The International Cricket Thread

[Villan For Life]

Might be new England but a spinner on debut ripping through us is very traditional.

A 5-fer before lunch on day one on your debut is impressive stuff. As you say traditional stuff from England but let’s see what happens, three attacking shots have lead to three wickets.

[Steve67]

I’m all for being positive and the new approach is refreshing. We can’t afford to simply give our wickets away.

[Lsvilla]

Looking at the wear on this pitch already and the amount of spin on offer I'm thinking a par score may be around 350. How we get there is for the team to decide I guess. Whilst we're not used to seeing the top order seemingly give their wickets away I do think after the last test we have to trust that there's some method in this apparent madness.

[manic-road]

And a sixth on debut for the youngster, Stokes out to a googly. I wouldn't call it traditional stuff from England, aggressive batting has never been the norm in test match cricket.

[PaulWinch again]

We’re well below par here I suspect.

[Meanwood Villa]

Looks a disappointing score but you just never know with this team.

[LeeB]

Looks a disappointing score but you just never know with this team.

It does, but with the previous approach we'd have been out for about 120 in more overs.

[olaftab]

Yes England would have died miserably with a 1000 cuts in the past. I watched everyday of very test match in the Caribbean and it was a truly awful experience...however away from cricket it was

[olaftab]

Babar Azam is a wonderful batsman.

 (that should do it )

[Dr Butler]

Babar Azam is a wonderful batsman.

 (that should do it )

he certainly is and hopefully olaftab

UTV
The Doc

[PaulWinch again]

There’s some ropey bowling at the moment.

[PaulWinch again]

The close is probably good for England, Pakistan were getting on top.

[PaulWinch again]

The benefit of England’s approach is they got 280. I think some people forget that we’ve seen us be more judicious in the past and still get rolled over. I reckon if we’d been tentative today we would have still been out, but probably for about 150.

[cdbearsfan]

Yep, agreed.

[tomd2103]

The benefit of England’s approach is they got 280. I think some people forget that we’ve seen us be more judicious in the past and still get rolled over. I reckon if we’d been tentative today we would have still been out, but probably for about 150.

I think if they are going to continue to play in the manner they have been under Stokes and McCullum, then days like today are going to happen. 

I'm still not sure it's the best approach to test cricket, as if you get a relatively low first innings score in quick time, the opposition have plenty of time to put themselves in a dominant position.  Works very well if you can get a very big first innings score quickly like in the last test though.

Despite not being sure about it, I'm fine with them going with that approach as long as they firmly believe in it and stick with it.  If their approach is clear and resolute, then they can be judged on that and the results it brings.  It's brought some pretty spectacular results so far, but there will be some bad losses on the way.