Alex Hales just hit a 100 from 51 balls in the BBL. Got to be a contender for England's T20 WC squad in this form.
English cricket thread
- Thread starter Samid
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It's not cricketing ability that dictates whether Hales gets in England squads these days!
Plus we won the World Cup without him (admittedly not T20), it would surprise me to see him back in.
Jimmy Anderson still bowling brilliantly at 38. Long may it last because we are unlikely to see anyone as good for some time.
Yes! Was thinking that the other day.
yeah him and Broad to a lesser extent are going to leave a hole in our bowling attack for sure, they’re on a level above the other bowlers I’m seeing
Decent day that for England. Get a couple of quick wickets tomorrow and we can bowl them out for under 300.
Looks like a bad toss to lose though...
Looks like a bad toss to lose though...
With Archer, Wood and some of the others coming through (Stone, Mahmood, Robinson) we look well-stocked for pace now. But yeah, we'll lose a lot of skill.
I'd like to see Broad 'do an Anderson' and go on for three or four more years. Guess Anderson will retire after the Ashes so Broad can help us through the transition.
The thing with Anderson in particular is that he has never relied on pace.
As you say, it is his incredible skill at swing and seem that puts him as the best of the best.
He is relentless in his pursuit of improvement.
Hopefully he will be knighted for what he has done for English cricket.
I think you’re right with Broad, I don’t see why he’d stop anytime soon he still seems to have the hunger for cricket and looks after himself so barring any major injuries he must still have a few years left in him
Wonder what the combined odds are on England losing v India away, home and the Ashes.
I think there's a realistic chance of this happening despite England being a good team.
I think there's a realistic chance of this happening despite England being a good team.
Think we'll beat India at home but the other two are pretty likely
n truth, Anderson's reputation as effective only at home doesn't really stand up to scrutiny. While his bowling is clearly best suited to conditions in England, his record in Asia compares favourably to many of the best in the business. He averages 30.14 across 22-and-a-half Tests in the region. By comparison to other top seamers of the age - Ishant Sharma averages 32.14 in Asia, Kagison Rabada 34.52, Mohammad Amir 50.46, Vernon Philander 38.06 and Zaheer Khan 34.46 - that is excellent.
Interesting stat.
Interesting stat.
Yeah. Thought the same.
Tbf he's handpicked a handful of 'top seamers' there hasn't he. Imagine there are quite a few he hasn't mentioned who have better stats.
But yeah, very interesting.
India have a better chance in England than we do in either of the two series away, so yeah, very realistic!
Why are the visuals in test cricket so much more better in SENA countries than the sub continent? It feels like in the sub continent, cows ate all the grass
I get the same feeling watching premier league vs la liga.
I have been to Chepauk loads of times - my local stadium - and it actually looks perfectly nice in person. I have been to lords once and it didn’t feel like the difference was so enormous.
Viewing experience of sub continental tests is way less appealing.
I get the same feeling watching premier league vs la liga.
I have been to Chepauk loads of times - my local stadium - and it actually looks perfectly nice in person. I have been to lords once and it didn’t feel like the difference was so enormous.
Viewing experience of sub continental tests is way less appealing.
Talking out of my arse here but I always thought it was because of the kind of sunlight exposure we have in the Subcontinent and Sharjah as compared to England/Aus/NZ/SA
This Anderson bloke looks promising.
The Roger Federer of cricket. Timeless and at his best when there’s some grass.
One thing I don't really understand is how we've managed to go 126 overs and only used 5 bowlers. I guess Root's back might be playing up a bit but Lawrence seems to have bowled quite a bit in limited overs cricket. A couple overs surely must've been worth a try at some point.
That's quite good.
Of all test playing nations, I think England have their fast bowling tactics off when touring. There is always a lot of chatter about pace but successful bowling units - India at home are good now, SA when they toured Australia/India 6-7 years ago, India in Australia etc, England in Australia in 2011 or whenever it was - were not built on express pace. A lot of the success was due to different skill sets.
This innings bowling scorecard isn’t good prep for England going into India. Anderson will be less effective, the spinners need to be doing a lot more, Archer hasn’t played a test yet.
This innings bowling scorecard isn’t good prep for England going into India. Anderson will be less effective, the spinners need to be doing a lot more, Archer hasn’t played a test yet.
The spinners are the worry. Obviously don't expect them to have an easy time in the first innings usually but they're quite close to 0-200 between them. Bess has only managed one maiden.
EDIT - He has bowled a second maiden!
If we're being honest I think England have basically not prepared for India away. All we've heard since the last Ashes tour is building for the next Ashes tour and there's been very little, if any, talk about preparing for the actual most difficult away tour in test cricket. Of course it's difficult to prepare without having actual wickets that replicate Indian conditions but once again, there's been little in the way in planning for it.
Completely agree with the pace obsession. We've just seen India turn the series in Australia by going with 2 spinners. There's a school of thought that one of Broad or Anderson would not play the first test in the Ashes, I think both of them still should. I think England's problem in Australia will be spinners letting batsmen off the hook after probing spells by the quicks. Wherever Anderson goes now, even if he does not take wickets his control is so good he basically holds up an end as if he is a spinner himself.
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Wood stuck to the task quite well. Lot of overs though, in back to back matches. Hope the body holds up.
Good challenge this for England. If they can manage not to lose the match from here they've had a good little tour.
Good challenge this for England. If they can manage not to lose the match from here they've had a good little tour.
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Again both Sibley and Crawley have gone without getting to double figures
Interesting conundrum with Crawley/Sibley and Jennings. On the one hand you want Crawley and Sibley to develop vs spin by facing it but on the other the confidence knock they may take by doing that could be substantial and you have a specialist available to take the heat off them. Heck I think even Bairstow is a pretty good shout as an opener in just the sub-continent.
Bairstow will be 100% better than these openers, that's why I'm surprised that England are sending him back.
I don't think it's gonna happen for Sibley. Can't remember who it was in this thread or the other one but someone said the first time they saw him they immediately thought 'good luck on the subcontinent playing like that'. I think that's right. He's not got a technique that's gonna work against slow left armers on these pitches.
I thought that myself, but then he's going home and we'll end up with a top 3 who either can't play spin or haven't played instead....
Yeah, I understand the logic but England should have just rested the entire IPL contingent for this series and had them back for India. All the planning around this really makes me feel like England themselves are not really convinced that they are capable of winning in India right now.
10 wickets and not one to spin. Never seen that in Asia before. Must be a record.
Andy Zaltzman on the beeb.
Yeah, looks like he can get squared up very easily and then he spends so much time thinking about the ball turning away he misses the straight one. If he can develop a decent sweep shot I think that would help him out a lot. Far too easy to build pressure vs Sibley as a spinner. I think Crawley does have the game to be able to play spin eventually, just needs to embrace his positive mindset rather than go back into his shell.
England need to embrace the idea of specialists for specific conditions. Don't play Wood in England, always play Woakes in England, play Jennings in the sub-continent etc. etc.
England did it in Sri Lanka in 2001 with Caddick, Gough and Craig White. Cricket heritage.
I don't actually know if this is the answer, but I do know that when Sky got the PL they made a real point of playing with the colour levels to make the pitch look more vibrant and lush than the products they were competing with.
It wouldn't surprise me if their production partners for the cricket do the same.
Even Jennings wouldn’t have been a bad pick, has a decent average in the subcontinent. Horses for courses
Was thinking about Dravid's email to KP the other day (which helped England win a test series in India!) when Dravid was getting praise for his work with India A and India U-19. A wonderful cricket man who loves to share all the knowledge he has picked up along the way.
The bit here about practicing without pads is gold.
That English team in India was a brilliant 11. Compton apart - who did decently - it had great players at every slot.
Haven’t England got Kallis as batting coach for his tour?
Great counter attack by Root and Bairstow, partnership going at 4.29 an over.
Great counter attack by Root and Bairstow, partnership going at 4.29 an over.
He is a consultant, Thorpe is the full time coach.