The International Cricket Thread

[Villa Lew]

Set to become England's youngest Test player at the age of 18 years 126 days, beating the record of the late Brian Close in 1949.

[DrGonzo]

Excellent!   The boy is supposed to be class.  Let's face it the young lad didn't do too badly for Pakistan on debut, did he?  Glad that Foakes has got the gloves back, too.  It's very difficult for a part-timer to keep in turning conditions and then be expected to bat up the order.  Pope at 3 and Root at 4 gives us nice balance at the top.  Foakes can bat especially against spin.  Looking forward to this, 3-0 in Pakistan will be a real statement.  Sad to see Azhar Ali retiring, he's been a top player for many years.

[PaulWinch again]

It’ll be interesting and nice to see Foakes back.

[UK Redsox]

Set to become England's youngest Test player at the age of 18 years 126 days, beating the record of the late Brian Close in 1949.

I’ll go out on a limb and predict that when he wins his final cap, he won’t be older than Close was.

[DrGonzo]

Good start, Wood is proving tricky on a surface that's not offering too much.  Shaping up to be a good, if short, game.

[Villan For Life]

You’ve got to go back many, many years to find a test debutant who had played so few red ball games prior to their debut. I think this is his 4th red ball game.

As usual we are pinning our hopes on a player who we want to be that mystery spinner that we’ve generally lacked. It will be interesting to see if he’s anywhere near the squad for home tests; I hope he does well and is a feature of the side for many years to come but it really wouldn’t surprise me if he slips back into anonymity. A spinner develops their skill set much later than fast bowlers so it will be a long time before we can call him experienced and can rely on him.

Pakistan will be pleased with this session, ten minutes before lunch they are 102-2, we need to keep chipping away.

[Villan For Life]

A timely wicket just before lunch, Azar Ali out to a very good catch from Foakes on review. The on field soft signal was not out but there was no doubt that it was out which was different to the last test, absolutely no doubt about this one.

117-3 at lunch.

[Villan For Life]

Joel Wilson is a very poor umpire, he’s not international standard.

[Steve67]

England going well with Pakistan now 285 for 8 on what doesn't look the be the scariest wicket.  321 is apparently the par first innings score here, so if we can bowl them out tonight, for less than that, great effort.

[Villan For Life]

We will need to bat deep and get a big total. I think this pitch will rapidly deteriorate making batting in the fourth innings a complete lottery. In an ideal scenario we will bat once then bowl them out again to win by an innings; that’s very unlikely though.

[Steve67]

Clonk.  Bet that hurt!!

[olaftab]

It’ll be interesting and nice to see Foakes back.

Babar's runout showed  the benefit of a proper wicketkeeper. Collecting the ball and breaking stumps in one movement. Well done to Foakes.

[olaftab]

Set to become England's youngest Test player at the age of 18 years 126 days, beating the record of the late Brian Close in 1949.

I’ll go out on a limb and predict that when he wins his final cap, he won’t be older than Close was.

Oh yes that was painful. Bit like watching your grandad trying to ice skate. Still a very brave man Mr Close.

[tomd2103]

You’ve got to go back many, many years to find a test debutant who had played so few red ball games prior to their debut. I think this is his 4th red ball game.

As usual we are pinning our hopes on a player who we want to be that mystery spinner that we’ve generally lacked. It will be interesting to see if he’s anywhere near the squad for home tests; I hope he does well and is a feature of the side for many years to come but it really wouldn’t surprise me if he slips back into anonymity. A spinner develops their skill set much later than fast bowlers so it will be a long time before we can call him experienced and can rely on him.

Pakistan will be pleased with this session, ten minutes before lunch they are 102-2, we need to keep chipping away.

It was mentioned in the studio between innings that Jack Leach has been far better since Stokes took over the captaincy.  Stokes seems to back him and he looks far more confident.  Having a left arm spinner provides that bit of variety as well. 

What we really could do with though is a spinner who can bat at 8 as well.  With no Woakes in the side, it means we field a pretty long tail. 

[manic-road]

Another good test match in progress, Harry Brook looks a real talent.