Hopefully we can win the toss and bat for the first two days.
Wonder when the last time we batted 2 days straight through was? I'd put a lot of money on it being pre Stokes/Mccullum
Not batting first buy in the First Test we batted for 150 overs which would have been for between five and six sessions and scored 823 runs which should be sufficient. We won't do that on this pitch though.
Sajid and Noman took all 20 of England's wickets between them. Wonder how many times two bowlers have done that before?
7th time in history that two bowlers took all 20 wickets in a test.
First time since 1972 and only the second time since 1956.
The weird thing is that Pakistan packed their team full of spin bowlers, yet it was just 2 of them which took all the wickets and bowled most of the overs.
No 11 Zahid Mehmood the leg spinner bowled just 6 overs in the match.
If it ain't broke then you don't have to try and fix it and when your two spinners take 20 wickets @ 12.55 then you really don't have to fix it by bowling those other spinners. Which begs the question as to whether, in addition to our two spinners (12 wickets @ 27.67), assuming that the pitch for the final Test looks like it is a bunsen burner, we pick our own variation? Rehan Ahmed is similar to Zahid in the sense that he is a leggie who might get a few wickets but because of a lack of control might not be as effective in keeping the pressure on the batsmen as finger spinners have been in these conditions.
Including Rehan raises other questions - do we leave out a seamer and go in with one plus Stokes or drop Pope? With one Test to go and knowing how this regime thinks, I very much doubt that we will leave Pope out as much because it creates that issue as to who bats at 3 as well as Rehan batting at 7. Rehan can bat and ultimately may well be good enough to do so but with Smith at 6 and struggling to acclimatise too in the conditions, I just can't see that happening. So, to my mind, we'll either leave Carse and Potts out and bring in Rehan and Atkinson or just make one change and sub the Surrey seamer for one of the two Durham quicks.
I suspect that Rehan will bat above Atkinson - Rehan is a more talented batsman but Atkinson has been more effective in Test cricket so England might choose otherwise. The real question though is how much we use Rehan and at what point we turn to him. He will be the risk/reward bowler of our attack.
It does seem strange but the motive is to see if he can bat and keep at Test level especially as we have the big series down under in a year's time and three games is better than one in that respect. Someone will have to go as number two to Smith and it looks like they want an understudy to be someone that excels in T20. I would like to have seen Robinson (a better keeper) being given that chance but they clearly have a different view. If Cox gets injured (and he has previously suffered a broken finger or two) then they still have Pope and Duckett that can keep.
As for tomorrow 's game I think it's a mistake dropping Carse. He gives 100 % even when the pitch is offering nothing. Two specialist spinners plus Root should be enough without dropping Carse.
As for tomorrow 's game I think it's a mistake dropping Carse. He gives 100 % even when the pitch is offering nothing. Two specialist spinners plus Root should be enough without dropping Carse.
Makes a lot of sense. Who would you drop from the XI they've announced so that Carse could play?
I also think it's bad luck on Woakes who didn't do much wrong in the first Test, either with the new ball or with the bat.
As for tomorrow 's game I think it's a mistake dropping Carse. He gives 100 % even when the pitch is offering nothing. Two specialist spinners plus Root should be enough without dropping Carse.
Makes a lot of sense. Who would you drop from the XI they've announced so that Carse could play?
I also think it's bad luck on Woakes who didn't do much wrong in the first Test, either with the new ball or with the bat.
I would go with two specialist spinners plus Atkinson and Carse. So probably keep Leach plus one of the other two.
As for tomorrow 's game I think it's a mistake dropping Carse. He gives 100 % even when the pitch is offering nothing. Two specialist spinners plus Root should be enough without dropping Carse.
Makes a lot of sense. Who would you drop from the XI they've announced so that Carse could play?
I also think it's bad luck on Woakes who didn't do much wrong in the first Test, either with the new ball or with the bat.
I would go with two specialist spinners plus Atkinson and Carse. So probably keep Leach plus one of the other two.
Same here. Root can provide an off spin option, Leach the left arm option and Ahmed the mystery spin.
As for tomorrow 's game I think it's a mistake dropping Carse. He gives 100 % even when the pitch is offering nothing. Two specialist spinners plus Root should be enough without dropping Carse.
Makes a lot of sense. Who would you drop from the XI they've announced so that Carse could play?
I also think it's bad luck on Woakes who didn't do much wrong in the first Test, either with the new ball or with the bat.
It's a bit of a conundrum but I do think the reason that McCullum and Stokes want to persevere with Bashir because he is their (note I said "their") number one spinner and the only experience of bowling is in Test cricket especially as they will always have one eye on the Ashes in that respect. He isn't going to progress or learn anything sitting on the sidelines and might not get many CC games in the summer to do so. It's also a lot to ask Rehan Ahmed, who hasn't played for six weeks (1-147 in that game), to bowl a lot of overs without leaking runs (48 career wickets at 46.04 and an E/R of 4.08) and he will be more of a partnership breaker to me. Root isn't a regular wicket taker either (96 wickets at 47.78) so that would leave too heavy a load for Leach.
Pakistan bowled 6 overs of seam in the whole of the last Test and soundly beat us. We will still have one more seamer than them and I suspect that Stokes will step up to try and take on the role of Carse as the "enforcer".
As for tomorrow 's game I think it's a mistake dropping Carse. He gives 100 % even when the pitch is offering nothing. Two specialist spinners plus Root should be enough without dropping Carse.
Brydon Carse has been a big plus for England after his suspension and he has the X-factor about him with Bat and ball. Is it more about rotation as England's injury record with seamers with the likes of Wood, Stone, Archer etc make England want to treat Atkinson, Carse and Potts a tad more careful.
Despite their inexperienced, playing 3 spinners also came into the thinking and Rehan Ahmed and Bashir are very much 'learning on the job' with Jack Leech the senior man.
As for tomorrow 's game I think it's a mistake dropping Carse. He gives 100 % even when the pitch is offering nothing. Two specialist spinners plus Root should be enough without dropping Carse.
Brydon Carse has been a big plus for England after his suspension and he has the X-factor about him with Bat and ball. Is it more about rotation as England's injury record with seamers with the likes of Wood, Stone, Archer etc make England want to treat Atkinson, Carse and Potts a tad more careful.
Despite their inexperienced, playing 3 spinners also came into the thinking and Rehan Ahmed and Bashir are very much 'learning on the job' with Jack Leech the senior man.
Pakistan do something rarely seen in Test cricket. Open with spin both ends in the first innings of the match with their two match winners from the last game.
Must be a first in Test cricket too - the same two bowlers finishing one innings, bowling for the duration of the next innings and then opening the bowling in the third innings.
England had a 6 hitting competition yesterday but the early signs were that both openers are gong to have a good look before bringing that out. Until Duckett, on the final ball of the 5th over, comes down the track and only just evades mid on in the ring. There is some turn but it is very slow turn so plenty of time to react to that and more of an issue is going to be the total lack of any bounce. Don't go back!!!
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https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/england-premium/jamie_smith_miss_entire_new_zealand_tour.html?t=638652069901944380
He gives 100 % even when the pitch is offering nothing.
Two specialist spinners plus Root should be enough without dropping Carse.
I also think it's bad luck on Woakes who didn't do much wrong in the first Test, either with the new ball or with the bat.
So probably keep Leach plus one of the other two.
Pakistan bowled 6 overs of seam in the whole of the last Test and soundly beat us. We will still have one more seamer than them and I suspect that Stokes will step up to try and take on the role of Carse as the "enforcer".
Brydon Carse has been a big plus for England after his suspension and he has the X-factor about him with Bat and ball.
Is it more about rotation as England's injury record with seamers with the likes of Wood, Stone, Archer etc make England want to treat Atkinson, Carse and Potts a tad more careful.
Despite their inexperienced, playing 3 spinners also came into the thinking and Rehan Ahmed and Bashir are very much 'learning on the job' with Jack Leech the senior man.
15-0 (5)
41-0 (10)
Crawley 27* (35)
Duckett 20* (38)
56-1 (14)