The Cricket Thread 2013

[peter w]

back to my post about our first innings batting. Awful. Putting the bowlers under pressure every time.

[Olneythelonely]

Don't worry, Villa will save the day.

[PaulWinch again]

Our top order batting has been consistently failing in at least one innings for a while now. It needs to be addressed.

[curiousorange]

For fucks sake, this is a dreadful start. In their 3 innings together so far Cook and Root have done appallingly.

These sort of starts are common in test cricket. Could be 112-2 at Lunch...you never know.

112-3, hopefully.

Fuck...well I should never trust the mega star that is KP.

Flat-track bully nowadays. All very well and good racking up the runs against some second division county, but he's essentially in the same boat as Compton and Bairstow.

[PaulWinch again]

Against SA our batting failed and again in NZ it failed and now it's failing here. We have a lot of players who aren't living up to their reputations.

[cdbearsfan]

Well, thank God they didn't start at 11. We might be all out by now!

[PaulWinch again]

I want James Taylor in our batting line up, fuck knows why he's been discarded but he can actually perform.

[paul_e]

The problem is the batsman with the worst record of the lot, based on talent, expectation, etc is Cook who has been poor for a year, but you can't drop the captain.

[PaulWinch again]

Root isn't working at opener at the moment either. How many times in the past couple of years have we scored 400+ when batting first? Not enough I'd guess. There isn't anywhere near enough pressure for the batsmen to perform.

The batsmen stay in regardless of form unless you're not in the club like Compton, but the bowlers get dropped after one or two bad games.

[curiousorange]

Root shouldn't be opening, but number three, where he would operate better, is Trott's domain. KP should come in lower down the order to improve; he comes in playing too many risky shots, and if your openers aren't performing, you won't have had enough of a start to give you the comfort zone of a natural big hitter like him.

[paul_e]

Root shouldn't be opening, but number three, where he would operate better, is Trott's domain. KP should come in lower down the order to improve; he comes in playing too many risky shots, and if your openers aren't performing, you won't have had enough of a start to give you the comfort zone of a natural big hitter like him.

Not really KP's fault though.  He should be coming in to a ball that's 30-40 overs old and with well over 100 runs on the board, our openers have, as a unit, struggled for a while, Strauss was struggling before he retired and then we got away with it for a little while because Cook was in exceptional form but since his form dropped off we've looked poor.

[curiousorange]

Root shouldn't be opening, but number three, where he would operate better, is Trott's domain. KP should come in lower down the order to improve; he comes in playing too many risky shots, and if your openers aren't performing, you won't have had enough of a start to give you the comfort zone of a natural big hitter like him.

Not really KP's fault though.  He should be coming in to a ball that's 30-40 overs old and with well over 100 runs on the board, our openers have, as a unit, struggled for a while, Strauss was struggling before he retired and then we got away with it for a little while because Cook was in exceptional form but since his form dropped off we've looked poor.

It is and it isn't. I agree about the ball taking a pounding before Pietersen comes in, but he's been an international cricketer long enough to know he's got to adjust his natural game based on circumstance. He knows he's an important wicket for the opposition to take but doesn't come in with that attitude of getting his head down and rebuilding an innings.

[PaulWinch again]

In fairness to Pietresen he managed to curb those instincts in the first Test and helped rebuild our second innings.

[PaulWinch again]

Cook needs to go back to digging in and getting big centuries. I want Root in the side, but I wonder if they've moved him up too soon. It's hard to tell after 3 innings, but it's just my feeling at the moment.

[paul_e]

You can't learn to open in test cricket without being given the opportunity to learn.  He's got the talent, that's clear to see he just needs to get some experience.  I'd stick with Root for the full series and see how things look afterwards.

I agree that Cook really needs to look into what he's changed in his style to go from his form a couple of years ago to now.