In possibly the most timely thing they'll ever do, Joe Burns and Usman Khwaja are both not out in the 80s against India A in a List A ODI match. 0-176 after 27 overs
At least if you pick young players and they make a reasonable start to test cricket, they will usually grow into it with experience and become test players. You pick old blokes and if they can't cut it immediately, you're stuffed.
As I have been saying almost since the start of the thread, the balance of this squad was wrong from the start. The Voges selection was always going to end in tears, based as it was on one golden season at the age of 35, S Marsh has never been test standard and you add to that the ageing Watson, Clarke and Haddin. I was riducled by some, but sadly much of what I predicted has come to pass.
To compound the selection errors, for this test we go in with S Marsh and Voges in the middle order - so we're carrying 2 passengers at test level, Clarke is out of form. In that circumstance, if the other 3 (Rogers, Smith and Warner) don't score a ton of runs, we're gone.
And surely you'd get to the ground at 9am or whatever, take one look at the pitch, and immediately put Siddle in the starting XI? Green wicket, cloudy day - the situation just cried out for a line and length bowler who could seam it around a little.