English cricket thread

zing said:
It’s going to be tactically hard for England to walk away from their extremist batting approach mid series.
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They don’t need to walk away from it to be honest. Just need to be smarter and take advantage of the windows of opportunity they do have. I think their confidence has been dented from the first innings though. Maybe the reality of giving a class Australian side so many chances to get back into the two games so far is hitting them.
 
zing said:
It’s going to be tactically hard for England to walk away from their extremist batting approach mid series.
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They will just ensure that remaining pitches are flat as they come even if it means they have no shot at winning the series. Bazball is more important than success.

On a serious note, there is a serious quality gulf in bowling attack of both sides. So Oz were always going to be fav for the series no matter what. Good reality check for England to make some serious changes in their squad if they want to compete for WTC. Time for Broad and Anderson to retire for starters.
 
crappycraperson said:
They will just ensure that remaining pitches are flat as they come even if it means they have no shot at winning the series. Bazball is more important than success.

On a serious note, there is a serious quality gulf in bowling attack of both sides. So Oz were always going to be fav for the series no matter what. Good reality check for England to make some serious changes in their squad if they want to compete for WTC. Time for Broad and Anderson to retire for starters.
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I think if you ask England about the 2 pitches they’ve had so far, they won’t be very favourable about what they’ve had.
 
Haven’t seen this said much - this is the poorest stokes has contributed as a player I’ve seen in his career. Not very useful with the bowling nor batting
 
ArmchairCritic said:
I think if you ask England about the 2 pitches they’ve had so far, they won’t be very favourable about what they’ve had.
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It was a comment in jest but last test match pitch was absolutely suitable for England. It should have yielded result for them too for same reason. In general England need flat-ish pitches for Bazball to have the impact it can. Even more so against Oz since their trio of fast bowlers can make use of any advantage better than England's attack.
 
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zing said:
Haven’t seen this said much - this is the poorest stokes has contributed as a player I’ve seen in his career. Not very useful with the bowling nor batting
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I think he’s going to retire after this series. He looks spent.
 
zing said:
Haven’t seen this said much - this is the poorest stokes has contributed as a player I’ve seen in his career. Not very useful with the bowling nor batting
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He's not fit. Shouldn't really be playing at all.
 
crappycraperson said:
It was a comment in jest but last test match pitch was absolutely suitable for England. It should have yielded result for them too for same reason. In general England need flat-ish pitches for Bazball to have the impact it can. Even more so against Oz since their trio of fast bowlers can make use of any advantage better than England's attach.
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Yeah agree, Australia just get a bit more out of this pitch because of their pace. I think England expected something a bit more traditional going by their selection of Anderson and decision at the toss.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
Yeah agree, Australia just get a bit more out of this pitch because of their pace. I think England expected something a bit more traditional going by their selection of Anderson and decision at the toss.
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Defo. Anyway no complaints with Aussies blowing us away with this bowling. Just better players.
 
Bazball is getting unfair criticism imo. Australia are just a better side.

The alternative England have is to ask these players to play a game they cant, or to recall the likes of Hameed, Burns, Sibley etc who have repeatedly failed. Sure, Bazball could be refined a bit but that will only happen with some trial and error.

There's worse ways to lose. The first test went down to the wire, the second England had half a chance at the start of the 4th innings. The decisive factor has been quality rather than strategy.

I think for the next test England need to give Jimmy a rest, and it's an opportunity to bring in some more pace (if any of the pace bowlers are actually fit). Also against this Australian attack and with an inconsistent top 3, England need to be able to bat down to 8 imo, so accommodating Woakes somehow or maybe Ahmed seems necessary.
 
crappycraperson said:
They will just ensure that remaining pitches are flat as they come even if it means they have no shot at winning the series. Bazball is more important than success.
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Money in this case, is the guiding principle, rather than England's attacking approach.

Flat pitches are being prepared, if anything, to simply go for four or five days.

The groundsmen who are employed by their paymasters are being asked to prepare pitches that people will actually be able to turn up to the stadiums to watch.

This is about business rather than trying to conjour up a way for England to win against a better side. If England actually had control over the pitches they wanted in order to force a result, they would have the games played in Chester-Le-Street or something. The last thing they want is game done and dusted in three days, regardless of who wins.
 
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Utd heap said:
Defo. Anyway no complaints with Aussies blowing us away with this bowling. Just better players.
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Yep. 2019 is a interesting comparison point. England are probably as flawed as they were then but with no x-factor from Archer and Stokes, the all-rounder. Australia have kicked on a bit since then and now have Green in the mix, don’t even think they’ll miss Lyon with Murphy coming in.
 
Trequarista10 said:
Bazball is getting unfair criticism imo. Australia are just a better side.

The alternative England have is to ask these players to play a game they cant, or to recall the likes of Hameed, Burns, Sibley etc who have repeatedly failed. Sure, Bazball could be refined a bit but that will only happen with some trial and error.

There's worse ways to lose. The first test went down to the wire, the second England had half a chance at the start of the 4th innings. The decisive factor has been quality rather than strategy.

I think for the next test England need to give Jimmy a rest, and it's an opportunity to bring in some more pace (if any of the pace bowlers are actually fit). Also against this Australian attack and with an inconsistent top 3, England need to be able to bat down to 8 imo, so accommodating Woakes somehow or maybe Ahmed seems necessary.
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No Woakes at Lords is/was a bit mad on reflection, he’s ace at this ground.
 
They're starting to play stupid shots again. Expect a wicket anytime soon.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
No Woakes at Lords was a bit mad on reflection, he’s ace at this ground.
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Yeah, I was sure he'd play instead of Anderson given Jimmy himself said he'd be happy if he played 3 out of the 5 tests. He's been a bit of a non-entity in this match, and Woakes is a very underrated batsman as well.
 
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