The Cricket Thread 2017

[Villan For Life]

A really pathetic showing from England.

[Risso]

Dreadful end. Ali joins Root and Cook on the naughty step.

[cdbearsfan]

Fucking boo.

[tomd2103]

It's been another, as expected, weak effort. In recent years our all rounders have been a point of difference but unfortunately Stokes got himself suspended and Ali and Woakes have been in atrocious form. They've been able to help cover the top order failings before, but not this tour.

Yep Paul.  6-11 has been our strength over the past couple of years, but we have fallen apart in that area on this tour.  The lack of fight we have shown has been very disappointing and we look like a broken side.

[OzVilla]

Fair play to Australia, pretty much every player in their side has made a contribution at some point.  Warner has had a quiet series by his standards but all the new guys have done well and the main players have all stood up.

England, well I've been here for two 5-0 series previously and this feels the same, we've had a few players tat have stood up, Malan, Stoneman, Bairstow and Overton but those that have poor have been really poor.

[spangley1812]

Rubbish..........

Ali and Cook are in the "last chance saloon" and have to produce in the 4th Test

Overton was very brave today but is injured so will need to be replaced by...........Wood if fit or Curran or maybe even Crane

[Ads]

Plunkett and Wood ought to have played. We need players capable of banging it down at 90mph with consistency. Its no good medium paces dobbing it down on fast, flat pitches, regardless of how good in English conditions they are.

Given what a shambles the tour has been, I don't see why having Stokes out there would have been a problem. Its been handled appallingly. Strauss, personal circumstances as bad as they are, has to look at himself.

Vince and Malan are bright spots, as was Overton. Shame about his ribs, but his height added something.

[PaulWinch again]

Rubbish..........

Ali and Cook are in the "last chance saloon" and have to produce in the 4th Test

Overton was very brave today but is injured so will need to be replaced by...........Wood if fit or Curran or maybe even Crane

Bit harsh for Ali to be in last chance saloon, he's had a really poor tour but he's also been injured and was very good in the summer. He deserves more time. Cook has had a poor 2017, with the exception of one stand out innings, and Broad has had a really poor 2017. Those two should be the most under threat.

[tomd2103]

Plunkett and Wood ought to have played. We need players capable of banging it down at 90mph with consistency. Its no good medium paces dobbing it down on fast, flat pitches, regardless of how good in English conditions they are.

Given what a shambles the tour has been, I don't see why having Stokes out there would have been a problem. Its been handled appallingly. Strauss, personal circumstances as bad as they are, has to look at himself.

Vince and Malan are bright spots, as was Overton. Shame about his ribs, but his height added something.

Agree with that Ads.  Stokes could have played in these three tests at least and it has been handled poorly.

For the first time, I am a little concerned about us going forward as a test team.  I just can't see where the next group of players are coming from.

[OzVilla]

Now the series has been lost I actually hope Stokes doesn't play even if they decide on no charges being laid.

The tone was set when he did what he did so he can fuck off and miss the whole lot as far as im concerned. It also would be a terrible PR move so I'd rather we kept our dignity on who represents England.

Granted I'd probably feel differently if it were 2-2 going into Sydney.

[olaftab]

I agree OzVilla. Stokes needs to sort himself out before he gets close to England team again. There is unpublished stuff about him in India whilst on IPL jaunts that’s very unpleasant.

[Ads]

He laid out two people being homophobic and trying to bottle his mates. Its not professional, but I'm of the so what persuasion.

Talking about bad PR as we bend over down under again. The only PR that matters is what we do out in the middle.

[PaulWinch again]

Plunkett should have played, not sure about Wood. Wood is fine if he is absolutely 100% fit, but if he's not his pace drops of significantly and therefore offers nothing.

Craig Overton has been good, because he can get some bounce. His brother bowls around 90mph when he's fit, so hopefully he'll be in at some point.

Last year we said we couldn't compete with India because we didn't have high quality spin, and this year we can't compete with Australia because we don't produce fast bowlers. Both of those things need to be addressed, and with the amount of resources they have the ECB should be able to do something about it.

[PaulWinch again]

As an aside I think the really concerning senior player is Broad. Root will come back to form, although I think certainly for the time being Smith has answered all questions as to who the better player is. Cook has been poor, but he looks in terrible nick, so there is a chance that if he got the hunger back he could find form again.
Broad on the other hand just looks to have lost his zip and bounce and that's been the case throughout 2017. His issue doesn't look like form, he looks like genuine decline.

[UK Redsox]

Fucking boo.

Thank You Fred MacAulay