Waugh and Co still good for Test level
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Hamish Blair/Getty Images
In the Sydney Morning Herald, Philip Derriman says Australia's recent retirees could still be a force enough to challenge the best of the present Test teams.
Consider the line-up. Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Darren Lehmann would be sure selections with Waugh as batsmen, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne as bowlers, and Adam Gilchrist as the keeper.
These seven would be the strength of the team. For the other four places you could turn to ex-Test players still in the game - maybe Matthew Elliott, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz and Stuart Law, the last of whom will be 40 in October but is still scoring heavily for Lancashire.
How would such a combination go against the Australian Test side? In any conditions, you'd have to think they'd be competitive. On a pitch that suited Warne's leg spin, they might well have an edge.
The article also mentions the recent trend of late Test debuts among Australian batsmen, and suggests that more than the stalwarts holding their places, it's the lack of talented youngsters in the pipeline that's the problem.
In the aftermath of Brad Hogg's poor performance in the Tests against India, the Herald Sun seeks a few opinions on which spinner should Australia pick for their forthcoming series.
Mathew Varghese is sub-editor (stats) at Cricinfo