Former Australian cricket star Adam Gilchrist. Photo / Getty Images.
Former Australian cricket star Adam Gilchrist. Photo / Getty Images.
Adam Gilchrist left fans, teammates and opposing players stunned on numerous occasions during his cricketing career.
He'll be forever remembered as one of the games most exciting batsmen thanks to his flashing blade and ability to put runs on the board in a hurry.
Gilchrist lined up against England in 20 of his 96 Tests and knows what goes into an Ashes campaign better than most.
Now as the XXXX Gold ambassador gets set for another Ashes campaign, albeit in a different role as a commentator, he talks with news.com.au about sledging and the selection of Tim Paine.
There was one game early on where a fielder for the Hobart Hurricanes threw the ball left-handed and affected a run-out and then a couple of overs later threw the ball right-handed and ran another guy out.
I was just singing his praises saying it was great work by Aiden Blizzard that he could do that.
Someone pointed out, as soon as I had confidently mentioned he was ambidextrous, that the second one was Travis Bird and that it was a totally different bloke.
Nothing like a good leveller when you get too confident.
What were some of the better sledges you heard in your time?
One of the best sledges I ever heard was from a crowd member to my former ODI opening batting partner Matthew Hayden.
In a one dayer at the SCG, Haydos didn't get any runs and was then fielding out on the boundary and it was around the time that he'd released his cookbook.
Someone in the crowd stood up after he'd fumbled the ball and said "You didn't get any runs today, you can't field and your lasagne is absolutely (expletive)." I won't say what the word was for the purposes of censorship but you can insert whatever you want in there.
Did the selections catch you by surprise?
Australian test rookie Tim Paine. Photo / Getty Images.
The Tim Paine one, yes. I'm not surprised that anyone would consider him good enough to play Test cricket but obviously he didn't seem to be in the reckoning because he's not keeping for his first-class team in Tasmania.
On reflection and looking at it, I'm very comfortable with it. There has been a few tough calls on a couple of players, but Paine has been keeping for Australia in T20 cricket and been doing it in Big Bash cricket, it's not like he hasn't been keeping at all.
They clearly feel that he is on par with anyone else in Australia with the gloves and he's shown little glimpses of touch with the bat that they felt he could do a good job. I think it's a really decent looking cricket team that they've got for this first couple of Tests.
Are selectors a little bit too quick to pull the trigger?
No, I wouldn't say that. I'm sure there are a few players out there that might be potentially confused and wondering where they fit in, in the whole selection process.
But the key for the selectors is making sure they're communicating to the players who have been left out. I don't think there needs to be an explanation to every single player in Australia as to why they weren't in it but if someone has been dropped, and I'm sure it's exactly what has been done, then let them know the reasoning.
At the end of the day if you score the runs and take the wickets and take the catches that's expected of you then you won't be getting left out of teams.
You're the ambassador for the XXXX Gold 'Goldie' campaign, what's it all about?
They've got a good campaign where by purchasing a carton of XXXX Gold, you can put a code in and you get sent a baggy gold cap which hopefully plenty of people will be wearing supporting the Aussies out at the Test matches this summer.
What it's all about is catching up with mates, relaxing and watching and supporting the Australian cricket team during the summer.
If you wear the Goldie at the game at either a Test match or ODI and a batsman hits a six and you catch it while wearing your Goldie, you get $10,000 on the spot, it's not a bad little incentive to have it on while you're supporting the Aussies at the ground.
There were eight sixes hit during the last Ashes Gabba Test, do you think we see more this time around?
Gilchrist believes David Warner will provide plenty of boundaries for Australia. Photo / Getty Images.
Who knows, all depends on how long David Warner bats. It's across the whole summer too, not just the Gabba so there's going to be plenty of opportunities for Goldie wearers to be in the running for the money. It'll be a lively pitch up here no doubt on day one and two but it can still create plenty of stroke play with plenty of balls going over the fence.
What's your Ashes series prediction?
We definitely start favourites and if we can keep our fast bowlers fit and on the park I would expect they'll dominate it. Not sure on the scoreline but Australia to win.
