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England Cricket 2023

Great that Moeen is back but what's up with Adil Rashid? Is he injured?

Bit shit that we basically have one spinner in the whole England test set up.
 
Great that Moeen is back but what's up with Adil Rashid? Is he injured?

Bit shit that we basically have one spinner in the whole England test set up.

Hasn't played a red ball game for 4 years. Dodgy shoulder. Wasn't that great when he did play.
 
This is not sustainable surely... just sit in the dressing room and advise Pope between sessions/during drinks breaks and get someone who will actually be able to play in there

Stokes has proved an inspirational leader and an excellent cricket captain since his appointment last April, but sadly his left knee seems to be a complete mess. Though he is adamant about his ability to bat, he has become a bowler of last resort and is quite happy doing nothing but leading – in the warmup against Ireland he became the first winning captain in Test history not to bat, bowl or keep wicket.
 
He can still swing a bat as well as anybody on his day, and on the field he is a talismanic figure.

Pope as VC is more of a joke to me. Without that double century against Ireland he still only averages 32.
 
That stat doesn't really tell you much about him. Just that he doesn't bat right at the top of the order and Ireland didn't take a lot of wickets - obviously if they'd taken more he'd have come in to bat as normal.
 
He can still swing a bat as well as anybody on his day, and on the field he is a talismanic figure.

Pope as VC is more of a joke to me. Without that double century against Ireland he still only averages 32.
Yep. I think this is a big summer for Pope to prove himself by making important runs against good bowling. I think he may do it, or he may not. imo he's still unproven as a test batter. His double against Ireland merely underlined how good he is against medium pacers on flat wickets. We already knew that from the County Championship. Is he more than a flat-track bully? We'll find out a lot more in the next two months.
 
Sigh... Bairstow better keep and bat well. Foakes should be there. I have a feeling even if bairstow has a shocker they will pick him all summer.

As for Crawley... I won't waste energy typing.
 
They need Bairstow. They're gonna need some serious firepower. Australia looked very very good. Bairstow's a very competent keeper and can score at well over 100 so he's gotta be in for Bazball to work.

Can you remember a massive Bairstow blunder behind the stumps in the last few years?
 
They need Bairstow. They're gonna need some serious firepower. Australia looked very very good. Bairstow's a very competent keeper and can score at well over 100 so he's gotta be in for Bazball to work.

Can you remember a massive Bairstow blunder behind the stumps in the last few years?
He's a decent keeper, particularly standing back. That's not the issue for me. The issue is how many runs you lose by having Bairstow keeping wicket. His bonanza last year came without the gloves. Giving him back the gloves is not a free lunch.

It's a very old argument, and I'm always on the other side of it. Alec Stewart lost 12 runs from his average when he kept wicket. I never agreed with him taking the gloves over Russell either, but Foakes is a better batter than Russell was.

Basically, it's exactly because they need Bairstow's batting that he shouldn't have the gloves. And Foakes is a perfect insurance policy for Bazball coming in at seven, or even eight if Moeen is playing. Moeen playing just makes the case for Foakes even stronger imo.
 
I don't think he's nearly as good a keeper as foakes. I don't follow county cricket, so don't know if he's been scoring.
 
I can't be bothered trying to Cricinfo this but I'm assuming Bairstow's strike rate is massively above Foakes under the new regime. It's a very difficult problem. But Bazball is about scoring rate, not averages. It's hugely unfair, but there's only 11 spots.

Get rid of Crawley ffs and open with Bairstow, put Foakes back in as the stabilising guy if there's a collapse.
 
I can only repeat. It's not a question of Bairstow or Foakes. Just as it wasn't a question of Stewart or Russell. It's a question of just Bairstow or Bairstow and Foakes. Given that there is a batter there ready to be dropped, it's a no-brainer for me. Only question then is who do you ask to open. I'd say Brook.

I think too much is made of opening as a specialist position sometimes. Aus shoved Khawaja up there because that was the slot available, and he's done very well.
 
They need Bairstow. They're gonna need some serious firepower. Australia looked very very good. Bairstow's a very competent keeper and can score at well over 100 so he's gotta be in for Bazball to work.

Can you remember a massive Bairstow blunder behind the stumps in the last few years?
:hmm:
 
I think too much is made of opening as a specialist position sometimes. Aus shoved Khawaja up there because that was the slot available, and he's done very well.

It matters a lot less when the entire batting order has the same job to do; score big and fast. More important than openers could be having someone who can dig in a bit coming in it 6 or 7. Foakes could do that.

Bairstow of course has done very well opening in white ball cricket. No reason to think he couldn't do it in Bazball tests.
 
“We had unprecedented access to cricket which provided us with a unique opportunity to hold a mirror up to the game. The findings in our report are unequivocal. Racism, class-based discrimination, elitism and sexism are widespread and deep rooted. It’s not banter or just a few bad apples. Discrimination is both overt and baked into the structures and processes within cricket."

- Cindy Butts, Chair of the ICEC

Some reading fir tomorrow: Report - ICEC Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket
 
“We had unprecedented access to cricket which provided us with a unique opportunity to hold a mirror up to the game. The findings in our report are unequivocal. Racism, class-based discrimination, elitism and sexism are widespread and deep rooted. It’s not banter or just a few bad apples. Discrimination is both overt and baked into the structures and processes within cricket."

- Cindy Butts, Chair of the ICEC

Some reading fir tomorrow: Report - ICEC Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket



"Racism, class-based discrimination, elitism and sexism are widespread and deep rooted"
 

Nice article, well written.

Scary stat from it. Duckett and Crawley average 12 between them in India.

Yeah decent article. Like I was saying on the Ashes thread this is going to be a really challenging tour I think, India are pretty untouchable at home and the England team is inevitably going to look a bit cobbled together because there's some obvious gaps which the article discusses. The batting looks OK overall but the spinners and all-rounders (if Stokes isn't able to bowl properly) are going to be a real issue. There's definitely going to be some players who are likely to cause some shouts of disgust on here involved.

If England can even manage to be competitive that'll be a bid achievement tbh.
 
Today the "One day cup" (50 overs) produced two of the most one-sided, low scoring, boring semi-finals in any competition ever. The whole of August has been written off to shite cricket.

I want my money back.
 
Looks like Harry Brook is showing the selectors they may have made a mistake leaving him out the world cup squad
 
Whisper it. It's immensely egotistical for Ben Stokes to put himself back up for selection. Brook's on a crest. Let him have his moment, Ben - you've had enough of those.
 
Yer getting a bit excited over a couple of sixes.

FWIW I think Stokes and Brook deserve a place.

Will Jacks, not so much.
 
England are reigning 50-over and 20-over champs. Stokes was at the crease winning the finals on both occasions on wickets that were tough to bat on. I've no idea what wickets we can expect in India, but I want Stokes there if they are tricky. If they're 350+ wickets, not so important. (The pattern in these big tournaments is for wickets to become slow and tired as the tournament progresses.)

I also think Brook should have a place made for him. But England have an extraordinary pool of white ball batting talent at the moment. Someone very good has to miss out.
 
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