back up and running so we're going to take a look at what is happening there but before we get started with today's episode just a quick reminder as always to be sure to give us a follow and a rating wherever you listen to your podcast whether it be Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. Now without further ado let's get started with the show. So we're going to start off with the World Test Championship final, which saw South Africa defeating Australia by five wickets. South Africa won the toss on day one and sent Australia into bat, which at the time seemed like an interesting decision, but in the end proved to be the right call. So Australia batted first, making 212 from their first innings. Bo Webster led the way with the bat with 72 and Steve Smith chipping in with 66 as well. Kegiso Rabada was the pick of the South African bowl doing the damage with 5 for 51 he ended up taking 9 wickets for the match so took 4 again in the second innings just outstanding bowling from him in reply Australia bowled South Africa out for 138 so took a first innings lead of 74 runs going into the second innings Skipper Paddy Cummins leading the way there with 6 for 28 and Benningham top scoring for South Africa with 45 in the second innings Australia could only manage 207 with Mitchell Stark top scoring with 58 not out and Alex Carey also chipping in with 43 as I mentioned before Kagiso Rabada the chief destroyer again in that second innings with 4 for 59 and then in the fourth innings South Africa just too good Markram and Pavuma just far too good for the Aussies Markram finishing with 136 and earning himself a man of the match honours there and Pavuma chipping in with 66 as well well Mitchell Stark was the pick of the bowlers for Australia with three for 66 so a massive congratulations to South Africa that is their first major ICC trophy ever they've been close a couple of times they've been in five World Cup semi-finals losing all of them three of them to Australia they were in the T20 final last year which they lost to India in a game they really should have won they were right in that game right up until the very end but But yeah, as I say, broken that hoodoo finally and got that initial ICC trophy. So a massive congratulations to South Africa. Looking at the game, as I say, a good toss to win, I think, for South Africa in the end. The ball was doing all sorts early doors. 14 wickets fell in the first day alone. We saw, obviously, the ball dominate the first couple of days. Kegiso, Rabada and Pat Cummins, the chief destroyers for their respective sides. And then on On day three, the pitch just seemed to flatten out. But by then, South Africa had done the damage with the ball, taking out Australia's top order. Australia needed a top order batsman to still be there. Alex Carey got out late on day two. If he had have been there maybe on the morning of day three to bat with Starkey for a little bit, then... They might have been able to push the score a little bit higher and get past maybe a 300-run lead. To be fair, I thought 250 was going to be enough. We obviously know South Africa's record in major ICC events. They've never won a final going into the World Test Championship final. And obviously, Australia have got one of the best bowling lineups in the world. So... I think they would have been quite confident going into that fourth innings. But as I say, Aidan Markham, just outstanding with the bat with 136 and well supported by his skipper, Bavuma, with 66 as well. Australia had an opportunity to remove Bavuma early and Steve Smith dropped him at slip. A tough chance which ended up seeing Smith break his finger and go off the field which has ruled him out of the first test for the West Indies series but we'll get to that in a minute. But I think while South Africa played really well and not taking anything away from them I think Australia probably only have themselves to blame. As I mentioned they went into that second innings with a 74 run lead and really the ascendancy there and could have pushed on to... to set up a really big league going into that four with innings and made it really hard for South Africa. Again, using all that pressure of not winning a major ICC tournament and everything that they've been through against them, but weren't able to do so. You look at their batting throughout that test. There was obviously a lot of chat about the batting order going into the final, who would open the batting, whether it was going to be Constance or whether it was going to be Labashane. They obviously opted to go with Marnus at the top or opening up with Uzi. Marnus managed to score. He got starts in both innings. He made 17 in the first and 22 in the second, but just not enough. He needed to go on and make a big score there, especially opening the batting and set it up for the rest of the batters there. Uzi was horrible in that final, 0-6. Cameron Green came back into the side and battled at 3 and made 4 and zip, only managed to face 5 balls for the entire match. Just a very fragile top 3 there and when your top 3 isn't making any runs, it then puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the batting order. You've got Steve Smith is coming in far earlier than you'd like him to be, although he batted fantastically in the first innings. Travis Head strangled down the leg side for 11 in the first innings and didn't in the second innings either. So I know it sounds simple, but Australia just simply didn't make enough runs and really have themselves to blame. As I say, Thank you very much. So we look ahead now for Australia to the West Indies Series. That kicks off on June the 25th. There'll be three test matches and then five T20 internationals to follow that. It'll be the same test squad that they had for the World Test Championship Final with one change. Brendan Dogger is out due to an injury and Sean Abbott comes in. A bit of an odd one for me that... Look, Sean Abbott is a fantastic player and has obviously been around the Aussie squad in all formats for a long period of time. You've got blokes like Fergus O'Neill, who's been bowling fantastically, had an outstanding Sheffield Shield and One Day Cup series in Australia, and then went over and did a fantastic job at county championship level. Nathan McAndrew's another one who bowled the house down during the Sheffield Shield season. So I don't quite understand why you wouldn't bring one of them in and give them a crack. It just exposes them. You're probably not going to Brendan Doggett probably wasn't going to play a game. Abbott probably isn't going to play in that series either when you've got the likes of Cummins, Stark, Hazelwood and Boland. And with the conditions likely to suit spin... Matty Coonerman's in there as well, so that gives him the opportunity to potentially come in as well. Australia may go in with two spinners, have two quicks, and then have Bo Webster as another sort of seam option. So I don't quite understand why you wouldn't bring a Fergus O'Neill or a Nathan McAndrew into that squad to give them that exposure in an Australian setup. Those guys are going to play cricket for Australia at some point in the So you're going to need to get that next crop of fast bowlers ready and expose them to that level before those guys decide to retire and move on. And that might not be for another couple of years. Hopefully they stick around for a little bit longer. Hopefully their bodies hold up and they can keep going. But you need to have that next crop ready to go. And I think this would have been a great opportunity to bring those guys in and get them in and amongst the the likes of Stark, Cummins and Hazelwood and learn off of them. They're already fantastic bowlers, but to learn from arguably the best fast bowling contingent ever, it would be amazing. So I think they've missed a bit of a trick there. The other option they could have done is bought someone like a Nathan McSweeney in as well. As I say, you've got Bolin and Kuhneman on top of the other guys there that are going to play ahead of anyone else. So... why not bring in someone like Nathan McSweeney with Smith injured and going to miss the first test? Why would you not bring in a potential replacement for him and maybe give him a crack or as I say keep him around the Aussie squad at least. So from my point of view I think they probably could have done things differently but obviously the Aussie selectors know what they're doing. We already know there's going to be at least two changes to the starting 11 with George Bailey announcing that Manas Labashain has been dropped while Steve Smith will miss the first test due to that finger injury that he sustained while fielding a slip in the World Test Championship final. So those to go out while Constance and Inglis make their way into the XI. We still don't know, I guess... Conditions wise, what it's going to be like, whether the Aussies are going to opt to go for an extra spinner and play two quicks and two spinners, whether they play Boland or Hazelwood. We don't know the makeup of the bowling lineup yet, but as I say, the batting is going to be, it'll be Kawaja and Constance at the top. You would have thought maybe Inglis at three, Green at four, Travis Head at five, Bo Webster six, and Alex Carey at seven, and then the bowling contingent. So great to see both Constance and Inglis back in the Aussie team. Constance had to play. He's probably stiff not to play in the World Test Championship Final. He obviously did a fantastic job when he came in against India. Probably played a few rash shots and needs to work out. He needs to find that balance. But I think he'll find that once he gets a bit of a longer crack at that opening spot. He obviously was dropped from the top of the order for the Sri Lanka series because they wanted to put Travis up there. But that was always a preconceived idea, I think. And that was always going to happen. But... As I say, stiff maybe not to play in the World Test Championship Final, but great that he's back in the side now. And the Aussie selectors are giving him a chance to earn that spot now ahead of the Ashes. It gives him three tests to go, right, I'm going to nail down this spot ready for the Ashes series. We know what he can do. We saw in that Boxing Day test against India how talented he is. He's played some fantastic innings for New South Wales. He's obviously still a young kid, so he's still working out his game. I think there's going to be a really good combination. We've seen obviously explosiveness that he can play with from that brief stint that he had for Australia against India. But he's also got that temperament. There was a couple of hundreds that he made early in the Sheffield Shield season last year, back-to-back hundreds actually against South Australia, and just looked really composed and played fantastically well. So I think if he can find that balance between the two, he's going to be a fantastic opener for Australia long-term. Josh Inglis as well, great to see him back. He's obviously been in the white ball teams for Australia Thank you very much. Did fantastically well in the IPO and deserves another crack here in the Aussie lineup. He's another one that now has a real opportunity to nail down a spot in this Aussie side. Marnus isn't making runs and they've dropped him. So he has an opportunity now. If he makes runs, it then puts a lot of pressure on selectors to whether they keep green in the side or whether they... whether they can have both Green and Webster as all-round options if Green's not making runs and isn't bowling do you keep him out until he comes back in as an all-rounder Webster's making runs and is obviously a handy bowling option as well so it just adds a healthy competition for spots there in that in that top order and I think that's something that Australia needs at the moment because the batting lineup looked very fragile in that world test championship final and in in the pressure cooker of an Ashes series they're going to need to have a really solid batting lineup. Yes, it'll be in home conditions, which they're familiar with, and Aussie batters always play well in home conditions, but as I say, it It's another level, again, playing in an Ashes series, whether you're home or away. So they're going to need to have a good contingency of batters ready to go. So on the topic of batters, there's an Aussie A series that kicks off on July 4th, and I'm really interested to see how a couple of players in that setup go. You've got Jason Sanger, Jake Weatherald, Curtis Patterson, and Nathan McSweeney, for me, are probably the next four batters that come into that Aussie squad. McSweeney's obviously... had a crack in that last India series and probably a bit stiff to get dropped really but he would probably be the next logical option to come back in he toured in Sri Lanka as well Curtis Patterson he's obviously played at international level before as well and has had a couple of years away from cricket and came back last Sheffield Shields season and was making runs for fun and he's He's been doing a fantastic job over at county level recently as well. Jake Weatherill had a fantastic last Sheffield Shield season where he peeled off 900 plus runs. So he's been in some top form. He's a potential candidate as an opener. I think Kawaja, for me, is on notice. He just seems to be getting out the same way. He keeps nicking off and not putting enough runs on the board. Yeah, he made a double 100 in Sri Lanka, but... He's really good in spin-friendly conditions, so backing him in to make some runs over in the West Indies as well. But I just feel that he just hasn't made the runs that you want out of an opener, and especially in a big game like the World Test Championship Final to make 0-6. As I mentioned, it just put pressure on the rest of the batting order, and I think Weatherill's one that... we definitely need to keep an eye on. If he can make some runs in this Aussie A tour, definitely one that can be putting pressure on Kawaja at the top of the order. I think Australia have tried now... bringing blokes in out of position so they've obviously tried Smith as an opener that didn't work they've tried McSweeney as an opener they've they decided to push him out and bring Constance in which is fine because that's a specialist opener but I think now if they're gonna bring in another opener to bat with Constance because I think for me I think Uzi plays up into Sydney and hopefully Australia win the Ashes and he goes out and says, okay, my last test is going to be in Sydney and I'm going to retire then. He's obviously not getting any younger, hasn't made the runs that he probably would have liked in the last couple of months. Now, I'm not trying to retire anyone, but I just feel like for me, that's always seemed like the logical place for him to retire. I might be wrong and he might come out and have an amazing Ashes campaign and go, you know what, I'm going to keep going. But I think that's probably, for me, that seems like a logical place for him to retire. So at that point, I think they need to go, okay, we've tried batting people out of position and try to work our best batters into positions that they might not necessarily play in. It hasn't worked. They need to pick a specialist opener. So they've got Constance there, who is a ready-made opener. And I think Weatherald's a good second option there. Both very attacking options at the top, which is... which is exciting and puts pressure back on the bowlers. And then you've got the likes of Smith, Green, Inglis to come in at 3-4 and then obviously head everyone else. So I think that there's definitely options there going forward. I think they just need to make sure they get the balance right. The The team's obviously a little bit on the older side at the moment. You don't want there to be a mass exodus and then not have anyone ready to go. So for me, I think it's really exciting to see guys like Jason Sanger had a fantastic shield season for the Sackers. As I say, Wetherill was amazing for Tasmania. Curtis Patterson, good to see him back in some form. And Mick Sweeney as well. So hopefully we see them peel off some runs for Australia A and see them in and around the Ashes squad over the the Aussie summer but before that obviously you've got the West Indies series so that'll be exciting to watch good to see Constance and Inglis back in that Aussie 11 for the first test and yeah look forward to that that test kicking off on the 25th So we now move on and take a look at the WBBO and BBO drafts which took place last Thursday. Sophia Dunkley and Shaheen Shah Afridi were the top picks in the WBBO and BBO drafts going to the Sydney Sixers and Brisbane Heat respectively. Every team had a pre-signed player. So on the WBBL side, the Sydney Sixers had already signed Amelia Kerr. The Adelaide Strikers had Laura Wolvart. Brisbane Heat, Nadine De Klerk, Hobart Hurricanes, Nat Siverbrunt, Melbourne Stars, Marazane Kapp, Sydney Thunder had Chamari Atapadu, Melbourne Renegades didn't have a pre-signed player and the Perth Scorchers had Sophie Devine. While over on the big bash on the men's side, Brisbane Heat had pre-signed Colin Munro, Melbourne Stars Tom Curran, the Adelaide Strikers Jamie Overton, Melbourne Renegades Tom Seifert, Perth Scorchers Finn Allen Hobart Hurricanes Chris Jordan Sydney Sixers Baba Azam in a major coup for them that's a fantastic pre-signing for them and Sydney Thunder Sam Billings so outside of that Sydney Sixers had the first pick in the WBBL draft and went with Sophia Dunkley they also picked up Maddy Villas as their third pick for the strikers they picked up Sophie Eccleston with pick number two and then went with Tabby Beaumont in their third pick. For me, the strikers were definitely the winners out of the WBBL draft, adding Sophie Eccleston and Tabby Beaumont on top of Laura Wolvart. They've already got a strong... local base and adding those three overseas players to that list is a really good pickup. We know what Sophie Eccleston can do with a ball. Obviously one of the best spinners in the world in the women's game. So a big coup for the strikers there. The Brisbane Heat, they went with Jemima Rodriguez with picks three and Chanel Henry with their second pick. The Hobart Hurricanes went with Danny Wyatt-Hodge with pick number four and then Lindsay Smith as their third pick. Melbourne Stars picking up Amy Jones with pick five and adding Danny Gibson with their third pick. Heather Knight joined the Sydney Thunder with pick six and Shamim Ismail as well, joining them with their third pick. The Melbourne Renegades picked up Dendra Dotton from the West Indies with pick number seven and then added Alice Cupsie with their second pick, while the Perth Scorchers added Paige Schofield and Chloe Trianson their list on top of Sophie Devine. So a lot of fantastic picks there. Great to see so many high profile overseas players coming in and jumping in the WBBL. The competition is already going from strength to strength and then adding players like Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Eccleston, Nat Siverbrunt, all those kind of players coming into the tournament only makes it stronger on top of the likes of Elisa Healy, Elise Perry, Alana King and their likes. Moving over Over to the Big Bash Draft. As I say, Shaheen Sharifridi going with pick number one, heading off to the Brisbane Heat. The Heat, as I say, Colin Munro is their pre-signed player and then picking up Tom Alsop from England with their third pick. The Melbourne Stars picked up Harris Ralph with pick number two and then Joe Clark with their third pick. The Adelaide Strikers landed Luke Wood with the third pick and then went with Hassan Ali from Pakistan with their third pick, joining Jamie Overton there. The Melbourne Renegades went with Mohamed Rizwan with pick four. He's joined by Hassan Khan, also from Pakistan, and as I say, Tim Seifert, who was pre-signed. For them, Perth Scorchers went with their pre-signing as their fifth pick and then added Laurie Evans and David Payne into their squad as well. The Hobart Hurricanes added Rishad Hussain from Bangladesh with pick two and Rahan with their third pick. Sydney Sixers went with Sam Curran and Jaffa Cohen to join Baba Azam and Sydney Thunder added Lockie Ferguson and Shadab Khan on top of Sam Billings. So again, Some fantastic players jumping into the draft this year. Bubba Azam, an amazing pre-signing for the Sydney Sixers. He's been the number one T20 player in the world at different points over time. So he'll be a fantastic inclusion in that top order there. Sam Curran as well, jumping in as an all-round option for the Sixers is only going to make them even better on top of their local talent. Shaheen Sharifridi, great to see him joining into the Big Bash this year and And also Mohamed Rizwan as well, both from Pakistan. Some fantastic players there joining with the Brisbane Heat and the Melbourne Renegades respectively. And then obviously a strong English contingent as well with the likes of Luke Wood, Laurie Evans, David Payne and Rohan Ahmed also getting his first crack in the Big Bash as well. So some really strong picks there for the Big Bash sides. And again, just going to make those squads even stronger. And the Big Bash just... It seems to be getting better and better as a tournament itself. So getting in blokes like Rizwan and Shaheen Sharifridi, Barbara Zahm and the likes is only going to make it stronger again. So really excited to see the Big Bash kick off again later this year. Now we're going to finish with some action from over in America. The MLC T20 tournament is currently underway and there is a plethora of international players jumping in on top of the local talent over there at the moment. We've got a host of Aussies, not many English players over there, but there's definitely a host of Aussies in action at the moment. The likes of Glenn Maxwell, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Xavier Bartlett, Marcus Stoinis, and the list goes on on top of other internationals including the likes of Sunil Narine, Noor Ahmed, Quinton de Kock, Rachan Ravindra, Harris Ralph and again... many more so some of the standout performances so far we've already seen some fantastic knocks from the Aussie contingent Glenn Maxwell good to see him back in some form he scored 106 from 49 deliveries not out for the Washington Freedom the other day in their win over the Los Angeles Knight Riders Jake Fraser McGirt good to see him back amongst the runs as well he scored 88 from 38 deliveries for the San Fran Unicorns also against the the LA Knight Riders Finn Allen from New Zealand was in scintillating form the other day scoring 151 off of 51 deliveries that innings included five fours and 19 sixes yes one nine 19 sixes so he was smashing them to all parts for San Fran against the Washington Freedom there they went on to make five for 269 from their 20 overs in that game Xavier Bartlett taking wickets but also making runs he scored an unbeaten 59 off of 25 deliveries for San Fran the other day in their win over MI New York Mitch Owen has also come into some form in the tournament he took 3 for 33 and made 89 from 52 deliveries for the Washington Freedom the other day against the Texas Super Kings and prior to that made 60 from 26 deliveries and also chipped in with 1 for 29 versus MI New York as So he's in some form in the MLC. Well, Matt Shaw as well scored a 61 off of 29 for San Fran the other day versus the Texas Super Kings. So good to see plenty of Aussies in action there and all in some good form heading into a big summer of white ball cricket. There's going to be a series against South Africa in Australia before a series against India. And that's all before a Ashes campaign on the test arena. So plenty of cricket to come for the Aussies. and good to see some of the guys there in form. So that brings us to an end of another edition of the Ashes to Ashes podcast. Thanks once again for tuning in. And as always, be sure to give us a follow or a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts, whether it be Spotify, Amazon Music, or Apple Podcasts. A reminder that I'll be back again later in the week with a wrap-up of the first test between England and India and a bit of a look at the county championship as that returns after a brief break. so all that and more coming later in the week so I'll see you then