Foakes has been dropped which is slightly unfair on him. Stokes fit with Wood and Jennings in 12. Rather hope that they are going to play Wood and not Jennings but will Bairstow be batting at 3 and keeping wicket?
Foakes has been dropped which is slightly unfair on him. Stokes fit with Wood and Jennings in 12. Rather hope that they are going to play Wood and not Jennings but will Bairstow be batting at 3 and keeping wicket?
Injured
Don't think he was, pretty sure he's been dropped.
Foakes has been dropped which is slightly unfair on him. Stokes fit with Wood and Jennings in 12. Rather hope that they are going to play Wood and not Jennings but will Bairstow be batting at 3 and keeping wicket?
Bairstow wants to keep and had the raving hump when they gave the gloves to Foakes. He would rather keep and bat at 7 than bat at 3 and not keep. Buttler isn't good enough at Test level either imo and I suspect in the eyes of the selectors.
England have got themselves in a right mess in the selection on this tour.
They have got everything wrong, the make up of the party, the selection for all 3 tests. An all rounder is ment to give you balance, trying to fit 3 in is weakening the batting AND bowling. Ali can't bat in the top 6, Stokes can't bowl as the 3rd seemer incase he brakes, Curren is a 4th seemer who can bat.
A present I would say none of those are "all rounders" and should stop being selected as such.
Nothing will change until the selectors stop picking 20/20 players for the top 6. I'm all for increased runs per over, but we have too many "all rounders" and "big hitters" in the side.....to the detriment of "innings builders"
With more and more cricketers committing to 20 20 cricket and the money that is on offer in the IPL and various other competitions I'm afraid it won't get better any time soon.
I think the only different thing that could be done is to bring in some seasoned 4 day batsmen but they are few and far between. It could be argued though that they have done that with Burns and, to a lesser extent, Denly.
Hildreth, Clarke, Duckett (Jennings has had loads of chances) but then the cupboard looks bare.
Maybe a punt on Lawrence of Essex or Livingstone at Lancashire as they are younger but barrels are being scraped.
So Root has picked the team. Got his mate to keep and left out Foakes who averages over 40 in both First Class and Test cricket. And is a better keeper too.
Except definitely Root. I used to be a massive fan of Root but I think he is hiding behind the captaincy now and using that position to ensure that he doesn't have to bat at 3.
Comments
...Id rather see my mum bat at 3 ..although I concede Jennings is a better short leg
Last time you said he would get a 50 and he got a ton. Now he's on for a double.
Wood in for Curran seems likely to me, Curran's bowling has been powder puff
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/47175439
.......in the nets
Root should step up and take No.3
Root needs to stop being a politician and be a Leader.
We have pretty much 1 more test Match before the Ashes - shambles
ps. How shite must Sri Lanka must have been??
They have got everything wrong, the make up of the party, the selection for all 3 tests. An all rounder is ment to give you balance, trying to fit 3 in is weakening the batting AND bowling. Ali can't bat in the top 6, Stokes can't bowl as the 3rd seemer incase he brakes, Curren is a 4th seemer who can bat.
A present I would say none of those are "all rounders" and should stop being selected as such.
They are almost extinct in the modern game.
Hildreth, Clarke, Duckett (Jennings has had loads of chances) but then the cupboard looks bare.
Maybe a punt on Lawrence of Essex or Livingstone at Lancashire as they are younger but barrels are being scraped.
Curran right call.