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England Cricket 2025
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I don't doubt what you say about the calibre of the Aussie attack. There is, though, a subtle but important difference between targeted hitting and Bazball. When Head scored 170 in Adelaide, he did so off 219 balls - he faced Archer (12.4-2-20-1), Tongue (18-0-70-4), Carse (20-1-80-3) and Stokes (7-0-26-1) who, between them returned figures of 57.4-3-196-9. Head was selective in his battles, didn't hit a boundary for more than 20 balls and only did so twice in his first 50 and then earned the right to be at the crease when Jacks (19-0-107-1) and Root (8-0-32-0) were bowling.killerandflash said:
I totally agree that Brook has been guilty of lax shots and casualness, but to be fair to England's batsmen, the Aussie batsmen have faced far weaker bowling than them. Head is the most "Bazball" of the Aussie batsmen, but has been fed an awful lot of rubbish, allowing him to crash the ball to the boundary. If he had to open against Starc and Boland, his average would be way lower, and he would quickly have been moved back down to 5. If Crawley and Duckett had opened against Carse and Potts in the 1st innings here, they would have got off to a flyer too.Addick Addict said:
And therein lies the problem. Root (400 runs at 44.44 in this series and overall from 37 innings in Australia averages 38.00) and Brook (358 runs at 39.77) are world class batters but their best has not been comparable to the best of the Aussies (apart from Bethell's one innings that is) - Head (600 runs at 66.66) and Smith (274 runs at 68.50) have out-performed them both. In fact, Carey, with 307 runs at 43.85 (plus 27 dismissals) has arguably done as well, if not better, than Root and Brook given he scored 178 runs in one Test which won him MOM.killerandflash said:
Brook is very frustrating, but to be fair to him he's only made 42 fewer runs than Root in this series (358 @ 39.77 vs 400 @44.44).Addick Addict said:What Bethell needed today was someone to stay with him for the duration. Brook averages 39.70 in the series but that masks the issue with him. Concentration. Nine times out and seven of those 30 plus here. In fact, he's now been out 18 times in the Ashes but failed to convert any of the five 50s he has hit.
Those scores do not win Test matches and if he wants to fulfil his undoubted talent then he has to start doing just that. If he does start to do that, Bethell continues his progress (and he will have to play more red ball to do that because he has to learn how to play all types of bowling in all sorts of conditions) and Root remains being Root then by the time the next Ashes comes around we will have a quality middle order.
Just as I've finished typing this, Langer has made the same point about Brook in questioning what he was doing in stepping away to Starc. It really is time for him to bin trying to be Bazball's poster boy.
Root's made 2 brilliant tons, but failed to pass 50 in the other 8 innings. Indeed he's failed to pass 20 in 7 of them.
A massive contrast to 5 years ago, when the big story was Root failing to convert 50s into 100s. Now his 50 to 100 conversion rate is ludicrous!
No batter for us has achieved that feat in Australia for 15 years. I appreciate that the wickets in the 2010/11 series were more batter friendly but six of ours were at or near the top of their game - averages for that series: Cook (127.66), Trott (50.39), Pietersen (60.00), Bell (65.80), Strauss (43.85), Bell (65.80) and Prior (50.40). For comparative purposes, of the Aussies, only Mike Hussey (63.33), Watson (48.33) and Haddin (45.00) got near those England players and the likes of Smith (31.80), Clarke (21.44), Katich (24.25) and Ponting (16.14) all had a poor series.
Root and Brook are both better than they have shown. Of the two, though, it is still more of a crime, for Brook to get to 30 on seven occasions and not go big at least two or three times. Coaches will call it that "don't get bored" attitude that someone like Cook had and Brook hasn't but he must learn to find it if he wants to become a great of the game. The talent is there but the mindset isn't and Bazball has only served to validate that attitude to batting. Bethell batted like a proper Test batsman today and look where that got him.
In 2010/11, for once we had a stronger attack than Australia's, with Mitchell Johnson having a stinker. In 13/14 he was unplayable, while in 17/18 they had the legendary Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood, Lyon quartet together for the first time, with Boland joining them in the 21/22.
Had Brook opened against us in that Test, I would have severe doubts that he would have had the patience to do that. In fact, in that very game, Brook got out playing a nothing shot, stuck on the crease, caught behind off Green (4 wickets in the series) and then tried a ridiculous reverse sweep, hitting against the spin, only to be bowled leg stump by Lyon. He had all the time in the world to bat so where was the "risk/reward" analysis in doing that against one of the best spinners in the world, bowling on the very ground he was groundsman at prior to his Test career?
Brook was on 45 and 30 respectively in those innings. So he was "in" but gave those wickets up in a match we lost by 82 runs. Converting one or other of those into a hundred would have made the difference between winning and losing. If Bethell can bat with intelligence, given his limited experience, one would hope that Brook can too. It is, though, a lot more difficult to do so when a team is behind in a game and too easy when they are miles in front.
I can't believe that we spent two years "preparing" for this series in terms of selection, the way we are going to play and practice and yet got it all so wrong. Brook is only in a very small way culpable in that respect but if he wants to be a great and win us tight games in the Ashes then he has to start to bat according to the situation and not the "hype".
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So give them a home series with bowler friendly conditions in June & a Dukes ball.MarcusH26 said:https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cd0yjkvxk43o
ECB to give Key and Baz the chance to stay. Absolutely bizarre
As my kid say.......EPIC.0 -
Made me chuckle anyway….3 -
I wouldn't be surprised if the side that's currently playing but with Archer available instead of Potts would be rolled out against NZ if the management doesn't change.golfaddick said:
So give them a home series with bowler friendly conditions in June & a Dukes ball.MarcusH26 said:https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cd0yjkvxk43o
ECB to give Key and Baz the chance to stay. Absolutely bizarre
As my kid say.......EPIC.0 -
Now here's one I'm struggling to understand. The ECB are planning to ban Aussies from playing in the County Championship. The very competition that they prevent England players from playing in because the standard isn't good enough and it doesn't replicate Test conditions!!!2
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“Only one Englishman has a higher Test score at a younger age than Jacob Bethell's 142*: Len Hutton was 15 days younger (22y 58d) when he piled on 364 against Australia at The Oval in 1938.”
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This is perhaps the stupidest idea of the Key era. Kent signing Wes Agar or Tom Rogers isn't going to make the slightest difference to whether we win a home Ashes. I get that no English player has played Sheffield Shield since Mason Crane but the Sheffield Shield has never really been one for Overseas whereas the County Championship has had generations of overseas signings and no one has ever been bothered really up until now.Addick Addict said:Now here's one I'm struggling to understand. The ECB are planning to ban Aussies from playing in the County Championship. The very competition that they prevent England players from playing in because the standard isn't good enough and it doesn't replicate Test conditions!!!
I know not all the Aussie test stars will come and play in the County Championship but the ones that do absolutely raise the level. Cam Green at Gloucestershire last season being case in point averaging 60+ when he was working his way back from injury. Even the more fringe players like a Matt Renshaw or a Nathan Mcsweeney are excellent additions.4 -
Wonder if it's actually some posturing and we asked to have players in the Sheffield Shield, CA said no and so we're trying to force their hand0
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Players who have scored their maiden FC century in a Test and maiden List A century in ODI:
- Kapil Dev
- Marlon Samuels
- Mehidy Hasan Miraz
- Curtis Campher
- Jacob Bethell3 -
Sp you're saying Bethell needs another 223 when he resumes tonight/tomorrow?Callumcafc said:“Only one Englishman has a higher Test score at a younger age than Jacob Bethell's 142*: Len Hutton was 15 days younger (22y 58d) when he piled on 364 against Australia at The Oval in 1938.”2 -
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Addick Addict said:
Stokes has been worse than Duckett. He's averaged 18.40 in 10 innings made up of scores of 6, 2, 19, 50, 83, 5, 16, 2, 0 & 1.bolloxbolder said:So other than Riot and Bethel, did anyone else make a ton this series for us? I think Stokes might have?
Duckett went into this Ashes series averaging 45.09 from 29 tests since his return to the test arena from 2022.
Unfortunately in this tour he has averaged 20.20 and has dropped some important catches.
Ben has been out playing attacking and defensive shots but really shouldn't lose his place despite his patchy record in this 25/26 Ashes.
Crawley remains an enigma with some classic strokes but also poor shots and decision making in getting out.
27.30 average in this series after a pair in the first test.
Crawley's overall test average is 31.55 and playing no shot was different for Zac today as he normally gets out in that corridor of uncertainty while playing a shot.0 -
soapboxsam said:
Unfortunately, I do wonder if something else isn't going on with Duckett that's affecting him. He hasn't been in any sort of form for almost six months, averaging just 16.78 in his last 24 competitive innings in red and white ball since July. Duckett claimed to be burned out post The Hundred and asked to sit out the three T20s against South Africa in September and should really have been dropped at some point in this series but, of course, we didn't bother taking another opener so that really wasn't an option.Addick Addict said:
Stokes has been worse than Duckett. He's averaged 18.40 in 10 innings made up of scores of 6, 2, 19, 50, 83, 5, 16, 2, 0 & 1.bolloxbolder said:So other than Riot and Bethel, did anyone else make a ton this series for us? I think Stokes might have?
Duckett went into this Ashes series averaging 45.09 from 29 tests since his return to the test arena from 2022.
Unfortunately in this tour he has averaged 20.20 and has dropped some important catches.
Ben has been out playing attacking and defensive shots but really shouldn't lose his place despite his patchy record in this 25/26 Ashes.
Crawley remains an enigma with some classic strokes but also poor shots and decision making in getting out.
27.30 average in this series after a pair in the first test.
Crawley's overall test average is 31.55 and playing no shot was different for Zac today as he normally gets out in that corridor of uncertainty while playing a shot.
It's certainly not what I would do but, given the way the management think and act, I would not be surprised if they don't still pick the two moving forward.
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is that THE Curtis Campher ?Callumcafc said:Players who have scored their maiden FC century in a Test and maiden List A century in ODI:
- Kapil Dev
- Marlon Samuels
- Mehidy Hasan Miraz
- Curtis Campher
- Jacob Bethell0 -
So that's why he's been so rubbish this series. We taught him how to bowl long hops, give his wicket away when set, and drop sitters in the slipsMarcusH26 said:
This is perhaps the stupidest idea of the Key era. Kent signing Wes Agar or Tom Rogers isn't going to make the slightest difference to whether we win a home Ashes. I get that no English player has played Sheffield Shield since Mason Crane but the Sheffield Shield has never really been one for Overseas whereas the County Championship has had generations of overseas signings and no one has ever been bothered really up until now.Addick Addict said:Now here's one I'm struggling to understand. The ECB are planning to ban Aussies from playing in the County Championship. The very competition that they prevent England players from playing in because the standard isn't good enough and it doesn't replicate Test conditions!!!
I know not all the Aussie test stars will come and play in the County Championship but the ones that do absolutely raise the level. Cam Green at Gloucestershire last season being case in point averaging 60+ when he was working his way back from injury. Even the more fringe players like a Matt Renshaw or a Nathan Mcsweeney are excellent additions.
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Rather than banning Aussies from playing for Derbyshire or whoever, put some money aside to fund people on the fringe of the England squad to go and play top level grade cricket in Australia for a winter. Phil Tufnell was singing the praises of the experience on TMS earlier.MarcusH26 said:
This is perhaps the stupidest idea of the Key era. Kent signing Wes Agar or Tom Rogers isn't going to make the slightest difference to whether we win a home Ashes. I get that no English player has played Sheffield Shield since Mason Crane but the Sheffield Shield has never really been one for Overseas whereas the County Championship has had generations of overseas signings and no one has ever been bothered really up until now.Addick Addict said:Now here's one I'm struggling to understand. The ECB are planning to ban Aussies from playing in the County Championship. The very competition that they prevent England players from playing in because the standard isn't good enough and it doesn't replicate Test conditions!!!
I know not all the Aussie test stars will come and play in the County Championship but the ones that do absolutely raise the level. Cam Green at Gloucestershire last season being case in point averaging 60+ when he was working his way back from injury. Even the more fringe players like a Matt Renshaw or a Nathan Mcsweeney are excellent additions.4 -
Outrageous and indefensible!MarcusH26 said:https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cd0yjkvxk43o
ECB to give Key and Baz the chance to stay. Absolutely bizarre
Rob Key has done so much to destroy English cricket I’m beginning to think he an Aussie!
The absolute debacle of this ashes tour and the hundred and he’s still in post!1 -
Bethell and Potts survive until the new ball. 316-80
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And Bethell gets his 150, brilliant innings (so far)1
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150 up for Bethell0
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Potts batting very sensibly0
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Very glad Bethell reviewed that, he looked like he was walking0
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That’s a piss poor decision from Gaffney. Jumping and hit above the knee roll, that’s a hope it’s an umpires call so he can go home early….0
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Bethell edges behind off Starc for 154. 328-90
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Lead gets to 150.
180 and we have a sniff.0 -
342 all out - Starc gets his 31st of the series.
Australia will need 160 to win.0 -
Good effort from Potts and Tongue. If Smith and Jacks hadn’t got out so cheaply we could have won this1
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The bowling just isn’t good enough I’m afraid.0
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The 3rd umpires are such a joke0
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Making up the rules as they go along here. Joke.1
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Ridiculous. Based on the Snicko nonsense this series, how is that not out?0
