The International Cricket Thread

[PaulWinch again]

Harsh on Burns in this particular innings he did dig in. In fairness on Hameed, I was wrong there, he got a horrible delivery. Pope though needs someone to work with him on the mentality side of things - he’s not remotely calm anytime he goes out there and it leads to rash shots.

[UK Redsox]

Wasn't expecting to have cricket to listen to this morning

[LeeB]

If ever a wicket summed up a tour....

[UK Redsox]

We go again 

[PaulWinch again]

They fought hard today - that’s the kind of thing Buttler needs to do.

But where was that fight and application before?

[simboy]

lets not let a good rear guard action deflect from the deficiencies of selection and the team in general.

Woakes was picked primarily for his bowling ... 1 - 149, in this Test, 2-79 in the previous test.

This Test, 2 part time spinners 5- 132. Robinson, our best bowler of seam, bowling off-breaks. a front line spinner not picked.

Burns and Hameed - highest partnership 23 in the series, 7 in this Test.

Pope 9 in total

Buttler drops Marnus on 21 who goes on to get to 95 before being dropped again by Buttler.

Not picking Broad over Leach on a green-top.

 I could go on ... and on, but those are just some of the reasons why England are 2 down.

As i think Paul and others have said, there needs to be an overhaul and a decision to be taken by the EWCB. Is Test cricket important now? If so sort out the structure of the four day game, make it important again. Test matches still fill grounds here, but if England keep getting turned over by most other nations that will soon drop off again. 

On to the Boxing day Test. I think Smith only averages about 105 on that ground.

[Nev]

Never mind, the Hundred was jolly fun wasn't it?

[Villafirst]

I'd drop Pope and put Woakes in his place to bat ! Pope's confidence is shot.

[simboy]

Never mind, the Hundred was jolly fun wasn't it?

Like cricket ... but shiter...

[PaulWinch again]

I'd drop Pope and put Woakes in his place to bat ! Pope's confidence is shot.

Appreciate this might be tongue in cheek, but with the best will in the world Woakes is not a Test number 6. Pope can be, but agree he looks in a bad place. Problem is they’ve got themselves into a corner. Their options are Bairstow - who hasn’t got any runs in Test cricket for about 3 years or Lawrence who was in a bad way when he was dropped. We’ve got no options that have actually made a case in the squad, instead we’ve got a load of players who are struggling/we’ve clung on to for too long.

[simboy]

I'd drop Pope and put Woakes in his place to bat ! Pope's confidence is shot.

Appreciate this might be tongue in cheek, but with the best will in the world Woakes is not a Test number 6. Pope can be, but agree he looks in a bad place. Problem is they’ve got themselves into a corner. Their options are Bairstow - who hasn’t got any runs in Test cricket for about 3 years or Lawrence who was in a bad way when he was dropped. We’ve got no options that have actually made a case in the squad, instead we’ve got a load of players who are struggling/we’ve clung on to for too long.

If he’s fit we drop Stokes down to seven, play Bairstow as keeper at 6, pick our three fittest seamers (Robinson, Broad and Woakes?) and a spinner?

Pope, Crawley or Lawrence at 5.

Look to the A team? Mahmood who’s playing big bash but is a test bowler? Vince? Again playing Big Bash and can play test cricket.

 Shame we don’t have a spinner who can score test 100’s, although the way we treated Mo it’s not really a surprise.

[paul_e]

I know Buttler dropped a couple of catches but dropping him for Bairstow who has looked out of his depth in test cricket for years would be a terrible mistake. If we had Foakes, or someone similar, on the tour then I'd be tempted to push Buttler up in place of foakes and bring in more of a specialist keeper but that's not the case.

In general I agree with PaulW, the squad is full of people who've failed but that the ECB isn't quite ready to drop yet so there's no one with any sort of form from the summer to call on, and the lack of preperation gave no one chance to earn their place.

Maybe you can pull a few across from the lions but who there is in top form? Yates is a great prospect but still very raw, Bracey is similar, Bess and Norwell stood out with the ball but they still didn't bowl out the 20 wickets so the same problems as the main squad.

I agree with an earlier post about Broad and Anderson both starting, we really should be at a one or the other stage now, not least because they both bat like out and out 11s and we can't really afford to give up any runs.

The bigger problem though is that Root was only ever an average captain and in the last 12-18 months he's not even that, decisions by him and the coaching staff have played a huge part in these defeats, with both games largely gone by the end of day 1.

[PaulWinch again]

I'd drop Pope and put Woakes in his place to bat ! Pope's confidence is shot.

Appreciate this might be tongue in cheek, but with the best will in the world Woakes is not a Test number 6. Pope can be, but agree he looks in a bad place. Problem is they’ve got themselves into a corner. Their options are Bairstow - who hasn’t got any runs in Test cricket for about 3 years or Lawrence who was in a bad way when he was dropped. We’ve got no options that have actually made a case in the squad, instead we’ve got a load of players who are struggling/we’ve clung on to for too long.

If he’s fit we drop Stokes down to seven, play Bairstow as keeper at 6, pick our three fittest seamers (Robinson, Broad and Woakes?) and a spinner?

Pope, Crawley or Lawrence at 5.

Look to the A team? Mahmood who’s playing big bash but is a test bowler? Vince? Again playing Big Bash and can play test cricket.

 Shame we don’t have a spinner who can score test 100’s, although the way we treated Mo it’s not really a surprise.

Why would you drop Stokes to 7 and who are you playing 5? I wouldn’t want Bairstow in the team. He’s underperformed for a long time. You’d hope Buttler has got some confidence now, so I still think he’s a better option than Bairstow.

[PaulWinch again]

Also to Paul E’s point above there’s another weird choice. I might be wrong here but haven’t they sent the Lions home? Therefore not having anyone to call on.

[paul_e]

Also to Paul E’s point above there’s another weird choice. I might be wrong here but haven’t they sent the Lions home? Therefore not having anyone to call on.

I'd missed that but if so that makes the squad selection even more questionable.