Be stunned if either team makes 300 in either innings. I'd be very tempted to bowl first.
English cricket thread
- Thread starter Samid
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Apparently it's a ligament damage for Rory Burns. Pathetic. I'm not sure about the merits of playing high intensity football before Cricket. Even the Indian cricket team does it.
Sibley and Denly very slowly beginning to look like Test cricketers who will average 35. Is that enough? Sadly probably yes at the moment.
When we had a top six of Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Collingwood people were always moaning about Strauss and Collingwood despite Strauss being captain and catching most things at slip and Collingwood being the best fielder. Michael Carberry might have played 100 tests had he been around in this era and not had to compete Strauss, Cook and Trescothick.
Tbf Strauss averaged 40 and was the last reliable opener we had not called Cook. I'd say if we could get a pair of openers who average 35 and regularly blunted the new ball we'd be golden.
I think there's a few reservations about Sibley so far, but I think he'll make the step up. Looked comfortable so far but two stupid dismissals.
I can’t remember which sport it was. Might have been Murray and tennis, but he claimed the benefits in foot movement from using it as a training method.
Makes sense really. As when we play football we’re having to adjust our feet to deal with the ball coming at you at different paces; the ball perhaps not reacting as you’d expect on the pitch etc
So I can see the benefit. Outweigh the risk? Probably not
I've been playing football my whole life and gotten injured maybe 3 times? These cricketers get injured looking at a cricket ball.
We're talking about hyper competitive sportsmen tbf. If you've seen them play it, or seen Ansari talk about how watching Stokes and Cook play table tennis convinced him he wasn't a test player, you'd wonder how there's not more injuries.
Yeah, Strauss did have years when he was better than that though, and a lot of the time he averaged in the 30s he was a successful captain which I think is worth +5 on the average.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/c...e-as-Test-batsman-and-captain-in-numbers.html
Sure, he was a very good player and a better one than we have any realistic right to expect any of this crop to be. I've just thought for a while we probably create unrealistic expectations for our openers and when a player as good as Strauss ends up with an average of 40 then 35 ain't bad. It ain't easy opening up in England and I think we've discarded some good players who could have been nuggety enough to make things easier for the middle order a bit too quickly.
Remember when we criticized Trott for batting too slowly? Or Bell for getting out cheaply when set?
We'd love those two now wouldn't we.
We'd love those two now wouldn't we.
Anyone from that sides top 7 would of be an upgrade on what we currently have
Does anyone want to kick on and make a potential match winning innings for England?
.I remember at the start of the tour the pundits (in particular Steve Harmison) were so convinced we'd win the series at a canter.
In Rabada they have the best bowler on either team, he's already taken 7 wickets in the first match and 1 so far in this.
And our top order is just so uncertain, why would you back us to win anything? It's not just that you never know who is going to be batting where, but whoever makes the cut just look like rabbits in the headlights.
By the time it comes to the middle order, often it's too late.
We're just way too fragile at the moment, our 2 main strike bowlers have a combined age of 70 and there are many questions to be asked of Root's captaincy ability as well.
Other than that everything is fantastic
In Rabada they have the best bowler on either team, he's already taken 7 wickets in the first match and 1 so far in this.
And our top order is just so uncertain, why would you back us to win anything? It's not just that you never know who is going to be batting where, but whoever makes the cut just look like rabbits in the headlights.
By the time it comes to the middle order, often it's too late.
We're just way too fragile at the moment, our 2 main strike bowlers have a combined age of 70 and there are many questions to be asked of Root's captaincy ability as well.
Other than that everything is fantastic
Think we all know the answer is no.
feck was that from Broad
Never seen anything like that Broad dismissal.
Imagine having a batsman as stylish and as easy on the eye as Pope averaging 58 in first class cricket and picking a bloke who misses straight balls for for fun because he's mates with the captain.
When it comes to Test Cricket then I think it absolutely is that bleak yes.
With limited overs cricket yeah we're very very good and that is fantastic of course.
But at Test Cricket this is probably the worst we've been in at least 20 years or so, maybe even more. We look a fundamentally broken side that just cannot bat. We're competitive at home in English conditions but we're as bad as it gets away.
Another bad day for England there, fair play to Pope for his 50. He looks a player.
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We'll have to see what happens tomorrow won't we. But looks poor at the moment.
The batting lineup is infinitely worse than it was in the 90s. That team would regularly make scores of 350+ and they were playing in a golden age for bowlers.
The current bowling attack is better though, although not by much.
Bairstow averages in the 50s in FC cricket too.
I still can't get over the fact they made him bat 3 on debut because the captain didn't fancy it.
Yeah. At the time he hadn't batted above 6 for Surrey though, so was still a big ask.
Ta for the memory refresh it's hard to keep track of the batting order nonsense England get up to. The point remains however that senior guys like Stokes and Bairstow should not have been batting below a debutant who had made their runs batting @ 6 for their county.
The Root hokey-cokey at 3 resulted in Moeen batting @ 3 for the final test of that series, got my wires seriously crossed.
Broad just bowled an absolute beauty to Rassie but it was called a no ball(huge one). Not sure how the Umpire missed it.
Not sure they check as much as they used to because of DRS
Really wish we had Archer here.
Bess looks decent though. We haven't got a top-class spinner so we need someone to play the Giles role - bat 8, bowl tight, field well. He looks like he could do that job.
Bess looks decent though. We haven't got a top-class spinner so we need someone to play the Giles role - bat 8, bowl tight, field well. He looks like he could do that job.
I'm not even joking but they've shown that Umpires have missed around 15 no balls in the last half hour alone. Jesus.
I can understand if it's bang on line but there was a considerable gap for no ball.
Not unlike England this, pissing away a good start.
England need to get Moeen back into the fold. Him @ 8 would have allowed England to consider playing 3 of Archer, Broad, Wood and Anderson for the next test. Curran feels the most secure of all the seamers because of his batting.
I haven’t been able to watch since lunch so I’m sure it’s been mentioned on commentary, but it’s a bit of a problem when the bowler doesn’t know he’s overstepping until it’s too late.
Same with Rabada yesterday
First time since the last test match
Curran has the knack it appears.
That actually turned into a good day for England!
I obviously understand there are different factors at play but it still baffles me sometimes that he can smack a new white ball around for a fun yet can barely get past 5 runs batting in the middle order in tests. Same with Roy to a certain extent. Are there not basic priciples that are the same in both forms?