The International Cricket Thread

[Lsvilla]

Woeful effort - not for the first time recently - but you have to question the whole management team (playing and non-playing) and policy. Eoin always gets his first team - quite rightly, I love him for what he’s done in the white ball game - whilst at big cost to the spectators we get to watch several players in an England shirt who aren’t even the best on the county circuit at their roles. Surely Woakes (for example) is gutted he is at his peak and hardly ever gets on the field.

[Villafirst]

England's batsmen play Test Cricket like the T20 format! Simply no patience! Mark Wood, what was he doing with that shot? As for Bracey, I've seen better in the parks League!

[PaulWinch again]

Wood is the number 9 I wouldn’t be too harsh on him.

Bracey I think is going to be a good player, but management have made it really hard for him by picking him out of position and making him keep. I’d say it’s probably put him back a year.

Pope’s a real concern, because with that talent and technique it must be a mindset issue that’s hindering him. Crawley needs a break and again to work on his mentality. Sibley lacks scoring shots, which means he rarely goes anywhere. Lawrence is talented, but can be wasteful.

Ultimately they need to give a better focus to Test cricket and stop messing about with it.

[olaftab]

What a terrible day! I was there yesterday and had some ambitious thoughts about turning up on Monday to see it finished. Thanks England.

[Villan For Life]

What a terrible day! I was there yesterday and had some ambitious thoughts about turning up on Monday to see it finished. Thanks England.

Ambitious thoughts after buying day 4 tickets. Hoping for a swift result tomorrow so at least I get some cash back. What a pathetic performance against a NZ second XI.

[PaulWinch again]

I think one of the most concerning things is the muddled thinking that’s evident. Examples -

- Bracey brought into squad to be the extra batsman. Foakes gets injured and they decide - ah well Bracey can keep a bit we’ll chuck him into an unfamiliar position and thus confuse him and ratchet up the pressure.

- No spinner picked in first game, not particularly successful. A baked Edgbaston pitch and again fail to choose a spinner and end up with two part timers bowling, who get belted around the park.

[Richard E]

Enough with the negativity - if we can get another 10 and they record their lowest ever test score in England we can still win this. It’s game on!!!

[UK Redsox]

I think one of the most concerning things is the muddled thinking that’s evident. Examples -

- Bracey brought into squad to be the extra batsman. Foakes gets injured and they decide - ah well Bracey can keep a bit we’ll chuck him into an unfamiliar position and thus confuse him and ratchet up the pressure.

- No spinner picked in first game, not particularly successful. A baked Edgbaston pitch and again fail to choose a spinner and end up with two part timers bowling, who get belted around the park.

Made even more bizarre by the fact that, when Robinson was suspended, the replacement player they brought in was a spinner (Bess)

When that decision was made, I was sure that Leach would play

[manic-road]

Should be over pretty quickly today given yesterdays pathetic performance.

[manic-road]

Well that didn't take long to wrap up Englands innings, pathetic.

[Rory]

Didn't even make it to 11am - the official start time.

[manic-road]

Fair play to the crowd who have turned up this morning to witness England face one ball before being all out they are making plenty of noise for Jimmy's run in.

[olaftab]

Didn't even make it to 11am - the official start time.

And a complete bummer for Barmy Army's traditional rendition of Jerusalem after the first ball of the day.

[Rory]

Didn't even make it to 11am - the official start time.

And a complete bummer for Barmy Army's traditional rendition of Jerusalem after the first ball of the day.

I'm gutted for them, Aftab. Just gutted...

[olaftab]

Something good always comes out of bad as they say Rory