Also, when you tour India you realise how ridiculous Ashwin/Jadeja/Axar are. Not only are they brilliant spinners, especially in their back yard, but they also impact matches significantly with their batting. No other team in the World can come close to fielding 2-3 spinners without degrading their batting depth significantly.
English cricket thread
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Agree with this.
I'd have had Jacks in because it'd give a few different options for balance of the side. He's a very good batsman and could be an option as a 2nd or even 3rd spinner.
I expect Bashir is mostly going as a backup, realistically he's the 4th spin option behind Leach, Hartley and Ahmed. What concerns me a little is that there's seemingly no all rounder in the squad who could bat at 6 or 7, so it seems like we're restricting ourselves to select 4 bowling options? Hartley and Ahmed are reasonable batsmen but I'd be surprised if they batted higher than #8 otherwise its a very long tail.
Edit: unless England think Stokes will be fit enough post-surgery to bowl, but that seems very optimistic to me.
Stokes wont bowl - so as you allude to, I'm really struggling to pick a line up from that squad that isn't either a batsmen short - or a front line bowler short.
The way we play Cricket, and the occasional importance of the toss in India means I can see us winning a test match - but the likely scoreline will be 4-1.
Although there is some promising potential in the spin attack and the top order batsman on paper play spin very well, I’m not sure if it’s possible to combat Ashwin & Jadeja in their home country anyway and our spin attack is very inexperience. Can’t see us getting much out of the series, India are so strong in all conditions and especially at home. India are a fantastic side and should win the series handsomely.
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All this one day and T20 failure is going to have a detrimental effect on our Test form too.
I can actually see us struggling to beat West Indies when the Test series starts.
I can actually see us struggling to beat West Indies when the Test series starts.
Just shocking batting given the start we made tonight.
Yeah, I expect we'll end up seeing Root bowl a fair bit. I guess the lineup will be something like:
Crawley
Duckett
Stokes
Root
Brook
Bairstow
Foakes
Ahmed or Hartley
Wood or Atkinson
Robinson or Anderson
Leach
The batsmen drawing straws to see who has to bat at 3. Whoever it is gets a few low scores, so Pope is brought in by the 3rd match to bat 3 and Foakes, who has averaged a solid 40 whilst batting with the tail, gets dropped, Jonny gets the gloves again and his series average falls off a cliff.
Booooooooo
Yep agree with that. You really want Foakes in the team especially considering how much spin bowling there will be so it may even be a case of dropping Bairstow if Pope is brought back in.
I think this is currently the likeliest scenario.
Even this England setup will recognise how important having a specialist keeper in India will be, and it's not like Bairstow is any guarantee with the bat in Asia (Pope has a terrible record also but it's within our interest for him to improve, this is JB's last tour).
Oh god. No TMS!???
When it's cricket season I try and schedule my night shifts to coincide with tests, and I replay TMS to get me through the night
Oh god. No TMS!???
When it's cricket season I try and schedule my night shifts to coincide with tests, and I replay TMS to get me through the night
TMS is undoubtedly loads better but the TalkSport Cricket coverage is actually ok. They cover it properly, it's not sensationalist like their talk shows etc.
What are radio rights? Just the audio from the ground?
Ah, that's a relief! My immediate reaction was a vision of Gabby Agbonlahor and Jamie O'Hara throwing out some controversial cricket opinions to encourage listeners to call in.
Windies heading towards 3-0.
we completed cricket after drawing the ashes. not surprising that it’s all downhill from there.
English cricket is really in the doldrums, it's turned to shit so quickly too.
I'm not expecting much from any upcoming Test Series either. I think Bazball has had it's day and England are no longer used to winning things, or even competing at the highest level.
I'm not expecting much from any upcoming Test Series either. I think Bazball has had it's day and England are no longer used to winning things, or even competing at the highest level.
Salt peppering the bowlers.
What a finish!
feck me
Brook’s strike rate 
Brook has that little bit extra that the top players have. Great innings from Salt, obviously, but Brook finished it when it looked impossible.
I mean look at that strike rate.
I mean look at that strike rate.
Yes audio commentary from the ground. TMS have been brilliant at it.
Wow, didn't see that coming what a win!Great 100 from Salt, Brook, just wow.
Salt needed that century, probably not many openers around that have played 200+ T20s without one. He's got incredible talent and his strike-rate is superb, if he can become more consistent rather than someone who just makes fast scores in the 20s that's a huge boost to this side.
Disappointed Turner hasn't got a chance yet, even Potts got a game in the ODIs before him despite not being in the original squad.
Disappointed Turner hasn't got a chance yet, even Potts got a game in the ODIs before him despite not being in the original squad.
This is just England cricket returning to its normal state, well certainly the state I grew up on, we’re basically a Stokes retirement/injury of being absolutely fecked in all formats. I think Key is a good bloke but he needs to make a decisive decision on Mott/Buttler, they’re squandering a really talented group of white ball players, saying you’re not doing well because you’re prioritising red ball cricket is flat out rubbish. The selection, match planning and tactical execution is very poor at the minute. They basically just need to bring Morgan back in a coaching role.
Salt's turned into a crazy man!
250+ is crazy
England score more in 20 overs than they managed in over half of their WC matches.
Phil Salt going crazy
Such a good catch from Brook.
Salt should have been in WC line up
Rashid is different gravy
England just don't really know how to approach 50 over cricket anymore. They've become a pure T20 outfit under Mott.
England need to move on from Livingstone, Curran and Ali in white ball cricket. Kind of regressed into old England short format habits of packing teams full of bits and pieces all rounders who don’t excel at anything in particular. England would just be better off picking 2 batters and 1 bowler or 2 bowlers and 1 batter than those three.
I felt Mott deserved another chance after the World Cup but think I've changed my mind now. His comments yesterday were concerning.
"We try and set them up to perform as best they can and then, particularly in T20, sometimes the results are completely out of your control. So if you can keep that mindset and keep trying to get the best out of people around you, I don't think you're really concerned by the win/loss as much."
"Really proud of our efforts," "There was different types of conditions throughout [the series]. We really couldn't have got too many more lessons out of this tour."
Ultimately it's about winning, and this side needs to start doing that again quickly. It's not a great look for the coach to be saying he's not overly bothered about results and sends the wrong message to the players.
"We try and set them up to perform as best they can and then, particularly in T20, sometimes the results are completely out of your control. So if you can keep that mindset and keep trying to get the best out of people around you, I don't think you're really concerned by the win/loss as much."
"Really proud of our efforts," "There was different types of conditions throughout [the series]. We really couldn't have got too many more lessons out of this tour."
Ultimately it's about winning, and this side needs to start doing that again quickly. It's not a great look for the coach to be saying he's not overly bothered about results and sends the wrong message to the players.
Hope everything is ok. Absolutely brutal loss for England. I thought that England would lose 5-0 regardless but this is going to be a beatdown now