Warner has said he’s planning to retire from international cricket after the T20 World Cup next year. So unless he is dropped he will finish up in ODI cricket at the end of the World Cup, Test cricket after the Pakistan series and T20I cricket after the T20 World Cup in the Windies.

So we’ll need a replacement in all three formats sometime between now and July next year at the latest.

You’d probably want to see what Warner’s form is like – he is a genuine legend of T20 cricket and was still playing well last year in T20Is, so it’s a big call to move on from him for either Short or Head who have two T20I 50s between them. Green might also come into contention, but it’s a nice problem to have!

I’d have to say I agree on a bowling front, we need a bowling attack which has been playing a lot of T20 cricket recently and Cummins and Starc in particular have been a bit off the boil in that format in recent years, because they aren’t playing much of it.

You can also throw in a good knock from Matt Short in the second T20I, Tim David’s best innings in Australian colours in the first one, a decent debut series for Spencer Johnson and Nathan Ellis continuing to perform. A nice little cameo from Aaron Hardie on his debut as well.

It was about as good a series as Australia could have hoped for – pretty much everyone made some sort of contribution during the course of the series.

For the ODIs, they should be using these and the India series coming up as World Cup prep, which undoubtedly is their plan. That means the main focus should be establishing what the First XI is, main questions being what the batting order of our Top 4 will be (it should be some combination of Warner/Head/Smith/Marsh) and who joins Maxwell and Carey in the middle order.

Think Marnus is auditioning to be back-up for Smith in case of injury and Tim David as possible injury back-up for Maxwell.

With Smith, Maxwell, Starc and Cummins not around for the South Africa leg, there’s room for some experimenting with various squad players, I think those who are first choice should play most of the games barring some bowling rotation.

For the India leg you’d want to play pretty much what you see as your first choice team to get combinations down pat.

It was a funny one-off moment but I hope we don’t see a string of copycats now. Much like the bail-swapping thing in the Ashes, it’s only funny the first time it happens. If we keep seeing it the delays will get boring very fast.

By that logic Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood should open the batting to keep them fresh for bowling. Batting is not as physically taxing as fast bowling, hence bowlers often back up to bowl even shortly after completing relatively long batting innings.

To add to it, Cameron Green does not usually open the bowling. He usually has an hour or so before getting the ball in his hand, unless Australia is playing three spinners on a rank turner (in which case he is only likely to be required for a couple of overs anyway, or Australia might open with a spinner).

When you are bowling, if Green needs rest he can have a longer wait before coming on to bowl. Number 3 is too important a position to be messing around with if you’ve had a long stint in the field to give him a rest. You can’t pick someone who can only bat at 3 effectively if you win the toss or steamroll a side in the first innings.

Interesting that Cam Green doesn’t seem to share your opinion, saying during the Ashes that he thought opening would be a bridge too far given his bowling workload.

I guess you’d know better than him sitting on the couch at home though!

On what basis would you have dropped Stoinis from the T20 team? He’s got a great record in T20s, averaging 29 with the bat striking at 146 (and that improves to 29 at 164 since the start of last year – excellent numbers for a middle order bat), and averaging 30 at 8.5 rpo with the ball (which improves to 21 at 8.2 rpo since the start of last year). He was arguably our best batsman in the T20 World Cup last year.

I can certainly understand dropping him from the ODI team where he has been mediocre aside from one innings against New Zealand 6 years ago. But T20 is a totally different format and he’s one of the best in the world in that format.

That’s a way of squeezing all the “incumbent” players in, but I’m not sure it’s the best balanced team. If you do play that top 6 then Smith should be batting 3 and Green 4. Maybe even Head at 4 and Green at 5. Green needs some time to recover if he’s had a decent bowling load in the field – tough on him if he’s bowled 15+ overs and an opener nicks off in the first over.

I’d also rather use the opportunity whilst Khawaja is still around to bed in our next opener. My preference would be to groom Matt Renshaw as the player with most upside who could be around for quite a few years to come.

The average partnership between Smith and Labuschagne is 60.2 runs, with 9 hundred and 9 fifty partnerships in 37 innings. That’s the sixth highest average by any Australian pair to have scored 2000 runs in partnership together. So the stats certainly suggest they like batting together.

I think Green batting at 3 doesn’t make any sense given his bowling workloads. I can see him batting at 4 in the future, but 3 means a quick turnaround after he might have been helping to finish off the tail. If Labuschagne opens Smith is a better bet to bat 3, where he has batted previously with success.

The Australian selectors have long used white ball bilateral series to blood young players. There is nothing new in the approach for this series.

The team for a World Cup should be the best available team. Whether that’s full of grizzled veterans, young turks or ideally a combination of youth and experience. All that matters is that we are picking players who are performing well.

Unfortunately some of the young players we’ve given opportunities to in recent years haven’t performed well enough. Guys like Josh Philippe, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith etc. Hopefully some of the players getting an opportunity here can take the step up.

With the exception of Finch hanging on too long and maybe giving Nathan Ellis a run at the last T20 World Cup, I don’t think the selectors have got too much wrong in the last few years for the white ball squads.

We did manage to beat India at Chennai earlier this year! Spin to win too, with Agar and Zampa sharing 6 wickets between them.

But yes, will be a tough start to the tournament. Our first four games are India, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, with the India and Sri Lanka games at spin friendly venues. If we can come out of that start with at least two wins (preferably three) I think we’re well placed to push for a semi-finals berth.

It depends on the pitch. There are pitches in India which favour quick bowling, such as Mumbai, Dharamshala and Bangalore. The first two ODIs in the India-Australia series in March were dominated by seam bowling (at Mumbai and Visakhapatnam).

But there are definitely plenty of venues where you will need a second (or third?) spinner, such as Chennai and Lucknow. Australia has matches scheduled at a variety of spin and pace friendly venues so are likely to need to move between a second spinner and third seamer throughout the tournament.

Hate to break it to you, but unless Cummins gets reinjured, he’s going to be leading the team at the World Cup – that decision is already made.

Like you, I have reservations over Cummins as ODI captain, not necessarily on the tactical side – because I think that is less of an issue in ODI cricket than T20 cricket – but I am not convinced he is always in our best ODI side especially in India where an extra spinner may be required at times.

I personally think Starc and Hazlewood are better ODI bowlers, but one of them will need to be dropped if Agar comes into the side because Cummins will have to play as captain.

As a Union fan who pretty much just watches State of Origin, the cavalier attitude towards head contact in those games astonishes me. Every second tackle would be a red or yellow card in Union in some of the passages of play I’ve watched.

You could argue that Union sometimes goes a little overboard in its approach, but this is not an issue any sport should be burying its head in the sand over. Aside from the simple duty of care owed to players, a class action lawsuit could cripple the game.

Have a look at the picture in this article:

https://wwos.nine.com.au/cricket/the-ashes-2023-ashes-umpires-criticised-for-new-ball-decision-after-australias-top-order-collapse/283286d5-cb83-4800-9ae5-f31aed455c9c

Have a look at the picture in this article:

https://wwos.nine.com.au/cricket/the-ashes-2023-ashes-umpires-criticised-for-new-ball-decision-after-australias-top-order-collapse/283286d5-cb83-4800-9ae5-f31aed455c9c

Did you see the overhead shot of the box? There were clearly balls in that box which were older than the new cherry the umpires selected.

They were good hosts when England came two years ago. Despite England constantly moaning and being poor guests.

It’s still extremely poor behaviour to ignore the Australians banging on your door for an hour when you know there is a tradition of post series drinks. Shows how self absorbed and insular the Bazball team culture is. We see it with their media performances, arrogantly parading around as the saviours of the game and never showing their opponents any respect or giving them any credit.

This test has followed the rollercoaster ride of the series. Australia won its first toss of the series – a sign our luck was about to change? No, England got off to a flier, then collapsed, then Harry Brook got going when he should have been out for 5, then England collapsed again and eked out a useful score with the tail. Australia slightly ahead after Day 1.

Australia fluffed its lines on Day 2, especially during the second session and looked down and out, before the tail rallied to eke out a tiny lead. England slightly ahead after Day 2.

England belted Australia all over the ground for two and a bit sessions, getting within cooee of a 400+ lead with 6 wickets in hand, before a late collapse saw them end Day 3 377 ahead but not having totally batted Australia out of the match. England miles in front after Day 3.

On Day 4, the only things stopping it from being a perfect day for Australia was the Broad 6, and the rain coming when it did – even another hour would have been great to knock off some more runs whilst we had the momentum.

As for Day 5, I have no idea what is going to happen! I certainly feel like it is going to go down to the wire again, with a victory by less than 4 wickets or less than 50 runs.

It’s funny though, that for such a tight series so much of the commentary has been having a go at the team which is 2-1 up with a day to play!

“… clearly the most dangerous of England’s bowlers, Wood would finish the over with a searing bouncer at 114 km/h…”

Geez, Mark Wood ending the series bowling at Ollie Robinson pace!

Scyld Berry normally writes a load of nonsense in his articles, but he’s bang on about Broad and Anderson. Stuart Broad has been Mr Ashes for the past 14 years, especially in England, whilst Anderson has a very mediocre record against Australia, even over there.

Over the years I’ve come to appreciate Broad more and more. Obviously huge respect for his performances on the field and ability to conjure a match-turning spell, but even all of his gamesmanship has grown on me over time. There’s never been any real malice there on his part.

He’ll be missed on the field, but I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot of him in the commentary box in Ashes series to come.

I thought he was used more or less right. There was enough in the pitch for the fast bowlers to be creating chances. Murphy was used when the matchups were in his favour.

Not much spin on Day 1. Murphy will have a bigger role to play in the second innings, especially if we can bat all day tomorrow.

Carey’s was regulation for mine. His footwork was poor hence he went one handed to a catch he could have easily gone with two hands if better balanced.

He was keeping poorly for much of the first session, fumbling a number of other takes. It’s been a long series. Seemed to improve after lunch.

Cummins a huge positive as well. He was back to his best today and hard to believe he only ended up with 1 wicket. Pick of the bowlers for mine.