I think it's all upto Abbas. If he can hit his markers, England are in massive trouble.
Either Stokes or Buttler should bat ODI style to try and get some quick runs.
English cricket thread
- Thread starter Samid
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Either Stokes or Buttler should bat ODI style to try and get some quick runs.
Stokes batting in tests is not dependable enough as Smith or Kohli for me. Not yet anyway.
Abbas mainly initially yes, but those two leggies will clean up the tail with ease as well. We need a far better start from the openers to stand any chance. It's 70/30 Pakistan imo.
Woakes has only bowled 5 overs this innings, that's criminal captaincy.
England has Anderson wasting the new ball. If Woakes doesn't get it in the second test, I'm going to be mad. Anderson should be the paceman dropped for the second test infact if they are looking to drop one. If he doesn't have 500 test wickets, it would be an easy decision.
Bess is underwhelming, basically useless. He looks innocous most times, and loose every other time. England should be looking to bring back Leach, or play four fast bowlers without a spinner for the second test.
Bess is underwhelming, basically useless. He looks innocous most times, and loose every other time. England should be looking to bring back Leach, or play four fast bowlers without a spinner for the second test.
First sentence is harsh but agree with the rest of it.
Don’t think Anderson will play the 2nd test, he was rested for the 2nd test vs the Windies so I expect it to be the same, Crawley to replace him, it’s the only change I’m expecting.
From what I’ve seen this Pakistan batting isn’t any better than the Windies, just that England’s fielding had been poor, 4 drops and a missed stumping
Anderson being very greedy by not retiring. There is a new generation that needs space. He has had his day and should make way, instead of forcing uncomfortable conversations.
Buttler dropping Masood on 45 is the decisive moment of the test but this match is a pretty good case for why Root is not cut out for captaincy. There have been 3 notable phases within this game where Root has not quite sensed the opportunity or ensured that he's applied the maximum amount of pressure.
Day 1, evening session: Letting the umpires force him to bowl 2 spinners to Babar Azam, it cost England 17 runs when he could have dug in and forced them off for bad light.
Day 2, afternoon session: Pakistan are 187/5, there are 5 overs to the new ball and Root decides to turn his arm over with Bess for those 5 overs because even though he has 4 quicks he cannot deviate from the idea that you must bowl some part time rubbish before taking the new ball. Pakistan score 27 runs and Shadab settles into his work.
Day 3, evening session: Pakistan are 63/4 and England have a window. It becomes clear after 6/7 overs that the Pakistani batsmen are quite comfortable with Bess, more comfortable than they are vs the quicks. Root bowls him for about 4 overs too long whilst replacing Woakes with Anderson who has been England's worst quick so far. In the end Root has to call up his talismanic all-rounder, who is not quite fully fit, to get him out of the shit again.
It's harsh on Bess that a lot of the poor decisions centre on bowling him but that is what happens when you don't choose your best spinner. If Roston Chase is spinning it more than your main spinner you should be thinking long and hard about if he's the best spinner you have. Bess is 22 and has loads of time on his side, they're treating him like he's a spin prodigy when he's not even the best spinner for his county.
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I agree. Root is frustrating in the field.
I've decided it's Pakistan's game. By a good margin.
England would need to bowl out Pakistan quickly tomorrow and then hope their top five hang around. Sibley and Burns could be key too. Need to keep Root, Stokes and Pope away from the fast bowlers and the new ball.
After everyone moaning about Sibley being far too safe and slow against the Windies, that's exactly what we need him to be tomorrow. Honestly couldn't care less if he just blocked and left for hours
Like you said, keep Root Stokes and Pope away from the new ball.Yeah, Stokes and Root are good against spin and Pope is not bad too from what I've seen. Pakistan are playing two spinners and they are probably going to bowl the majority of the overs.After everyone moaning about Sibley being far too safe and slow against the Windies, that's exactly what we need him to be tomorrow. Honestly couldn't care less if he just blocked and left for hours
England could very well need a big partnership from their two openers tomorrow with Root, Pope, and Stokes all a place up and a long tail. If a wicket falls early, I could see Root and Stokes falling pretty quickly too.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/...ler-root-anderson-four-question-marks-england
The media love giving out verdicts on Jofra Archer. 9 tests in and he's written about so much. Think he's a perfectly good bowler who should be given 25 tests to find his role - which will become more clear as Anderson gets phased out.
The media love giving out verdicts on Jofra Archer. 9 tests in and he's written about so much. Think he's a perfectly good bowler who should be given 25 tests to find his role - which will become more clear as Anderson gets phased out.
I wish someone in the England camp would come out and tell them to stop going on about his pace 24/7, it's just tedious now. Mohammad Abbas and Chris Woakes have been the best bowlers in this test and they're still obsessing over pace.
Clearly Archer needs to get more out of himself and England need to figure out how to get more out of Archer but that's just the natural process of having a young quick who is getting used to test cricket. Having watched Broad and Anderson for so many years I think it's more important that Archer focuses on skills rather than pure pace, if he can move the ball both ways @ 86-88mph with a high level accuracy he will be an incredible bowler for a long period of time.
Should be a superb day's play today.
90/10 for me.
England can win but it requires a lot of things to go right for quite a long time, that aren't likely to go right in the first place.
70/30 if we bowl them out straight away and bat until lunch without losing more than 1 wicket.
Pakistan will add another 20, England will be all out for 160 ish.
Having slept on it I agree with 90/10. It's going to turn square, their excellent leggies have too much for us.
Nice decision this, Joe. Madness. Throwing away the 10% chance. I give in.
Without being too melodramatic, that might already be that.
Not sure why not starting bowling with Jimmy, good from Yasir though, right strategy
Well, still that was fun
It clearly should have been Woakes.
Bad plans first up from England, tail was always going to go out swinging in this scenario. Yorkers > short stuff.
Good stuff from Pakistan. Bit demoralising for England.
At least England have picked up both wickets.
All depends on Sibley for me if he gets himself in then England have a great chance, but if he gets out early again then Pakistan will have an easy victory
All depends on Sibley for me if he gets himself in then England have a great chance, but if he gets out early again then Pakistan will have an easy victory
Great day ahead.
Yeah they look like a beaten side already and think it's time that Foakes gets a run in this team now. Think that is the second time in a row that Root has started with wrong bowlers at crucial time
Early wickets & Yasir not giving away free runs going to be key. Should be a great day of cricket.
Yeah you only have to look at his figures in England compared to overseas
Could have been better for England, but at least they’re not out of it, which really could have happened quite quickly.
I am looking forward to being completely demoralised in 5 minutes when one of the openers is out in the first over
I am looking forward to being completely demoralised in 5 minutes when one of the openers is out in the first over
Will come down to how the spinners are handled. Haven't seen much from Shadab but his googly should also be one to watch for, whether Azhar will trust him with overs and how many
He's been grossly under-bowled this Test. It's criminal.
Absolutely not out of it England, Pakistan has a solid one in Abbas but Yasir Shah can get untidy when he's too pumped up and the other two are relatively inexperienced. Indiscipline and trying too hard might become an issue if partnerships get going.
Yeah why isn't he trusted more at critical times like this morning I haven't a clue. I am losing track of the number of times Holding & Warne talk about Archer steaming in for three overs but it hasn't happened since Lords last summer.
If Sam Curran had Shaheen’s pace would he play more for England? Considering he has the best S/R out of all the pace bowlers must be frustrating for him not to play more.
Patient start from England. Don’t think it’ll be too long until we see Yasir.
Yeah I am getting that feeling as well