it's looking that way! five from the odi wc, but looks like they've forgotten how to build an innings.
Ashes round the corner,big wake up call ect. Off on me jolly’s tomorrow to Tenerife,this heat is too much for me.
85 all out, we might be up there as one of the best one-dayers, but Test team we are really struggling.
This is as much Bayliss and Strauss's legacy as the World Cup win. We are going backwards as a test side. Under Bayliss, pretty much the only positives in the TEst team are things he inherited - Root's batting (sometimes) and the bowling of Anderson. Even then, we've messed about with the few world-class batting options we've had. Joe Root was as good a Test batsman as there was in the world batting at four or five and not captaining. When he had captained Yorkshire he'd looked useless. So what do we do? Pressure him to bat at three because of some moronic Aussie saying (that is bull**** anyway) and hand him the captaincy. The result? An average Test batsman. Bairstow looks fantastic at seven, and his keeping improves no end. So let's move him up and down the order and **** up another bright career. All the while we're no nearer unearthing a decent candidate for the top three than we were six years ago, and we've introduced a bizarre situation where we've got a wicketkeeper not wicketkeeping but more often than not batting at seven. He's also undroppable, even though he has one Test century in 31 Tests. I've been banging this drum for a little while now, but we should take the captaincy off Root and take the Test job off Bayliss. Bayliss leaving resolves part of that, but there's no chance of it happening before the Ashes. As great as the World Cup win was - and it is up there with anything I've been in British sport - I don't think it needed to come at the expense of our Test performances. We eke out the odd impressive win against out-of-sorts opponents such as Sri Lanka but overall I think this is one of the worst Test sides I've seen England put out. Maybe only the late 80s vintage is worse (our poorness in the 1990s is exaggerated and, it should be remembered, Test cricket was possibly at its strongest ever in that decade). What annoys me is that this morning wasn't that surprising. England feebly falling apart to good bowling? That's just what we do. And we'll continue to do as long as we marginalise the County Championship and focus on white ball stuff.
I struggle to see what the difference really is between a good test player and a good one-day player. I know they say the red ball behaves differently to the white ball but surely players these days can deal with that? Is it a mindset issue? Do the authorities feel a need to give everybody a go at some sort of test cricket? Discuss.
Agree with a lot of what you say Richard. Last winter, Bayliss suggests that it didn't matter who batted three, and proceeded to take it in turns, using I think Bairstow, Buttler and Stokes. Personally, I believe you put your best bat at three and tell Root to bat there. Don't think he's a bad record there and we were more likely to find a No. 4 (Pope and Malan spring to mind). As you say, it's deplorable the way they've treat Bairstow. To be fair, they have tried to identify openers and given them a decent run, but they have totally been let down. We don't seem to have any specialist top order batsmen of any quality even at championship level, but most countries are in a similar state, presumably down to white ball cricket. Regarding Root as skipper, I'd give him a bit longer. While his average is lower than when he didn't have the captaincy, we have had some low scoring series recently. As far as today goes, it was embarrassing getting cleaned up by a 75 mph trundler. Complacency? A hangover from the WC win? Struggling to to adapt from white ball? Probably all three. I notice the Aussies 1st team are presently playing their 2nd's and both only just scored a hundred first innings.
Concentration. I've been lucky enough to play a three day game this year, and having never played one before god it was a shock. It's not just the mental aspect when batting, its standing in a field for 90 overs concentrating, and then going out to bat. I know that hasn't been an issue in this match but its a huge difference. Also in a match of 500 overs, the price of a wicket is far greater. You have 40 wickets in a match over 500 overs, in ODIs it is 20 wickets for 100 overs, so the loss of a wicket has far lesser value in the one day game. I am not going to profess to be an expert, but those are the basic differences. Of course there is then the ball which is completely different and still swings after about 50 overs. I am unsure what fault Bayliss has in this personally. He was brought in to win the World Cup and he has done that, the system is very much at fault for our lack of top three batsman being developed, which is not the fault of Bayliss as he had no impact on that. I appreciate he has being involved in the decision to move Bairstow and give Root the captaincy, but when there was very few other candidates for it I understand why he gave it to him. Personally I love test cricket, but I fully understand the motives behind Strauss changing the system to make ODI cricket far more important it, without that we would not have won the World Cup there is absolutely no doubt about that. Have we gone too much one way? Yes we probably have, but if it means we have won a World Cup and inspired a whole new generation of cricketers it is worth it in m eyes. FYI - I had an absolute shocking game in the three day game I played.
Good summary. The white ball doesn't swing as much, and the kookabura balls they use have a less pronounced seam so you don't get as much movement that way. Add to that they use 2 white balls per innings, one from either end. This means they don't get scuffed up enough for reverse swing, which an older red ball will do. Then you typically have less close fielders in one day than in a test as there is a different balance between taking wickets and preventing runs. Edges that would get a batsman out in a test will evade fielders in one-dayers.
Worrying signs here continuing on from recent times that our top 3 isn't good enough .. Burns and Denley just dont look up to it and it's going to take time for Roy to get up to speed in the longer form of the game. I fear for the ashes .. especially if Root persists in sticking himself at slip .. I hope when the full compliment return then he adopts the usual position at mid on or mid off. I hope I will be proven wrong but I can see us being 3 down in the ashes before we get up to speed.
He's not that bad at slip? However you will see Jimmy, Stokes and Buttler probably there on August 1st.
