Decent day all round. Plenty of runs ahead of them and 2 whole days to take 10 wickets against fragile batting lineup.
Reckon Root will get a couple tomorrow.
On the Denly issue. I haven't always been a fan (see the ashes thread) but I actually think him alone with the other players in the top 3 (Burns, Sibley and Crawley) have been excellent.
Sir Ali Cook has said facing new ball in tests in the last couple of years has been as tough as it's ever been. The job this top 3 have done to see off the new ball and blunt attacks cannon be underestimated. It's set a platform for 4,5,6,7 onwards to make runs against attacks in their 3rd and 4th spells. Its huge. It's best demonstrated by Root not in early at any point this winter. The earliest he has been in has been the 25th over. His return with the bat has improved considerably as a result. And Stokes and Pope have been afforded the freedom to play their natural game.
Denly has been a key part of that in batting time. Yes he needs a big score at some point but has done enough to warrant his place on the SL tour. Will be 3rd spinner too.
Denly was first called up for Sri Lanka in 2018, where his spin bowling would be a useful asset (why are we back there so soon?), being able to bowl will definitely help him keep his place in the side. Whether he can bat well enough against spin will be interesting though
I think the biggest positive about this series was the fact that it was truly a team effort.
Highest run scorer was Sibley (324) closely followed by Stokes (318) and Root (317) with Pope scoring 266 from just 3 Tests. Crawley demonstrated that he is a potential Test opener for years to come.
The bowling was pretty remarkable - 79 wickets with the ball and no less than 10 different bowlers taking those. This was reflected with Broad being our top wicket taker with "only" 14 but with Wood, Stokes, Curran, Anderson, Archer, Woakes and Bess all making significant contributions the future is as bright as it has ever been on the fast bowling front.
This has to be offset by the fact that we were facing as poor a South African side as I have seen for a long time but, the fact remains that had Root opted to bat first in the opening Test I believe it would have been a clean sweep. And you can't really argue with that.
The only weakness in this series has been Buttler, it is time for him to go with Foakes taking his place, Burns back in the summer, if we could keep Mark Wood fit just give him the odd warm up game and test matches, we are starting to look like a good team.
Good performance from England who have brought in players under the new coach Silverwood (an Englishman) who has been instrumental in bringing in players who seem to understand the requirements of test cricket and are not necessarily suited to the 50 or 20 over formats. Archer has been a disappointment and seems to be very fragile, I suspect the is more of a one day specialist, we will see. Wood has come good and Broad goes on and on, pity both are over 30. Buttler has been a disappointment as a batsman but his keeping has vastly improved. We at last have a choice of openers, or will have when Burns is fit. Denly has had a few games without establishing himself and it would be good to see him going to Sri Lanka. Root's captaincy is improving, again perhaps as a result of collaboration with Silverwood the new coach. Stokes is consistently excellent but he must watch his temper and always be aware that the playing field is not the same environment as a Bristol street after a skinfull
A really good performance by England to win 3-1. Yes it's a weak Saffer team, but no away win is easy, especially with the illness at the start, the loss of Jimmy and the shambolic loss of Burns.
Agree great series win. Not matter how weak this SA side is winning tests away from home is never easy. And I think we can forgive the first test due to the illness and everything else going on behind the scenes.
The think I'm most happy about is the genuine depth we have across the board basically now.
For the last few years we have had plenty of players who could bat 4/5/6/7 we now have 3 openers to choose from (when Burns is back) and Denly doing enough to earn his place in Sri Lanka.
We have struggled for a spinner for a while but now we have Bess, Leach and hopefully Moeen to return.
And the fast bowling seems to have as much depth as we have ever had. And most importantly varied.
Doubts building over distinctly average Denly’s Test future. This was the headline by a journo called Chris Stocks from the I. According to him he is completely unremarkable and hardly a player for the future. He has thrown in Jennings and Bairstow as his replacement unless Burns makes a remarkable recovery. Added to this he pointed out that Ed Smith may find it hard to jettison his favourite. We all know that Joe struggled at times; however,I am sure his teammates appreciated the fact that he could bat time. I just thought that after a successful England series which was a great team effort, a bit meanfisted to dig just one player out.
Doubts building over distinctly average Denly’s Test future. This was the headline by a journo called Chris Stocks from the I. According to him he is completely unremarkable and hardly a player for the future. He has thrown in Jennings and Bairstow as his replacement unless Burns makes a remarkable recovery. Added to this he pointed out that Ed Smith may find it hard to jettison his favourite. We all know that Joe struggled at times; however,I am sure his teammates appreciated the fact that he could bat time. I just thought that after a successful England series which was a great team effort, a bit meanfisted to dig just one player out.
Denley has done a job on this tour. Along with Sibley, Crawley and Burns his batting has allowed our middle order to come in much later when the shine is off the ball and bowlers lost their fire. How many times in the past has Root and Stokes been coming in within the first hour before. Makes a huge difference. Certainly not a long term answer at 3 but wrong to demean his contribution on this tour.
Doubts building over distinctly average Denly’s Test future. This was the headline by a journo called Chris Stocks from the I. According to him he is completely unremarkable and hardly a player for the future. He has thrown in Jennings and Bairstow as his replacement unless Burns makes a remarkable recovery. Added to this he pointed out that Ed Smith may find it hard to jettison his favourite. We all know that Joe struggled at times; however,I am sure his teammates appreciated the fact that he could bat time. I just thought that after a successful England series which was a great team effort, a bit meanfisted to dig just one player out.
Denley has done a job on this tour. Along with Sibley, Crawley and Burns his batting has allowed our middle order to come in much later when the shine is off the ball and bowlers lost their fire. How many times in the past has Root and Stokes been coming in within the first hour before. Makes a huge difference. Certainly not a long term answer at 3 but wrong to demean his contribution on this tour.
Denly has definitely done a team job over the last year occupying the crease and protecting the stroke makers, but he does need to score more runs as well
Indeed it's been a funny batting tour, in that the main batsmen have all made some runs. Normally you get a couple making massive runs and couple really struggling, but this time only the keeper Buttler has failed with the bat
Denly really has to get some proper scores in SL otherwise he will become the sacrificial lamb for Burns. It's not as if he hasn't been given a chance and a Test average of barely 30 from what will probably be 30 innings after SL really shouldn't be sufficient to keep a batsman in the side. Especially not for a 34 year old as he will be in 8 weeks time.
Chris Read being one player who kept getting dropped despite England doing well, and Mike Atherton being a player who kept his spot through all sorts of horror as he was about the only one showing any grit
I can't see Denly being dropped but Foakes has to come in, already has a test match 100 to his name in Galle so its as a no brainer surely?
As I say, I don't think Denly will be dropped for SL (especially as he and Root would give them 3rd & 4th spin options) but he has to demonstrate that he has the capability to make a big score at Test level.
Foakes had already been to SL three times prior to playing in the Test side and is a must for this trip. Have a nasty feeling that loyalty to Buttler might prevent him from making the initial line up.
Chris Read being one player who kept getting dropped despite England doing well, and Mike Atherton being a player who kept his spot through all sorts of horror as he was about the only one showing any grit
Chris Read was dropped when we had better options as wicket-keeper batsman. Who is currently proving a worthy successor to Denly at number three?
Atherton was sure of a place as he was the most talented player of his generation. In the same way, Broad should be assured of his place, despite taking fewer wickets per match in the series against South Africa than Wood, Anderson, Bess, and Archer.
England have a better win/loss ratio with Denly in the team that without him. For that reason, his position shouldn't even be under scrutiny.
Chris Read being one player who kept getting dropped despite England doing well, and Mike Atherton being a player who kept his spot through all sorts of horror as he was about the only one showing any grit
Chris Read was a worse than average batsman but an excellent gloveman, In the modern game you've got to at least be an average batsman to keep wicket at test level.
I imagine Crawley has done enough on this tour to convince the England hierarchy that the future 1/2/3 (in no particular order) is Burns, Sibley, Crawley. He's going to Aus with the Lions, which I imagine is partly to get the experience he needs and partly to prepare for the next Ashes. That being the case all they need from Denley is to keep doing what he's doing for another 6-12 months until they deem Crawley ready. If Denley can add more runs then that is a bonus, but I don't think it actually effects the status-quo.
From a Kent point of view, I'd prefer Denly and Crawley to be an either or, I wouldn't want both of them missing next summer, especially as neither are on full central Test contracts!
Buttler’s time is probably up. Foakes for me but he doesn’t seem to be their favourite, so perhaps they will turn to a youngster again in Robinson.
Foakes isn't out of favour it's just Smith wants to give his "wild card" Buttler as long as possible in the job. Foakes is absolutely 100% next on the rank and as much as Ollie Robinson is a friend and I would love to see him do the job, he isn't ahead of the best glove man in England who has a Test average of 41 and a First Class average of 38. And is still only 26.
Buttler’s time is probably up. Foakes for me but he doesn’t seem to be their favourite, so perhaps they will turn to a youngster again in Robinson.
Foakes isn't out of favour it's just Smith wants to give his "wild card" Buttler as long as possible in the job. Foakes is absolutely 100% next on the rank and as much as Ollie Robinson is a friend and I would love to see him do the job, he isn't ahead of the best glove man in England who has a Test average of 41 and a First Class average of 38. And is still only 26.
And Billings would surely be ahead of Robinson anyway?
Yeah definitely think Foakes deserves a chance ahead of Buttler. Denly has done ok but will be the first to go out of that top 6. Is useful in Sri Lanka though as him and Root can compliment the spinner well.
Comments
Highest run scorer was Sibley (324) closely followed by Stokes (318) and Root (317) with Pope scoring 266 from just 3 Tests. Crawley demonstrated that he is a potential Test opener for years to come.
The bowling was pretty remarkable - 79 wickets with the ball and no less than 10 different bowlers taking those. This was reflected with Broad being our top wicket taker with "only" 14 but with Wood, Stokes, Curran, Anderson, Archer, Woakes and Bess all making significant contributions the future is as bright as it has ever been on the fast bowling front.
This has to be offset by the fact that we were facing as poor a South African side as I have seen for a long time but, the fact remains that had Root opted to bat first in the opening Test I believe it would have been a clean sweep. And you can't really argue with that.
Archer has been a disappointment and seems to be very fragile, I suspect the is more of a one day specialist, we will see.
Wood has come good and Broad goes on and on, pity both are over 30.
Buttler has been a disappointment as a batsman but his keeping has vastly improved. We at last have a choice of openers, or will have when Burns is fit.
Denly has had a few games without establishing himself and it would be good to see him going to Sri Lanka. Root's captaincy is improving, again perhaps as a result of collaboration with Silverwood the new coach.
Stokes is consistently excellent but he must watch his temper and always be aware that the playing field is not the same environment as a Bristol street after a skinfull
The think I'm most happy about is the genuine depth we have across the board basically now.
For the last few years we have had plenty of players who could bat 4/5/6/7 we now have 3 openers to choose from (when Burns is back) and Denly doing enough to earn his place in Sri Lanka.
We have struggled for a spinner for a while but now we have Bess, Leach and hopefully Moeen to return.
And the fast bowling seems to have as much depth as we have ever had. And most importantly varied.
Positive signs.
This was the headline by a journo called Chris Stocks from the I. According to him he is completely unremarkable and hardly a player for the future. He has thrown in Jennings and Bairstow as his replacement unless Burns makes a remarkable recovery.
Added to this he pointed out that Ed Smith may find it hard to jettison his favourite.
We all know that Joe struggled at times; however,I am sure his teammates appreciated the fact that he could bat time.
I just thought that after a successful England series which was a great team effort, a bit meanfisted to dig just one player out.
Certainly not a long term answer at 3 but wrong to demean his contribution on this tour.
Indeed it's been a funny batting tour, in that the main batsmen have all made some runs. Normally you get a couple making massive runs and couple really struggling, but this time only the keeper Buttler has failed with the bat
#logic
Foakes had already been to SL three times prior to playing in the Test side and is a must for this trip. Have a nasty feeling that loyalty to Buttler might prevent him from making the initial line up.
Atherton was sure of a place as he was the most talented player of his generation. In the same way, Broad should be assured of his place, despite taking fewer wickets per match in the series against South Africa than Wood, Anderson, Bess, and Archer.
England have a better win/loss ratio with Denly in the team that without him. For that reason, his position shouldn't even be under scrutiny.