England 2012 Cricket Thread

[PaulWinch again]

Trott is becoming a bit of a worry though.

[PaulWinch again]

and KP against left arm spin is a big worry.

[PaulWinch again]

Oh and Patel is not a Test number six ever.

[taylorsworkrate]

Oh and Patel is not a Test number six ever.

Neither Patels bowling or batting is up to test match standard.

[olaftab]

I didn't know there were two Patels in the team!

[cheltenhamlion]

Cook and Prior were superb earlier.

[PaulWinch again]

Indeed they need to put on at least another hundred though to give us a chance.

[taylorsworkrate]

I didn't know there were two Patels in the team!

I counted him as two players, considering his tubbiness.

[PaulWinch again]

Least we showed some fight in the second innings, but the batsmen have to sort themselves out and Panesar and Finn have to play.

[paul_e]

Cook bats well on the subcontinent so we need to get the rest of the batsman to start supporting him better, trott, kp and bell were all out far too cheaply in both tests.

Patel out, bresnan out, Finn and Monty in (monty should always play on the subcontinent, his bowling is perfectly suited to the pitches there).  Gives us a long tail but we don't stand a chance unless we can limit them with the bat, we let them get at least 100 too many, and we're going to run Swann into the ground if he has to be the main man in every session.

[PaulWinch again]

Finn and Panesar need to play. Panesar because he's a good spinner who's a wicket taking threat and Finn because extra pace always creates chances even on flat pitches.

[paul_e]

Finn and Panesar need to play. Panesar because he's a good spinner who's a wicket taking threat and Finn because extra pace always creates chances even on flat pitches.

Exactly, the question mark from a bowling point of view then is whether Swann and/or Broad can score enough runs to give us depth in the batting line up or if we need to add a batsman at 6 who can bowl a bit as an option (along with KP who's bowling has improved to the point where he's bad enough to be a threat by being unpredictable but good enough to not get spanked around the pitch).  If not we need to look at developing an all -rounder who can be a threat with bat and ball, which we haven't really had since Freddie retired.

The problem we have is that we had a team where you were expected to be above average in at least 2 disciplines (batting, bowling, fielding) which got us to the top of the world but, for whatever reason, those standards aren't there now.  Add this to the English coaching habit of pigeon-holing people early in their development (football and rugby suffer in the same way) and you have very few all-rounders.  The most puzzling thing is, we value these players when they appear (Botham and Flintoff being great examples in cricket, both are adored by cricket fans of their generation) but do nothing to encourage players to develop that way.

[PaulWinch again]

It's a very good point, we don't seem to develop all rounders and we do need them. In the current team though, frankly Patel isn't good enough to be a Test number 6 and so losing him from the batting is no disaster. It's up to the top order to do its job. Root can bowl spin as well, so his inclusion would add an option there as well.

[PaulWinch again]

I'd also be inclined to bring Morgan into the middle order now he's sorted his technique out again, after his trouble in the UAE. In general he's a good player of spin, and another left hander in the line up prevents the bowlers being too settled.

[PaulWinch again]

Trott's decline over the last 15 Tests is a big concern as well, he doesn't look the same player. I'd consider dropping him as our top 3 is too one paced.