You can talk technique all you want but Crawley fundamentally has no idea of when to play shots and when not to play shots. Anything outside off and he shits his pants in excitement.
English cricket thread
- Thread starter Samid
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Why do we keep persisting with Zak 'nicking off' Crawley when it's palably obvious that he isn't good enough?
Ah, because we won the last three tests and every time you win a test it buys the rubbish players a life. Stupid, stupid policy.
Ah, because we won the last three tests and every time you win a test it buys the rubbish players a life. Stupid, stupid policy.
I agree. He doesn't have the numbers at first-class level to back up his claim for a spot. We need to protect numbers 3 & 4 better than we have these last few years.
This pitch looks decent if you can see out the first 20ish overs.
I wouldn’t be shocked if no matter the result this is his last game for a while. Albeit this is dependent on there being a replacement, which is an issue
Ben Compton is scoring plenty of runs, but wonder if England see his SR of 40 as too slow.
With his height he could be good at stacking shelves
Yes, there's not many openers who scream, 'test quality' in the CC.
Maybe Compton and Bell-Drummond (who's been around the England set up) could be. Bell-Drummond certainly has a touch of class, from what I've seen.
It's weird that Kent is suddenly England's go-to option for test openers but it's more indicative of the general dearth of options and the form guide, I guess.
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Surely the role of the openers in this side should be to give the middle order the best platform to do their thing. It doesn’t need to be full throttle from 1-11.
Especially not with bowlers of our pace.
Agreed. He's the Lukaku of cricket.
Compton has had a wonderful start to the season, but he had never played a first class game before November. I can definitely see why they aren’t confident in him yet.
I think I’ve mentioned in here already but Sibley being back in by the end of the year. He looks to have changed his technique completely and is scoring about as well as any non-Compton opener
If you look back over the last twenty or so years, England have always wanted at least one opener capable of playing shots (Stewart, Vaughan, Trescothick) alongside a more defensive opener (Strauss, Cook, Atherton)
I agree that it shouldn't matter, but it has been more or less baked into the selection process for a while now. That obsession is why Crawley is playing there when he just is not an opening batsmen.
Strauss and Cook were a partnership for a long time, and our most successful time, to be fair.
Yeah, I watch Sibley recently and he does seem to have fixed the weird bat-wofting that was clearly counter-productive. He also looked less side-on and more open and surprise, surprise, he was playing straighter.
It's amazing that it had never occurred to him before but he's not the only one with technical issues. To his credit, he has shown good powers of concentration and the fact he has rejigged his technique is encouraging. Certainly wouldn't rule him out.
England just need to find the 2 best blokes who open and hope it works out. In recent years they’ve picked blokes with odd techniques and significant issues which meant their game would never be successful in test cricket. I don’t think they can be too prescriptive considering they haven’t replace Strauss yet, never mind Cook.
Bloke on 100 gets out to a straight one on the stumps so why wouldn’t you try the same to Shami and Bumrah? The daft thing is they did it last night to Shami too, slept on it and still thought it was a good idea. Hopefully McCullum starts to be a bit more hands on tactically to reign in these funky tactics England seem to resort to.
Yep, that's a very good point. Although I think Strauss was generally more versatile than Cook and he could play a more aggressive role if required. Though to be fair, it would be hard to couple him alongside Stewart, Trescothick or Vaughan as someone who would 'take on' the new ball.
Strauss and Cook probably just had a bit more positivity to it as a pairing than say Cook and Nick Compton.
Yep, Strauss was a very good opener, too. Always felt that he was a better player than his average (just over 40) shows.
I do quite like Sibley. He’s got a lot of grit about him and it shines through. He obviously has/had flaws at that level but I liked his mindset.
Funnily enough he’d probably have been an ideal opener for this summer, he might only score 8 but he’d probably chew up the balls where the new ball is doing a bit and protect Pope/Root better than Lees and particularly Crawley has. As much as I’m loving this cricket we’ve played I’d feel a lot more comfortable if the openers were sticking around longer, even if they did only score as many as these are.
Curious to see how bairstow plays here.
Just seen the Broad over. Why didn't he go to yorkers, earlier?
will we get much play today? It's good cricket to watch -- Root is playing well..
Has Lees really been fine? Probably only within the context of how bad our opening situation has been but not in relation to what it should be or what other nations have.
Crawley has never looked good enough at any stage. All style and no substance. They can't keep saying he plays a nice drive when he's producing nothing at test or domestic level.
He‘s made test history with a massive brain fart
The crowd sounds ridiculously pissed.
Respect.
Respect.
Very good bowling and very good batting from Root. Bairstow is hanging on — the in swinger on length is his weakness and Bumrah is bowling there.
Really hard work out there, would be delighted to end the day 3 down.
Forecast clear from tomorrow BTW.
Forecast clear from tomorrow BTW.
Love it. Was still finding his line but a terrific ball
Strange batting from Root. Must have played and missed that shot 3/4 times in the last 15 mins then eventually nicks it.
Tame end for Root after having braved Bumrah and Shami
He looked very good before he got the cut out. Played it to a ball too full, and now to one too short
Leach 
No chance he lasts 25 minutes.
No chance he lasts 25 minutes.
A night watchman — that’s not very bazball
Loving Shami's rhythm
Should have sent Broad out.
Is there any rivalry (playful or more) between India and Sri Lanka Cricket wise?
There definitely is between Indian fans (or should that be Kohli fans) and Daniel Alexander on Twitter.
Nope. It’s very friendly — the BCCI has a habit of arranging tours to Sri Lanka regularly when their board needs a bail out. Even now with Sri Lankan economy in crisis, India has done a fair bit to help them out.
India and Bangladesh has a bit of a rivalry.
Cheers, just curious as we have Kumar on commentary in the UK.
Shami should have a minimum of two wickets in this innings already.
Well that was predictable. Nearly got out every ball.Leach
No chance he lasts 25 minutes.