Cricket

[matt83]

Nonsense. There are lots of players with dual nationalities through their parents - Stokes, Strauss, Pietersen among many others. And why should the dad's nationality be more important than the mother's ? It's a global marketplace - people move around and settle in other countries. Your stance is straight from the myopic UKip England for the English policy manual.

I never said it was more important his dad is South African just one of the factors that makes him South African in MY opinion. I don't expect you if all people to accept that and I will not accept your liberal view point either.

I'm afraid we're now living in a world where your globalisation liberal clap trap is unravelling.

[ABBEY]

Jim trolling again...once someone has represented a country at any level then that should be be it ,in any sport.

[chaddyrovers]

Pathetic performance this morning.

[Husky]

I wonder how many people got up at stupid o'clock to watch that.

[chaddyrovers]

I would keep Cook as Captain until after the ashes down under.

[chaddyrovers]

I would pick Rashid over Ali as 1st choice spinner.

So is Ali good enough to be one of top 5 batting over? Not for me. Maybe Buttler will miss out and Ali bats 7. With Bairstow at 5. Stokes at 6. Woakes at 8.

My top 4 would be Cook, Jennings, Root and Hameed.

Then Bairstow at 5, Stokes at 6, Ali at 7, Woakes at 8, Rashid at 9.

Then Board and Anderson to finish of my lineup

[jim mk2]

I never said it was more important his dad is South African just one of the factors that makes him South African in MY opinion. I don't expect you if all people to accept that and I will not accept your liberal view point either.

I'm afraid we're now living in a world where your globalisation liberal clap trap is unravelling.

And MY opinion is you don't know your googlies from your Chinamen.

Great performance by England today - far too many "foreign" players in the team obviously.

Edited December 12, 2016 by jim mk2

[McClarky]

I think when England are preparing for the summer at home they really need to rebalance the side. You can't have someone like Ali at no4. In 2/3 of his innings he's out for less than 20. That is nowhere near good enough. We need 5 proper batters, Bairstow and Stokes at 6 and 7 and 4 bowlers. The selectors seem ntent on filling the team with all rounders but you don't need 6 bowlers to bowl 90 overs in a day. Five is plenty. The likes of Ali and Butler are great in 1 day cricket but I just can't see what they bring to test cricket other than the occasional quick 50. We need to try and find batters who can bat for 3 or 4 hours in tests.

[Baz]

I think when England are preparing for the summer at home they really need to rebalance the side. You can't have someone like Ali at no4. In 2/3 of his innings he's out for less than 20. That is nowhere near good enough. We need 5 proper batters, Bairstow and Stokes at 6 and 7 and 4 bowlers. The selectors seem ntent on filling the team with all rounders but you don't need 6 bowlers to bowl 90 overs in a day. Five is plenty. The likes of Ali and Butler are great in 1 day cricket but I just can't see what they bring to test cricket other than the occasional quick 50. We need to try and find batters who can bat for 3 or 4 hours in tests.

I think you can have a couple of players capable of scoring quickly and taking the game away from the opposition, like a Butler or Stokes, as long as you have a player capable of occupying the crease at the other end - something hopefully Hameed looks like he may be able to do.

Ali is a decent all rounder, but not a top order batsman.

One of the other issues is the lack of conversion from getting 30 runs into centuries - we seem to struggle mentally if they cover the boundaries.

Bowling, our spinners are bog standard, but it's not like there's much competition for those places at present.

[McClarky]

I think the lack of conversion cones down again to having too many 1 day players. 70 in an ODI is good, and even in a home test on a green pitch is decent but in India if you get in you have to go on and make a big score. We need to be aiming at 550 rather than 400. Our players need to get into that mentality. You very rarely see Kohli or Pujara hitting it in the air but half of our wickets are caught away from the bat with people trying to go over the top. I think Stokes is our man to attack but put him at 7 where he can just go out and do what he does best. He's another who gets out too cheaply too often to bat in the top 5.

[MCMC1875]

I think the lack of conversion cones down again to having too many 1 day players. 70 in an ODI is good, and even in a home test on a green pitch is decent but in India if you get in you have to go on and make a big score. We need to be aiming at 550 rather than 400. Our players need to get into that mentality. You very rarely see Kohli or Pujara hitting it in the air but half of our wickets are caught away from the bat with people trying to go over the top. I think Stokes is our man to attack but put him at 7 where he can just go out and do what he does best. He's another who gets out too cheaply too often to bat in the top 5.

I'd go further than that. The focus in England seems to be more and more towards 20/20. Also, no way is Moeen Ali a no 4 - good to have in the lower order if he gets 30 or 40.

[Husky]

759-7dec

Damned!

Bring KP back (he can bowl spin can't he?) .

I know a lot of people were expecting a 5-0 whitewash in India (thank the gods for that non-turning opener). But after winning 4 out of the 5 tosses might one have expected England to win at least 1 test match?

Hopefully the batsmen can show a bit of grit on the last day, though bearing in mind previous collapses It's looking like a 4-0 series thumping

[matt83]

97/0 at the end of the morning session. So far so good. Was half expecting a total capitulation by now India well into the middle order.

[Gav]

Why oh why would you play such a stupid shot like that Moeen?

You did the same in the summer against Pakistan, walked in, daft shot, out, when we needed you to block up an end and save the game.

Stupid shot

Edited December 20, 2016 by Gav

[ABBEY]

Boycott had a rant of the highest order

[MCMC1875]

Why oh why would you play such a stupid shot like that Moeen?

You did the same in the summer against Pakistan, walked in, daft shot, out, when we needed you to block up an end and save the game.

Stupid shot

You forget Gav, he's not a middle order batsman, he's a spin bowler who can bat a bit.

[Gav]

You forget Gav, he's not a middle order batsman, he's a spin bowler who can bat a bit.

He's done ok in India with the bat, but that shot was just awful and lost us the game in my eyes.

But as you say, maybe those type of shots is the reason he'll always be a bowler not a batsman.

[chaddyrovers]

You forget Gav, he's not a middle order batsman, he's a spin bowler who can bat a bit.

Actually Ali was a batsman who bowled spin abit but then England picked him as an all rounded and 1st choice spinner.

On today performance I thought it was pathetic from middle order batsmen(3 to 5). Openers did very well. Cant expect 8 to 11 in the batting order to save the game when the middle order played so badly.

I think Cook will step down as Captain after Christmas. But he will still play as a Batsman. So Root will take over as Captain with Stokes or Bairstow as Vice Captain I think.

We have to find a number 5 batsman who is good against Spin bowling aswell Fast Bowling. Maybe Billings is an option. Maybe Westley might get the slot. Does anyone have any more suggestions?

I think Jennings will bat 3 with Root at 4.

Will Rashid get picked as 1st choice spinner? Not sure tbh. I would myself.

My team would be:-

Cook Hameed Jennings Root Billings(or someone else) Bairstow Stokes Rashid Woakes Board Anderson

[Husky]

The records keep tumbling

[matt83]

I see Giles has gone back to Warcs. Can't say I'm too bothered about that but hoping for a decent replacement.

[Baz]

I see Giles has gone back to Warcs. Can't say I'm too bothered about that but hoping for a decent replacement.

Strange one for me. Can only assume Warwickshire have given him a bigger budget.

[matt83]

Strange one for me. Can only assume Warwickshire have given him a bigger budget.

I'm sure that's right. Plus his heart was probably still in the midlands but to say it's been rumbling on since more or less the end of the season it could have been sorted quicker.

I cynically think Lancashire are more concerned with spending money on fancy towels in the new hotel than providing funds to improve the squad.

I reckon it will be another season of trying to survive. A couple of things worry me. First, if a new bloke comes in it will be a need to assess the squad job and use "late" appointment as excuse for not recruiting.

Or If it's chapple, as I suspect it will be, he's presumably on board with present squad and he'll try to improve what we've got which frankly isn't good enough and particularly poor in the batting department.

[Norbert Rassragr]

I hope Lancashire get it together and bring a great coach who'll get brilliant young English talent. If only to shut all the Yaaaaarkshure fans.

As for my nearest county, Warwickshire, I am guessing they felt the last coach was not good enough. My dad goes to the T20 games, and in that tournament the bears often won low scoring matches by bowling really well. There was not that much firepower in the batting.

[only2garners]

Strange one for me. Can only assume Warwickshire have given him a bigger budget.

His family are all in the Midlands and he was living away from them for most of the season - it's more about family than money.

[jim mk2]

His family are all in the Midlands and he was living away from them for most of the season - it's more about family than money.

Never understood this - these people get paid good salaries so it's not unreasonable to expect them to move to the area they work in. Mourinho's the same. Ans it's not as if Birmingham is far from Manchester anyway - less than 2 hours door to door by car or train.