The International Cricket Thread

[manic-road]

Thats poor from Buttler. No need to play at that one.

Another shit batting performance in progress.

Yep a nothing shot, he's lucky to keep his place I think. I always see him as a destructive one day player and not a test cricketer.

Problem is theres no batsmen, with the possible exception of Root and Burns who are justifying there place in the team at the moment.

Its a fucking shit show, and that there isn't credible alternatives in the county system reflects very badly on English cricket.

Absolutely, Dom Sibley is averaging about 62 at County level this season and can't think of anybody else who could get a look in. Ah fuck Stokes has just gone.

[Brend'Watkins]

The rain can save them but having said that 3 days could be enough to see it done.

[manic-road]

Another shit show with the bat for England again, why do we always do shit at Lords?

[PaulWinch again]

Fucking pathetic with the bat again.

[taylorsworkrate]

To be 138 for 6 in these conditions is atrocious. Yes Australia have bowled well and with discipline but the lack of any sort of application is oh so familiar with this lot.

There doesn't seem to even be an acceptance within the coaching staff/selectors that the batting is pathetic. We get bowled out for 85 against Ireland, and Root blames the groundsman. We get bowled out for fuck all in the 2nd innings at Edgbaston on a pitch the vast majority of teams wpuld have comfortably survived and Root says we played some good cricket.

[PaulWinch again]

Buttler needs dropping his head isn’t there at the moment.

[paul_e]

England just need to go for it here. As I said last time, they're not losing wickets because they're trying silly shots, they're losing wickets because they're not playing well and are being indecisive, Buttler was a perfect example but even watching Bairstow here, he's playing defensive shots but pushing the bat out at the ball, that's just asking to take an edge, but the 2 drives were well controlled and got him 8 runs.

[PaulWinch again]

It’d be nice if Bairstow backed up his big mouth and got 100 plus.

[Villan For Life]

Part of the problem is that there’s just not the batting talent playing red ball championship cricket. Sibley and Zac Crawley are the next in line but are they really any better than what we already have in the side?

I have a feeling that they will stick with who they have selected for the time being. The batting malaise runs deep and won’t be fixed by chopping and changing the order. The top four has been inconsistent for several years and have constantly been bailed out by the lower middle order. The problem that we now have is that the players occupying the lower middle order positions are so short of form.

[paul_e]

Part of the problem is that there’s just not the batting talent playing red ball championship cricket. Sibley and Zac Crawley are the next in line but are they really any better than what we already have in the side?

I have a feeling that they will stick with who they have selected for the time being. The batting malaise runs deep and won’t be fixed by chopping and changing the order. The top four has been inconsistent for several years and have constantly been bailed out by the lower middle order. The problem that we now have is that the players occupying the lower middle order positions are so short of form.

I agree with a lot of this. The middle order are struggling for form but I think part of the reason for it is that they coming in needing to salvage an acceptable score rather than turning a decent score into a match-winning one and it's messing with them, you can see that the entire unit are struggling to work out how to play.

Where I slightly disagree is that I think Sibley and Crawley are young enough and in good enough form that 1 of them ahead of Denly (and push Roy to 4) makes sense because if they do a decent job we have someone for 10-12 years, Denly gives us 2 before we're looking again. If he was playing well he'd be worth the spot even if it's short term but he's barely doing enough to keep his place and certainly not enough to win us matches.

[olaftab]

What on earth has happened to Root?  Both as a captain, and as a player?

It was a poor decision to make him captain. He needs to be removed from that position for two obvious reasons. He is a very poor captain and his batting is rapidly going to pot.

[paul_e]

This partnership is what I mean by going for it, they're still batting sensibly but they're being a bit more adventurous, pushing us along to a competitive score.

We've lost a couple more wickets than I'd have liked but I said we need to be around 200 by tea and we're there or thereabout.

That's another desperate review.

[Risso]

Denly's the same age now as Ian Bell was when he played his last test.  Madness.

[Risso]

This partnership is what I mean by going for it, they're still batting sensibly but they're being a bit more adventurous, pushing us along to a competitive score.

We've lost a couple more wickets than I'd have liked but I said we need to be around 200 by tea and we're there or thereabout.

That's another desperate review.

Those 'couple of wickets' are a big difference though.

[Villan For Life]

I think we need to look at players who appear to have that rare ability to occupy the crease. I’m convinced that many of our current batsman have too much of a one day mentality. They seem to think that because they’ve not scored for 8 balls then they need to play an attacking shot and ease scoreboard pressure. That should not be the case in test cricket.

I’d certainly play Foakes, he can stick around at the crease and is the best keeper that we have. Curran also should play because he also bats without fear and is a marvellous bowler. I’d also play Leach. These are the sort of players who have grit and determination, something that we seem to lack at the moment.

I’ve a horrible feeling that our fragile batting will mean that we will not compete in this series. The winter tour to New Zealand is not part of the test championship so I think we should go into that with an experimental squad, with a new captain and by then a new coach.