The Cricket Thread 2014

[Villan For Life]

At least a couple of wins will knock back the anti-Bell brigade for the rest of the summer.

How people can call for clearly the best batsman in the team -and one of the best in the world -to be dropped, is completely beyond me.

He's always suffered negative press throughout his England career. Initially it was because he never scored big runs when the team needed it, only after the top order had scored well. He put that to bed after last summer's Ashes. He suffered a torrid winter and like several of his teammates seemed to be suffering from a post-Ashes hangover, Anderson, Broad, Cook & Bell were all affected in the early part of the international season. He's come good as have his teammates.

He is the most stylish English batsman. Hopefully he's got several more seasons left in the test side before returning to captain the Bears at the end of his career. In fact the Bears have a player who could replace him in the England team. Sam Hain looks a test player in the making and he's only just turned 19.

[taylorsworkrate]

I think there's always been a hell of a lot expected of Bell. He is the best batsman in the side and has an excellent record.

I still think he's underachieved though. With his ability he really should be averaging around 50-55 and have 30 centuries now.

[Villan For Life]

I think there's always been a hell of a lot expected of Bell. He is the best batsman in the side and has an excellent record.

I still think he's underachieved though. With his ability he really should be averaging around 50-55 and have 30 centuries now.

I don't think that over 7,000 test runs, an average over 45 and 21 test centuries is underachievement. He's got a few years left in him yet.

The player that should have averaged 50+ and scored 30 test centuries is Pietersen. I think he underachieved. He should have been up there with Ponting.

[tomd2103]

I think they offer different things:

Finn and Jordan (andd Plunkett to keep a recent bowler in the discussion) are strike bowlers for me, guys you give 3-4 overs and hope for a wicket.  Jordan needs to get his line tighter but he's quick and aggressive so that's where we should be pushing him.  We really shouldn't be asking for long spells from these guys, we want them to out 100% into every delivery every time.

Bresnan, Woakes and Stokes look more like guys who you can trust to bowl a long spell and keep things tight.  Both of the younger guys have been hit around the park a touch in their test career but they both seem to have the right attitude and importantly both have a nice clean repeatable action which gives them the option to bowl 10-12 over spells.

If Moeen can continue to look every bit a test match spinner and we can keep Broad and Anderson fit and in form we're basically looking for one from each group, on form Woakes deserves to stay but Jordan and Fiinn are very close for me.

Would agree with that Paul.  Anderson and Broad are shoe-ins and Moeen has been a revelation, which leaves space for two more bowlers.  I agree that one of those should be a strike bowler and would say that if both are on form, then Finn's extra height would give him the edge over Jordan (though Jordan is the better fielder and batsman).  The other role would involve holding an end up, keeping it tight and picking up the odd wicket.  Looking at the other bowling options, they would also have to bat at 8, so we'd probably be looking at Woakes or Stokes, both of who have been a little expensive in their short careers.     

[Chris Jameson]

At least a couple of wins will knock back the anti-Bell brigade for the rest of the summer.

How people can call for clearly the best batsman in the team -and one of the best in the world -to be dropped, is completely beyond me.

Who has been calling for him to be dropped? He even appears to have escaped the demands to be dropped from the fickle bunch on here, think he's the only one!

smiley, winky thing.

[Ads]

I was seething with him, because as a senior player, he was badly letting the side down and had got away with it somewhat with Cook being in the spotlight.

[paul_e]

I never had an issue with Bell mainly because he seemed to have just got into a bad luck rut.  If you compare his run of low scores and the way he got out with the likes of cook and prior the key difference is that teams hadn't found a weakness that they were exploiting he was just getting done by good deliveries and big of a drop in confidence but still looked like a world class batsman.  Cook looked scared and was getting drawn into making the same mistakes, Prior just looked like his technique had abandoned him.

[dcdavecollett]

I think I agree.

Bell seemed to be finding interesting new ways to get out after looking in prime form and scoring 20-30, whereas Cook just looked hopelessly out of form and the Indian bowlers clearly thought they had worked him out.

[taylorsworkrate]

I think there's always been a hell of a lot expected of Bell. He is the best batsman in the side and has an excellent record.

I still think he's underachieved though. With his ability he really should be averaging around 50-55 and have 30 centuries now.

I don't think that over 7,000 test runs, an average over 45 and 21 test centuries is underachievement. He's got a few years left in him yet.

The player that should have averaged 50+ and scored 30 test centuries is Pietersen. I think he underachieved. He should have been up there with Ponting.

I think it is an underachievement considering the ability he has. I think ability wise, Bell is up there with Ponting, Jayawardene etc.

Don't get me wrong, he's still had a very good career. I just think he has the talent to be one of the best batsmen to have played in this generation. Hopefully his last few years will see his record continue to improve

[Villan For Life]

I think there's always been a hell of a lot expected of Bell. He is the best batsman in the side and has an excellent record.

I still think he's underachieved though. With his ability he really should be averaging around 50-55 and have 30 centuries now.

I don't think that over 7,000 test runs, an average over 45 and 21 test centuries is underachievement. He's got a few years left in him yet.

The player that should have averaged 50+ and scored 30 test centuries is Pietersen. I think he underachieved. He should have been up there with Ponting.

I think it is an underachievement considering the ability he has. I think ability wise, Bell is up there with Ponting, Jayawardene etc.

Don't get me wrong, he's still had a very good career. I just think he has the talent to be one of the best batsmen to have played in this generation. Hopefully his last few years will see his record continue to improve

Bell is a class act but he's nowhere near Ponting who was an awesome batsman.

[PaulWinch again]

Good to see Stokes hit a century today, he'll be a top player for England. He's got that x factor about him.

[ACVilla]

I think there's always been a hell of a lot expected of Bell. He is the best batsman in the side and has an excellent record.

I still think he's underachieved though. With his ability he really should be averaging around 50-55 and have 30 centuries now.

I don't think that over 7,000 test runs, an average over 45 and 21 test centuries is underachievement. He's got a few years left in him yet.

The player that should have averaged 50+ and scored 30 test centuries is Pietersen. I think he underachieved. He should have been up there with Ponting.

I think it is an underachievement considering the ability he has. I think ability wise, Bell is up there with Ponting, Jayawardene etc.

Don't get me wrong, he's still had a very good career. I just think he has the talent to be one of the best batsmen to have played in this generation. Hopefully his last few years will see his record continue to improve

Bell is a class act but he's nowhere near Ponting who was an awesome batsman.

I think the only difference between the two is mental strength.

[tomd2103]

I think there's always been a hell of a lot expected of Bell. He is the best batsman in the side and has an excellent record.

I still think he's underachieved though. With his ability he really should be averaging around 50-55 and have 30 centuries now.

I don't think that over 7,000 test runs, an average over 45 and 21 test centuries is underachievement. He's got a few years left in him yet.

The player that should have averaged 50+ and scored 30 test centuries is Pietersen. I think he underachieved. He should have been up there with Ponting.

I think it is an underachievement considering the ability he has. I think ability wise, Bell is up there with Ponting, Jayawardene etc.

Don't get me wrong, he's still had a very good career. I just think he has the talent to be one of the best batsmen to have played in this generation. Hopefully his last few years will see his record continue to improve

Bell is a class act but he's nowhere near Ponting who was an awesome batsman.

I think the only difference between the two is mental strength.

The SKY Masterclass with Ricky Ponting was really good.  Interesting to hear him talk about how he couldn't play the cut shot and the troubles (both technical and mental) he had against spin.  Didn't hold him back that much though!!   

[Villan For Life]

I think there's always been a hell of a lot expected of Bell. He is the best batsman in the side and has an excellent record.

I still think he's underachieved though. With his ability he really should be averaging around 50-55 and have 30 centuries now.

I don't think that over 7,000 test runs, an average over 45 and 21 test centuries is underachievement. He's got a few years left in him yet.

The player that should have averaged 50+ and scored 30 test centuries is Pietersen. I think he underachieved. He should have been up there with Ponting.

I think it is an underachievement considering the ability he has. I think ability wise, Bell is up there with Ponting, Jayawardene etc.

Don't get me wrong, he's still had a very good career. I just think he has the talent to be one of the best batsmen to have played in this generation. Hopefully his last few years will see his record continue to improve

Bell is a class act but he's nowhere near Ponting who was an awesome batsman.

I think the only difference between the two is mental strength.

At the highest level of a lot of professional sports, it's around 80% technique and 20% mental strength. That Ponting had it but Bell has struggled at times puts Ponting well ahead. Over 26,000 International runs puts him second to Tendulkar in the modern game. As good as Bell is, he will never be as good as Ponting.

[paul_e]

I think Bell is technically better than Ponting ever was, it's his mental strength that has let him down.  I actually think there are very few players ever who have better technique than Bell.  As the commentators always mention, all of his shots are absolutely text book perfect.

For example, moving up to 4 (or even 3) should have been a chance for him to push his game on, instead he had a long period of things just not working for him, I'm convinced that's because he knew his best scores had all come at 5.