The International Cricket Thread

[taylorsworkrate]

I actually think Jof has bowled well the most part with very little reward. He should use that Smith sledge as ammunition to motivate him to rip through them.

Walking into the ground carrying a pillow was a fucking moronic thing to do on the 3rd day. I can't believe Archer or no one else involved in the set up couldn't see that was a horrendous look.

I think he's bowled ok overall but it shouldn't take a completely hopeless situation to stop him from just putting the ball there at around 84/85 mph. He should be hitting 90+ straight away.

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

I couldn't give a shit about the pillow thing.

[taylorsworkrate]

I couldn't give a shit about the pillow thing.

Its a completely unserious image from an unserious cricket team.

[simboy]

It's not the Bazzball which is why England will lose this series quite heavily, it is is the inability to read a situation and when to put away the aggressive batting. Look at Brook in both tests for an illustration.

In each first innings of both Tests England's total has included four ducks. It would be difficult to think of too many dismissals of English batsmen where the batsman has not contributed in some way to his own demise. Stokes and Jacks batted well and both got out to tremendous catches yesterday. But once out it was downhill from there. Atkinson - no Jimmy Anderson with either bat or ball - played what has to be the worst shot in the entire game to get out. Pope at 3 is not working but the "alternative", Bethall, has played all of two first class games since last year ... and England do not have a spin bowler worthy of a spot on a bouncy usually spin friendly Gabba track.

I said 3-1 to the Aussies at the start, it's looking more like a Glenn McGrath 5-0 the longer the series continues unless and until there is some serious revision of ideas and techniques.

Whats the old 6 "P" saying? Proper preparation prevents a piss poor performance - for definition see the England cricket team

[PaulWinch again]

I couldn't give a shit about the pillow thing.

Its a completely unserious image from an unserious cricket team.

I think it’s a non-story. Of all people, Jofra Archer has a pretty cast iron bank of evidence to show he cares about Test cricket. With his horrendous time with injury, and his ability to earn in short-form cricket, he would not be here if it didn’t really matter to him and he hadn’t worked incredibly hard.

[taylorsworkrate]

Its a minor thing in what has been a shambles of a tour so far, but it sends a poor message to the opposition. I actually think Stokes and McCullum are more at fault here for allowing him to walk in with it. When you are being battered in a series, largely through you own carelessness and lack of application then you probably have to be even more aware of potential optics.

Archer is a very talented bowler and I do think he's been ok this series. He does need to stop picking and choosing when he bowls quick though. It shouldn't take a spat with Smith when the game is completely gone for him to get fired up.