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The Ashes 2021/22

For me burns has to go not Hameed. I think burns is gone in the head and I think that has affected Hameed. It's probably going to be crawly to come in here.

Then I think England just need to pick the right balance of team and the best team. Woods, Broad, Anderson... And a spinner so give leech a proper chance to get into the series after the fuck up of leaving him out

Malan, root, stokes are all fairly solid for their positions. Butter has had a shocker but then puts in a turn so keep him there and hope he's finding his form

I wonder if bairstow should come in for pope? And maybe take the gloves too?

That's the players that have got us here, get those players with a proper game plan rather than the shit show its been and they stand a chance. Id rather not see some sacrificial lambs thrown in like has happened before
 
Reckon Bairstow and Wood are definitely back in. If they don't drop Burns then that's Root coming in at 30 for 2 again.
 
littlebabyjesus said:
Ferguson and Milne. Milne's never played test cricket, though. Ferguson one match two years ago. Maybe should revise that and say that Wood is the fastest bowler in test cricket right now. Nowadays, Wood is over 90 from the first ball and can bowl whole spells at full pace.
Click to expand...

I assume those two saw the money in T20 and went that way. Understandably. You can't bowl at that pace for very long, might as well rake it in while you can - your career's gonna be short. A loss to Test cricket though. I wonder if Lillee/Marshall etc would have gone the same way, probably.
 
RileyOBlimey said:
Class and race are likely biases that may catalyse this poor treatment.
Click to expand...

And the class gap starts around Mill Hill for these people. Surrey don't you know. And when I first really got into cricket it was anyone who plays for Middlesex. Same shit, different package.

It's grim down south.
 
RileyOBlimey said:
One of England’s major failings is to be picking players that may be good in a few years. Pick your best team for the next match, not who may come good in 3 years.

Anyways, the Torygraph highlights Root’s mismanagement of Archer…
Click to expand...

Right, I'm going back to John Snow again (because remembering him has prompted me into reading about him).

As littlebabyjesus said, we have a long history of flogging fast bowlers. We don't understand fast bowling like other countries do. Fast bowling isn't just medium pace but a bit faster. It's a different art. Australia know this. West Indies know this. Maybe everyone but England know this. Snow knew this.

He wasn't working class. He was the son of a vicar. Sussex probably only read that on his CV and jumped at him. Little did they know. Snow was a 'rebel'. He stuck two fingers up to authority. He had long hair and it was the sixties. And he was hated for it. But he was also hated because he knew the authorities wouldn't look after him, so he had to look after himself. Sussex hated him because they would pick him, in the days test cricketers played between tests, and he'd bowl off 8 paces. Opposed to his usual 40 yards. He did his own thing, and paid the price for it, to make sure he wasn't...what Archer is now.
 
As a side question... Cricket doesn't have substitutions in the sense of many other team sports. With all the talk of how to make test cricket more accessible...Would having some sort of substitute system create the chance for teams being able to get back into matches that become one sided? Being able to bring in a bowler for the right conditions because... etc etc

Is there any historic reason why cricket has this be the case? Does it ever get discussed at the level of law makers in the sport? My guess is that with rules like not being able to have runners the trend is the other way? Is this right!?

Eta aware they did something like this in one of the t20 franchises... Bbl maybe? But from memory didn't really have much impact
 
Mumbles274 said:
As a side question... Cricket doesn't have substitutions in the sense of many other team sports. With all the talk of how to make test cricket more accessible...Would having some sort of substitute system create the chance for teams being able to get back into matches that become one sided? Being able to bring in a bowler for the right conditions because... etc etc

Is there any historic reason why cricket has this be the case? Does it ever get discussed at the level of law makers in the sport? My guess is that with rules like not being able to have runners the trend is the other way? Is this right!?

Eta aware they did something like this in one of the t20 franchises... Bbl maybe? But from memory didn't really have much impact
Click to expand...
I can't express how terrible an idea I think that is. :D

Concussion subs sure. My initial skepticism about those was wrong - they're absolutely right and necessary to protect players' long-term health.

But that's it. Selection is part of the game. Balancing the team before the toss so you don't know if you'll be bowling first or last. Judging the wicket, conditions, opposition, etc, before the game. Too late once it's started. I think that's a really important part of cricket, especially test cricket. The rhythm of the game is that you get two chances - two innings - and that's it. And if you fuck up first innings you have a chance to put it right, or the opposition has the chance to rub your nose in it. Teams can mentally disintegrate in the course of one game, but they have to try to keep going. Plus one team may choose to grind the opposition into the dust in order to win the game. And occasionally, just occasionally, they may stage a glorious comeback. That overarching narrative needs the same 11 for the whole game.

btw historically, subs of any kind are pretty recent idea. Football didn't have them till the 60s, then had just one for a long time.
 
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planetgeli said:
Right, I'm going back to John Snow again (because remembering him has prompted me into reading about him).

As littlebabyjesus said, we have a long history of flogging fast bowlers. We don't understand fast bowling like other countries do. Fast bowling isn't just medium pace but a bit faster. It's a different art. Australia know this. West Indies know this. Maybe everyone but England know this. Snow knew this.

He wasn't working class. He was the son of a vicar. Sussex probably only read that on his CV and jumped at him. Little did they know. Snow was a 'rebel'. He stuck two fingers up to authority. He had long hair and it was the sixties. And he was hated for it. But he was also hated because he knew the authorities wouldn't look after him, so he had to look after himself. Sussex hated him because they would pick him, in the days test cricketers played between tests, and he'd bowl off 8 paces. Opposed to his usual 40 yards. He did his own thing, and paid the price for it, to make sure he wasn't...what Archer is now.
Click to expand...
Just before my time, John Snow. He's a bit of a forgotten figure, isn't he? Looked him up - 49 tests, 202 wickets @ 26. Those are excellent figures. Very similar figures to his near-contemporaries Jeff Thomson and Andy Roberts, both of whom get a lot more namechecks nowadays.
 
Petcha said:
I assume those two saw the money in T20 and went that way. Understandably. You can't bowl at that pace for very long, might as well rake it in while you can - your career's gonna be short. A loss to Test cricket though. I wonder if Lillee/Marshall etc would have gone the same way, probably.
Click to expand...
Milne's given up red ball cricket. He had a lot of injury problems so fair enough. Ferguson hasn't, though. He just can't get in the NZ team! Boult, Southee, Wagner and now Jamieson all ahead of him.
 
littlebabyjesus said:
I can't express how terrible an idea I think that is. :D

Concussion subs sure. My initial skepticism about those was wrong - they're absolutely right and necessary to protect players' long-term health.

But that's it. Selection is part of the game. Balancing the team before the toss so you don't know if you'll be bowling first or last. Judging the wicket, conditions, opposition, etc, before the game. Too late once it's started. I think that's a really important part of cricket, especially test cricket. The rhythm of the game is that you get two chances - two innings - and that's it. And if you fuck up first innings you have a chance to put it right, or the opposition has the chance to rub your nose in it. Teams can mentally disintegrate in the course of one game, but they have to try to keep going. Plus one team may choose to grind the opposition into the dust in order to win the game. And occasionally, just occasionally, they may stage a glorious comeback. That overarching narrative needs the same 11 for the whole game.

btw historically, subs of any kind are pretty recent idea. Football didn't have them till the 60s, then had just one for a long time.
Click to expand...
And I am with you 100% on that... My question is.. Are we right?
 
As for making test cricket more accessible, there is one very easy way to do that. Put it back on free-to-air TV.

That's how I got into it in that glorious mad summer of 1981. Watching at home, with non-sport-fan parents who would never ever have had a sports subscription of any kind. I think there is a great deal of nonsense spoken about how kids won't get into cricket. They can't get into it if it isn't there for them to watch.

Second thing to do is to get it played at more state schools.

There's nothing wrong with the actual game.
 
Petcha said:
Is Collingwood still fielding coach? Although you'd think at this level you shouldn't really need someone to teach you how to catch. I think NZ have some ridiculous catch percentage in the slips, get their guy in.
Click to expand...

Nope Collingwood is heading to the West Indies to oversee the T20 tour.

As for "Rory showing some fight", fuck that. Really I'd rather have the tea lady opening the batting at present. He's hopeless. Put Malan into open and Crawley at 3.
 
RileyOBlimey said:
Tymal Mills is at a loose end in Australia…

thesportsrush.com

"I don't think I'm allowed to play": Tymal Mills to miss next Perth Scorchers BBL 2021-22 game against Hobart Hurricanes

BBL 2021-22: English pacer Tymal Mills will miss the next Perth Scorchers home game due to Western Australia border restrictions.
thesportsrush.com thesportsrush.com

I wonder if he’s now able to risk playing a test or 2.
Click to expand...

RileyOBlimey said:
He can’t consistently play longer formats….but a one off? Same argument for Rashid.
Click to expand...
RileyOBlimey said:
He is severely limited. However, that is long term management. He could potentially do a test. He’s still fast and left handed ...
Click to expand...

Tymal Mills has a congenital back condition and has not played in a game of cricket that lasts longer than a day since April 2015.
 
All is not well in the England camp. Anderson isn’t best pleased…

We have gone away and talked about it as a bowling group but that only goes so far. We have to be better at assessing it during a game. We can’t just go after the game “we should have bowled fuller”. If we are bowling too short at lunch we need information back saying we need to push our lengths up. We have to be a bit more proactive at that too as a whole group.

The data is live. We have it in the dressing room. We can run messages out during the innings to say your length needs to go a touch fuller or whatever it might be. It is just communication but it is hard for coaches because you don’t want too much information. You can be overloaded by it so first and foremost it has to be players and captain who have to figure it out on the field. You are in the game, you should be able to do it yourself.

Look at the numbers. They show both sides bowled similar lengths. They did not bowl any fuller than us. But it is a case of the difference in techniques of the batters. It must be, because they took 20 wickets and we didn’t.
Click to expand...
 
I thought it was strange the England batsmen were "forced" to watch how they were each given out. I'd have thought that would be standard practice for training videos. Or not?
 
McGrath think the lack of sledging is political correctness gone mad…

What irks McGrath is less the badinage among team-mates – after all, he was known throughout his career as “Pigeon”, in honour of his spindly legs growing up – than the cosy dynamic between opponents supposed to be competing at maximum intensity. “It can be a little bit too nice sometimes,” he argues. “That’s the way everything’s going, isn’t it? There’s a lot of political correctness.
Click to expand...
 
The Torygraph claims Burns will be dropped for Crawley. Pope out, Bairstow:
  • England: Crawley, Hameed, Malan, Root, Stokes, Bairstow, Buttler, Robinson, Wood, Leach, Anderson
That looks a lot better but I’d prefer to see Mahmood rather than Leach. I saw him bowl at the Oval this year and he’s pretty sharp.
 
I can't remember a public rift between bowlers and batters before. Very odd. Not a great way for Jimmy to finish his career tbh.

Not seen Mahmood live, but I agree that he looks sharp and very promising from what I've seen on TV. But the answer isn't to bring in more quick bowlers now. They have Anderson, Broad, Wood and Robinson to choose from. I'm sure Mahmood will play test cricket, but not this series.

I do basically agree with Anderson there, mind. It ain't the bowlers that are being outclassed.
 
Mumbles274 said:
As a side question... Cricket doesn't have substitutions in the sense of many other team sports. With all the talk of how to make test cricket more accessible...Would having some sort of substitute system create the chance for teams being able to get back into matches that become one sided? Being able to bring in a bowler for the right conditions because... etc etc

Is there any historic reason why cricket has this be the case? Does it ever get discussed at the level of law makers in the sport? My guess is that with rules like not being able to have runners the trend is the other way? Is this right!?

Eta aware they did something like this in one of the t20 franchises... Bbl maybe? But from memory didn't really have much impact
Click to expand...

Yes, the BBL tried it last year as one of their many 'innovations'. The problem was that the coaches had already spent a lot of time thinking about their lineups, didnt want to change them halfway through, and I think it was only used a few times. Nobody liked it. You were able to sub one player before 10 overs were bowled or something. It was pretty stupid.
 
Joe Root insists the whole England team is pulling in the same direction ahead of the Boxing Day Ashes Test, stressing that his captaincy is no “dictatorship”.
Click to expand...

:hmm:

What does he think a captain's job is, if it's not to...captain?


www.theguardian.com

Joe Root insists England team is ‘not a dictatorship’ as third Ashes Test looms

Joe Root insists the whole England team is pulling in the same direction ahead of the Boxing Day Ashes Test, stressing that his captaincy is no ‘dictatorship’
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
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Let's play clairvoyant guess the cock-ups for the Melbourne test (a ground England theoretically have their best chance on).

Crawley comes in as an opener. Perhaps replacing Hameed. In Crawley's 13 previous innings as an opener he is yet to score as many runs as he did in one of his innings at number 3.

Bairstow comes in for Pope. Wrong man. Lawrence for Pope. You know what you are going to get with Bairstow. Good looking 24 before being bowled through the gate first over after lunch, followed by a careless 8 when the game is gone anyway and he just speeds it up. Lawrence has a career ahead of him. A couple of good scores behind him. Give him a go.

Anderson and Broad both have ok records at Melbourne btw. So one of them probably won't get picked.
 
Hameed would be pretty pissed off if he was dropped ahead of Burns.

And Why not pick Bairstow to keep ahead of Buttler? Free up a space.
 
Petcha said:
And Why not pick Bairstow to keep ahead of Buttler? Free up a space.
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They won't do this. I wouldn't do it because I'm anti-Bairstow these days but I admit it's a tossup between his 24 and 8 and Buttler's 34 and 0. But they won't do it because Jos is in on the club. He wouldn't have lasted so long otherwise.

I will be apopleptic if Crawley replaces Hameed. But they have form don't they. Rory seems ridiculously untouchable at times.
 
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