England Cricket 2017

[AndyinLiverpool]

9 hours ago, Albert said:

With this I'd say it's more than that. England for years have just rolled over when the going gets tough. Root is no Border, he hasn't have the guts to stick it out when it's tough, and doesn't make a big one when it counts. The experienced trio of Cook, Broad and Moeen all have been in poor form for a while, and they've seriously let the team down. Stoneman and Malan have been good, Vince passable. Bairstow really should drop the gloves, not because he's not a good keeper, but because his batting is being wasted because of it. Foakes is good, he should be batting 7. Hell, if they absolutely must, play Woakes at 7, Foakes at 6, and go with a side like:

1. Stoneman
2. Hameed
3. Root
4. Malan
5. Bairstow
6. Foakes
7. Woakes
8. Wood
9. Leach
10. Anderson
11. Footitt

At least there's more than just 4 right armers a "spinner" for Australia to dine on. That attack that played in the last game should never see a field together again, that pitch was showing inconsistent bounce since day 2, yet they managed to let Australia get a 250 lead after England scored 400. All too sameish, and too many players not getting it right. Jimmy sure as hell isn't good in Australian conditions, but he's making it work at the very least. 

Also, I know Hameed isn't in form, but hell, give him some experience now, there needs to be a plan when Cook retires, even if he's just "rested" for Melbourne and Sydney. 

This is exactly right about Root. As he is at the moment, Root will be remembered more like Hick or Ramprakash than Gooch or Atherton. Talent wasted rather than someone to follow and be inspired by.

There seems to be no will to stand there and take whatever comes. The way he got out in the last inning shows his idea of getting the opposition is to try to score runs quickly rather than staying at the crease.

This needs to change and change quickly.

[Albert]

1 hour ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

This is exactly right about Root. As he is at the moment, Root will be remembered more like Hick or Ramprakash than Gooch or Atherton. Talent wasted rather than someone to follow and be inspired by.

There seems to be no will to stand there and take whatever comes. The way he got out in the last inning shows his idea of getting the opposition is to try to score runs quickly rather than staying at the crease.

This needs to change and change quickly.

At the very least though I can give Root credit for taking on the role so young, but as captain he has to stand up and do something, and not even just perform with the bat again. He should be batting at 3, Bairstow should be batting at 4 or 5. Enough of the "but my favourite position is" nonsense. Number 3 after number 3 is being thrown to the wolves, when that keeps happening your best batsman should be stepping into that role, even if only for a time. Even Smith did it in India, when it was needed he put the teams needs before the needs of his statistics. 

I don't know, I hope England make a statement of some kind before the toss, going into Melbourne unchanged (or only replacing Overton if he's injured) and hoping Starc is injured would be pathetic at this point. 

[Albert]

11 hours ago, DC-1975 said:

I don't think it's fair to compare Root to Border, Root is a strokeplayer. We've not had a batsman like Border since Trott.

An attack of Anderson, Broad, Woakes and Roland-Jones would be more than a handful in English conditions, but totally nulified in Austrailia when the ball doesn't swing.

Moeen was one of the cricketers of the year last season, wasn't he? And he's also much better in English conditions.

I agree about Bairstow and Hameed, I can't see why they didn't at least take him over.

I don't follow County Cricket enough these days to know who's coming through as bowlers.

Moeen is better in English conditions, but overall still isn't great even there. 

This is part of England's wider problem, people are content with "well they perform at home", but that simply isn't enough. Australians didn't pat themselves on the back when they struggled in Sri Lanka, they made changes and went on to be competitive in India, pushing that series right to the end. That was even with Starc going down injured. What's impressive about Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood isn't that they're good at home, it's that they go and do it away. The same with Nathan Lyon in fact. That's the thing though, English players these days basically sit back and wait for the ball to do the hard yards, and it's showing in away performances. 

Look at the difference:

1. Starc, 73 wickets away at 26.72 in 19 matches (3.84 per match).
2. Hazlewood, 53 wickets away at 26.24 in 16 matches (3.31 per match).
3. Cummins, 21 wickets away at 25.38 in 5 matches (4.20 per match).
4. Lyon, 151 wickets away at 29.71 in 37 matches (4.08 per match).

Then look at England's attack (excluding Ball and Overton of course):

1. Anderson, 183 wickets away at 32.96 in 56 matches (3.27 per match).
2. Broad, 141 wickets away at 33.00 in 48 matches (2.94 per match).
3. Moeen, 49 wickets away at 47.91 in 19 matches (2.58 per match).
4. Woakes, 15 wickets away at 58.06 in 10 matches (1.50 per match). 

That's not good enough, that shouldn't be considered good enough. The issue isn't just "the ball doesn't swing", Starc was getting that ball to reverse in the last match, first and second innings; there was plenty of swing in Adelaide too. The issue is that this generation of English bowlers are just content to be good in England, they're not adjusting well overseas. Ranking teams by their aggregate bowling average since 2013, this is what we get:

 

1. South Africa - 28.12
2. Australia - 31.03
3. Pakistan - 34.75
4. India - 35.75
5. Sri Lanka - 37.90
6. England - 39.07
7. New Zealand - 39.27
8. Zimbabwe - 40.29
9. West Indies - 45.72
10. Bangladesh - 52.92

Compare that to home bowling:

1. Pakistan - 32.75
2. India - 24.68
3. South Africa - 25.52
4. England - 27.61
5. Australia - 28.98
6. New Zealand - 29.61
7. West Indies - 31.35
8. Sri Lanka - 32.31
9. Bangladesh - 37.36
10. Zimbabwe - 39.28

I don't know, I just don't think a country should be content just doing the job at home. 

[Albert]

12 hours ago, DC-1975 said:

How do England develop bowlers to be successful away from home though?

In County Cricket the pitches suit 80mph swing bowlers, so that's who County Captains trust to get wickets. If a quick bowler or a spinner is going at 6 an over, they will be removed from the attack.

 

It's hard some great miracle that nobody has solved. Australia send their attack to India and even got their fast bowlers performing successfully over there. Starc tore up in Sri Lanka, even with the rest of the attack struggled. I'd say a bit part of the problem for England is this sense of "well, what can we do about it". I'm not sure exactly how a solution could work for England, but it's pretty clear throwing your hands up and going "well, it's just how it is" isn't that solution. 

[froggg]

Who else is glued to the Boxing Day test match.?

[froggg]

Australia win the toss and then put themselves in?

[Anag Ram]

Is it raining in the cricket?

They’re clearly showing highlights as both Cook and Root are scoring runs.

[PistoldPete2]

1 hour ago, Anag Ram said:

Is it raining in the cricket?

They’re clearly showing highlights as both Cook and Root are scoring runs.

Finally our senior players are doing the biz. Better late than never.

[rynny]

22 minutes ago, PistoldPete2 said:

Finally our senior players are doing the biz. Better late than never.

Is it better late than never? If Cook and Broad had gone through without a decent performance this series then even more people would be questionning their inclusion, to get runs and wickets now the series is over could be bad for the future of the team.

Their first innings performance has shown what they can do but the real question is how often they can do it. If this performance keeps them in the team and they return to their form of the last 12/18 months then we could be sitting here in a year saying the exact same thing. Obviously if this kicks them on then it will be great for the team but they have to back it up now with another performance.

[Anag Ram]

29 minutes ago, PistoldPete2 said:

Finally our senior players are doing the biz. Better late than never.

Yes I don't wish to be churlish because we could easily have slid to 5-0 but there's no doubt that winning the series and losing Starc has affected Australia.

Nice for the England fans.

[Curtains]

Good day for England at last 

 

[Mr Tibbs]

Was at the MCG yesterday and it was a long old day. The Curran no ball summed up our series. 

Looks like we picked the wrong day to go though as today has been fantastic, great to see Cook back in the runs. Hopefully Root can press on too. If we can put on a good score and set it up for a nice finish we might return for day 4/5. Wishful thinking having watched the first three tests but hope is hope! 

[Carnero]

Compliments to the Chef!!!

[Zag zig]

20 hours ago, curtains said:

Good day for England at last 

 

Second good day, woke to hear the end and abroad sounded mighty unlucky but what a fine supporting role he played to the head chef!

I’m sure some will say, too little,too late but it was a top drawer innings that explains why he has become the 6th highest batsman in test history overnight.

Fingers crossed the bowlers can get something out of the pitch or rattle the Aussies early, on that pitch they should get runs to ensure a draw but will they have the battle for it or will England bowlers win the game?

[PistoldPete2]

Whatever cooks failings may be, he is the one england player who has through the years built innings like this daddy hundreds and double hundreds. He has the patience to do it. 

[froggg]

Superb knock Alistair, thought Root might have declared and put the Aussies in for a nervous last few minutes.

[Curtains]

Cook was magnificent very well done. 

 

[Curtains]

3 hours ago, Zag zig said:

Second good day, woke to hear the end and abroad sounded mighty unlucky but what a fine supporting role he played to the head chef!

I’m sure some will say, too little,too late but it was a top drawer innings that explains why he has become the 6th highest batsman in test history overnight.

Fingers crossed the bowlers can get something out of the pitch or rattle the Aussies early, on that pitch they should get runs to ensure a draw but will they have the battle for it or will England bowlers win the game?

I think England just may win this one. 

[AndyinLiverpool]

Huzzah. A bit of pride and fight.

It has made listening on the journey to work considerably easier the last couple of days.

 

[Van der MoodHoover]

Hopefully we will at least avoid the 5-0 which seems a depressingly frequent outcome down under.

Mind, I thought there was no way we'd lose in Perth after posting 400+ batting first, but we managed that.......