Very happy for Ben Foakes. Brought in coz he is regarded as best keeper, and then scores a ton ! Hopefully will give the selectors the nudge to play Bairstow as batter only.
Yes but who for in the next Test as Bairstow will be fit then? I think we're all in agreement that we hope, ultimately, it will be for Jennings but it is highly unlikely that the selectors will do that for the next match.
In which case, Burns could be vulnerable thus forcing their hand in opening with Bairstow as there are no other obvious openers in this X1. Or they just continue to leave Bairstow out of the side? Or, as absurd, they drop Foakes!
The correct thing to do would be to drop Stokes........
As I said before the game. That does leave us with only 2 quicks though. Don't really want to rely on Jennings bowling as useful as it may be as backup.
Sri Lanka were quite happy going into this game with 1. Stokes should be bowling a 3 or 4 over spell now, as the game drifts. He isn't. If he isn't bowling, he isn't an all rounder. Bairstow is the better batsman.
Which makes it all somewhat absurd that Stokes, a potential match winner, is being talked about as being dropped whereas Jennings who is an average county player is, in theory, safe.
Jennings, for all his faults, is a good player of spin. Stokes is a potential match winner, the key word being potential. It does seem a long time since he delivered with the bat.
Accepted but Jennings simply isn't an option at Test level as a bowler - he has 28 just first class wickets to his name whereas Stokes took 14 wickets at less than 18 against India this summer. We might just be trying to get through this Test without using him but, if he can bowl in the next, then he should play.
Jennings score of 46 in the first innings (dropped twice) was his 19th since he got a 50 for England. In that time he has averaged less than 19 so, as much, as Stokes might not have done much with the bat recently, Jennings has done even less.
Of course the other thing to bear in mind if we play all of Bairstow, Burns, Buttler and Foakes is that we will have no wicket keeper cover if all four get injured in the game!
Of course the other thing to bear in mind if we play all of Bairstow, Burns, Buttler and Foakes is that we will have no wicket keeper cover if all four get injured in the game!
Problem solved I forgot - we could play Pope too and have five keepers in the side.
Of course the other thing to bear in mind if we play all of Bairstow, Burns, Buttler and Foakes is that we will have no wicket keeper cover if all four get injured in the game!
Problem solved I forgot - we could play Pope too and have five keepers in the side.
Of course the other thing to bear in mind if we play all of Bairstow, Burns, Buttler and Foakes is that we will have no wicket keeper cover if all four get injured in the game!
Problem solved I forgot - we could play Pope too and have five keepers in the side.
Credit to Foakes. Started the tour as very much third reserve on the keeper /batting front but has seized his opportunity with both hands.
A dilemma as they say for the selectors now.
And also the way he made his ton - he wasnt coming in with England 300+ on the board - they were struggling - and the way he batted showed true application - a quality that not many have nowadays in the test arena.
It's idiotic playing 6 bowlers, they can't all bowl. Curren has bowled 6 overs, Stokes about to start his 4th. We are so obviously a proper batsman, or two, short.
Who they are is a different question but Bairstow is one of them.
It's idiotic playing 6 bowlers, they can't all bowl. Curren has bowled 6 overs, Stokes about to start his 4th. We are so obviously a proper batsman, or two, short.
Who they are is a different question but Bairstow is one of them.
I think it was a situation of not knowing if Stokes was fit enough to bowl - he is always a good 4th/5th bowler to have.
With Stokes' knee issue, there is good justification to rest him anyway. Woakes is more of a correct batsman if you only need a tiny number of overs anyway
The really good keepers make the job look simple. Both the stumping and catch were anything but easy but Foakes made it look as such. His technique is consistent which allows him to take those chances when the batsman is moving and the bat is being flung.
I am a massive fan of Buttler as a cricketer but Foakes is in a different league to him as a keeper.
Also didn't know that Foakes' Dad, Peter, was a former PL football ref. Sadly he passed away from a heart attack when Ben was 13. Makes Ben's achievement to get where he is today even more commendable.
Makes Rashid's red ball retirement look even more ridiculous.
Which came as a result of being discarded by England. Cook and Root never showed enough confidence in him and even today Root took him off as soon as he took a wicket albeit to get Ali bowling at the incoming left hander.
When he first came into the side and was getting shedloads for bowling full tosses and half trackers I said that we had to persevere with him because he was the one bowler who could bowl the unplayable. I also pointed out that spinners don't mature 'til their late 20s/early 30s - Ali is 31, Rashid is 30 and Leach 27. Even Graeme Swann didn't make his Test debut 'til he was 29.
A loss of confidence at a relatively young age and the player goes backward as a result. Look at Simon Kerigan - debut for England at 24 and finished as a first class player just four years later. It is the confidence and consistency that Rashid got playing white ball cricket has allowed him to return to the Test side a better, older and wiser player.
The really good keepers make the job look simple. Both the stumping and catch were anything but easy but Foakes made it look as such. His technique is consistent which allows him to take those chances when the batsman is moving and the bat is being flung.
I am a massive fan of Buttler as a cricketer but Foakes is in a different league to him as a keeper.
When a proper keeper can make a century on debut, it makes you wonder why we've been scratching around with batsman/keepers for so long. Especially with Foakes' first class batting average of over 40, which is higher than Buttler's
The really good keepers make the job look simple. Both the stumping and catch were anything but easy but Foakes made it look as such. His technique is consistent which allows him to take those chances when the batsman is moving and the bat is being flung.
I am a massive fan of Buttler as a cricketer but Foakes is in a different league to him as a keeper.
When a proper keeper can make a century on debut, it makes you wonder why we've been scratching around with batsman/keepers for so long. Especially with Foakes' first class batting average of over 40, which is higher than Buttler's
The really good keepers make the job look simple. Both the stumping and catch were anything but easy but Foakes made it look as such. His technique is consistent which allows him to take those chances when the batsman is moving and the bat is being flung.
I am a massive fan of Buttler as a cricketer but Foakes is in a different league to him as a keeper.
When a proper keeper can make a century on debut, it makes you wonder why we've been scratching around with batsman/keepers for so long. Especially with Foakes' first class batting average of over 40, which is higher than Buttler's
Billings is better than Buttler and Bairstow too and probably on a par with Foakes as a keepr. He doesn't enjoy the same first class average as Foakes though. The selectors, as we all know, don't like Kent though.
Well, it has to be Jennings, although I can imagine England bowling SL out with a 100 lead and then Jennings knocking a pressure-free fifty which keeps him in for another 10 Tests. But then, who opens? Either Bairstow or Buttler
Comments
A dilemma as they say for the selectors now.
It's idiotic playing 6 bowlers, they can't all bowl. Curren has bowled 6 overs, Stokes about to start his 4th. We are so obviously a proper batsman, or two, short.
Who they are is a different question but Bairstow is one of them.
68 overs bowled. Anderson bowled 10 overs, Curren 6, Stokes 4 and Rashid 9.
I am a massive fan of Buttler as a cricketer but Foakes is in a different league to him as a keeper.
When he first came into the side and was getting shedloads for bowling full tosses and half trackers I said that we had to persevere with him because he was the one bowler who could bowl the unplayable. I also pointed out that spinners don't mature 'til their late 20s/early 30s - Ali is 31, Rashid is 30 and Leach 27. Even Graeme Swann didn't make his Test debut 'til he was 29.
A loss of confidence at a relatively young age and the player goes backward as a result. Look at Simon Kerigan - debut for England at 24 and finished as a first class player just four years later. It is the confidence and consistency that Rashid got playing white ball cricket has allowed him to return to the Test side a better, older and wiser player.
Ducks for cover.
He doesn't enjoy the same first class average as Foakes though.The selectors, as we all know, don't like Kent though.