Another hammering .. batting as fragile as a pappadum but not as crisp .. too much bowling tailor made for smacking about .. all in all England are dross ... as @Absurdistan writes .. why Woakes ? a k a woeful Woakes ... why no Hales, why no Ballance and (although not in great form prior to the selection) and why no Ben Stokes ? When this next tournament is done there must be a wholesale change to the England set up. Central contracts mean that too many players hang around for too long with a complacent attitude. County cricket is full with talented and aggressive young batsmen with a MODERN approach to the game .. Billings anyone, Roy ? .. jobs for the boys, the Bells, Boparas and Morgans, even the Andersons and Broads must be put under more pressure to justify their selections, although in the bowling department, the English stock cupboard is rather bare so far as I can see.
Another hammering .. batting as fragile as a pappadum but not as crisp .. too much bowling tailor made for smacking about .. all in all England are dross ... as @Absurdistan writes .. why Woakes ? a k a woeful Woakes ... why no Hales, why no Ballance and (although not in great form prior to the selection) and why no Ben Stokes ? When this next tournament is done there must be a wholesale change to the England set up. Central contracts mean that too many players hang around for too long with a complacent attitude. County cricket is full with talented and aggressive young batsmen with a MODERN approach to the game .. Billings anyone, Roy ? .. jobs for the boys, the Bells, Boparas and Morgans, even the Andersons and Broads must be put under more pressure to justify their selections, although in the bowling department, the English stock cupboard is rather bare so far as I can see.
Thought Jimmy bowled well. The worrying thing about today is it seemed men against boys - even when we win the toss in favourable conditions to bowl and then bat in perfect batting conditions , we get blown away - though, must admit, Ali's 'out' delivery was a brute. However, we are not going to come up against a bowling attack like Oz again, yeah, SA have got Steyn and Morkel, but after that its a bit thin.
I think that's the key. We are a promising young side and in the World Cup, I suspect we'll ease through our group. It'll be the latter stages against the top tier, world class bowling attacks where England will be bowled out cheaply.
It'd also help if one of the opening bowlers didn't go for 89 runs in 10 overs. With Ali spinning it well, I'd be thinking about bringing Chris Jordan back into the team rather than Tredwell. 20 overs of spin in Australia is probably too much.
I think that's the key. We are a promising young side and in the World Cup, I suspect we'll ease through our group. It'll be the latter stages against the top tier, world class bowling attacks where England will be bowled out cheaply.
It'd also help if one of the opening bowlers didn't go for 89 runs in 10 overs. With Ali spinning it well, I'd be thinking about bringing Chris Jordan back into the team rather than Tredwell. 20 overs of spin in Australia is probably too much.
Ah, but will we ease through ? You would think that Oz,NZ,SL, Eng would get through, however, should England lose to , say, Bangladesh (which is quite possible given propensity to lose to Holland,Ireland etc in past WC's) However, my expectancy would be for us to get through in 3rd (assumption that we lose to Oz and NZ but beat SL), then we will likely face either Pak or India (who will likely finish 2nd in Group A) - now, that might not be a bad gig for us - especially as we seem to have the wood on India at the moment. So, get to the semis and you never know what might happen, say, Jimmy bowling on a green-un (it does happen, even in Oz) - and maybe Oz have been dispatched in the quarters or semis . Its a long shot, but its quite possible.
I would have us down as favourites against sub continent teams on the Australian pitches, given how we beat India quite comfortable twice in two games. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself though.
I would have us down as favourites against sub continent teams on the Australian pitches, given how we beat India quite comfortable twice in two games. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself though.
Think you may be Callum - India are going through a crisis at the moment with confidence - their bowlers are not good enough for non sub-continent conditions, however, I wouldn't back against a side that has Dhoni in it - also I wouldn't want to face Akbar for Pakistan (but I've got it in the back of my mind that he might be injured/banned?? - could be totally wrong with that).
Think we might surprise ourselves by going maybe all the way to the Final - lets hope we don't get Oz when/if we get there - coz,aside from NZ and SA's batting, the other sides aint all that .Though for me the clever money would be going on NZ.
Coming back to the current tour, Oz pulled a fast one on us in the Tri Nations Tournament by using Perth as Final venue - knowing that it is Johnsons home ground and always the ground where he demolishes sides (think England, even when we won the Ashes down under) - and they knew that he would be almost unplayable.
NZ posted 369-5 today and beat Pakistan by 119 runs.
Their biggest issue is that they have so many players in form they are going to struggle to big a first X1.
Brendon McCullum, Williamson, Taylor, Elliott, Anderson and Ronchi have all got at least one hundred in the last couple of weeks. Even Guptill, who hasn't done so, averages 33 opening in the last seven innings and hit 76 today so is not exactly out of form.
On the fast bowling front they have Boult, Milne, Southee, Mills, Anderson, McClenaghan and Elliott to call on.
And then they have to choose between Vettori and Nathan McCullum.
NZ posted 369-5 today and beat Pakistan by 119 runs.
Their biggest issue is that they have so many players in form they are going to struggle to big a first X1.
Brendon McCullum, Williamson, Taylor, Elliott, Anderson and Ronchi have all got at least one hundred in the last couple of weeks. Even Guptill, who hasn't done so, averages 33 opening in the last seven innings and hit 76 today so is not exactly out of form.
On the fast bowling front they have Boult, Milne, Southee, Mills, Anderson, McClenaghan and Elliott to call on.
And then they have to choose between Vettori and Nathan McCullum.
Oh that we had NZ's problems.
Of those, i like McClenaghan - top bowler, and the lefty we've always yearned for.
It has annoyed me for a while that England u derived use their part time bowlers in all formats of the game! If one bowler (Woakes) is having good a bad day and getting smash why keep throwing the ball to him when his confidence is shattered! why not give bopara or root an over and see what they can do..
Edit: answer is no, this is the squad.. Brendon McCullum (captain), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Adam Milne, Luke Ronchi (wkt), Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori, Kane Williamson.
If you consider a line-up of Guptill Williamson McCullum Taylor Latham Anderson Ronchi Vettori McCullum Southee McClenaghan
Edit: answer is no, this is the squad.. Brendon McCullum (captain), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Adam Milne, Luke Ronchi (wkt), Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori, Kane Williamson.
If you consider a line-up of Guptill Williamson McCullum Taylor Latham Anderson Ronchi Vettori McCullum Southee McClenaghan
Then that's not a bad side !
I think Grant Elliott will play instead of Latham.
Elliott recently against SL/Pakistan series had scores of 1, 44, 104*, 21*, 24, 64* & 28 - that's 286 runs at an average of 71.5. He also offers them an extra bowling option.
For all his promise in Test matches, Latham only averages 23.9 in ODIs and this was reflected against SL/Pakistan series where he scored just 91 runs in five innings.
I also don't think that they will go in with two spinners and would expect Trent Boult to replace either Vettori or nathan McCullum.
England have two warm-up games at the SCG against WI and Pakistan, on Monday and Wednesday morning.
Then first group game against Australia is next Saturday morning at MCG, followed by:
20/2: NZ v England, Wellington 23/2: England v Scotland, Christchurch 1/3: England v Sri Lanka, Wellington 9/3: England v Bangladesh, Adelaide 13/3: England v Afghanistan, Sydney
Comments
When this next tournament is done there must be a wholesale change to the England set up. Central contracts mean that too many players hang around for too long with a complacent attitude. County cricket is full with talented and aggressive young batsmen with a MODERN approach to the game .. Billings anyone, Roy ? .. jobs for the boys, the Bells, Boparas and Morgans, even the Andersons and Broads must be put under more pressure to justify their selections, although in the bowling department, the English stock cupboard is rather bare so far as I can see.
The worrying thing about today is it seemed men against boys - even when we win the toss in favourable conditions to bowl and then bat in perfect batting conditions , we get blown away - though, must admit, Ali's 'out' delivery was a brute. However, we are not going to come up against a bowling attack like Oz again, yeah, SA have got Steyn and Morkel, but after that its a bit thin.
It'd also help if one of the opening bowlers didn't go for 89 runs in 10 overs. With Ali spinning it well, I'd be thinking about bringing Chris Jordan back into the team rather than Tredwell. 20 overs of spin in Australia is probably too much.
Its a long shot, but its quite possible.
Think we might surprise ourselves by going maybe all the way to the Final - lets hope we don't get Oz when/if we get there - coz,aside from NZ and SA's batting, the other sides aint all that .Though for me the clever money would be going on NZ.
Their biggest issue is that they have so many players in form they are going to struggle to big a first X1.
Brendon McCullum, Williamson, Taylor, Elliott, Anderson and Ronchi have all got at least one hundred in the last couple of weeks. Even Guptill, who hasn't done so, averages 33 opening in the last seven innings and hit 76 today so is not exactly out of form.
On the fast bowling front they have Boult, Milne, Southee, Mills, Anderson, McClenaghan and Elliott to call on.
And then they have to choose between Vettori and Nathan McCullum.
Oh that we had NZ's problems.
Edit: answer is no, this is the squad..
Brendon McCullum (captain), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Adam Milne, Luke Ronchi (wkt), Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori, Kane Williamson.
If you consider a line-up of
Guptill
Williamson
McCullum
Taylor
Latham
Anderson
Ronchi
Vettori
McCullum
Southee
McClenaghan
Then that's not a bad side !
Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wk), AB de Villiers (capt & wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir.
Potentail line-up of...
Amla
Roussouw
Du Plessis
ABDV
Miller
Duminy
Parnell
Philander
Steyn
Morkel
Phangiso
Heavyweight batting line-up, but long tail !
Elliott recently against SL/Pakistan series had scores of 1, 44, 104*, 21*, 24, 64* & 28 - that's 286 runs at an average of 71.5. He also offers them an extra bowling option.
For all his promise in Test matches, Latham only averages 23.9 in ODIs and this was reflected against SL/Pakistan series where he scored just 91 runs in five innings.
I also don't think that they will go in with two spinners and would expect Trent Boult to replace either Vettori or nathan McCullum.
Then first group game against Australia is next Saturday morning at MCG, followed by:
20/2: NZ v England, Wellington
23/2: England v Scotland, Christchurch
1/3: England v Sri Lanka, Wellington
9/3: England v Bangladesh, Adelaide
13/3: England v Afghanistan, Sydney
There might be a stream online somewhere if you're desperate to watch in the morning.
A nice round up but I think it's overall pessimistic of England's chances.
I couldn't complain if we made it to the semi-final stage but I think "triumph" is stretching it.