Shouldn’t be too hard a slog for the bowlers over summer, there’s enough skill there to roll Pakistan and NZ. Plus Adelaide is a day night test and the WA pitch looks good and bouncy. It’s really just the MCG wicket which is a total disgrace. So can probably go with an extra batsmen other than Melbourne
Watling is probably the best keeper bat in the world, he’d walk into the Aussie batting line up.
Quinton de Kock has left the chat
Genuine All-Rounders are an integral part of the batting and bowling line ups in every innings. So a bit of part time leg spin from Labuschagne doesn't really qualify in my opinion.Where's Marnus??
Bats in the top 4 and has handy leggies
In this current bowling lineup the all rounder bowls about 10-15 overs a match... not an innings... and even then they're usually bowled near the 80 over mark when they want to give the top liners a break before the new ball.
Unless we find a legit all rounder like Stokes who bowls 20 overs an innings and is a top 6 batsmen in the country... then it's a wasted spot.
Our batting lineup is too brittle (outside of Smith) to be wasting a spot so Marsh can bowl 8 overs an innings.
To be fair, Lyon can get through such a volume of work and has been effective enough that it really doesn't leave a huge need for a spinning all rounder outside of countries where the wickets produce a lot of turn. Given we play half our series at home and around half the other countries we go to also aren't traditionally spin friendly surfaces, it definitely lends weight to looking for a seam bowling all rounder. The fact Labuschagne and Smith can both bowl part time spin as well, as you said, has really kind of killed off the chances of a spin bowling all rounder for now.It seems these days all they are looking for in an all rounder is they must bowl pace. Id rather another batsmen with Labuschagne and Smithy bowling a few if necessary