also... lets be clear here. the ashes is about the ashes not "did you entertain us enough" Australia hold the ashes. they only need to draw the series to retain. 0-1 with 4 to go. the pressure will be on to deliver in the next test.
Bairstow is one of the best batters in the world, if you don't want him in the side you lose that. If you do want him to play but dont want him Wtk then you have to bring in Foakes, who is a mediocre batter, and drop one of the higher order batsmen or play without a recognized spinner.
Not gonna lie, that one stung yesterday. So many mixed feelings about it. A lot of frustration about things we could have done differently, but we do also have to remember that "normal" test match cricket against the Aussies hasn't really served us much better in recent years
this really is the dilemma isn't it? bairstow's form was pre injury but was absolutely sensational. He is in not on current form but on what he did before breaking his leg and thats a choice for the selectors and not something i'd second guess (personally) If we leave that out he played v ireland (facing a sum total of 12 balls as batsman), missed ipl. says he has a gait change as a result of this but played almost 300 overs as wicket keeper for his county. the jump form where he was at to playing australia is ****ing massive. If then you are a selector and make your mind up (fairly) that for bazzball bairstow at 75 average last year is a must and you feel that will come then you put him in. The line up is Crawley Duckett Pope Root Brook. I sincerely doubt anyone could question this line up duckett in particular is in to play a game style and fiar enough. brook is brook and imo why buttler will neve rplay test again so is out of question for red ball selection at wicket keeper. pope MAYBE is the only one people might think hmmmmm maybe move root up and that but i think that'd be unfiar too Its the next 6 Stokes Bairstow Alli Robinson Broad Anderson First we are short one bowler right off the mark. Stokes cannot bowl like he is. it is absolutely ridiculous and any other captain would refuse to hand him the ball on the grounds they would be doing life long damage. Then its wicket keeper issue Then its injured spinner. Then its a very old man main line bowling team that over 5 days and a slog are in trouble if they are not backed up and afforded the rest between short burst spells. Which is the biggest issue to fix? England have plumped for runs from bairstow now and not reliable glove work and so the bowlers had to slog on for a long time in the first innings after several drops. really if we were not talking stokes I'd say the man needs to drop out for an allrounder and we need to look and see what to do with moeen to harden him up for the test coming (no other option) Bairstow importantly did his job with the bat in the first innings with a 78 and a 20 in the second innings wasn't great but nobody scored enough imo. The problem is the drops. If we have confidence that rust gets knocked off quickly then fire away. I honestly think next test moeen needs a massive callus built up on that finger and stop ****ing about cos he is needed to bowl a lot of overs properly with robinson to save broad and anderson stokes as well... scored 1 and 42. he needs to focus just on batting and fielding and most importantly stop standing in positions where he has to chase the ball. Get in at first or second slip ffs. Again some sense has to come into these things None of these things will affect bazzball and "entertainment" but they will affect longevity and results. We are under resourced on the bowling side and that probably what cost us alongside dropped catches and to a lesser extent the declaration. the only way to fix that is move someone up the order and drop pope and i think thats be a bit unfair to pope as well. You could hand pope the gloves first for example. he's only 25 and he is there to get the best out of root as much as score himself given his average is below 40. 2 centuries last year as well as 1 this year
scoring at 5 and over, not an issue. scoring at 3 and over or being negative is not the ask Aggressive fields to induce catches, working with the pitch they had (poor) not an issue. Fields were very much a part of some of the wickets, the discipline in bowling was good etc. No issue with trying to take wickets rather than parking the bus out on the ropes and bowling wide of off stump not trying to actually do anything but dot ball. Declaring to chase a hopeful wicket under a nice evening with a docile pitch when your very best batsman is just destroying the opponents? absolutely Dropping 5 or 6 clear chances. absolutely an issue the state of the pitch. unforgivable. Didn't back the england bowlers strengths there one bit. Being under cooked in bowling line up. yes this was a part of it but we could have helped them far more with the above. Overall we only need a few things to improve. Give england the pitch to suit the bowlers. It might help aussies too but we need our bowlers being given what they need. and the batsmen will be fine. Catch the ball. Get alli's finger covered in resins to build callus. Get anderson back at 2 an over as it wasn't the field that was the issue.
Well they have bought into scoring quick rather than standing there and getting out so what can we do?
Funnily enough was gonna say all the talk about Bairstow and if drop for foakes etc, still haven’t found a reliable opening partnership. Neither duckett or Crawley strike much confidence. May go and get a quick fire 30-40 but if they do it in 30 off balls, not even seeing off the new ball for the next batsman so then have root and pope coming in facing the new ball still
Just checked on the Womens Ashes test and think the pitch rather favours the batsmen Australia 473 Eng 317-3
and the focus rightly turns back to the actual ashes sorry but I am just not interested in this co-advertised stuff. it's 0-1 and England face a must win game now or the ashes are just about gone with a no draw mentality and the only tactic being go even harder at them next time I can only see Australia sitting back again and waiting for England mistakes
England XI: Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes, Bairstow, Broad, Robinson, Tongue, Anderson. Englands solution to the aged bowling line up and unfit stokes is to stick in a 25 year old virtual debutant. Same approach to batting and will hope bairstow can catch the ball from pace better than spin. 7 man batting line up with half useful potential 30-50 runs in the bowlers 4 seamers plus root and no bowling by stokes?
So you’re moaning england have an old bowling line up. But also moaning there bringing in a younger guy with some speed? Id assume they’ve looked at weather forecast and the pitch and decided with overcast conditions scheduled maybe isn’t going to spin as much so having extra seamer is the way to go rather than an injured Ali or inexperienced kid who has been smashed around a bit in county cricket this year. Whats your 11 for the match?
I'm just saying the solution to the issue form the last game is to drop spin and pick a mostly untried fast bowler. ideally wood would be coming in here but he is also not fit. I would agree the little lad who's only 18 cannot come in here I would assume as you've said that they know the pitch is going to be green and set up for them so it will be interesting to see what decisions are made by the sides at the toss. I feel like england do better chasing but we will see. That could be just wanting the declaration taken out of their hands and letting them play the attack game without setting smaller than needed totals. AS I said previously theres 3 issues with the 11 to resolve. Wicket keeper (bairstow will be keeping to pace almost exclusively so that might help) bowling line up depth due to stokes fitness and aged front line. The solution has been to stab spin in the back as per (not that they have much option i suppose) and finally the team needs the right pitch. Picking tongue is a risk. It could work out like Robinson did or it could be a bad call. They seem to be saving wood due to fitness, again the call is risk inexperience or risk injury mid game?
