The International Cricket Thread

[UK Redsox]

I’m not sure why people think that appointing Rob Key is so strange.

As well as his commentating work, he was already involved in cricket administration.

Seems a sensible, steady bloke. Just what’s needed at the moment, rather than a flash personality.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

Agreed.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

I have a feeling that Buttler would make the best captain of the current crew, but he seems to have screwed the pooch with his recent batting performances. Having said that his Test average is 32.

[paul_e]

Yep, agree as well, he's always come across as someone with a good understanding of the game for me.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

Oh, and I wouldn’t pick him as wicketkeeper, I’d vacillate between Bairstow and Foakes.

[Villan For Life]

I’m not sure why people think that appointing Rob Key is so strange.

As well as his commentating work, he was already involved in cricket administration.

Seems a sensible, steady bloke. Just what’s needed at the moment, rather than a flash personality.

After yet another post-Ashes review/post mortem we need an imaginative appointment as MD of the England cricket team; someone who will be involved in the appointment of the next coach and the next captain. The chance to lay down a marker to show what is expected in red ball cricket. But no they’ve gone safe and the chance of a shake up is lost, so here’s to the next post-Ashes review/post mortem which will be around 2025.

They have missed an opportunity to shake things up and kick start English red ball cricket but no just another safe pair of hands will be topping up his pension.

[paul_e]

I’m not sure why people think that appointing Rob Key is so strange.

As well as his commentating work, he was already involved in cricket administration.

Seems a sensible, steady bloke. Just what’s needed at the moment, rather than a flash personality.

After yet another post-Ashes review/post mortem we need an imaginative appointment as MD of the England cricket team; someone who will be involved in the appointment of the next coach and the next captain. The chance to lay down a marker to show what is expected in red ball cricket. But no they’ve gone safe and the chance of a shake up is lost, so here’s to the next post-Ashes review/post mortem which will be around 2025.

They have missed an opportunity to shake things up and kick start English red ball cricket but no just another safe pair of hands will be topping up his pension.

but who would be that shake up and what does that sort of shake up even involve?

In my opinion there's no quick fix to this and the fans need to accept that and give it time. We have a massive problem with both batting and bowling where the county game is leaning ever more closely with the shorter formats because that's where they make their money. Young players with talent are pushed into those formats, pushed to have more variations with their bowling, pushed to be more explosive with their batting and that's reflected in our performances, at ODI and T20 level we're excellent, currently 2nd in both formats in the rankings and we'll go into the t20 world cup as one of the favourites.

Where things get difficult is that no one will want to break that side so what needs to happen is a better process of identifying players, as teenagers, that will be better served being developed for test cricket and that needs to be led by the ECB with a much more hands-on approach than they've had recently. We then need to get those players focusing on playing long format cricket worldwide and stop them being drawn too deeply into the county game where conditions are so favourable to a very specific type of bowler that means we end up with loads of medium/medium-fast swing bowlers and lots of 'block up an end' spinners.

Based on all of that I want an MD, Coahc and Captain that are students of the game that can create a system where we get that early identification right.

On the current side I want a focus on basics because they've let us down badly in the last 2 years, too many dropped catches, too many gift wickets and too much panic with the ball if we don't get easy wickets ourselves.

We know that most of our batsmen can deliver once they're in and settled, most of them have scored big hundreds at times, what they struggle with is the first 50 deliveries they face, so lets get them focused on having a better attitude to batting and working on constructing an innings. We know most of the bowling unit can take wickets when the conditions favour them but too many of them struggle once the pitch isn't doing the work so the focus needs to be on how to handle that better. In the field we just need to cut out the mistakes, it's really that simple.

None of this requires a maverick MD to come in and shake things up, it requires good coaching with a clear idea of how to get the best out of players that probably haven't been coached well for test cricket for most of their careers.

Key mgiht not be the man for it but I can understand why he's been given the chance and I don't think it's fair to say he's definitely wrong and that he'll be out in his arse in 3-4 years.

[Rory]

I have a feeling that Buttler would make the best captain of the current crew, but he seems to have screwed the pooch with his recent batting performances. Having said that his Test average is 32.

Agreed, more than good enough for a number 5 or 6. We're not talking a top 6 of ten years ago (Strauss, Cook, Trott, KP, Bell, Prior), as long as we retain Root and Stokes, we're losing nothing by putting Buttler in the middle order. It wouldn't be a case of dropping a bloke with an average of 40, or even 30. More likely, we'd be dropping a specialist bat with an average of 25 for a captain with an average of 32.

[Risso]

Agreed with Paul's thoughts. However, we seem to be the main test playing nation that's suffering far more than most from the popularity of the short form game, why is that? No other teams have seen their test standards drop by such a huge margin, so it can't just be down to ODIs and T20 games. On the specific points about where we're lacking, I can't remember the last decent opening pairing we had, and that's partly what leads to the first 50 ball panic that Paul talks about.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

I have no answers, just observations. India's test side has benefitted hugely from the intensity of the IPL. It's played in front of quite bonkers crowds, whereas we play the majority of our tournament in front of two old ladies knitting and an old bloke hoping that the cameras will catch site of his rather splendid moustache. They are also bringing a few genuinely quick (90 mph plus) young bowlers through this season. It'll be interesting to see if they can bowl more than two overs in a row before running home to Mom with a wonky gluteus maximus. Oh, and pitch the ball on the island.

New Zealand have grit, regardless of format, and don't seem to get to retirement age. Ever. I suspect some kind of Dorian Gray thing going on.

Australia are simply feral.

[Villan For Life]

Stokes named as captain which isn’t surprising but given his injury record who is going to lead the side when he’s out? Previous all rounder/bowler captains have tended to over bowl themselves which in Stokes case will lead to more injuries.

[PaulWinch again]

Yeah it’ll be interesting, because I fear exactly that and he’ll try and take too much responsibility on himself. But in fairness he’s the best option.

[Beard82]

Yeah it’ll be interesting, because I fear exactly that and he’ll try and take too much responsibility on himself. But in fairness he’s the best option.

Yeah this is my thoughts exactly - best option, but not without potential challanges

[PaulWinch again]

So Root going back to 4 is interesting. It opens that number 3 slot up.

[dcdavecollett]

And five, according to an interview with Stokes.

This implies that they are happy with the openers!