England 2012 Cricket Thread

[PaulWinch again]

Bell gone, his place is looking very dodgy at the moment. Patel needs runs as well.

[rutski]

bell looks badly out of nick!

[Villan For Life]

Need a big knock from KP, that was a very lazy shot from Bell. No foot movement at all.

[PaulWinch again]

He didn't deserve to get put back in the side.

[rutski]

got a good pic of him at mecca this season with my youngest boy

[PaulWinch again]

Bollocks KP gone, decent knock from him but we're making a cock up of this here.

[PaulWinch again]

Good day, that Prior and Swann partnership has got us back on track. So tomorrow morning try and push the lead to 250 ish and then bowl them out. Big question marks over Bell and Patel though.

[Dave Summers]

Good day, that Prior and Swann partnership has got us back on track. So tomorrow morning try and push the lead to 250 ish and then bowl them out. Big question marks over Bell and Patel though.

This is what I love about English sports teams, we are always looking to make changes to them even when they are going well.   I certainly do on the Rugby Union thread anyhow :-)

Anyway, I don't think Bell's place is remotely in danger and neither should it be.  Yes, he is on a thin streak in terms of scroring runs but lest we forget he was the leading run scorer last year in a stellar year for English batting.   More to the point, I don't see who will come in and guarantee to play better than Belly.

One of the reasons England got to number one in the world and are still comfortably the second best team, is because of consistency of selection.  And also remember, a batter normally can only afford one mistake and they are out, a bowler can send a bad ball down get thumped for four and then gets another chance straight away.

[PGW]

Dave - got it in one......Belly's place is safe as houses!!!!
People were saying the same about Trott - played himself into some form today. Bell will do the same hopefully in 4th Test. He may not get another go in this one.

[PaulWinch again]

I'm more concerned with Bell on the sub-continent where he has struggled badly. Patel should never be number six. But I'm glad we're starting to perform well as a unit again. Prior is a fantastic player.

[Dave Summers]

I'm more concerned with Bell on the sub-continent where he has struggled badly. Patel should never be number six. But I'm glad we're starting to perform well as a unit again. Prior is a fantastic player.

He hasn't made the runs his talent suggest he should have, but after the next game they are off to New Zealand and then back to back Ashes series.  He will hopefully be firing on all cylinders in those series.

The number 6 slot, after the retirement of Collingwood has never really been filled with Morgan and to a lesser extent Bairstow and Patel all having a shot at it.  This is my point about dropping Bell, neither of those three have convinced yet so why put two of them in.  I like Bairstow and think he will make it and have a good career but I wouldn't like Patel to be dropped after 2/3 games, even though I agree with you he isn't test class at No 6.  He, like Cook, Bell, Trott, KP etc should have a decent run in the team. 

I have no problem with rotating bowlers to keep them fresh, but I don't like it with batsmen for the reasons outlined in my previous post.

[paul_e]

Bell's style just isn't suited to really slow pitches.  He does really well outside the sub-continent.

I agree on Patel, not good enough with the bat and nowhere near good enough with the ball.  Then on top of that he's terrible in the field.  Bell always brings top class fielding even if his batting is letting him down.

[Villan For Life]

I'm more concerned with Bell on the sub-continent where he has struggled badly. Patel should never be number six. But I'm glad we're starting to perform well as a unit again. Prior is a fantastic player.

He hasn't made the runs his talent suggest he should have,

5,500 test runs for a bloke who is only 30 and could still play for another 5 or more years seems to be a reasonable return to me.

[PaulWinch again]

I think if I were to pick a world 11 at the moment, the players who would get in from England would be Cook, KP, Prior, Swann and Anderson.

[Villan For Life]

Saturday morning lie-in and I nearly miss the end of the test! Amazed to wake and find India 8 down and still short of making us bat again.

These last 2 tests have seen us get back to the levels of intensity that we last showed 18 months ago and has been missing since.