The International Cricket Thread

[Baldy]

Right, come on Zimbabwe. If you knock out the Aussies and India I am officially awarding you the Cuddliest Team In Cricket Trophy*. If that doesn’t inspire you, nothing will.

*there is no trophy.

That's the great leveler with this format. It only takes two batsman and two bowlers from any one team to have a field day and you stand a great chance of winning.

[cdbearsfan]

Yeah, the unpredictability and possibility of playing an entire match in a post-work slot are the two big advantages of the T20 format.

Obviously, the disadvantages are numerous.

[tomd2103]

I don't think Curran has the patience to play test cricket, he relies so heavily on his variations that he struggles with just bowling a solid line and length and sticking to a plan. It's the same reason why Rashid has never truly broken into the test team despite being the best white ball spinner in the country for years.

Maybe we'll take another look at Curran but given Surrey don't seem to fully trust him with the red ball I just can't see it.


I do think Curran and Jacks at 6 and 7 is about right though, both are capable of both sticking around for a while and smashing it around which is exactly what you want there. As I said, I think we're not far off where we'd want to be which is making the semi-final and giving ourselves a chance.


Lets not overlook the fact that we don't play as much T20 as most other major nations, with only Australia playing fewer in the current ranking period. We're the 2 that are largely keeping test cricket alive and this is the consequence of that. We also have far fewer players 'on the circuit' for the T20 leagues, if you look at the West Indies for example virtually all of their team are players who are white ball specialists who travel around the T20 leagues. I think Hope and Holder probably have as many Test caps each as the rest of their team combined.

Some good points there Paul.  Obviously playing in India and Sri Lanka is going to require a different balance to the team, as you're probably going to want two frontline spinners and then some 'bits and pieces' back-ups.  Probably get away with playing one frontline spinner in other parts of the world. 

I agree, we've got a decent enough side, who if they come off on any given day should be able to compete with any opposition in this tournament.  I do think that they could struggle chasing a biggish total.
 against top quality spin though.

A seamer all-rounder does look like it might be an issue in all formats once Stokes retires.

[cdbearsfan]

Doesn't seem like this will be much of a game, either.