Not sure I am being harsh on Cook Red. The man who led us to a 5-0 humilation,got sacked from one day cricket because of his inability to execute plans,and had to take a break from the game because he can't bat apart from two shots. Is it any wonder we use the sub fielder more than any other test team..sometimes after only 15 minutes of play..Cook has to get his instructions incrementally from his handlers..lacks initiative..and KP agrees with me!! Re the NZ series..everybody got runs on a couple of belting pitches and Mc Cullum totally "outcaptained" Cook...another series not won. I could get a good few on Caribbean wickets!..another series Cook failed to win. If he wasn't Captain and a complete lap dog yes man,he wouldn't be in the side..certainly not for his batting. Interesting Bayliss talks about each individual taking responsibilty for their game more the collective..says it all really about Cook. All about opinions!
What about bringing Monty back? Such a pity he has predilection for urinating on people from the balcony above. Shame really...how good could he have been if he was potty trained.
The only person I saw mentioning a prospect of an England victory on this thread before the Aussie collapse was Dexter. Just to quote myself: Australia collapsed, England won. Which bit of that is wrong, stick? Alastair Cook did not get the chance to have England bat for a day and a half as they were bowled out. That meant that Australia ended up going in to bat again with two days play left, which effectively eliminated the draw option. So I got the draw prediction wrong because of that. I cannot find your prediction anywhere on this thread. No chance of any humble pie. I stand by what I said.
Dex - Im with you on the captaincy thing, he hasn't exactly lead the team with any sort of swagger, style or game plan in the recent past. I'm not totally sure that he is a man for challenging what is perceived as the norm. I do think Flower had him in his back pocket with all the stats backing up his decisions, but in my eyes and many others on here I guess, you have to have a feel for the situation, get a grasp about what you think may happen and go for it. Cook dos not fall into that type of captain by any stretch of the imagination... I even think Strauss was a bit negative nelly with his tactics but he had a few jokers in his pack that pulled off his attempts to win with a bit of flair and swagger - Flintoff, Swan, KP, even Cook when we stuffed em last time down under... If we learnt owt from this test its that Cook has come across, according to most of the media, a different leader, better all round captain where most of his decisions paid off. But again, is this down to a coach telling him to fight fire with fire a bit more than playing the numbers game like we did in the past...??? What I will say is that I do think he is one of the best batters around for his position, even with his poor run a while ago he was still the one they all wanted to get as once he gets in he is very hard to get out. Plus he will probably go on to set a very high run target for future players to aim at when he eventually dos retire from International cricket... I do think he could pass 12,000 runs by that time...?!?!? Lets hope we are saying what a great captain he was come the end of September, and how well he did in leading the team. We''ll probably get stuffed 3-1 now... !!! But we ultimately just want to put one over the Aussies again don't we...!!! Sorry Cyc...
I think Cook is a pretty poor leader of men overall if I'm honest. One win in Cardiff does not wipe out some horrendous leadership down under, in the Caribbean and at home against New Zealand. It's taken a Paul Farbrace-inspired bunch of youngsters in ODI format to totally turn around the momentum of this team and what worries me is that it's circumstance rather than initiative with Cooks captaincy. If he learns the lessons of the past and captains agressively and positively going forward then I'm all for that, but I have major doubts about him because I think he has been timid and led by circumstance rather than confident and pro-active. Hopefully Trevor Bayliss will give him the impetus to grow and really change. Having said that, I don't think we need to be making Joe Root captain for a good while- let this young kid keep playing, growing, and enjoying himself. Him and Steve Smith will get their chances down the line. The performance was very good in Cardiff but they have to prove they adapt at pitches which suit the Aussie firepower more, starting at Lords on Thursday.
I think the Lords pitch will be better than Cardiff in regard to suiting the Aussie quicks. The pitch for the NZ game was a belter. The groundsman is apparently quite a truculent chap and not one to necessarily prepare a pitch to order for the ECB who want a turgid slow seamer.
A couple of changes look on the cards for Australia in the second test. After rumours that the keeper Brad Haddin was in line for the knife, it's been announced that he'll not play because of personal family reasons. His place will be taken by Pete Nevill who averaged 76 with the bat in the last Shield season. As expected, allrounder Shane Watson felt the wrath of the selectors. In comes Mitchell Marsh who'll take his place in the team for just the fifth time.
Back in 2005, the Aussies won the first Test at Lord’s and then lost the Series. Now Lord’s is the second Test. As super hero Moeen Ali went around the park at six an over in the morning session for the sole wicket that fell, he had best get a five wicket haul in this innings and then get his name on the other honours board with a ton batting.
