The International Cricket Thread 2018

[Villa Lew]

When England finish off Sri Lanka tomorrow, it'll make a great treble, with England beating the Aussies and the mighty Villa today.

[paul_e]

Got a bit closer than I'd have liked but all done 3-0 series, gotta be happy with that.

Quick thoughts on the series:

Batting is still a big concern but I'd give this top 3 a chance against WI and see where we are after the first test. Burns has been reasonably steady without offering any meaningful scores, Jennings had 1 big hundred and generally looked better against spin than he does against pace. bairstow looked good at 3 so it will be interesting to see if he can keep that going against more 'normal' bowling. I'd keep them as is for the 1st Windies test.

The middle order is superb, Buttler has been excellent since he came back into the side and is now one of the first names in the team for me, Stokes, Ali and Foakes are all well set there as well and Root needs a few more runs but as the captain he's doing a good job.


Onto the spinners, Moeen and Leach were a constant threat and formed a good partnership and are 1 and 2 respectively. Rashid had a good first innings in this test but was largely disappointing otherwise because he has a bad combination of too many deliveries that can be ignored and too many cheap runs. If he could remove one of those he'd be fine but he's really struggled to break away from limited overs bowling where the ones that he's bowling outside off and moving away get attacked.

The quicks never got a look in so it's hard to judge them, but Curran continues to look very good. I'd give Stone some game time in WI and I'd be amazed if Woakes doesn't get a look in as well.

[Villan For Life]

That's pretty much as I see it Paul. If the openers continue to struggle then it's time to give Jason Roy a go. I suspect that Bairstow has the belligerence and technique to make the number 3 spot his own but in doing that he must accept that he can't keep wicket too. He's a good fielder though so should be OK. I hope that we go in to the Ashes series next summer with a settled batting line up.


Although there are still issues with our test side things look a lot more positive than they did at the start of the year when we'd lost the Ashes and had succumbed to something like 28-9 against New Zealand.

[tomd2103]

Got a bit closer than I'd have liked but all done 3-0 series, gotta be happy with that.

Quick thoughts on the series:

Batting is still a big concern but I'd give this top 3 a chance against WI and see where we are after the first test. Burns has been reasonably steady without offering any meaningful scores, Jennings had 1 big hundred and generally looked better against spin than he does against pace. bairstow looked good at 3 so it will be interesting to see if he can keep that going against more 'normal' bowling. I'd keep them as is for the 1st Windies test.

The middle order is superb, Buttler has been excellent since he came back into the side and is now one of the first names in the team for me, Stokes, Ali and Foakes are all well set there as well and Root needs a few more runs but as the captain he's doing a good job.


Onto the spinners, Moeen and Leach were a constant threat and formed a good partnership and are 1 and 2 respectively. Rashid had a good first innings in this test but was largely disappointing otherwise because he has a bad combination of too many deliveries that can be ignored and too many cheap runs. If he could remove one of those he'd be fine but he's really struggled to break away from limited overs bowling where the ones that he's bowling outside off and moving away get attacked.

The quicks never got a look in so it's hard to judge them, but Curran continues to look very good. I'd give Stone some game time in WI and I'd be amazed if Woakes doesn't get a look in as well.

Some good points there Paul.  Lot of positives to take from the series and although Sri Lanka are nowhere near as strong as they have previously been, that is a very good series win in different conditions.

Real positives for me were:

- the fact that we were able to incorporate three spinners and how well Root captained them.  Moeen Ali is still the number one option for me and should play if we are only playing one spinner  at home, but Leach proved himself as a viable alternative.  Rashid is a bit of a luxury third spinner, but he produced some important moments with both bat and ball.

- Ben Foakes.  Excellent with the gloves and some really important contributions with the bat.  Looks like he belongs at international level already.

- Sam Curran.  Shame he got injured, but his star continues to rise.  Some really important contributions with the bat and gives the option of having a left armer in the side. 

- 4-11 in the order.  Pretty much everyone in those positions contributed something during the series.  4-11 is looking very strong for us now and there is some real strength in depth building.  Ben Stokes again proved his worth as an all-rounder and has to bat in a position that allows him to bowl as well. 

The only real questions remain around the top three.  It would be absolutely huge for us if Bairstow can cement himself at number three and that would solve that problem.  Burns and Jennings had their moments during the series, but the jury is still out on both I feel.  I would definitely be taking a couple of other options to the West Indies (Denley didn't get a chance this series, but would also think about Gubbins and Roy) and wouldn't be waiting too long to make a change if those two don't start well.   

[tomd2103]

I see the ECB have reduced the residency rule down to three years, meaning amongst other things that Jofra Archer will be qualified next year. 

[PaulWinch again]

Tell you what, there’s a lot of depth about all of a sudden. In all formats you’re looking numerous options in a lot of positions.

[Villan For Life]

Tell you what, there’s a lot of depth about all of a sudden. In all formats you’re looking numerous options in a lot of positions.

A fantastic position to be in.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

1st Test Match: Nice Australia vs India was an excellent game. Perth should be interesting.

[rob_bridge]

Enjoyed Kholis masterclass this morning - such a brilliant technical batsman

[hilts_coolerking]

India behind the 8 ball now though.

[tomd2103]

The Aussie fast bowling trio of Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood is looking a very strong unit again.  If they can find a 4th seamer / all rounder to go along with Lyon, then it looks like a very strong attack will be heading this way next summer.

[paul_e]

The Aussie fast bowling trio of Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood is looking a very strong unit again.  If they can find a 4th seamer / all rounder to go along with Lyon, then it looks like a very strong attack will be heading this way next summer.

I doubt they're even considering 4th seamer. I suspect they are more worried about their batting, there's not a whole lot of quality there.

[PaulWinch again]

It’s a very strong unit if they’re all fit. They offer a lot of variety too.

[paul_e]

It’s a very strong unit if they’re all fit. They offer a lot of variety too.

I think this could be a fairly low scoring ashes, both sides have great bowling options but there are big gaps in the batting. Right now I'd say England are slightly ahead because of our strength with the bat at 5-8, it won't save us all the time but I'd back us to see 5-6 centuries from that group over a 5 test series and between them they'll add 150-200 runs in most innings, I don't think there's another side in the world who can say that.

[tomd2103]

Have hardly heard or seen anything about the West Indies tour, so had a look at the BBC site to see if there was anything on there.  Seems there is only 1 warm up fixture before the series starts (not even sure if it is a red ball game or separate white ball ones from the site) which seems a really short preparation given that they haven't played for a while.