The Cricket Thread 2016

[Chris Smith]

Vaughan claiming 'India will whitewash England 5-0 if England play like against Bangladesh'.

What a load of rubbish, Bangladesh is a tough place to go and we got a good, albeit narrow win.

You see that is just underestimating and demeaning a Bangladesh team who have made some great strides in the last couple of years.

I don't think that was the point he was making rather that the top order repeatedly get out cheaply, not just this series, leaving us 4 down for not very many and that doing that against the number one ranking test side means they are likely to get stuffed. I agree with him.

[Chris Jameson]

I can't stand Michael Vaughan. Like to remind myself of that every so often.

[PaulWinch again]

Vaughan claiming 'India will whitewash England 5-0 if England play like against Bangladesh'.

What a load of rubbish, Bangladesh is a tough place to go and we got a good, albeit narrow win.

You see that is just underestimating and demeaning a Bangladesh team who have made some great strides in the last couple of years.

I don't think that was the point he was making rather that the top order repeatedly get out cheaply, not just this series, leaving us 4 down for not very many and that doing that against the number one ranking test side means they are likely to get stuffed. I agree with him.

As do I.

[paul_e]

I don't because we did it against the number 1 ranked side and won the series, about a year ago.  We then did it agianst the team that is now ranked number 2 (and was briefly top) and drew the series.  There's plenty of evidence that whilst it's holding us back from being the team that everyone is chasing it's clearly not stopping us from being competitive against every nation we play.

[OzVilla]

I can't stand Michael Vaughan. Like to remind myself of that every so often.

Maybe ive not been paying attention but you've surprised me there Chris.

What with his Yorkshire connection and he was undoubtedly a terrific player to watch when in form.

[Chris Jameson]

I can't stand Michael Vaughan. Like to remind myself of that every so often.

Maybe ive not been paying attention but you've surprised me there Chris.

What with his Yorkshire connection and he was undoubtedly a terrific player to watch when in form.

Deeply unpleasant man, every person I know who has encountered him has said he's an incredibly arrogant, rude man who will greet any request with "what's in it for me?"

He supports Sheffield Wednesday and Manchester United, how does that work?

[PaulWinch again]

I don't because we did it against the number 1 ranked side and won the series, about a year ago.  We then did it agianst the team that is now ranked number 2 (and was briefly top) and drew the series.  There's plenty of evidence that whilst it's holding us back from being the team that everyone is chasing it's clearly not stopping us from being competitive against every nation we play.

Both at home in conditions where we have bowlers who can knock over teams very cheaply. In India that probably won't be the case, if our top order crumbles there it'll be a lot harder.

Edit - Ah sorry you're referring to SA. Although again I the South African conditions are much more similar to England, so again our bowlers could get us out of trouble if needed. I think in India we're going to have to get big totals to compete, and if the top order don't score we'll struggle to do that.

[paul_e]

Maybe.  Personally I think Indian pitches/conditions are very different to this because the IPL has forced them to adapt to much more batter friendly surfaces and the scores in Indian hosted tests over the last few years back that up.  I'm glad we're doing this series, I think Bangladesh need the bigger nations to visit them much more, but I don't think it'as going to serve as much of a training camp for India.

All that said, the specific claim was that India would whitewash us.  If you believe that then you haven't been paying much attention to international cricket in the last few years or you're trying to create noise.  Vaughan falls entirely into the latter group.

[PaulWinch again]

I agree on Bangladesh they need to play Test cricket. There are lots of talented youngsters.

On the whitewash front he was saying he thought we could get whitewashed if we end up being 30-3, 40-4 in the Tests, meaning India won't let us off the hook. I think he has a point there. You will lose most games in India if your top order fails. It's far harder, particularly for England, to dig yourself out of trouble against decent spin.

[Ads]

I was listening to the show and that's the point he was making; find yourself 4 down for less than 50 and you'll get blown away down there. He also made the point that with so many left handers we will struggle.

[ADVILLAFAN]

I've been quite pleased to see how Bangladesh have played, they seem to have improved a lot

[PaulWinch again]

This is an interesting challenge now. Bangladesh are in complete control, we don't have Broad and Anderson. It's time for the other bowlers to step up and drag this back. We badly lack control with the spinners.

[UK Redsox]

This is an interesting challenge now. Bangladesh are in complete control, we don't have Broad and Anderson. It's time for the other bowlers to step up and drag this back. We badly lack control with the spinners.

As I type this, there have been no maidens bowled by the England spinners.

[PaulWinch again]

Yep it's really poor from a control point. I'm not convinced that Rashid is a Test spinner, he seems to bowl 3/4 good balls and 2 shockers each over. Hopefully he'll prove me wrong and get about 7 wickets now.

[paul_e]

Good spell from mo has changed the game here