Well done to Lancashire on their immediate return to the top división. Who joins them is harder to say, but it certainly won´t be Middlesex!!!!
What other sport can I watch when I randomly wake up at 6am on a Thursday, several hours before I need to get ready for work?
The better option still would be someone who can make a patient (or otherwise) 120 than a patient 20.
Definitely, but they've been cycling various people through looking for that consistent middle-order batsman for a good couple years now, and have not had much success finding one. Until such time as that person presents themselves, it might be better to play to the strengths of the players they do have.
You have to factor in the fact that the red ball has completely different characteristics from the white ball used in ODI’s and T20. The red ball changes subtly throughout the 80 overs of its life, from a bright, hard bullet which swings and seams, to a softer, duller missile which can reverse swing. White balls just don’t vary as much as red balls, rarely swing, and certainly don’t reverse. They don’t seam off the pitch in the same way as red balls either. You simply can’t expect a batsman to play the same way in Test cricket as they do in white ball cricket, because eventually they will get found out. What we saw at Headingley from Stokes was truly exceptional, a man well-versed in limited overs, but who is technically suitable for Tests. He took several hours to play himself in and then exploit an increasingly tiring and desperate fielding side. The likes of Roy, Buttler, and Morgan just can’t cut it in the longer format. Bairstow can, but has yet to show good form in this series. What we need more than anything is more 4 day cricket at county level, so that players get more practice in that format. At the moment the financial rewards from bish-bash-bosh cricket are seducing the ECB away from the purer form of the game, to the cost of the Test side.
Agree with most of this except I would say Buttler is definitely able to play test cricket. Admittedly he hasn't had the greatest series but he has shown previously that he can get himself in and score. A test average of 33 is very similar to Bairstow's 35 after all.
Buttler's biggest problem is the six guys ahead of him. I often hear the comparisons to Gilchrist, and I very much understand them. The damage Gilchrist would often do, in no time at all batting at 7, is absolutely something which Buttler has the ability to replicate. However Gilchrist was often coming in after the likes of Ponting, Clarke, Hayden, Langer, Waugh, Hussey etc had piled on the runs. So not only was Gilchrist often coming to the crease with no pressure, but also - more importantly - he was he was facing bowlers who had a number of overs in their legs already. They were tiring, wilting, and Gilchrist would come in and just squash them into the mud. It wasn't Gilchrist's job to come in and rescue the innings for Australia (although he could do so). Thanks to the top six, Buttler is more used to walking to the crease at 120-5 rather than 320-5. And that's when I question his place in the team, given that he plays as an out-and-out batsmen at number 7 (albeit he's up at 6 this match, because of Stokes' bowling fitness).
Interesting point and I think you are certainly on to something. I think we would be better off being patient with Buttler and hoping the top order is sorted out over the next 1/2 years with the new coach. No doubt the new coach will have his own ideas of who should be batting at #2 & #3 - if they are sorted out I think the likes of Root/Bairstow & Buttler will suddenly start to look like their old selves.
That would be the ideal. But don't forget that Bayliss isn't currently a selector, and there are no indications that the new coach will be a selector either. Sure they will have a say to an extent - particularly if there's a type of batsmen they want, rather than a specific person - but at the end of the day they'll pick their XI from the squad which Ed Smith and James Taylor give them each time. I'd suggest that an English coach would be seeking to be more involved with squad selection than an overseas coach, for a simple reason that an English coach is more likely to know about county cricket. Bayliss has always been quite open with the fact that he doesn't watch county cricket, and therefore relies heavily on the selectors.
Denly & Burns; smash this years Ashes opening pairing average with a mind blowing 27 Warner & Harris bring the average down even further with a 5. Numbers tell you everything!
Although given Labuschagne and Smith's combined average is 206, it doesn't really matter for them does it
