The Cricket Thread 2014

[Villan For Life]

I  think I'm with 'other Paul' on this one, Root is the best choice, if Bell could get some runs I'd prefer him but you can't reward him for his current form.

I'd drop Prior for good, Buttler is a better option and young enough to be a long term choice.
I'd rest Cook for the summer, he's a great batsman but needs time, I'd bring in a slogger.
I'd promote Moeen to 4.
I'd rest Broad who looks like he's carrying an injury, and bring Jordan back.
I'd be tempted to give stokes 1 more match to get something with the bat and then leave him out for Woakes or Kerrigan if he fails.

So who replaces Cook at the top of the order? I'd open with Moeen and Robson.

[paul_e]

I  think I'm with 'other Paul' on this one, Root is the best choice, if Bell could get some runs I'd prefer him but you can't reward him for his current form.

I'd drop Prior for good, Buttler is a better option and young enough to be a long term choice.
I'd rest Cook for the summer, he's a great batsman but needs time, I'd bring in a slogger.
I'd promote Moeen to 4.
I'd rest Broad who looks like he's carrying an injury, and bring Jordan back.
I'd be tempted to give stokes 1 more match to get something with the bat and then leave him out for Woakes or Kerrigan if he fails.

So who replaces Cook at the top of the order? I'd open with Moeen and Robson.

As I said, 'a slogger' the only person I've seen enough of to think he could do the job is Hales, but Vince seems to be an alternative and has been named on here before.  The key is we need someone who can start an innings like today and hit a  bowler out of the attack. I really attacking player would've gone after Jadeja coming on so early and might have forced them back to the seamers. Look at the way Dhawan opened the indian 2nd innings, he didn't score a huge total but he did get them started quickly.

[tomd2103]

I  think I'm with 'other Paul' on this one, Root is the best choice, if Bell could get some runs I'd prefer him but you can't reward him for his current form.

I'd drop Prior for good, Buttler is a better option and young enough to be a long term choice.
I'd rest Cook for the summer, he's a great batsman but needs time, I'd bring in a slogger.
I'd promote Moeen to 4.
I'd rest Broad who looks like he's carrying an injury, and bring Jordan back.
I'd be tempted to give stokes 1 more match to get something with the bat and then leave him out for Woakes or Kerrigan if he fails.

Agree.  I don't think Stokes is a good enough bowler at the moment to compensate for a lack of runs.  If his poor form with the bat continues then I would rather have a front line bowler in the team instead.  Jordan would be the obvious option and I think he was unlucky to be dropped in the first place.  It could be argued he's a bit similar to Plunkett though and it might be worth going for a completely different option.

[Villan For Life]

My side for the next test which starts next Sunday would be:

Ali
Robson
Ballance
Bell
Root
Morgan (c)
Buttler (w)
Plunkett
Jordan
Broad
Anderson

[PaulWinch again]

My side for the next test which starts next Sunday would be:

Ali
Robson
Ballance
Bell
Root
Morgan (c)
Buttler (w)
Plunkett
Jordan
Broad
Anderson

I think that side is fair enough, although I might give Stokes another shot and drop Broad for Jordan. Broad needs to get his injury sorted out.

[PaulWinch again]

Cook can and will come back but he needs a break to sort himself out.

[paul_e]

My side for the next test which starts next Sunday would be:

Ali
Robson
Ballance
Bell
Root
Morgan (c)
Buttler (w)
Plunkett
Jordan
Broad
Anderson

I think that side is fair enough, although I might give Stokes another shot and drop Broad for Jordan. Broad needs to get his injury sorted out.

I could live with that, I think Id swap Root and Bell though, and I'd want 1 of the openers to start positively.  I think Moeen needs to bat higher though.

[tomd2103]

I  think I'm with 'other Paul' on this one, Root is the best choice, if Bell could get some runs I'd prefer him but you can't reward him for his current form.

I'd drop Prior for good, Buttler is a better option and young enough to be a long term choice.
I'd rest Cook for the summer, he's a great batsman but needs time, I'd bring in a slogger.
I'd promote Moeen to 4.
I'd rest Broad who looks like he's carrying an injury, and bring Jordan back.
I'd be tempted to give stokes 1 more match to get something with the bat and then leave him out for Woakes or Kerrigan if he fails.

So who replaces Cook at the top of the order? I'd open with Moeen and Robson.

As I said, 'a slogger' the only person I've seen enough of to think he could do the job is Hales, but Vince seems to be an alternative and has been named on here before.  The key is we need someone who can start an innings like today and hit a  bowler out of the attack. I really attacking player would've gone after Jadeja coming on so early and might have forced them back to the seamers. Look at the way Dhawan opened the indian 2nd innings, he didn't score a huge total but he did get them started quickly.

The next test is on his home ground as well.  Hales' record in the four day game is hardly inspiring, so it would be a bit of a risk. I'd be more tempted to see how Cook went without the pressure of the captaincy in the next test before looking to replace him in the side. 

[paul_e]

I just want to see us adapting to conditions better, our game, even at our best, was to play our game regardless and trust that having some great players was going to see us through. That worked when Cook, Trott, KP and Bell were scoring runs and Jimmy and Swann were ripping through teams with the ball but for whatever reason those players either aren't playing any more or aren't on the level they were a couple of years ago.

What T20 has done, for good or ill, is increase the scoring rate in test cricket and to stay competitive we need too change with it.  2 Openers who score with a strike rate of 35-40% aren't really suitable any more, being able to dig in and not give anything away will always be needed but you've got to be able to counter-attack as well and England don't we're always really passive, waiting for things to change rather than forcing a change.

[KevinGage]

Don't think you can bring someone into the starting XI and make them captain at the same time. 

Broad has captain experience (albeit in the one day format) but Anderson leads the attack, so I'd give it to Jimmy by default.  By no means ideal to have a bowler captain, but none of the current batsmen should be considered.  They are either bang out of form or finding their way in test cricket. 

FWIW, If Cook is rested, they'll prob give it to Prior.  As vice captain, it would be a major snub if he was overlooked. 

[tomd2103]

Don't think you can bring someone into the starting XI and make them captain at the same time. 

Broad has captain experience (albeit in the one day format) but Anderson leads the attack, so I'd give it to Jimmy by default.  By no means ideal to have a bowler captain, but none of the current batsmen should be considered.  They are either bang out of form or finding their way in test cricket. 

FWIW, If Cook is rested, they'll prob give it to Prior.  As vice captain, it would be a major snub if he was overlooked.

Might be wrong, but I thought Bell took over the captaincy when Cook was off the field yesterday?

[Villan For Life]

Don't think you can bring someone into the starting XI and make them captain at the same time. 

Broad has captain experience (albeit in the one day format) but Anderson leads the attack, so I'd give it to Jimmy by default.  By no means ideal to have a bowler captain, but none of the current batsmen should be considered.  They are either bang out of form or finding their way in test cricket. 

FWIW, If Cook is rested, they'll prob give it to Prior.  As vice captain, it would be a major snub if he was overlooked.

Might be wrong, but I thought Bell took over the captaincy when Cook was off the field yesterday?

he did, he's the official vice captain.

[PaulWinch again]

I do think our inability to deviate from what we've done in the past is a major problem. Bowling too short has been a problem all summer, you could maybe forgive it in the first Test of the summer but our bowlers have been out bowled by two sub-continent teams. It's shocking that we haven't learnt from our mistakes.

[tomd2103]

I do think our inability to deviate from what we've done in the past is a major problem. Bowling too short has been a problem all summer, you could maybe forgive it in the first Test of the summer but our bowlers have been out bowled by two sub-continent teams. It's shocking that we haven't learnt from our mistakes.

To be fair, we've not had much luck when it's come to bowling options over the past couple of years.  Graham Onions, who I think would have a great option in English conditions, has had injury problems, as has Tremlett.  Finn has fallen away badly and arguably our two top spinners (Swann and Monty) have gone.   

[PaulWinch again]

We ruined Finn by tampering with his action, he's only starting to recover due to being away from the England set up. Onions was fit plenty of time and he wasn't picked. In any case that's no excuse for consistently bowling too short from game to game and being out bowled at home by Sri Lanka and India.