The Cricket Thread 2016

[taylorsworkrate]

That's probably the game. In some ways I'm glad this has happened. Firstly NZ don't deserve to lose this series. Secondly I don't want us assuming that because we played well at Lords all our problems are fixed. There are big question marks over Bell, Ballance(to a lesser extent), not having an experienced spinner and also our bowlers inability to adapt to a situation.

I disagree that there are less question marks over Ballance than Bell. Ballance seems unable to even watch the ball properly at the moment.

Neither of them should be in the ODI squad. Both have to play as much 4 day cricket from now till the ashes as possible. With the question marks over Bell, it's just a shame we don't have a ready made world class batsman who has over 20 test centuries available to slot straight into the team.

[Chris Jameson]

It's hammering it down here, hope they are on the way to Headingley.

[aj2k77]

Ian Bell has been a complete liability this series. But this won't be seen as the time to change things and the status quo will continue until we are 4-0 down in the Ashes.

[richl]

That was awful by Ali!

[Villan For Life]

So where is the rain in Leeds then?

[Chris Jameson]

So where is the rain in Leeds then?

Harrogate.

[PaulWinch again]

Terrible from Ali.

[PaulWinch again]

That's probably the game. In some ways I'm glad this has happened. Firstly NZ don't deserve to lose this series. Secondly I don't want us assuming that because we played well at Lords all our problems are fixed. There are big question marks over Bell, Ballance(to a lesser extent), not having an experienced spinner and also our bowlers inability to adapt to a situation.

I disagree that there are less question marks over Ballance than Bell. Ballance seems unable to even watch the ball properly at the moment.

Neither of them should be in the ODI squad. Both have to play as much 4 day cricket from now till the ashes as possible. With the question marks over Bell, it's just a shame we don't have a ready made world class batsman who has over 20 test centuries available to slot straight into the team.

Ballance is struggling, but he was excellent last summer. Bell hasn't been great since the summer of 2013. He's got the odd score, but he's got out cheaply and poor on an awful lot of occasions. Bell should really be dropped, but Ballance deserves longer.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Looking dark over Chris's Mother's

[PaulWinch again]

So 44-0 to 157-7. That's the second catastophic collapse in this game from England. We just seem to be pathetically mentally weak.

[taylorsworkrate]

That's probably the game. In some ways I'm glad this has happened. Firstly NZ don't deserve to lose this series. Secondly I don't want us assuming that because we played well at Lords all our problems are fixed. There are big question marks over Bell, Ballance(to a lesser extent), not having an experienced spinner and also our bowlers inability to adapt to a situation.

I disagree that there are less question marks over Ballance than Bell. Ballance seems unable to even watch the ball properly at the moment.

Neither of them should be in the ODI squad. Both have to play as much 4 day cricket from now till the ashes as possible. With the question marks over Bell, it's just a shame we don't have a ready made world class batsman who has over 20 test centuries available to slot straight into the team.

Ballance is struggling, but he was excellent last summer. Bell hasn't been great since the summer of 2013. He's got the odd score, but he's got out cheaply and poor on an awful lot of occasions. Bell should really be dropped, but Ballance deserves longer.

Bell dropped for who though? The only middle order batsman in the country ready to come into the side and face the likes of Johnson, Starc and Harris is Pietersen.

[PaulWinch again]

I don't know how you can judge that without giving them a chance. At the moment Bell doesn't look like he's going to get a run, so it doesn't matter who you replace him with. But a couple of names who could are Taylor or Vince.

[PaulWinch again]

See I'm still convinced that Moeen has the skills to bowl, but he is really short of confidence at the moment, which isn't helped by Cook. If I were England I'd rest him for the ODIs and I'd let him go back to county cricket in order to get a lot of overs under his belt before the Ashes. When he's confident he's a real threat, but that's been eroded at the moment.

[taylorsworkrate]

I don't know how you can judge that without giving them a chance. At the moment Bell doesn't look like he's going to get a run, so it doesn't matter who you replace him with. But a couple of names who could are Taylor or Vince.

It's a different kettle of fish making your test debut against the likes of Sri Lanka, West Indies etc compared to Australia. I agree that if Bell were to not make runs for Warwickshire in the gap between the series then we could look at dropping him. However of the two you mention, Taylor's form has been nowhere near good enough in first class cricket to warrant selection over Bell, and neither has Vince's.

[Villan For Life]

A quick glance at the championship fixtures shows that Bell has just two potential 4-day fixtures to play in before the first Ashes test and Ali has three. I think Ali will be in the one day squad but Bell won't be.