English & Irish Cricket Summer 2018

Real headache for England this.

Foakes has been excellent with both the gloves and the bat, and Bairstow was hopeless with the latter at the end of the English summer.

I don't think there's any argument that Foakes should have the gloves taken off of him now (although it's the sort of thing England may do citing continuity of selection), but the question is whether Bairstow is actually a good enough batsman (or at least in good enough form) to get in as a specialist bat.
 
Think a spell out of the side might do Bairstow some good, been very poor this year 26 AVG with 5 ducks (3 in last 5 innings), but saying that Stokes needs to find some runs or he could well find himself out of the team.
 
Great day for England that. Openers looked really comfortable in that short session for a change.
Early days for Foakes but i wouldn't mind seeing him come in as keeper and Bairstow once fit concentrating on just batting to help that top order.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Real headache for England this.

Foakes has been excellent with both the gloves and the bat, and Bairstow was hopeless with the latter at the end of the English summer.

I don't think there's any argument that Foakes should have the gloves taken off of him now (although it's the sort of thing England may do citing continuity of selection), but the question is whether Bairstow is actually a good enough batsman (or at least in good enough form) to get in as a specialist bat.
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Perhaps we could try him as an opener in the Sehwag mould?

That seems like the only real option. Or we move Stokes to 3 and Bairstow to 5.

Would like to see what he can do as an opener now. But he seems to love keeping. It's great he's up for the dual role but I reckon he might struggle if the gloves are taken off him.
 
Number 3 will probably be available after the Sri Lanka tour but I don't see how Bairstow can get in whilst England play 3 spinners.
 
Foakes should have been playing for England 12-18 months ago. He should have been given the gloves and Bairstow should have been batting at 5 instead of Malan. I wasn't impressed with Bairstow's application over the 2nd half of the India series and he shouldn't walk back into the team nor should he be part of of any funky experiments opening the batting or @ 3.

As for no.3, don't see why Vince shouldn't get another go there, but for conditions where you have to play 3 spinners having Moeen there is fine for the balance of the team. I joked about the England team being all-rounders and keepers from top to bottom but outside of Root and specialist openers I can't see a good reason why it shouldn't be. Rather than try to fit into the conventions of how a test team should be structured England should be focused on harnessing the potential of the players they do have available.
 
Shame for it to end like that for Herath. Reckon it's a pretty poor decision too, not convinced the bail is completely out of the grove before he gets the bat in.
 
Comfortable for England. Sri Lanka are awful.
 
Great performance by England.

Lots of talk about changing the team but I'm not sure why you would when you've just won by 200 runs.

If they want to bring in an extra seamer, the obvious candidate would be Rashid but I'd leave Curran or Anderson out. Rashid bowled fine in this game (apart from a bit of rubbish this morning) and if we want to develop mystery bowlers, we need to back them. He offers more than Leach as an all-court cricketer so we should show faith.

Anderson is ageing and we should be looking to rest him when we can. Curran is a great batting option at No.8 but worth noting he only bowled 11 overs in the whole game. Broad's batting would be fine on these pitches and Rashid, as he's shown in the past, is more than capable of moving up to 8.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
Foakes should have been playing for England 12-18 months ago. He should have been given the gloves and Bairstow should have been batting at 5 instead of Malan. I wasn't impressed with Bairstow's application over the 2nd half of the India series and he shouldn't walk back into the team nor should he be part of of any funky experiments opening the batting or @ 3.

As for no.3, don't see why Vince shouldn't get another go there, but for conditions where you have to play 3 spinners having Moeen there is fine for the balance of the team. I joked about the England team being all-rounders and keepers from top to bottom but outside of Root and specialist openers I can't see a good reason why it shouldn't be. Rather than try to fit into the conventions of how a test team should be structured England should be focused on harnessing the potential of the players they do have available.
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Agree, we should pick our best players and if they happen to all be keepers and all-rounders, then so be it. When we've got a couple of high-class specialists to slot into the batting order, then great, but at the moment we don't.

If Root wants to bat 4 (which I completely agree with if he's captain) then we've only got two options: move Stokes/Bairstow to 3 and shove Moeen back to 8, or slot Bairstow at 7 and Woakes at 8. Both of those options involves dropping a bowler though. To be honest I'd leave Bairstow out again - he probably needs the break anyway.
 
Foakes has to play the next test he’s more then earned it

Nice to see Jennings pick up some runs too, it’s always hard to watch a batsman struggle for form so I’m happy for him.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Yeah this should be 3-0.
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Going on this test then yeah, 3-0 is a very distinct possibility although England being England will probably find some way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Seriouly though, Sri Lanka can only improve on this performance and with England's top order still being more miss than hit, this series isn't over by any means.
 
Robbo's Shoulder said:
Yeah i agree, i expected us to really struggle against their spinners but either we played them very well or they were miles of the pace. I think it's a bit both personally.
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I think South Africa are just rubbish at playing spin, as they always have been.

There's nothing to fear among these Sri Lankan spinners. The only one with any mystery is Akila and he's a bit erratic, like Rashid.

Commentators were also saying they played SA on absolute bunsens. Guess the weather (or the realisation that we've got good spinners too) stopped them doing that here.
 
216/8 England in a bit of trouble only Burns, Buttler and Rashid have scored 20+ runs
 
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England innings finishes on 285, apparently the pitch is a rank turner so can't really comment on how good or bad the innings is until the Sri Lanka innings is well under way.
 
Good knock from Root, about time tbh, seems a long time since he hit a ton. Should be enough go win the game although a bit more fight from Sri Lanka this game may take it close.
 
Foakes really putting a claim to the gloves for the foreseeable future if this continues.
 
Should win from here. If we can somehow stretch the lead to 300 Sri Lanka have a mountain to climb.
 
You feel another 30 runs tomorrow morning will put this game out of reach for SL.
 
Robbo's Shoulder said:
Good knock from Root, about time tbh, seems a long time since he hit a ton. Should be enough go win the game although a bit more fight from Sri Lanka this game may take it close.
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It’s his 2nd 100 in 3 tests, but only his 3rd since becoming captain. Foakes has looked untroubled throughout his innings playing with a straight bat mainly, only Curran has got out to a good delivery which is the worry of mine
 
paulscholes18 said:
It’s his 2nd 100 in 3 tests, but only his 3rd since becoming captain. Foakes has looked untroubled throughout his innings playing with a straight bat mainly, only Curran has got out to a good delivery which is the worry of mine
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A wicket that turns is one thing but if it spins slow and the bounce is consistent it's not that bad. It will be interesting to see how the pitch reacts to the overnight rain and I wouldn't be surprised if Karunaratne, Mendis or Mathews pull something out the bag. However 250+ in the 4th innings is hard wherever you are in the world. England will be thankful they can get the heavy roller on first thing.

Happy for Root, he's a class player who doesn't have anywhere near as many 100s and match defining 100s as his talent should have. He also has the makings of an excellent test match captain and is doing well in creating the same environment within the test team that the ODI team has cultivated.
 
Read somewhere that Graham Thorpe spent some time with the players before the tour. Root is more aesthetically appealing but I see a lot of Thorpe in how Root approaches his game.
 
Looks like Sri Lanka are gonna do this. Whilst England are busy shirking the conventional norms of test cricket they could do worse than have Jimmy bowl more to tie up an end.

If England do lose this I hope they don't fold in the next test, would be bitterly disappointing to be so competitive for the first 2 and lose 2-1. However it's not a test series until England have a disaster of a test somewhere in it :nervous:.
 
That's poor from Stokes. I'd probably even go as far as saying it's cheating to claim a catch that certainly when you know it hasn't trapped your fingers.
 
NinjaFletch said:
That's poor from Stokes. I'd probably even go as far as saying it's cheating to claim a catch that certainly when you know it hasn't trapped your fingers.
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This and incessant appealing really get on my nerves. Don't know why players bother.
 
NinjaFletch said:
That's poor from Stokes. I'd probably even go as far as saying it's cheating to claim a catch that certainly when you know it hasn't trapped your fingers.
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It’s to get the inconclusive decision to go his way, look at the India series, think it was the 1st test, Stokes was confident he took the catch the soft signal was out and it was inconclusive so it stayed out, in England innings Dhawan wasn’t confident of the catch so the soft signal was not out, it was inconclusive so it stayed not out
 
paulscholes18 said:
It’s to get the inconclusive decision to go his way, look at the India series, think it was the 1st test, Stokes was confident he took the catch the soft signal was out and it was inconclusive so it stayed out, in England innings Dhawan wasn’t confident of the catch so the soft signal was not out, it was inconclusive so it stayed not out
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Yes, perhaps that's something that's a result of the soft signal, but there's no difference between it and in football players exaggerating contact to ensure they get the decision and we're fine with calling the latter cheating.
 
Wrapped up nicely this morning with no drama, the wicket of Matthews late yesterday was key imo.
Great to get a 1st series win in Sri Lanka.
 
A very good result. I would like to see England play against Pakistan and India away with this side. India was only recently, but it is starting to feel like England have a more settled side.

Still don't rate Rashid or Leach. The batting is loads better now, barring 3. Wonder if Buttler is the solution.
 
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