English cricket thread

Utd heap said:
Thought it was all a bit careful. A lot of 'not the time to talk about' etc. And a few bits of usual plain nonsense e.g we would do Noosa the same again :lol:
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Yeah, it's fair enough though that he's not airing all of his grievances and throwing individuals under the bus (even though I would love to know what he really thinks).

He made it clear he's still on very good terms, and wasn't happy with the ban for breaking curfew when a curfew wasn't in place, so it's pretty apparent his issues were with Key or the bloke above Key.
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/crl7911zk40o

I have my head in my hands reading this squad :lol:

Fisher...not good enough. Sam Cook, in and out?

Carse...I prayed that experiment was over.

Bashir - still doing this are we?

Dan Lawrence - great form, but we have been there before. What role does he play? Dom Sibley is the best County bat if we are going down that road.

Pope back in - probably makes sense but the article suggests he will be 12th man...so why?

All under an interim coach and part time Captain - Wake me up next summer.
 
Of all the possible scenarios I don't think anyone would have predicted that!

It's already confirmed that Lawrence will bat at 6 which in isolation is fine, he did okay in the West Indies in the middle order the series before McCullum took over and the only opportunity he had after that was the crazy move to have him open temporarily whilst Crawley was injured.

But that means they're either going with four bowlers or they see Lawrence himself as the all-rounder which is madness when he's averaging 70+ with the ball this season.

With Pope, I wonder if they have an eye on him replacing Smith at some point.
 
Utd heap said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/crl7911zk40o

I have my head in my hands reading this squad :lol:

Fisher...not good enough. Sam Cook, in and out?

Carse...I prayed that experiment was over.

Bashir - still doing this are we?

Dan Lawrence - great form, but we have been there before. What role does he play? Dom Sibley is the best County bat if we are going down that road.

Pope back in - probably makes sense but the article suggests he will be 12th man...so why?

All under an interim coach and part time Captain - Wake me up next summer.
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so what do you want? people picked on merit rather than which school they went to? would winning the ashes back mean anything if we had a coach who didn’t go to university? would beating india in the sub-continent matter one jot if our leading run scorer came from a state school? imagine looking at the staff list at the ecb and not seeing a single double-barrelled surname?

this selection might not beat pakistan but it’s the only selection we could possibly countenance in this, god’s land.
 
So England committing to going 6 batters and only 4 bowlers, and not giving any of the all-rounders a go. Disappointing for Curran, Ahmed etc.

Cox at 3 does not fill me with confidence. Lawrence at 6 is good batting depth, but 9 wickets at an average of 71 in the CC this season demonstrates he will never be an actual all-rounder, despite Surrey's attempts to use him as one.

We might get away with it on pace/swing friendly pitches in low scoring games, where Root and Lawrence are only needed for a couple of overs to rest the 4 pace bowlers. But on a flat deck or a turning wicket that would backfire. Even more worryingly, if they plan on going for just 3 pace bowlers plus Bashir....wow.

I don't mind any of the individuals selected - as players each one of them deserves to be in contention (except Bashir) - it's just the balance seems wrong.
 
Trequarista10 said:
So England committing to going 6 batters and only 4 bowlers, and not giving any of the all-rounders a go. Disappointing for Curran, Ahmed etc.

Cox at 3 does not fill me with confidence. Lawrence at 6 is good batting depth, but 9 wickets at an average of 71 in the CC this season demonstrates he will never be an actual all-rounder, despite Surrey's attempts to use him as one.

We might get away with it on pace/swing friendly pitches in low scoring games, where Root and Lawrence are only needed for a couple of overs to rest the 4 pace bowlers. But on a flat deck or a turning wicket that would backfire. Even more worryingly, if they plan on going for just 3 pace bowlers plus Bashir....wow.

I don't mind any of the individuals selected - as players each one of them deserves to be in contention (except Bashir) - it's just the balance seems wrong.
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Apparently Curran has a knock and can't bowl red ball at the moment - which is fair enough. But otherwise I am pretty baffled by the direction in general.
 
Utd heap said:
Apparently Curran has a knock and can't bowl red ball at the moment - which is fair enough. But otherwise I am pretty baffled by the direction in general.
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the main issue is blob key thinks he’s about 4 times as clever as he actually is.
 
In terms of character and as an athlete Lawrence is actually very similar to Stokes. I’m fine Lawrence and Cox, both are talented and deserve a proper chance in test cricket which neither have to be fair. The England batting lineup should be scoring more runs than they have been, there’s plenty of quality potentially in that batting lineup. Time they start producing the goods.
 
Rams said:
In terms of character and as an athlete Lawrence is actually very similar to Stokes. I’m fine Lawrence and Cox, both are talented and deserve a proper chance in test cricket which neither have to be fair. The England batting lineup should be scoring more runs than they have been, there’s plenty of quality potentially in that batting lineup. Time they start producing the goods.
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As a Cricketer would be handier though
 
Don’t mind the first XI but the potential replacements in Pope, Bashir, Fisher and Carse are very underwhelming. Would have preferred Rew keeping his place as spare bat/wicket-keeper and had Craig Overton as the form County player of the season in ahead of Carse or Fisher. Dan Lawrence should probably have replaced Stokes for the Oval test v NZ but longer term we need a holding spinner. Bethell’s injury opening a place for Cox is a reversal of what happened in NZ 2 years ago. Cox is definitely a test quality batsman, he averages 70 since joining Essex and I suspect he may end up cementing that number 3 spot
 
Rehan Ahmed. only if his dad played golf....
how long before he tells the ECB to do one and becomes a franchise player...
 
Gay retired out with a shoulder injury for Durham today, hopefully nothing serious.

A McCullum side would no doubt just open with Pope if he has to miss out, hopefully the new regime have more sense.
 
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