The International aspect of English cricket is a complete mess. We were wrong to go back to Moores, we were wrong to go back to Trott. Personally I thought Cook having had the winter off would come back all guns blazing in Test cricket but the guy is totally burnt out. We would also be wrong to go back to Pieterson; what would be the point? He won't be around for the next Ashes tour. We need to take this summer on the chin as the Aussies did in 2013. How ridiculed players like Smith and Warner? And many in this country laguhed at Mitchell Johnson's omission from that tour. Sure we retained the Ashes but anyone with just a smidge of understanding of the game saw through that result. I was not surprised at all at what followed that winter. We need to blood some youngsters, give the captaincy to Teachers Pet and say goodbye to Cook, Broad, Trott, KP and Co. Keep Bell as senior pro and build for the future just as Australia always do.
id keep Broad and i am sure you mean Root as teachers pet..otherwise agree
It's slightly unfair, but batting against this attack you don't so much measure success by the runs you score, but rather measure failure by the runs you don't score...
I like Ballance . (that'll be the kiss of death then)
I have to say I don't and think he is an extremely limited player. Glad to be proved wrong though.
his avergae says otherwise - 57 from 10 matches including India. I understand what you say about limited, but sometimes think that batting 3 for England with a limited technique is not always a bad thing. Bell now out - run out - silly .
He averages 60.75 in test matches with three hundreds and three half centuries in thirteen innings.
By contrast, he averages 21.21 in 15 ODI innings.
I am a stats person but question the nature of his runs - mostly at home to a poor Sri Lankan attack and India who, after the 2nd Test, typically played as if they couldn't wait to go home.
Time will tell but the one thing you can be certain of is that every Test playing nation will have sussed out his strengths and weaknesses. And I just fear that, rather like Cook, once you limit his scoring options he will eventually get himself out.
Ballance had done his job by that point, scoring a century at a SR of around 50. He got caught in the deep trying to up the run rate before a declaration. Nothing wrong with that IMO.
Didn't see the catch last night, as went to bed early, but watched it this morning.
WHAT A CATCH !!
Fantastic reactions and fast hands. Perhaps he should do short leg as well instead of................
It is interesting how the make up of the slips has evolved. In the old days a fast bowlers place was at third man and fine leg. In recent years, however, probably our two best close fielders have been Jordan and Anderson.
Didn't see the catch last night, as went to bed early, but watched it this morning.
WHAT A CATCH !!
Fantastic reactions and fast hands. Perhaps he should do short leg as well instead of................
It is interesting how the make up of the slips has evolved. In the old days a fast bowlers place was at third man and fine leg. In recent years, however, probably our two best close fielders have been Jordan and Anderson.
Those two have only really been in the slips for the spinner. .
When the quicks are bowling it makes sense for the slips to stay the same the whole time rather than chip and change depending on whose bowling so Anderson has never been there for a quick! They have rightly so made an exception for Jordan as he is exceptional!
Comments
166-4, lead by 270.
Ballance 67*
Ballance 75*
Stokes 26*
His Test Match average is now 63.46.
224-4, 67 overs (lead by 328)
Ballance 92*
Stokes 33*
226-5 (lead by 330)
Ballance 92*
Buttler 0*
243-5, 73.3 overs (lead by 347)
Buttler 5*
281-6, 79.2 overs (lead by 385)
Buttler 24*
Jordan 0*
Buttler 43* (45 balls)
Jordan 3*
314-6, 83.3 overs
Jordan 4*
333-7 dec, 86 overs (lead by 437)
Buttler 59* (56 balls)
WI require 438 to win.
WI 7-1, 1.5 overs
WI 9-1, 5 overs
Smith 3*
Bravo 1*
Smith 48*
Bravo 32*
B Root C Jordan
Sensational catch.
90-2
Root 2 overs, 1-0
WHAT A CATCH !!
It is interesting how the make up of the slips has evolved. In the old days a fast bowlers place was at third man and fine leg. In recent years, however, probably our two best close fielders have been Jordan and Anderson.
When the quicks are bowling it makes sense for the slips to stay the same the whole time rather than chip and change depending on whose bowling so Anderson has never been there for a quick! They have rightly so made an exception for Jordan as he is exceptional!