You are spot on re SL, I’ve made the same point previously.
I agree that 27 is not good enough, but we can’t drop all the batsman except Smith and Labuschagne. It’s really frustrating as a fan to have such underwhelming options to choose from at times, but ultimately selection is obviously a relative call ... we have to pick XI even if they’re not all up to standard, and we can’t pick more than XI if we have an embarrassment of riches!
One of the things I haven’t figured out yet is whether this fast bowler rotation/horses for courses/whoever’s in form policy is now applicable to the batsman (given we seem to be dropping them pretty freely). In one sense it would seem fair if it was, but (1) batsmen don’t really need the regular rests, and (2) I think the argument for giving batsmen a somewhat longer leash is pretty strong because 1 or 2 bad balls can totally change their match, whereas for a bowler they get a larger sample of opportunities each game.
I would have dropped :-
Warner , Harris , Head & Wade
options are Bancroft , Khawaja & Marsh
Langer , Ponting & Waugh are there they would put up a better fight ?
You are right though can't drop them all (unless they are catches) but it is very frustrating when 4 of them haven't looked Test standard this series + Bancroft & Khawaja.
Smith & Labuschagne have papered over our deficiencies , our fast bowlers generally have been good and we have been lucky Anderson has missed and England's batting is worse than ours
Going forward v Pak & NZ it will be interesting what the side is especially if the Shield batsmen fail to deliver like the last few years.
Maybe we should just select 5-6 bowlers like England do.
