[Cricket] **** England v Australia, 1st Specsavers Ashes Test, Edgbaston. Official match thread ****

[hans kraay fan club]

Good call. But Bairstow is hardly nailed on either? If Foakes is the 'keeper do we need the flame haired Yorkie?

I'd imagine that without the keeping workload, YJB would go back to opening, so that Roy (3) and Root (4) can bat in their preferred spots.

1 Burns
2 Bairstow
3 Roy
4 Root
5 Denly
6 Foakes
7 Stokes
8 Woakes
9 Leach
10 Archer
11 Broad

I'm going for this line up, just so we have a Foakes-Stokes-Woakes middle order

 

[BensGrandad]

Good call. But Bairstow is hardly nailed on either? If Foakes is the 'keeper do we need the flame haired Yorkie?

No as he is a specialist 1 day batsmen and shows it in test matches were he is not good enough. IMHO the biggest change has got to be remove Root from the captaincy and give it to ...........possibly Stokes. then perhaps Root can concentrate on his batting as he is supposed to be our main No 1 batsman. On the County averages he is streets ahead of anybody but doesnt show it enough in tests.

 

[BensGrandad]

Day 1 of the best contest in sport.

Bring. It. On...

It is nowhere near the best contest in sport. Every sport has their own contender between two evenly matched teams or players

 

[hans kraay fan club]

No as he is a specialist 1 day batsmen and shows it in test matches were he is not good enough.

He has 6 Test centuries to his name (and 20 fifties), and averages close to 40.

 

[Bold Seagull]

No as he is a specialist 1 day batsmen and shows it in test matches were he is not good enough. IMHO the biggest change has got to be remove Root from the captaincy and give it to ...........possibly Stokes. then perhaps Root can concentrate on his batting as he is supposed to be our main No 1 batsman. On the County averages he is streets ahead of anybody but doesnt show it enough in tests.

Need to get back to his 2016 test stats where he was arguably one of the best batsmen in the world averaging 59, 8 50s, 3 100s, scoring 1470 test runs that year.

His form has dropped off 2018 and 19, but the ability is there. He still got 2 100s last year in tests, and 609 runs.

 

[maltaseagull]

So Archer for Anderson , maybe Curran for Ali given he can hold a bat, and just go with a pace attack with the odd over from the part time spinners.

In terms of plucking batsman from the Championship is that they are all currently playing 20/20 and any form from the red ball game is some weeks in the past.

But at present expecting to go 2-0 at Lords

Do we ever win tests at Lords?

 

[big nuts]

No as he is a specialist 1 day batsmen and shows it in test matches were he is not good enough. IMHO the biggest change has got to be remove Root from the captaincy and give it to ...........possibly Stokes. then perhaps Root can concentrate on his batting as he is supposed to be our main No 1 batsman. On the County averages he is streets ahead of anybody but doesnt show it enough in tests.

Thanks again for your insight.

Root is streets ahead in the county averages because he’s played one match with one not out in his 2 innings.

In terms of not showing it in test he averages near 50.

His captaincy might be problematic but his batting not at all. It’s the others around him letting him down.

 

[BensGrandad]

Thanks again for your insight.

Root is streets ahead in the county averages because he’s played one match with one not out in his 2 innings.

In terms of not showing it in test he averages near 50.

His captaincy might be problematic but his batting not at all. It’s the others around him letting him down.

Perhaps if he wasnt captain he would start to get near to Smith in his ability and consistency.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Thanks again for your insight.

Root is streets ahead in the county averages because he’s played one match with one not out in his 2 innings.

In terms of not showing it in test he averages near 50.

His captaincy might be problematic but his batting not at all. It’s the others around him letting him down.

Root is having his worse year since he started playing test cricket. 10 innings, averaging 29.5 compared to his overall average of 49.

Like Bairstow, we need 2015 and 2016 Joe Root who averaged 60, hit 6 hundreds and chalked up 2800 runs!

 

[big nuts]

Perhaps if he wasnt captain he would start to get neat to Smith in his ability and consistency.

Even without captaincy, Root has never got close to the form and output of Smith. He’s in a league of his own and unfair to expect Root to match him when he’s playing like Don Bradman. If Root gets close to his best form that’s all you can ask.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Perhaps if he wasnt captain he would start to get near to Smith in his ability and consistency.

When he was made captain in 2017 he averaged 50.8, scored 1563 runs (not sure all were as captain which happened in July).

Last year he still averaged 41.2.

More than the captaincy I think it's England's insecurities opening that is the bigger factor and losing too many early wickets. Root is a partnership and innings builder. I thought we saw a bit of the old Root first innings because although Roy went early, Burns stuck it out and they were able to build a partnership.

We're not going to change captain mid-series, so it's a discussion at the end most likely. Win and he'll obviously stay I would think, lose and with Bayliss going, everything could be up for review.

 

[Luke93]

Not the point. I'd maintain the same stance if we were nine down at 11.05 on the fourth day, chasing 600. He was fit to hold an end up - get out there and do your best, regardless of how futile the circumstances.

I get that mentality but Jimmy injured himself further in the first innings when he came out to bat. I would have preferred England to have cut their losses, the defeat was inevitable.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I get that mentality but Jimmy injured himself further in the first innings when he came out to bat. I would have preferred England to have cut their losses, the defeat was inevitable.

I would have loved to have seen it just to see Lyon's yappy little rat face* being denied an Ashes hattrick opportunity!






*too much?

 

[big nuts]

I'd imagine that without the keeping workload, YJB would go back to opening, so that Roy (3) and Root (4) can bat in their preferred spots.

1 Burns
2 Bairstow
3 Roy
4 Root
5 Denly
6 Foakes
7 Stokes
8 Woakes
9 Leach
10 Archer
11 Broad

I'm going for this line up, just so we have a Foakes-Stokes-Woakes middle order

Can’t disagree too much with your lineup although Bairstow opening doesn’t fill me with much confidence.

I suppose the question for me is what has Denly done to warrant selection over Buttler apart from offering a reasonable leg spin option.

At least Buttler has some scores at test level, Denly hasn’t performed despite looking like a reasonable player technically. Difficult call either way but I think I’d go Buttler. 3 wicket keepers in the same team just about sums up our lack of batting depth, the cupboard is completely bare.

It won’t happen but I wouldn’t be totally adverse to bringing Morgan in a Brierley like role. Tactically more aware and seems to lead the team well. He’d free Root up and is he any worse an option then Denly on current form?

 

[BensGrandad]

I think people are upset because we had this test won when Australia had 8 wickets down in the first innings but as usual we let them off, the hook and suffered as a result.

Could they persuade Cook to come out of test retirement just for this series,? What happened to the 2 young openers who were the next best thing, cant remember their names but think they played for Lancs.

 

[LlcoolJ]

I would have loved to have seen it just to see Lyon's yappy little rat face* being denied an Ashes hattrick opportunity!






*too much?

Not too much. He's a cock.

 

[BensGrandad]

Not too much. He's a cock.

But a better spin bowler than we have available, which is the important fact.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I think people are upset because we had this test won when Australia had 8 wickets down in the first innings but as usual we let them off, the hook and suffered as a result.

Could they persuade Cook to come out of test retirement just for this series,? What happened to the 2 young openers who were the next best thing, cant remember their names but think they played for Lancs.

What about Cook and Trescothick to open?

 

[LlcoolJ]

What about Cook and Trescothick to open?

Shame Ian Bell is injured.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Shame Ian Bell is injured.

Graham Thorpe is actually on the balcony FFS!