The Cricket Thread 2014

[taylorsworkrate]

Harmison made a great point last night. Stokes is not ready to be the 4th bowler.

This side has only 3 specialist bowlers, with Plunkett consigned to shorter bursts. There's a hell of a lot of pressure on Anderson and Broad to perform here.

[PaulWinch again]

Two things Cook must do is not bowl Broad and Anderson in long spells and trust Moeen Ali. Those are two of his major flaws, he bowls Broad and Anderson into the ground and they become ineffective and he doesn't give the spinner a chance except as a last resort. He has to do that if he wants to be successful.

[tomd2103]

Stokes in for Jordan, I do worry about our slip fielders a bit now.

Can't help but think we've gone for the safe option again.  It would have been harsh to drop any of the batsmen (Cook aside!!), but having Stokes as the fifth bowling option and batting at six would have been a positive move. 

[taylorsworkrate]

Two things Cook must do is not bowl Broad and Anderson in long spells and trust Moeen Ali. Those are two of his major flaws, he bowls Broad and Anderson into the ground and they become ineffective and he doesn't give the spinner a chance except as a last resort. He has to do that if he wants to be successful.

I can just see India playing Ali effortlessly for 4/5 an over without taking any risk though.

[PaulWinch again]

Ali's bowling is massively underrated, if Cook backs him he can develop into a front line spinner.

[Villafirst]

Woakes left to carry the drinks again? Really wasting his and the Bears time. Why couldn't he play T20 against Northants last week?

[PaulWinch again]

Jimmy looks really poor again at the moment.

[PaulWinch again]

England and Jimmy needed that.

[PaulWinch again]

See this is the stage I think Cook should be looking at a bowling change, I don't think Jimmy and Broad should be bowling spells of longer than 5/6 overs.

[paul_e]

Woakes left to carry the drinks again? Really wasting his and the Bears time. Why couldn't he play T20 against Northants last week?

This is infuriating, he was clearly never in line to start so why not let him play, they ruined Bairstow doing this I hope they don't drag Woakes around as a constant 12th man.

I think dropping Jordan is harsh as well, the message being that you get 2 matches to prove you're capable of playing for England, unless you're captain in which case you get infinite patience and are allowed to kick people out of the team because you have a personality clash with them.

[taylorsworkrate]

I wonder how much India payed the groundstaff to produce such an ideal pitch for their batsmen?

[Villafirst]

Come on Straussy, make it interesting with a few expletives....starting with Cook!

[OzVilla]

Great response from England after lunch is this.

[Villan For Life]

Great response from England after lunch is this.

Cracking catch by the legend that is Ian Bell, Bear and Villa fan.

[Villafirst]

Yes, good captaincy....dare I say? Great catching by Belly!