The Cricket Thread 2016

[olaftab]

Great series. Fantastic result for cricket in Bangladesh. They fully deserved this win after coming  so close on the first.

[PaulWinch again]

Well done Bangladesh, but our batting is a big worry.

[PaulWinch again]

I think that's the end of Ballance for a while. He's offering absolutely nothing.

He deserved his chance after averaging over 50 in the County Championship but as an International Test batsman he's rarely looked good enough.

Did he average 50 last year? I'm not disputing his original call up in his first England run, but he was justifiably dropped and I never have seen what he's done to be recalled.

[PaulWinch again]

I do wonder why Woakes consistently seems more proficient with the bat than most of our 'batsmen'.

[simboy]

I think that's the end of Ballance for a while. He's offering absolutely nothing.

He deserved his chance after averaging over 50 in the County Championship but as an International Test batsman he's rarely looked good enough.

Did he average 50 last year? I'm not disputing his original call up in his first England run, but he was justifiably dropped and I never have seen what he's done to be recalled.


I think he was picked because the obvious alternative at the time was Bell. It's clear that the England management want to move on and bring in younger players.

 Duckett is 22, Hameed 19 and I suspect they will both feature in the coming tests. Personally I think Duckett will drop to 4 with Hameed opening if they don't try and squeeze in Buttler.

[UK Redsox]

Third worst 10 wicket collapse in Test history

[tomd2103]

Our top/upper middle order really is too prone to collapse. Of those 4 wickets at least 2 were completely unnecessary.

Needs a real re-think for India.  If it were up to me, I would give Hameed a chance to open in India, have Hales in at three, Root at four and Duckett at five. 

[KevinGage]

What series. It's not all about England collapsing. Give Bangladesh some credit. I know they had their wicket but they battled so hard.
Take today, even at 100 for 1 they never let their heads drop.

Their heads did drop.

Difficult to criticize Duckett after he played the best knock of the innings, but if he sees off the opening two or three overs of the final session it's a different game. The body language from Bangladesh wasn't great at that stage, they knew they were letting it slip.

Mehedi looks a real find, and all all credit to them. They probably deserved to win the first test as well. But it had to be England offering themselves up as the sacrificial lamb.

The rest of the cricket world will be laughing at England. In similar conditions, do you see Australia, S.Africa, India or NZ get blown away by a side with two test wins up to that point; especially one fielding a below average batting line-up, one seamer and a rookie spinner.

[paul_e]

Our top/upper middle order really is too prone to collapse. Of those 4 wickets at least 2 were completely unnecessary.

Needs a real re-think for India.  If it were up to me, I would give Hameed a chance to open in India, have Hales in at three, Root at four and Duckett at five. 

Who are you dropping there?  Ballance is a given but to get that second spot you're looking at 1 of the bowlers I'd guess Rashid or Ansari?  Seems harsh to me.

[The_ads]

Our top/upper middle order really is too prone to collapse. Of those 4 wickets at least 2 were completely unnecessary.

Needs a real re-think for India.  If it were up to me, I would give Hameed a chance to open in India, have Hales in at three, Root at four and Duckett at five. 

Not really both Rashid and Ansari aren't good enough for test cricket

Who are you dropping there?  Ballance is a given but to get that second spot you're looking at 1 of the bowlers I'd guess Rashid or Ansari?  Seems harsh to me.

[dcdavecollett]

Does this result confirm Cook's standing as the worst test captain of all time, if only the last match of every series is counted?

[paul_e]

Our top/upper middle order really is too prone to collapse. Of those 4 wickets at least 2 were completely unnecessary.

Needs a real re-think for India.  If it were up to me, I would give Hameed a chance to open in India, have Hales in at three, Root at four and Duckett at five. 

Who are you dropping there?  Ballance is a given but to get that second spot you're looking at 1 of the bowlers I'd guess Rashid or Ansari?  Seems harsh to me.

Not really both Rashid and Ansari aren't good enough for test cricket

It's 'not really' harsh to write Ansari off as not good enough after a total of 25 overs?  What would it take for you to consider dropping someone harsh?  Doing it because of the way he shook hands on receiving his cap?

Rashid maybe but the jury is still out for me and dropping someone when their last innings was 4/52 from 12 doesn't seem right so I'd give him 1-2 tests in India before making a call either way.

In terms of chances I think Hales is further down the list than Rashid right now and on that basis I'd go Hameed for Ballance and Finn out for Broad.  Then you stick with that for the first 2 unless someone completely collapses and make a decision between Rashid and Ansari dropping out for Jimmy for the 3rd test.  That puts a bit of pressure on Root to come in for a few overs but I think it's very hard to drop one of our 4 frontline seamers if they're all fit and I don't think the Indian pitches will be as biased to spin as those we've just seen in Bangladesh.

[Villan For Life]

Our top/upper middle order really is too prone to collapse. Of those 4 wickets at least 2 were completely unnecessary.

Needs a real re-think for India.  If it were up to me, I would give Hameed a chance to open in India, have Hales in at three, Root at four and Duckett at five. 

Who are you dropping there?  Ballance is a given but to get that second spot you're looking at 1 of the bowlers I'd guess Rashid or Ansari?  Seems harsh to me.

Not really both Rashid and Ansari aren't good enough for test cricket

It's 'not really' harsh to write Ansari off as not good enough after a total of 25 overs?  What would it take for you to consider dropping someone harsh?  Doing it because of the way he shook hands on receiving his cap?

Rashid maybe but the jury is still out for me and dropping someone when their last innings was 4/52 from 12 doesn't seem right so I'd give him 1-2 tests in India before making a call either way.

In terms of chances I think Hales is further down the list than Rashid right now and on that basis I'd go Hameed for Ballance and Finn out for Broad.  Then you stick with that for the first 2 unless someone completely collapses and make a decision between Rashid and Ansari dropping out for Jimmy for the 3rd test.  That puts a bit of pressure on Root to come in for a few overs but I think it's very hard to drop one of our 4 frontline seamers if they're all fit and I don't think the Indian pitches will be as biased to spin as those we've just seen in Bangladesh.

I think that Ansari looked more of a test player than Rashid. Personally I'd bring Batty in for Rashid, Broad replaces Finn and Hameed replaces Ballance. I wouldn't consider Buttler, he's played one first class game for Lancashire in the 15 months since he was dropped during the 2015 Ashes. He's played plenty of one day Cricket but I think that the change from one day mode to test mode is too great for someone who has struggled in test cricket and has played very little red ball cricket for so long.

[UK Redsox]

Is it too late to start checking whether Mehedi Hasan has an English grandparent ?

The bloke could be a star but we'll mainly see him getting tonked in ODIs and T20s. Shame that he's not from a country that plays more Tests

[Villan For Life]

Is it too late to start checking whether Mehedi Hasan has an English grandparent ?

The bloke could be a star but we'll mainly see him getting tonked in ODIs and T20s. Shame that he's not from a country that plays more Tests

In the interests of doing something to help English Cricket, I could offer to adopt him?