Off Topic The Ashes

They leave themselves with no options by not blooding young cricketers.

The management are truly pathetic though. They seem to think that making " a plan" in the summer and carrying it out blindly will work. Useless.

Giles is not the only wage thief in a blazer, and Silverwood is not the only over promoted coach in the set up, but they perfectly reflect the problem; people just clinging onto a job they shouldn't have, until they are found out and kicked out .

There are hordes of them, in blazers and tracksuits. Just look at the damage they do to fast bowlers when they get hold of them. It is horrific, but they keep on taking the cash behind the scenes.

Never did English cricket miss a man like they miss Andrew Strauss.

 

Yep. And he'd go for it no matter what he was told!

 

This “dry up the runs creates pressure “ is garbage. We’ve managed to dry it up. It may work against our batting but it doesn’t work against theirs. Ridiculous tactic. Get them out for 300 day 1 and be happy. Wickets win games end of story

 

You need a balance, but in the end wickets are everything.

Just look at the disgraceful way they handled Steven Finn a few years ago. Emerging as the best fast bowler in the world, and possibly the fastest and tallest, he leaks a few runs, knocks the stumps over a few times, and they change his bloody action!

They ruined him, as they have ruined a few others.

 

Have we not conceded yet?

 

Just the 468 runs required to win…

 

Mahmood just taken 4 wickets in BBL in 2 overs. Just saying.

 

OUCH

 

reason i stopped having any interest in football and cricket national teams...it always looked as if the selectors chose the people from certain clubs rather than those showing good form, i am not sure if it is still the same in cricket but i think football follows form a bit more closely now.

wish i know what the problem was but we just do not show the same fight as other national teams, may have more to do with my previous post than even i thought...but what i do remember is back in the 70's, especially with athletics, we kept being told that we do not have the same facilities as other countries and no disrespect to these countries but the west indies tended to learn their trade in the sand and indian/pakistani players learned mostly in dust bowls, rarely had a good grass pitch so they had to make the bat and the ball do the work while we relied on weather conditions to make the ball move or spin.

a lot of money was put into facilities and we may have won a few more medals in the olympics but nowt else seems to have improved.

 

After all the clamour for Broad and Anderson at Brisbane I think we've seen that they are no longer the bowlers they were. No shame in that, but it's time to move on
If possible I'd be trying to get Saw Mahmood out of his BBL contract and add him to teh squad. For Melbourne I'd go....

Burns
Hameed
Malan
Root (c)
Stokes
Bairstow (urgh)
Buttler (w)
Woakes
Wood
Robinson
Leach


Woakes is in there simply to extend the batting line up. Wood, Robinson and Leach could bat anywhere 9-11

 

Interesting. Any support for making Bairstow the wicky and allowing Buttler to concentrate on his batting.....perhaps moving him further up the order?

 

Jos Butler was huge there. At one point he had me daring to hope for the draw.

Gallant effort.

 

I'd take the gloves away from Buttler... He's been horrendous.

I'd go
Hameed
Buttler
Malan
Root
Stokes
Lawrence
Bairstow (wk)
Woakes
Robinson
Wood
Broad

 

Wish Foakes could bat. Best wicket keeper I think I’ve ever seen!! Unbelievable with the gloves

 

Yep,agree with that.

 

I think I'd call up Mahmood and go,
Burns
Buttler
Malan
Root
Stokes
Bairstow (wk)
Woakes
Robinson
Wood
Leach
Mahmood

Burns only on the basis he's got some time at the crease in and will know what to expect and I think he's better on that basis than Hameed.
It's all about Buttler's mind.....if he goes in prepared to take 20 overs to build an innings,he can do it.
Foulkes is the best keeper,but Bairstow is a better batsman,and also,is a better keeper than Buttler.
Got to play a spinner
I love Jimmy and Stewart,but Mahmood is the future along with Stone and Archer.......get him in to get the feel of it. We don't have anything to lose.

 

Woakes at 7 would worry me (not that any of our batters are making runs like, but a tail starting at 8 is risky)

 

He can bat though mate. He’s a bit like Buttler imo, if his head is in the right place, he’s more than decent. Also, he’s a competent bowler and very good in the field.

 

Aye. I suppose you have to pick the best 4/5 bowlers to take 20 wickets and back your batsmen to get the runs

Robinson at 8 is a place too high IMHO, but we need to add some variety to the attack. Picking 5 low-80 mph bowlers who all rely on swing/seam was a massive mistake. Not saying Leach would have bowled the Aussies out, but look at the amount of turn Lyon got you have to assume he'd have been a threat

 

Yep, you’re right, 8 is too high for Robinson, but 7,8,9 is not where our problem is. It’s further up the order…. what do you think of Buttler opening with Burns….. is he capable of building an innings? With Bairstow in as wk?