Another disgusting showing by our Cricketers losing to the mighty Bangladash! We haven't Won a single game! The Ashes Series over here in the Summer is going to be embarrassing!
We did beat Scotland... But I very much take your point It's another half cocked England team that is caught between playing expansively and playing in 'test mode'... The issue being that we aren't even that strong in the longer format at the moment. We are distinctly average across all formats and I have no doubt the One day team has been selected with half an eye on the summer ashes series. Which is completely counter productive. I've got tickets for the Ashes so am praying the silver lining of this world cup is that we are rebuilding for another long spell of test match dominance
Oh yeah I forgot about our win against the Jocks! I just hope that the 'English conditions' will help the Swing bowlers Anderson in particular but as usual it's the Middle Order that looks really soft. Who have we got as the top 5 batters? I can only think of Cook, Ballance, Bell, Root as being any good!
Cook will have a strong summer, the issue is who else opens with him at number 2. Ballance, Bell & Root have done enough to tie down 3 to 5 for the time being, but Moen Ali, Ravi Bopara, Stokes should be considered as everyone is droppable (except perhaps Root, who I'm sure will be captain in the future) Hales has to open as well, or if they are feeling particularly brave, go with Buttler opening. Other sides have aggressive openers but we once more are still playing cricket of days gone by and everyone else is taking advantage of our predictable style of play... sound familiar?
I agree KOPR so long as we don't pick that plodder Robson at No2 70 Mins to score 4 or 5 runs only to get out to a ball going wide of off Stump!
We have struggled as our top order are either getting out cheaply or getting a nice steady 40-60 off 60-85 balls and then getting out rather than kicking on. The middle order has been woeful with at most only one player getting a score in any given match. Captain Morgan has batted like he has drunk a crate of his eponymous beverage and our attack has been pretty blunt - Finn just looks a shadow of the player he was, Anderson has looked poor compared with the Kiwi and Aussie strike bowlers. We don't seem to have a strategy for employing a front line spinner and we can't seem to decide who our best all-rounder is. Ironically it may be Stokes who was not even in the squad. I reckon Buttler has had an OK tournament but other than that it has been a debacle. The Ashes could be humiliating but then I grew up with decades of Ashes humiliation so it will just be like a flashback to the 80s and 90s. We currently seem to have very few players pushing for the bowling slots and putting pressure on the incumbents to deliver. Chris Woakes? Surely not. Maybe, just maybe Cook will come back refreshed and have another brilliant summer but if he fails in the first couple of matches people will be calling for his head. On the upside some part of Cook may well feel he has something to prove and at least he has not been tainted by the current shambles of a campaign.
I wouldn't have minded so much but they messed about with the Ashes schedule playing back to back Ashes series in order to help them better prepare for this World Cup! That worked well didn't it! Our Test team got a humiliating Tonking followed by this debacle! Bob Willis had if about right on Sky Sports News!
Its nice to have Ireland still capable of qualifying. but England should be doing better they invented the game after all
Bell took far too long for his innings, in terms of balls faced, and runs scored, he appeared to treat it like a test match knock. This put pressure on the incoming batsmen, Buttler played well, but why he was so low in the batting order is a mystery. Generally we just don't score enough boundaries, and let get games meander, with too many dot balls Anderson and Broad have been shown up as unsuitable for one day cricket, and when Anderson can't get the white ball to swing, he looks very ordinary
