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Ashes 2021-22


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Wood bowled his heart out in that 2nd innings.

270 is about 100 too many to chase, probably 130 too many for this England side.

Once again though, despite having a reasonable start this time, we collapse and lose 3 or 4 wickets cheaply in quick succession. Stokes out playing a hook to Starc when there's a man back. Learn to leave it man!

 

Edited by JoetheRam
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Yeah, that was disappointing in the end. 

England looked a threat with that opening partnership, but just rolled over and died once Green broke it. 

Also, my word is Green a good player. Looks a match for Starc and Hazlewood in terms of his bowling, and batted well in the series overall. If he can translate his Shield form (averages 50+) to Test cricket, the kid could be something truly special.

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1 hour ago, JoetheRam said:

Wood bowled his heart out in that 2nd innings.

270 is about 100 too many to chase, probably 130 too many for this England side.

Once again though, despite having a reasonable start this time, we collapse and lose 3 or 4 wickets cheaply in quick succession. Stokes out playing a hook to Starc when there's a man back. Learn to leave it man!

 

Basically if our bowlers had bowled them out for 9 in the second innings our batsmen might have had a chance ?

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Blimey. I just watched the 'highlights' of Day 3. I wish I hadn't.

The standard of shot selection was the worst I can remember.

There are people there who should never play test cricket again. Burns, Malan, Pope, Woakes (and I say this as a Warwickshire man) should be done. Add in Buttler and Leach and the impending retirement of Anderson and Broad and we are left with Root, Stokes, Wood, Robinson as the only players worth a place.

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2 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said:

these a good chance crawley AND pope will become strong test players    everything stacked against them this tour

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2022/jan/15/ollie-popes-repeated-mistakes-shows-england-crickets-state-of-confusion

An interesting piece about Pope and others not progressing.

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2 hours ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

Blimey. I just watched the 'highlights' of Day 3. I wish I hadn't.

The standard of shot selection was the worst I can remember.

There are people there who should never play test cricket again. Burns, Malan, Pope, Woakes (and I say this as a Warwickshire man) should be done. Add in Buttler and Leach and the impending retirement of Anderson and Broad and we are left with Root, Stokes, Wood, Robinson as the only players worth a place.

Honestly, there were some positives out of that in the end. 

Burns, while scratchy, does look like he could still make a decent opener. He always looked like he was up to a challenge, despite some poor innings. 

Crawley had a poor start, but also grew into the series. 

Root had a terrible series as captain, and his batting hardly set the World alight, but he certainly didn't just vanish. 

Stokes looked like he was never prepared to really be there, which is understandable.

Bairstow, for all the hate, actually looked up to the challenge, and looked a better player than last time I saw him in Australia. 

Wood and Robinson played well. 

Anderson and Broad, while at the ends of their careers, looked like they were still capable. 

Leach's series was ruined by poor selection and captaincy, but still looked capable later in the series. Playing him at the Gabba, but not in Adelaide, has to go down as one of the worst bits of selection I've ever seen. That said, Australia picked Lyon for Hobart, and he didn't bowl a single ball, so there's that. 

Add Archer and Stone to England, and there's not a lot wrong with the bowling department. Playing one of Anderson or Broad for experience, then backing them up with Robinson, Archer or Stone works fine. Leach is also a handy player, and while not a World beater, neither is someone like Nathan Lyon. England don't have a Shane Warne or an Ashwin, and that's fine. Add Stokes to the bowling group, and in that department, England are fine. Woakes should never be seen on tour again though, he is one of the least effective bowlers I've ever seen in Australia. 

Really, the issue to sort is around the batting. Burns and Crawley might work as an opening combination. Hameed is clearly not up to the task though, and honestly looked the most clueless opener England have sent in over a decade, and that's saying a lot. 

Personally, I think Root needs to bat 3, so England can build a middle order after someone solid. England lack a proper number 3, and it shows. A lot of the issues would disappear if someone could stop the bleeding after the first wicket falls, rather than the second. Australia did this with Smith in the time before they had Labuschagne filling that role. 

With the rest of the order, Stokes at 5 is fine, but having him as an attacking number 6 would also work fine. Bairstow, for all the criticms of him, would work fine in that middle order too. Then there's players like Lawrence and Pope who could fill in those key positions as well. Maybe even going for Pope at 4, Bairstow at 5 and Stokes at 6, or some combination of that. I get England believe Pope is the next big thing, so maybe he is actually work the gamble of just leaving in the side until he comes good. He wouldn't be the first who did eventually become World class. He does need to get used to leaving though. 

That just leaves the issue of the keeper, and honestly, even Australians were confused why Foakes didn't play this series. 

So yeah, I'm not convinced England don't have the quality, the issue is the selections for this series were a mess, and England were missing two key bowlers. Things like Leach at the Gabba, but not Adelaide, not Jimmy or Broad at the Gabba, etc, really hurt. The Gabba was confidence sapping, and England wilted a lot easier afterwards. 

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7 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said:

I don't think you can be a world class test team without a world class spinner 

The reality is England are a long way from being World Class. If Lyon is good enough for Australia to hold the Ashes in England, and smash them 4-0 either side of that, then Leach is good enough for England. 

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