The Ashes 2019

[littlebabyjesus]

That's not quite what I was referring to. The county championship is now a two part affair with a 5 week break in the middle (July/August) where the T20 mostly goes. Next year it'll be an extra week added to the gap and the 100 will go there (no idea where the T20 goes).

That's the best 5-6 weeks of the summer (possibly longer) when there's no red ball cricket which gets further shunted to the Spring/Autumn months where rain/bad light/strange pitches become a factor. Less chance for future test batsmen to hone their craft.

EDIT: Pretty sure the championship season used to last from May to early September with an MCC XI vs last year's champions and/or a Lions match in April. Might be mistaken. The championship season is now beginning of April to late September anyway.

See what you mean. Australia does exactly the same thing with the Big Bash, which is held over the school holidays exactly when the big test series is being held. Perhaps their recent struggles reflect that as well.

tbh India have it right in this regard. Everything else stops for the IPL and all the international players play in it, then they go back to internationals. Guess their climate helps in that regard, but wrt England, why not have a short, sharp t20 series in June with all the internationals playing in it, then hold all the tests in July, August and September, with three rounds of the CC before the first test, the rest of the CC played while the tests are on? The 'secondary' test series that normally gets pushed back to May could come in September instead. I'm sure Sri Lanka would rather play in Southampton in September than Durham in May.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Archer seems ok then. Bowled 12 overs (an 8 over spell and 2 of 2), 6 wickets for not many runs. Plus a century in 90ish balls with the bat.

Gloucestershire 2nd xi may not be Australia, but encouraging fitness-wise.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Archer seems ok then. Bowled 12 overs (an 8 over spell and 2 of 2), 6 wickets for not many runs. Plus a century in 90ish balls with the bat.

Gloucestershire 2nd xi may not be Australia, but encouraging fitness-wise.

Yep, he's definitely in. Direct swap with Anderson. The injuries are allowing the selectors to dodge difficult decisions, I think. First Wood, then Archer, then Anderson. Broad and Woakes keep their places, I would guess. Certainly both of them don't fit in to a fully fit 11. I'm not sure either of them do tbh, although I'd take Broad first but out of hope for freakish inspiration more than on current form.

 

[planetgeli]

Archer seems ok then. Bowled 12 overs (an 8 over spell and 2 of 2), 6 wickets for not many runs. Plus a century in 90ish balls with the bat.

Gloucestershire 2nd xi may not be Australia, but encouraging fitness-wise.

I think seven of them were teenagers. One of whom he hit in the grille of the helmet and probably put him off batting for life.

 

[planetgeli]

First Wood, then Archer, then Anderson.

Now Stone.

Jason Gillespie had a nice little dig re Archer too.

"I was surprised he didn't play the first Test, to be perfectly blunt," Gillespie told TalkSPORT radio. "It's easy to say that in hindsight, but he's 100 percent fit, ready to go.

"He had to start the first Test, but the powers that be decided he wasn't quite ready. They thought he'd not played enough red-ball cricket … but the same people were saying he hadn't played enough 50-over cricket and he's gone and been the leading [England] wicket-taker in the World Cup.

"He adds another dimension to this England bowling attack - he's got pace, bounce, movement off the seam, through the air. Four or five-day cricket is his best format, so appreciate how good he is."

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Now Stone.

Jason Gillespie had a nice little dig re Archer too.

Reckon he may be right in his assessment, though. We saw in the WC that Archer has everything. I expect him to be a star in test cricket.

As for the kids he played against, it will no doubt have been daunting, but hopefully it was also a thrill to face him in a competitive match. May end up as a highlight of the careers of those who don't make it as pros.

 

[OzT]

I do hope Archer plays at Lords, he seems a very useful quickie who can bat a bit, the the batsmen needs to be tested against all to prove their worth.

Be as interesting if the Aussies uses Starc this time. Guess will have to wait til next week to see what the pitch will be like.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I do hope Archer plays at Lords, he seems a very useful quickie who can bat a bit, the the batsmen needs to be tested against all to prove their worth.

Be as interesting if the Aussies uses Starc this time. Guess will have to wait til next week to see what the pitch will be like.

I'd have him in whatever the pitch tbh. Probably for Siddle . I like Siddle (Got to love a trier) but he's one of those bowlers with a tendency to bowl good spells that somehow don't take wickets. Can't remember him ever bowling a magic match-winning spell.

 

[OzT]

Good point littlebabyjesus though I think Siddle, in tandom with Lyon, can tie up the game for a while if the English batsmen get in. Starc was a bit, ok very, expensive in the tour game at the mo, hope he fires properly if playing at Lords.

 

[planetgeli]

Archer is the future.

I said the same about Cook early on.

 

[planetgeli]

I'd have him in whatever the pitch tbh. Probably for Siddle . I like Siddle (Got to love a trier) but he's one of those bowlers with a tendency to bowl good spells that somehow don't take wickets. Can't remember him ever bowling a magic match-winning spell.

Siddle was included to stop England getting away with the game in boundaries. They got that right.

Starc is capable of destroying England. Starc, Cummins, Siddle, Lyon.

 

[kabbes]

Archer is the future.

I said the same about Cook early on.

Ah, but who did you say it about that didn’t pan out? We’ve all got our failures too.

 

[planetgeli]

Ah, but who did you say it about that didn’t pan out? We’ve all got our failures too.

Nobody. Seriously. Just those two are obvious to me.

I could probably give one or two as the obverse of that though. Ian Botham is the one that springs to mind. “What have they picked that West Country bumpkin for?” (On his test debut).

(I was 13 so give us a break. Also staying in Bristol with my brother who was at Poly and partly said to wind his flatmate up).

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Good point that Siddle is the sort who'll get his bowling partner wickets. Aus are Pretty spoilt though. Hazlewood should prosper in English conditions too.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Rashid now out for the rest of the season as well.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Pretty much the expected changes for the second test then, Leach and Archer in.

The batting is OK it seems.

 

[Pink Panther]

Pretty much the expected changes for the second test then, Leach and Archer in.

The batting is OK it seems.

We've had heavy defeats during other recent home series, though not usually in the opening match, and bounced back. There's been no Championship cricket for a month and only Sibley of the uncapped batsmen was really pressing his case through weight of runs for his county. Otherwise the only other option seems to be shuffling the batting order and/or recalling someone who was recently discarded and hasn't done a lot to earn another chance.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Sibley should have been in first test tbh. Disrespectful to the cc to have ignored him. That he's a bit dour is if anything a good thing. What would we give to have Hameed back in form? I think the selectors are a bit confused.

 

[Pink Panther]

Sibley should have been in first test tbh. Disrespectful to the cc to have ignored him. That he's a bit dour is if anything a good thing. What would we give to have Hameed back in form? I think the selectors are a bit confused.

Yes, we obviously needed to find at least one new top order batsman following Jennings' latest failure over the winter, there were ten rounds of Championship matches before the Tests got underway so plenty of opportunities for candidates to stake a claim and for the selectors to evaluate them, and they go and pick a bloke who hadn't played a first class match since September and hadn't opened the batting in one for six years. All of which gives the message that they'd already decided the team they wanted and the county games didn't really count for anything. If Jason Roy batted like it was a one day game last week it's probably because he's played little else for the last 2 years.

One other statistc I only noticed last week is that Roy has scored his first class runs at 81 per hundred balls over his entire career since 2010. That equates to scoring at close to 5 runs an over all the time. Even Chris Gayle only scores at a fraction over 60/100 balls in red ball cricket. If Roy is there for any length of time he's capable of doing some serious damage, but he's not really the man for seeing off the new ball bowlers, building a solid platform, and still being there by lunchtime.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Chris Gayle is still fundamentally a test batsman imo, in a way the likes of Roy and Buttler etc aren't. He's still about defending the good ball and scoring off the bad ball. Ok when he plays a shot he's aiming to smash it to the boundary but he still defends or leaves a lot. Modern white ball cricketers are trying to improvise a scoring shot off good balls. It can work spectacularly in a one day game but not so much in tests.

 

[Pink Panther]

Chris Gayle is still fundamentally a test batsman imo, in a way the likes of Roy and Buttler etc aren't. He's still about defending the good ball and scoring off the bad ball. Ok when he plays a shot he's aiming to smash it to the boundary but he still defends or leaves a lot. Modern white ball cricketers are trying to improvise a scoring shot off good balls. It can work spectacularly in a one day game but not so much in tests.

Kevin Pietersen also played much like that description of Gayle, and also scored at just above 60/100 in Tests. He also (like Gayle) seemed content to play a lot of dot balls in the early part of a T20 innings. I think both Gayle and Pietersen turn 40 this year so their formative years in first class cricket predate the T20 era. They both adapted to be top T20 players wheras Roy is now largely a product of T20. I felt the selectors should have taken a punt on Roy and brought him into the middle order 5 years ago after Pietersen was "sacked" (he was scoring consistently well in Championship cricket at the time) but they were preoccupied with papering over the cracks left by the abrupt retirements of Prior and Swann, so any middle order vacancies went to people who could bowl or keep wicket. He's since become more or less pigeonholed as a white ball specialist thanks to IPL and ODI commitments.

Looking at a few stats for random high profile Test players the only one I could find who scored at anything remotely close to 80/100 was Adam Gilchrist at just above 82, but he rarely if ever batted higher than 7 and was often coming in to bat against bowlers already worn down by a strong top order.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Virender Sehwag the obvious exception. 8500 runs mostly opening at an average a shade under 50 and strike rate a very respectable (for odis) 82. But he's an exception. Looking for the next Sehwag is probably going to be about as fruitful as looking for the next Botham.

 

[Casual Observer]

Looking for the next Sehwag is probably going to be about as fruitful as looking for the next Botham.

David Warner. 6373 runs at a strike rate of 74.43 in tests. What do I win?

There are a few other big run merchants (5000+ runs) with a strike rate of 60-70% in tests. Hayden, Botham, Lara, McCullum, Jayasuriya and Dilshan in addition to those already mentioned. It's 'easier' to do for overseas players who don't play half their tests in England (like Pietersen and Botham). Less lateral movement to contend with.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Thing with Sehwag is that on his day he could stay in all day and go very big. Warner can do that as well. Roy has never done it ever in any cricket.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Second test then...not looking likely there'll be much play today though.

 

[Teaboy]

Second test then...not looking likely there'll be much play today though.

Yup. Absolutely chucking it down in SW London at the moment. Saturday doesn't look too clever at the moment either.

 

[planetgeli]

Nor Friday. So here's the drawn test.

 

[Spymaster]

Belting down here too and forecast's the same for Friday and Saturday. It's already a draw.

 

[Pickman's model]

Belting down here too and forecast's the same for Friday and Saturday. It's already a draw.

hope you'd got a score on that

 

[Spymaster]

hope you'd got a score on that

Tbh, the way England batted in Birmingham, I wouldn't bet on a draw at the moment.