The International Cricket Thread

[Villafirst]

Take Leach off and put Archer on for one last throw of the dice. This is virtually out of England's hands. Poor captaincy by Root.

[manic-road]

And it gets worse, Archer limps off to be replaced by the sub.

[PaulWinch again]

Look at how Labuschagne has played. How the fuck can’t any of our players do it? i.e. basics of leaving and putting a high price on your wicket.

If one or two batsmen had done that today we’d be ahead in the game. If we don’t have batsmen who can do that full on reform of our game is needed.

[PaulWinch again]

And also there you go, keep bowling Archer and now he’s injured.

[Rory]

Look at how Labuschagne has played. How the fuck can’t any of our players do it? i.e. basics of leaving and putting a high price on your wicket.

If one or two batsmen had done that today we’d be ahead in the game. If we don’t have batsmen who can do that full on reform of our game is needed.

Yep, these are the basics.

[cdbearsfan]

Ffs. Had we held our catches we would still be in with a glimmer of hope. Piss poor from Bairstow, albeit nowhere near as bad as Root's.

[manic-road]

Piss poor batting and fielding, at least Stokes is bowling well. Shame but that's the Ashes lost today in a 3 hour spell of the game.

[taylorsworkrate]

Fair play to Stokes. His dismissal was atrocious, but he's bowled his heart out here.

[aev]

Look at how Labuschagne has played. How the fuck can’t any of our players do it? i.e. basics of leaving and putting a high price on your wicket.

If one or two batsmen had done that today we’d be ahead in the game. If we don’t have batsmen who can do that full on reform of our game is needed.

Yep, these are the basics.

Lucky bloke, he has had plenty of decent preparation in the CC at Glamorgan.

[OzVilla]

That performance cannot be allowed to stand. There needs to be some wholesale changes for the next test unless batsmen score big runs (hundreds) in the 2nd innings. Quite frankly, in any other era of English cricket none of those top 4 would be playing (including Root at the moment) and the likes of Burns, Roy and Denly wouldn’t even be considered.

Think even how poor we were in the 90’s we still had the likes of Atherton, Hussain, Stewart, Thorpe. This lot couldn’t lace their boots. The manner was so poor today that a statement to say we cannot abide that had to be made and I really don’t care who else they pick, any fucker but not those guys.

Root should also be binned as captain if we lose this test match, not at the end of the series but on Monday morning. If you’re going to pick Buttler, put him further up the order and not a 7. Root must go back to 4 (if selected) and go from there. 

I’m in for pelters this week thanks to those useless fucks. Thank McGrath the Villa won.

[PaulWinch again]

This is one of many issues, but I think we need to consider how we develop England captains. In Cook and Root’s case there’s no real development pathway, it’s just you’re the best player and therefore earmarked for captaincy.

I don’t think this is solely and English problem, but it’s bizarre in a game where captaincy is arguably more important than it is in every other sport that so little science seems to go into it. Clearly if your best player is the best captain that’s a bonus, but it’s a really specialist role and creating a much better route, no pun intended, is surely critical.

[aev]

George Dobell nails it again.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27446421/jason-roy-woes-test-opener-epitomise-broken-system

[Steve67]

Ozvilla and PaulWinch, great posts.  I love this thread as much as I love cricket. 

I know many of you like Giles because of his affinity to Warwickshire, but he needs to show his nuts and make some statements about trying to rebuild our reputation in the longer form of the game.  I know that the shorter version of the game seem to be the be all and end all, because of the commercial value it has, but I remain a purist and love the longer form of the game.  The County Championship isn't fit for purpose, Bayliss is a short game coach, so bin him, Root is a crap captain, bin him too.  Yesterday was embarrassing and heads need to roll.  I appreciate there aren't too many players out there to take the places of Burns, Denly, Moeen, Roy etc, probably another reason the County Championship isn't working! A bit like my beloved Worcestershire (other than one day stuff), this is probably the worst side I've seen in my lifetime. 

There is some promise with the likes of Archer, Wood and Stone, if they can stay fit, but the batting is a mess.

[Villan For Life]

I think because of the lack of credible alternatives we might as well stick with who we’ve got. Yes we can bring in Pope, Crawley and Sibley but if we do that then we risk ruining their test careers before they’ve even got off the ground.

We will lose this test either today or tomorrow so with it the Ashes have gone. We may as well stick with the guys that have got us into the mess rather than ruin the confidence of new players in the high pressure environment of an Ashes series. Make the changes ahead of the winter tours and give the players time to establish themselves. Wholesale changes now are a bit pointless and are the kind of knee jerk reaction that we were once famous for.

We have a generation of batsmen who want to be seen as magnificent ball strikers rather than magnificent batsmen. The latter needs a defensive game on which to build an innings but our batsmen are happy to play the shot of the day rather than the innings of the day. Attitudes and techniques have to change and this should start with different coaches and back room staff for red and white ball cricket, the ECB have the money to do this but I suspect Giles wants one coach.

[PaulWinch again]

We’re 99% certain to lose, but it’s time to show some pride.