When the selection was announced they were dubbed the worst squad to go to Oz for the Ashes.
At least they lived up to expectations.
So was the Team in the 80's that had Chris Broad opening.
Luckily the Aussies were ordinary around that time. Hughes, Jones, Boon and Waugh were very raw. Zoehrer was moderate, Sleep was no Shane Warne. The games were good though.
The thing about playing in Oz is that they grind you down - its oh so, imperative to get off to a good start and win the first Test. Why do you think Oz have Brisbane as their first Test where they have not lost for a thousand years ?! Not withstanding the 4-0 defeat, I don't think there is *that* much between the teams, if you take Smith and Starc out, then there isn't - and you will find in the reverse fixture in UK in 2019 that that will show. Smith has quite a poor record over here.Starc is a different matter - he will shine everywhere, but can he keep his fitness? However, Its the same old problems that have beleaguered us for the majority of the past 2 decades - just not being able to score enough runs in the first innings, however, that has now been compounded by having an impotent bowling attack with a spinner who doesn't spin the ball. My concern is that the people at the top will just paper over the cracks (again), and we will continue to produce medium pace dobbers who can do eff all outside of England and spinners who can only spin the ball on Bunsens. Time for change at the top, I think Strauss has got his head on straight and is a good 'CEO', but his appointment of Bayliss has been very poor imo as far as Tests as concerned - he just seems to do very little 'management' of note, not even TV interviews. Time to get rid, and maybe give it to Farbrace full-time, however, his comments of yesterday don't fill me with confidence.
Its a tough time ahead, but we'll all feel much better in 6 months time when we are stuffing Zim thinking we now have a good side.
Anderson at a push. Personally I would have the Aussie bowling attack of Hazlewood, Starc, Cummins and Lyon intact. The Aussies have a couple of problems themselves in the opening position, Khawaja is a bit up and down also. I think the Aussies are only going to get stronger. We are short of a couple of bowlers who can bowl at 90 MPH, an opening bat, a number 3 and a frontline spinner.
Anderson at a push. Personally I would have the Aussie bowling attack of Hazlewood, Starc, Cummins and Lyon intact. The Aussies have a couple of problems themselves in the opening position, Khawaja is a bit up and down also. I think the Aussies are only going to get stronger. We are short of a couple of bowlers who can bowl at 90 MPH, an opening bat, a number 3 and a frontline spinner.
Anderson at a push. Personally I would have the Aussie bowling attack of Hazlewood, Starc, Cummins and Lyon intact. The Aussies have a couple of problems themselves in the opening position, Khawaja is a bit up and down also. I think the Aussies are only going to get stronger. We are short of a couple of bowlers who can bowl at 90 MPH, an opening bat, a number 3 and a frontline spinner.
As so often with cricket it depends where the imaginary match is being played. In Oz, agree no Anderson but in English conditions you'd have to pick him I suggest
As a comparison you have got to ask yourself how many English players would get into the Aussie team?
Cook, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Anderson at a push.
In Oz, then only Cook for Bancroft, Root for Khawaja & Bairstow for Paine. In the UK then probably Anderson for one of their quicks, just to mix it up a bit.
Just noticed that Australia aren't even in the top 2 Test teams - that goes to S Africa & India.
As a comparison you have got to ask yourself how many English players would get into the Aussie team?
Cook, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Anderson at a push.
In Oz, then only Cook for Bancroft, Root for Khawaja & Bairstow for Paine. In the UK then probably Anderson for one of their quicks, just to mix it up a bit.
Just noticed that Australia aren't even in the top 2 Test teams - that goes to S Africa & India.
The SA team that England have beaten home and away in last 2 series.
I notice that SA beat India today, getting them all out for 135 with them only chasing 200odd. Philander doing the damage taking 6-42 including Kohli.
Apparently the Indians arrived ONE week before the match. That's a massive problem with modern tours, they're crammed in, with no chance for teams to acclimatise properly. The Test effectively only lasted 3 days, which isn't good really
I notice that SA beat India today, getting them all out for 135 with them only chasing 200odd. Philander doing the damage taking 6-42 including Kohli.
Apparently the Indians arrived ONE week before the match. That's a massive problem with modern tours, they're crammed in, with no chance for teams to acclimatise properly. The Test effectively only lasted 3 days, which isn't good really
Watched something on ESPN last night with Sanjay Manjekar saying that India would basically "use the 1st Test as a warm up game" - which is pretty stunning stuff when you think about it.
Personally I think that when touring Australia you need 3 x Four day warm up games against proper opposition and then another two games between the first and third Tests- you can take a larger squad if you need to.
There is no point people like Ballance touring when they don't get any Cricket between the middle of November and the end of the series, if you bring him in to replace, for example, Vince, then you are doing it on a wing and a prayer as he has had no chance to build any form.
Watched something on ESPN last night with Sanjay Manjekar saying that India would basically "use the 1st Test as a warm up game" - which is pretty stunning stuff when you think about it.
Personally I think that when touring Australia you need 3 x Four day warm up games against proper opposition and then another two games between the first and third Tests- you can take a larger squad if you need to.
There is no point people like Ballance touring when they don't get any Cricket between the middle of November and the end of the series, if you bring him in to replace, for example, Vince, then you are doing it on a wing and a prayer as he has had no chance to build any form.
Agreed, though is there ANY decent level 1st class cricket being played in Australia in December anyway, to give credible opposition, with the Big Bash on?
As Agnew said, the whole English system needs a scrub down from the top, and, as I suggested , Bayliss's position needs to come under severe scrutiny, to me, he has done very little to deserve to keep his job.
As Agnew said, the whole English system needs a scrub down from the top, and, as I suggested , Bayliss's position needs to come under severe scrutiny, to me, he has done very little to deserve to keep his job.
Good piece in the Standard tonight by their cricket correspondent, pulling no punches on Bayliss
And just watching the highlights surely Barstow has to review his LBW. Last recognised batsman and it looks like it's going down leg side to me without seeing any replays. Why didn't he call for the review?
English cricket needs sorting, let's have a working committee, blah blah blah. We've had it all with the likes of Fred Trueman, Ted Dexter, Bob Willis, Mickey Stewart, Lord Cowdrey, Lord McClaurin, Charles Palmer, David Ackfield who have all held inquests, official or otherwise into the state of English cricket. We all know what is wrong, we're too bloody soft. Too soft on the field, too soft off it. Our journalists are too soft and our administrators are too soft. We once owned this game but we've given it away. We give, give, give to the game and just let everyone walk all over us.
English cricket needs sorting, let's have a working committee, blah blah blah. We've had it all with the likes of Fred Trueman, Ted Dexter, Bob Willis, Mickey Stewart, Lord Cowdrey, Lord McClaurin, Charles Palmer, David Ackfield who have all held inquests, official or otherwise into the state of English cricket. We all know what is wrong, we're too bloody soft. Too soft on the field, too soft off it. Our journalists are too soft and our administrators are too soft. We once owned this game but we've given it away. We give, give, give to the game and just let everyone walk all over us.
Not like you to hold back.
We've done this one to death but until we widen the pool that we fish in I'm afraid we are always going to get the same type of cricketer coming through - 7% of the country's pupils go to private schools but 70% of the England squad come from private schools.
This week I saw that two boys from a private school got into a county age group set up as a "reward for all their hard work". The fact that they will never, in my opinion, be good enough to play the professional game but that the master in charge of cricket at the school is a former England player rather succinctly sums the situation up.
Botham, Gooch, Gatting, Embury, Lever, Knott, Underwood, Illingworth, Edrich, Amiss, Hendrick, Willis, Taylor (RW), Old, Arnold, Fletcher and of course Boycott. None of these went to private schools.
The 'private school' thing is a bit misleading in Cricketing terms.
Yes, we have had our share of private school boys in the team - but this includes our leading run scorer in Alistair Cook as well as Andrew Strauss, can hardly claim either of them are soft!
It also includes the likes of Stuart Broad - with the small matter of 400 Test wickets - who went to Oakham School especially because of its excellent cricketing facilities as did the Curran brothers who both went to Wellington College on the back of their excellent Cricketing talent.
This also happens in other countries too, the likes of Rabada in South Africa who went to a private school in Cape Town as did most of the other SA players.
The same thing happens in Australia with Rugby where the elite private schools take the Aboriginal and Islander kids away from their homes in their early teens and give them 'scholarships' to their schools so they can have them in their first XV, this happened with Will Genia and Quade Cooper and plenty of others.
Twenty test series were played in the 2017 season (covers 16/17 and 17/18 Australian summers).
Fourteen were won by the home team, two were drawn and four were won by the away team.
South Africa won in New Zealand (1-0) Pakistan won in the West Indies (2-1) India won in Sri Lanka (3-0) West Indies won in Zimbabwe (1-0) Bangladesh drew in Sri Lanka (1-1) Australia drew in Bangladesh (1-1)
If we win the upcoming series in New Zealand, all this will be forgotten and we can start looking forward to the English summer and a couple of comfortable series wins on home soil.
Comments
Not withstanding the 4-0 defeat, I don't think there is *that* much between the teams, if you take Smith and Starc out, then there isn't - and you will find in the reverse fixture in UK in 2019 that that will show. Smith has quite a poor record over here.Starc is a different matter - he will shine everywhere, but can he keep his fitness?
However, Its the same old problems that have beleaguered us for the majority of the past 2 decades - just not being able to score enough runs in the first innings, however, that has now been compounded by having an impotent bowling attack with a spinner who doesn't spin the ball.
My concern is that the people at the top will just paper over the cracks (again), and we will continue to produce medium pace dobbers who can do eff all outside of England and spinners who can only spin the ball on Bunsens.
Time for change at the top, I think Strauss has got his head on straight and is a good 'CEO', but his appointment of Bayliss has been very poor imo as far as Tests as concerned - he just seems to do very little 'management' of note, not even TV interviews. Time to get rid, and maybe give it to Farbrace full-time, however, his comments of yesterday don't fill me with confidence.
Its a tough time ahead, but we'll all feel much better in 6 months time when we are stuffing Zim thinking we now have a good side.
Cook,
Root,
Bairstow,
Stokes,
Anderson at a push.
Just noticed that Australia aren't even in the top 2 Test teams - that goes to S Africa & India.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/42607644
Personally I think that when touring Australia you need 3 x Four day warm up games against proper opposition and then another two games between the first and third Tests- you can take a larger squad if you need to.
There is no point people like Ballance touring when they don't get any Cricket between the middle of November and the end of the series, if you bring him in to replace, for example, Vince, then you are doing it on a wing and a prayer as he has had no chance to build any form.
We all know what is wrong, we're too bloody soft. Too soft on the field, too soft off it. Our journalists are too soft and our administrators are too soft. We once owned this game but we've given it away. We give, give, give to the game and just let everyone walk all over us.
We've done this one to death but until we widen the pool that we fish in I'm afraid we are always going to get the same type of cricketer coming through - 7% of the country's pupils go to private schools but 70% of the England squad come from private schools.
This week I saw that two boys from a private school got into a county age group set up as a "reward for all their hard work". The fact that they will never, in my opinion, be good enough to play the professional game but that the master in charge of cricket at the school is a former England player rather succinctly sums the situation up.
Yes, we have had our share of private school boys in the team - but this includes our leading run scorer in Alistair Cook as well as Andrew Strauss, can hardly claim either of them are soft!
It also includes the likes of Stuart Broad - with the small matter of 400 Test wickets - who went to Oakham School especially because of its excellent cricketing facilities as did the Curran brothers who both went to Wellington College on the back of their excellent Cricketing talent.
This also happens in other countries too, the likes of Rabada in South Africa who went to a private school in Cape Town as did most of the other SA players.
The same thing happens in Australia with Rugby where the elite private schools take the Aboriginal and Islander kids away from their homes in their early teens and give them 'scholarships' to their schools so they can have them in their first XV, this happened with Will Genia and Quade Cooper and plenty of others.
Fourteen were won by the home team, two were drawn and four were won by the away team.
South Africa won in New Zealand (1-0)
Pakistan won in the West Indies (2-1)
India won in Sri Lanka (3-0)
West Indies won in Zimbabwe (1-0)
Bangladesh drew in Sri Lanka (1-1)
Australia drew in Bangladesh (1-1)
If we win the upcoming series in New Zealand, all this will be forgotten and we can start looking forward to the English summer and a couple of comfortable series wins on home soil.