English & Irish Cricket Summer 2018

Babar being injured hurt us a bit, him with shadab and faheem would have been nice. Still good lead and hopefully he is back for the second innings.
 
Babar Azam is out for the rest of the series. Big blow to our batting, he’d played very well too.

Apart from that, another good day for Pakistan.
 
England side lack balance. Although not in good form Moin Ali would have been a good option as a bowler/batsman. Butler coming in at 7 is top heavy with batsmen. Bowling was never going to be a problem for Pakistan. Young inexperienced batsmen have surprised all pundits with their batting.
 
Sultan said:
England side lack balance. Although not in good form Moin Ali would have been a good option as a bowler/batsman. Butler coming in at 7 is top heavy with batsmen. Bowling was never going to be a problem for Pakistan. Young inexperienced batsmen have surprised all pundits with their batting.
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Don’t think the balance of the side is a problem, just too many picked that are out of form/ not played county much in the past year, Vince, Pope & Hildreth are in very good form ATM and should have been picked over Stoneman, Malan & Buttler. Ali last time in England had his best series by far Vs SA should had been picked over Bess, but the one that annoyed me the most was Woakes who at Lords has an average of under 20 (with the ball) not picked ahead of Wood who has an average of over 40
 
Wood, Stoneman are definitely not test quality and should not really play for England ever again. Wood's had 12 tests and never taken more than 3 wickets in an innings, Stokes is a better enforcer/3rd seamer/reverse swing bowler than him. England need to find a properly quick bowler or two but as Anderson/Abbas/Philander show, there's a lot to be said for just being bloody accurate and skilful, pace is not the be-all and end-all. England should not lose sight of what they are good at.

Picking Stoneman because he had the 'misfortune' to face such a great bowling attack down under seems counter productive for trying to build a team that can cope away from home against err great bowling attacks.
 
I really like the commentary in these tests. Also love the concept of fans having earpieces, where they can hear the commentary. I wish its adopted all over the world.
 
Good session again for Pakistan. Shadab is getting it to turn. Hopefully can get Root early after lunch.
 
I like Stoneman, and am reluctant to see England drop the one player other than Cook that even begins to look like he wants to bat time, but I don't think he's good enough unfortunately.

Nick Gubbins or Rory Burns the next cab off the rank?

I agree with Sultan about balance of the side, but not really for the same reasons. Baring proof that Buttler can play test cricket in the next three innings of this series I'd drop him again and move Stokes to 7 where he can have the 'licence to attack', but has shown he can play test innings too. Also think Malan's technique looks incredibly suspect in England.

I hate Root at 3 too, so obviously this team isn't happening because it requires throwing away all the dumb shit Ed Smith did after two tests, but I'd like to see:

Cook, Burns, Gubbins, Root, Bairstow, no (maybe blood Ollie Pope or Joe Clarke if they continue scoring runs, or go Foakes and take the gloves off Bairstow) Stokes, Woakes, Broad, Leach, Anderson(providing recovery from injury)
 
NinjaFletch said:
I like Stoneman, and am reluctant to see England drop the one player other than Cook that even begins to look like he wants to bat time, but I don't think he's good enough unfortunately.

Nick Gubbins or Rory Burns the next cab off the rank?

I agree with Sultan about balance of the side, but not really for the same reasons. Baring proof that Buttler can play test cricket in the next three innings of this series I'd drop him again and move Stokes to 7 where he can have the 'licence to attack', but has shown he can play test innings too. Also think Malan's technique looks incredibly suspect in England.

I hate Root at 3 too, so obviously this team isn't happening because it requires throwing away all the dumb shit Ed Smith did after two tests, but I'd like to see:

Cook, Burns, Gubbins, Root, Bairstow, no (maybe blood Ollie Pope or Joe Clarke if they continue scoring runs, or go Foakes and take the gloves off Bairstow) Stokes, Woakes, Broad, Leach, Anderson(providing recovery from injury)
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Stokes is a toughie, he's a better batsman than a bowler but with the way things are going England might need him to focus on his bowling more. Generally against taking the gloves off Bairstow or moving Stokes down the order considering the likely impact it will have on their confidence.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
Stokes is a toughie, he's a better batsman than a bowler but with the way things are going England might need him to focus on his bowling more. Generally against taking the gloves off Bairstow or moving Stokes down the order considering the likely impact it will have on their confidence.
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Don't think that necessarily follows with Bairstow. I know he wants to do it, but there's plenty of examples of excellent wicketkeeper batsmen giving up the gloves to focus on their batting (de Villiers and Sangakarra for example) and I think you could make the case that the team needs Bairstow's runs more than his keeping quite easily – even more so because Foakes is by all accounts the better keeper, and is also making a case to get in as a pure batsman.

On Stokes I agree it would be a tough sell, but I think the way he bats is suited to the aggressive role at 7 they want Buttler to play, but would allow the side to get in a more nuggety batsman who may actually help England set a platform rather than task the number 7 to come in and salvage every innings at 150-5.
 
We have an alarming about of areas up for debate. We only have six good players (and some aren't convinced by the most senior one anymore).

Pitch looks alright. Malan needs to take this chance.
 
England get 140+ ahead and it's their game. Pakistan had a thin batting lineup to start with and are now a man down already, plus they're the best in the world at bottling small chases which they tried their utmost to prove vs Ireland.
 
Samid said:
England get 140+ ahead and it's their game. Pakistan had a thin batting lineup to start with and are now a man down already, plus they're the best in the world at bottling small chases which they tried their utmost to prove vs Ireland.
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I think so.

But if England get 140 ahead then the Pakistan bowlers/fielders haven't performed either.
 
Shadab has bowled well, but Yasir would've been so useful in this situation. Missing his experience.
 
Need Root to convert this to a massive 100, so consistent in getting to 50, 53rd time in 68 tests, but only gone on to get 13 hundreds
 
Not Root, but needed that breakthrough!! Very good catch again.
 
Time for Bairstow to prove he can bat as heigh as 5, I don’t think he can/ should and his stats back that up
 
Stokes does remember he’s not playing in the IPL?? Wtf was that :lol:
 
Wicket before these two get going and Pakistan have won, I think.

Just after finishing that sentence Stokes got out.

Pakistan have won, I think.
 
If you could clone Ben Stokes and put his talent into a human being with more than 2 brain cells England would have one hell of a cricketer.
 
NinjaFletch said:
If you could clone Ben Stokes and put his talent into a human being with more than 2 brain cells England would have one hell of a cricketer.
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This is true. But Flintoff coped for a good while with just the two.

EDIT - Kevin coped with less...
 
England really need to hit restart and get back to the basics. Get back to what they are good at and focus on the fundamentals. They are team that from top to bottom look completely muddled in their thinking.

Pakistan have fielded terrifically thus far, big credit to Mickey Arthur who seems to be moulding Pakistan into the team he wants them to be.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
England really need to hit restart and get back to the basics. Get back to what they are good at and focus on the fundamentals. They are team that from top to bottom look completely muddled in their thinking.

Pakistan have fielded terrifically thus far, big credit to Mickey Arthur who seems to be moulding Pakistan into the team he wants them to be.
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He’s done a brilliant job with this side in all formats & deserves a lot of credit. A lot of young players have come in, he’s improved the fitness, attitude & got them playing as a team.

Getting rid of scum like Akmal bros has also helped. Hopefully he & Inzy can continue doing what they have the last couple of years.
 
Ooh this is huge... I think it’s swung too much.

Nope!!! Gone!! Huge wicket.
 
Abbas has been superb. Another beautiful delivery.
 
It does amaze me how often touring teams come over and bowl better lengths than England summer after summer these days.
 
What at earth happened to our test side, we used to be half decent a couple of years ago.
 
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