The Cricket Thread 2014

[PaulWinch again]

The thing is it's whether you value Cook as a batsman or a captain, because at the moment he's failing at both. Personally I'd much rather have an in form Cook as a batsman and place the captaincy elsewhere. Lots of people say there isn't an alternative candidate, but frankly could anyone else do much worse? We could try either Broad or Bell in the interim. As I say just because an obvious candidate doesn't leap out doesn't mean we should continue on a path that clearly isn't helping Cook's most important role or that of the team.

[PaulWinch again]

51-2 at lunch, the plus side is that India's score isn't huge so a couple of partnerships and we could be up around it. We need to get as close as possible, and then bowl a lot better in the second innings.

[paul_e]

All those saying Cook has to go, who is there to replace him?

Moeen Ali has played opener for Worcs hasn't he, he'd be worth a look maybe, then you need to decide who to bring in further down, Morgan? Bopara?

Alternatively you could go for someone like Hales and try to smash the shine off the new ball and get runs on the board early, Australia have gone for that fairly often in the last 20 years and it's generally worked ok for them.

[Villan For Life]

The thing is it's whether you value Cook as a batsman or a captain, because at the moment he's failing at both. Personally I'd much rather have an in form Cook as a batsman and place the captaincy elsewhere. Lots of people say there isn't an alternative candidate, but frankly could anyone else do much worse? We could try either Broad or Bell in the interim. As I say just because an obvious candidate doesn't leap out doesn't mean we should continue on a path that clearly isn't helping Cook's most important role or that of the team.

After this test I'd drop Cook for the rest of this series. He strikes me as someone who is mentally shot.

Broad and Bell are the likely candidates to replace him, I'd go with Bell for a couple of reasons. First a fast bowler as a captain is never a good idea, they tend to overbowl themselves. The second is that Broad acts like a petulant child when a decision does go his way. Bell has a calm authority about him and as senior pro the younger batsmen will look up to him.

[PaulWinch again]

All those saying Cook has to go, who is there to replace him?

Moeen Ali has played opener for Worcs hasn't he, he'd be worth a look maybe, then you need to decide who to bring in further down, Morgan? Bopara?

Alternatively you could go for someone like Hales and try to smash the shine off the new ball and get runs on the board early, Australia have gone for that fairly often in the last 20 years and it's generally worked ok for them.

See I took it Chris meant as captain, but could be read either way I guess. Personally I'd like Cook back to his best just as a batsman. However if dropping him completely then I'd have Ali or Vince as opener. If you use Ali, you could have Morgan in the middle order and have him as captain as well.

[Chris Jameson]

I was talking about captain, there don't appear to be too many outstanding candidates to replace him.

[Ads]

My guess would be Broad.

[paul_e]

Ah ok, the simple answer to that is that you have to deserve your spot in the team as a player first, if cook doesn't deserve a spot as a batsman then we need to work out who to replace him with as captain, given how defensive he's been at times I can't see anyone being significantly worse.

[PaulWinch again]

Yeah I think that's it, Cook's captaincy over the last year or so has been on par with his batting. The difference is he's proved in the past he's a fine batsman, whereas not so much as a captain. I know we won those early series, but a lot of that was down to his batting and now that's deserted him it's exposed his lack of ideas. Someone else deserves a go.

[OzVilla]

Funny dismissal of Bell.

At least Mr Jameson will be cheered by the sight of Root and Balance batting together.

[paul_e]

Was it a poor shot from Bell or did he get it wrong? The BBC text commentary seems to suggest the bounce did him.

[PaulWinch again]

He misjudged it. Bell must be thankful Cook's form is so bad in some ways, he's slipped under the radar. Since last summer he's been really poor. Root got a bad decision.

[PaulWinch again]

Ballance doing very well.

[paul_e]

He misjudged it. Bell must be thankful Cook's form is so bad in some ways, he's slipped under the radar. Since last summer he's been really poor. Root got a bad decision.

Indeed, it's form like this which makes me wish we didn't have these silly mini-series at the start of the summer. I'd rather we let the players have a solid 2-3months with their counties to get their form in place in a less pressured environment.  After the winter we had our batsmen in particular needed a chance to get some big runs and lots of time in the middle, but the scheduling forced them into an ODI series in the carribbean, then a world cup, then a few weeks with their counties before a series agianst SL and then straight onto this series.

[PaulWinch again]

One good thing yesterday I forgot to mention was to see Ali get a long spell and bowl over the wicket. He had much more control and threat.