The International Cricket Thread

[paul_e]

England were doing ok for the first 40 overs, poor from Wood who was very expensive when bowling at the death. India managed to put on over 100 runs in the last ten overs.

That's because we don't seem to take enough wickets at key times, it was a problem in the t20 series as well.

In reply we looked good until Bairstow went and now we've completely fallen apart.

[PaulWinch again]

We just can’t deal with Thakur.

[paul_e]

We just can’t deal with Thakur.

What I find frustrating with him is the amount of umpires call decisions he gets in his favour, he's had far more LBWs that are clipping leg than anyone I can remember seeing before.

[PaulWinch again]

Sam Curran’s batting really hasn’t kicked on. He needs to work at that.

[manic-road]

Well that was pathetic, 135-0 to 251 all out.

[TheTimVilla]

We may as well tell the boys to come home now. Utter rubbish! A terribly balanced side, with no batting depth and no guts bowling at the death.

[Richard]

We may as well tell the boys to come home now. Utter rubbish! A terribly balanced side, with no batting depth and no guts bowling at the death.

Root, Woakes and Archer should help. The latter is injured while the first two are twiddling their thumbs back home !

[UK Redsox]

I don't think Morgan wants Root anywhere near the T20 or ODI teams.

Morgan wouldn't make my full strength white ball XI

[paul_e]

I think you pick Morgan or Root at 4 (as players who can keep the scoreboard ticking over and score lots of 1s and 2s) and, for me, Morgan is the better option in t20 but Root would get the nod in ODI.

The real problem is that Morgan generally starts a season slowly and gets better as he spends time in the middle but the fragmented nature of the last year hasn't given him the time he needs. I think Roy is suffering in a similar way.

I disagree on the batting depth though, the batting averages of the team from yesterday are solid right the way down to Wood (Sam Curran is a slight anomaly because his ODI record is rubbish compared to his batting in every other format but it's only based on a handful of innings) so the depth should've been fine the issue was losing 3 wickets in a couple of overs just as we needed to just bat sensibly and get home, for 20ish overs we were well on top and looked like we'd make it comfortably but those wickets changed the game.

Bowling was the bigger issue for me, we weren't threatening in the first 25-30 overs which meant that even though they started losing wickets they had a good platform to go into the last 10 with a t20 mindset of scoring off everything. There were just too many overs where they knocked it around for 3-4 without ever having to work for anything and we were content to let them do it so long as they rate wasn't too high.

The Currans were at the heart of it, neither of them looked like taking a wicket but they both completed their 10 overs and neither got smashed around so their averages look ok on paper. I like Sam as a player (I'm not a fan of Tom) but he needs to be much better than that and probably isn't a good choice for these conditions. I think I'd rest one of them and bring Topley in for the next match.

[UK Redsox]

Morgan out of the remaining two ODIs

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/56526058

Unfortunately, the best bloke to replace him is currently in Yorkshire

[taylorsworkrate]

Guessing that will mean Liam Livingstone comes into the team then?

[paul_e]

England are falling into the same trap again,  letting the game meander along.

[paul_e]

Kohli gone and he's turning in to Root from a year or two back, getting lots of decent scores but can't buy a century.

[paul_e]

This is a truly abysmal effort at death bowling from Sam Curran. Woakes not being out there for these games having been completely ignored when he was available is a perfect example of the shameful squad management in this tour. The Curran brothers are totally out of their depth right now, Tom just isn't good enough for international cricket and Sam is useless if the ball isn't swinging.

[taylorsworkrate]

Stokes should have his match fee taken away for that. Saved by a ridiculous decision by the 3rd umpire.