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The Ashes 2019

Roy does look good against a bad ball I'll give him that. Just don't think he'll get many bad balls from this attack.
 
Roy bowled again. It's not just his shot selection that's been found out in test cricket. His technique is also deficient. Regardless of the result here, he needs to go for the Oval. You can't just keep picking him. And as was mentioned before, he's also dropping catches, as batsmen tend to do when they're not scoring runs. His continued selection has gone a long way towards putting England in their current position.
 
What chance this series, potentially the first ashes series we've lost at home in ages, will actually lead to wholesale changes in the England set up?

Root's record as test captain is crap but I doubt they'll take the captaincy off him and who else is there to give it to anyway?
There will soon be a new head coach for a start, because Trevor Bayliss is leaving after this series. I believe Chris Silverwood has been named as the interim coach for the forthcoming New Zealand tour ahead of a permanent appointment (for which he should be a candidate) with Graham Thorpe and Paul Collingwood as his assistants. How much influence he'll have within the panel of selectors I'm not sure.

Root being captain seems to be adversely affecting his personal form, although I don't have any statistics to hand to back that up. My feeling is just that he's not really a top captain anyway. The obvious alternative is surely Stokes as current vice-captain. Others would be Broad (as a short term option) or Burns, who is barely an established member of the side but at least has the pedigree of captaining his county to the Championship. I can't see anyone beyond that.

The whole balance of the side seems wrong to me. It's overloaded with all-rounders and one-day specialists. Someone suggested a little while ago on here that it's wildly optimistic to expect a side containing all of Bairstow, Roy and Buttler to be capable of accumulating substantial totals; Bairstow is probably the best bet of those three as an assertive middle order batsman, but personally I'd tell him to forget about keeping if he wants to stay in the side and pick Foakes to keep wicket and bat at 7. Unfortunately a long sequence of people who might have been expected to develop into "proper Test batsmen" have failed and/or been discarded: Lyth, Robson, Compton, Carberry, Westley, Stoneman, Malan, Vince, Jennings. (Not to mention the mysterious and frustrating decline of Hameed, whose performances in county cricket when I saw him 3 or 4 years ago instantly marked him out as the long-term successor to Alistair Cook for me.) The bowling department looks to be in better shape, but there will soon come a time when we'll have to cope without both Broad and Anderson.
 
Denly 50 up. Like Burns a player picked on county form rather than some madcap idea that he will magically become a decent redball player against one of the best bowling attacks in the world without significant time in the middle. Same for Labuschagne, picked based on his runs in red ball cricket.
Sibley has to start next match and perhaps Ballance who has also gotten the runs in the middle.
 
You can't just keep picking him.
And yet selectors have shown, over the years, that they CAN just keep picking guys.

I know that you have to give people a bit of a chance, but it's often been the case that it's much harder to get into to the team that it is to get out of it. Every dropped player is an acknowledgement by the selectors that they've made a wrong decision, and there's some natural reluctance to do that. I remember arguments like this about the Aussie team, going back to when I was a kid.
 
Haved relented and turned on TMS. Amazed it is still going. Is this going to be another Cardiff? Either way, it's great cricket
 
No second miracle. Well done to the Somerset boys, had me starting to hope just a tiny bit, but it was a huge ask to bat out 30 overs.

Aus are the better team in this series. I don't think either team is all that though really. Smith is the difference. No coincidence that Aus lost the match he missed.
 
Game was lost last night really, but credit to those players who put up a fight anyway.

I will grudgingly admit that the Australian bowlers have played well. Smith is a cheat and a disgrace and he could score another ten thousand runs and still be a cheat and a disgrace. And refusing to ever get out just ruins the game for everyone.
 
England did well with a patchy crew and no Jimmy. It's been quite the season with the World Cup and that Stokes/Leach blinder so although it's a shame we didn't get the Ashes, it wasn't an embarrassing defeat.

In fact it's more embarrassing when someone who has never seen the actual Ashes cup claps eyes on it and asks WTF is that? and you have to explain why it means so much despite its challenging size :oops::D
 
In fact it's more embarrassing when someone who has never seen the actual Ashes cup claps eyes on it and asks WTF is that? and you have to explain why it means so much despite its challenging size :oops::D

Then explain that even when the convicts win it, it stays in England.
 
Let's not get too down hearted. With the right selection and a bit if rub of the green we can get a result at the Oval and do 'em in the super over :thumbs::hmm:
 
Australias batting other than Smith and Labuschagne is shit. Englands is shittier. It is ludicrous that Roy and Buttler were selected for this test with averages for the series in the single figures, especially after a match where the team only put 65 on the board for the first innings. Only Burns, Root and Stokes average more than 30 for the series for England.
Its been done to death and nothings going to change.
 
Australias batting other than Smith and Labuschagne is shit. Englands is shittier. It is ludicrous that Roy and Buttler were selected for this test with averages for the series in the single figures, especially after a match where the team only put 65 on the board for the first innings. Only Burns, Root and Stokes average more than 30 for the series for England.
Its been done to death and nothings going to change.
Buttler's played two fighting innings. Not many runs, no, but he can knuckle down when he needs to. His form's disappointing, but he's not the main problem here imo.

I'm more concerned about Bairstow's batting than Buttler's, tbh. Bairstow's form has been in a deep trough for about two years now and given that he isn't the best keeper in England, his place ought to have been under far more scrutiny than it has been imo. He is keeper cos he's a batsman, and his batting is failing badly. Last 12 tests in England, he's only averaging just over 20. He's done marginally better on tour, but only low 30s. This summer, his batting has been just as bad as Roy's - almost identical numbers. And he didn't start the summer in that much credit re test cricket. You can only think that he's kept his place largely cos of his odi form - that, and cos so many others have also failed: that's the danger about collapses, everyone fails so nobody fails.
 
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(Source: as stated in image)

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(Source: as stated in image)

Roy's batting in this series has certainly been consistent so far.

A now familiar sight:

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(Source: as stated in image)

Old Trafford, 2nd innings: Roy b Cummins 31
 
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