The International Cricket Thread

[UK Redsox]

Boland hat trick

26-9

[PaulWinch again]

27 all out.

[cdbearsfan]

Shitebags, or match-fixers?

[TonyD]

27 all out.  That’s funny. 

[PaulWinch again]

Shitebags, or match-fixers?

It’s not fixing - if you were fixing you’d do a better job.


Windies have some excellent bowlers, but the batting is woeful. Aus have struggled with the bat too, but obviously not to the same level.

[tomd2103]

It’s not shit bowlers, demonstrably, but they’re not bowling well enough.

Its been 3 matches and 6 innings now. This is just the level they are.

Come on Taylors, you must be eating a bit of humble pie today!

It was a brilliant win, but there are some definite cracks appearing and I hope we don't just paper over them at this point. 

That said, there is a bit of a break.now before Old Trafford so there's time to savour the win and going 2-1 up.in the series.

[paul_e]

I don't think anyone is ignoring the problems.

Crawley is a liability, Pope is too often feast or famine, Brook is exceptional but can be baited into rash shots and our bowling can be a bit flat at times.

The difficulty is that only really the situation with poor has an obvious solution in Bethell, but even then does the good stuff mean Pope deserves to stay in?

If you go that way, could Bethell open instead of Crawley? That's a lot of pressure on him but the England coaches clearly rate him highly.

For Brook the solution is simple, he needs to grow up.

Onto the bowling, I think a bit too much has been made of this recently but with Bashir breaking fingers we are likely to see another spinner and with Atkinson fit I'd imagine one of Carse or Woakes gets rested, that feels like enough changes for now.

[ADVILLAFAN]

I think it's bonkers that Crawley has played nearly 60 Tests and averages 30.

[Villan For Life]

Crawley tends to pull a big score out of the bag when he needs to, he scored 189 against the Crims in the last Ashes but other than a ton against Zimbabwe earlier this season he’s done nothing since.

He’s a frustrating player to watch but I wouldn’t personally change the batting order right now. The Crawley/Duckett opening partnership has added to important runs at the top of the order which allows others further down the order to play with more freedom.

They will need to take a look at Bethell in red ball cricket before the Ashes but time is running out. There are only two more tests before the first Ashes test so if he doesn’t play in this series then you can’t play him in the Ashes as that is too much of a risk.

I’d pick Leach for Bashir and rest Woakes, bringing Atkinson back to replace him. It was also stated that Mark Wood may play in the 5th test so they need to give him some action too.

[PaulWinch again]

Dawson called up is interesting.

[tomd2103]

Dawson called up is interesting.

On the 'Stick to Cricket' podcast (latest one with Brian Lara is really good) Alistair Cook suggested bringing in Dawson into the team ahead of Bashir so I guess it's been discussed in certain circles.

[Villan For Life]

I think that Bashir aged 21 is their “project”, he will be back in the squad again once he’s fit.

Dawson’s selection is a bit horses for courses, Old Trafford & the Oval are probably the most spin friendly test squares in the country so including Dawson who is statistically the best performing spinner in championship cricket makes sense. What this means for Jack Leach who has a central contract is another thing.

It’s a very unusual McCullum/Stokes selection.

[olaftab]

Dawson called up is interesting.

There is no other choice. I would like to have seen "Sibley replaces Crawley and Pope's place goes to a bollard" headline.

[PaulWinch again]

Well there’s Leach, so it’s an interesting change in approach.

[Steve67]

I hope Bethell gets a couple of games as a warm up for the Ashes.