The Cricket Thread 2016

[PaulWinch again]

Cook coming out and saying what he has is pretty poor, it's essentially undermining the people above him.

[PaulWinch again]

Stokes will bat better the higher he in the order he is, so I'd like to see him at 6. Moeen will be 6 when he comes back, but it'd be nice to see how Stokes goes.

[Villan For Life]

Cook coming out and saying what he has is pretty poor, it's essentially undermining the people above him.

Could be part of a campaign against the coach who is not all that popular.

Since Hussein and Fletcher no England captain has to my memory criticised the coach apart from Pietersen and who was the coach he slated?

We're in for a tough few months. It was wrong for Cook to say what he did on the eve of a tour. Things in that dressing room are far from right.

[PaulWinch again]

'The team suffered an early exit from the World Cup at the pool stage.
Selectors have since been criticized by Alastair Cook for dropping him as one-day captain while also coming under pressure to clarify the international future of ex-player Kevin Pietersen. '

That little summary shows what a shambles English cricket is at the moment. Two things come to mind from this as well. Firstly whilst I quite like Cook, from an ECB point of view he should be dismissed as Captain now. He's completely undermined those above him and essentially challenged their authority. Secondly when Cook was asked about Pietersen coming back he mentioned his book as one of the reasons that he couldn't return. When they initially sacked Pietersen it was to 'improve the dressing room harmony' apparently. Well that has clearly done nothing for performance, so it suggests he wasn't a major factor in our problems. Therefore, given the subsequent results, they should reverse their decision and give everyone an equal opportunity to get into the squad. It's not about harmony it's about having a team that wins.

[Villan For Life]

For me, since the end of the last Ashes series Cook has looked like a beaten man. You would hope that the ECB have sensed this but the lack of a credible successor strengthens his hand and he's playing it well.

It's too soon to promote Root and would you want such a young Captain overseeing a dressing room full of splits and fractions anyway?

What a divisive mess we are in.

[paul_e]

For me Cook comes across as a bit of a wanker with his comments, all about his own image rather than the good of the team and I've now got a lot less respect for him than I had.  If he had an ounce of self-awareness and humility he'd have withdrawn from the ODI side a year ago and given us the chance to prepare properly rather than clinging on for as long as he could and forcing them to take drastic action far too close to the start of the tournament.

[PaulWinch again]

I was very surprised and disappointed by Cook's comments as well. If he genuinely believed he deserved to be in the side he's completely wrong. We've done atrociously over the last 2 years in ODI cricket. He should have kept quiet and I genuinely think they should consider removing him as Test captain now. There are a catalogue of problems with English cricket and I can't wait for the new Chairman to come in, but your Captain slating selection policy does not help.

[aev]

As Michael Vaughan said the best way for them all to put the KP thing to bed is to start winning Test matches.

However, having witnessed some of their recent displays I reckon the KP bandwagon will be up and trundling about June.

[PaulWinch again]

I think they should draw a completely clean slate on every single player. We need every possible player available and it should be on form, not on who fits in best in the dressing room. The whole harmonious dressing room idea clearly hasn't worked.

[taylorsworkrate]

As Michael Vaughan said the best way for them all to put the KP thing to bed is to start winning Test matches.

However, having witnessed some of their recent displays I reckon the KP bandwagon will be up and trundling about June.

I can see Southee and Boult having a field day in early summer conditions here, against a batting line up vunerable to decent seamers.

If Pietersen scores a shed load in the 1st couple of months the clamour will be huge. I suppose they'll just say it's second division runs he scoring if that was the case.

[tomd2103]

Stokes will bat better the higher he in the order he is, so I'd like to see him at 6. Moeen will be 6 when he comes back, but it'd be nice to see how Stokes goes.

Stokes has struggled so badly with the bat in his last few internationals, that batting him at 6 would be a huge call.  If Rashid comes in and does well then Moeen Ali won't get back into the side. 

[paul_e]

Stokes will bat better the higher he in the order he is, so I'd like to see him at 6. Moeen will be 6 when he comes back, but it'd be nice to see how Stokes goes.

Stokes has struggled so badly with the bat in his last few internationals, that batting him at 6 would be a huge call.  If Rashid comes in and does well then Moeen Ali won't get back into the side. 

I disagree with that, oeen is a decent bowling option but primarily he's a batsman and should probably be looked at as an opener before long.  Moeen, Rashid and to an extent Root would finally give us genuine options with spin rather than all the slow bowling being reliant on 1 guy as has been the case for as long as I can remember.  That 2 of them are genuine top order batsmen is helpful because we can still pick 3 out and out seamers and an all-rounder without having an overly long tail. The discussion about 6 is the wrong spot in my opinion, Buttler is technically good enough to bat there so, in my opinion, we're looking for an all-rounder to bat 7.  If Rashid can settle him and Woakes are good enough to score decent runs at 8 and 9 at least, if 1 of them can step up we could potentially add Jordan as well, who is erratic with the bat but can score decent runs.

[PaulWinch again]

Moeen's a quality player and they clearly rate him. When fit he'll be one of the first names on the team sheet. There have been very few positives in the last year or so and Ali is one of them.

[tomd2103]

Stokes will bat better the higher he in the order he is, so I'd like to see him at 6. Moeen will be 6 when he comes back, but it'd be nice to see how Stokes goes.

Stokes has struggled so badly with the bat in his last few internationals, that batting him at 6 would be a huge call.  If Rashid comes in and does well then Moeen Ali won't get back into the side. 

I disagree with that, oeen is a decent bowling option but primarily he's a batsman and should probably be looked at as an opener before long.  Moeen, Rashid and to an extent Root would finally give us genuine options with spin rather than all the slow bowling being reliant on 1 guy as has been the case for as long as I can remember.  That 2 of them are genuine top order batsmen is helpful because we can still pick 3 out and out seamers and an all-rounder without having an overly long tail. The discussion about 6 is the wrong spot in my opinion, Buttler is technically good enough to bat there so, in my opinion, we're looking for an all-rounder to bat 7.  If Rashid can settle him and Woakes are good enough to score decent runs at 8 and 9 at least, if 1 of them can step up we could potentially add Jordan as well, who is erratic with the bat but can score decent runs.

I'm not so sure. I think in the test match format, Moeen will only be in the team if he's considered the number one spin bowler.  If Rashid comes in and does well, then I don't think Ali gets back in, especially in English conditions where you don't need that many spin options.  Also, his perceived weakness against short pitched bowling might be a worry with the Aussies in mind. 

As for the point about Buttler, they were reluctant to bat Prior at six all through his career with England and I think it could be the same with Jos.  The big question is how they balance the side.  The old tried and trusted 6 batsmen, wicket-keeper and four bowlers or go with the  extra bowler or all-rounder and one less batsman.  I think that all depends on whether Stokes really comes to the fore with bat and ball.  If he finds form with the bat, he could bat at six with Rashid, Woakes, Broad and Anderson making up the bowling attack. 

[pooligan]

I think Moeen's far from being one of the first name's on the team sheet when fit. His bowling is average at best and as for opening the innings,his weakness against the short pitched bowling he can expect the top sides will count against him