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The Ashes 2021/22

I meant short mid-off, of course, not mid-on, as you spotted. ;) Lyon was turning the ball towards off.

Covers are on the off side, in front of the wicket, so the batsman can see them, placed around the area where you're saving a single. Mid-off is around from them, so more facing the batsman.
 
I was going to say even a
Lord Camomile said:
Is there one Aus player missing (I count 10, and think there should be 11?)?

Was someone on the boundary, just in case Anderson decided to really welly it. Obviously given the situation (including his ability with the bat), his decision was by far the better choice, but lordy it would have been great to see him just cheekily scoop it over the lot of 'em :D
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Luckily Jimmy didn't fancy going full West Indies :D This blew my mind, and all our cricket team were in unison assuming this would be very typical for one (any and all!) of us to do!

 
Cummins on taking inspiration from Eoin Morgan:

“Cummins even speaks warmly about an England captain being one of his big influences. "I look at different leaders and someone like Eoin Morgan," he tells Telegraph Sport. "I like his outlook on captaincy and how he brings the team together. I have worked with Eoin in the IPL for the last couple of years and we have very similar outlooks on life." “
 
I'd be going Lawrence for Stokes, Billings for Buttler and Robinson for Leach at Hobart. Lawrence deserves a chance and Stokes should never play this game, side strains can be made a lot worse. Hobart doesn't look like it needs a spinner fm/mf does the job.
 
RileyOBlimey said:
Cummins on taking inspiration from Eoin Morgan:

“Cummins even speaks warmly about an England captain being one of his big influences. "I look at different leaders and someone like Eoin Morgan," he tells Telegraph Sport. "I like his outlook on captaincy and how he brings the team together. I have worked with Eoin in the IPL for the last couple of years and we have very similar outlooks on life." “
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Cummins is a total class act in very facet. Great player and apparently a really good man. Aussie cricket should consider itself very lucky Tim Paine managed to ruin his own career. Root is both of those of things of course as well but doesn't have quite the same playing resources to play with.
 
Anderson’s retort to Vaughan’s infantile attention seeking:

This has been the toughest Ashes tour of my career. Frustrating more than anything. We came here thinking we had a good chance but if you look at our form over the past 18 months to two years we have not been great.
I read that my future is the “elephant in the room” according to Michael Vaughan’s Telegraph column this week. It is not the elephant in the room because the captain and coach know exactly what my thoughts are on it.
They have told me their thoughts too. They want me around and to carry on. As long as that is the case, it is not an elephant in any room. We are talking openly about it and I wrote last week that everyone’s future is in doubt. It always happens when you get beaten heavily in an Ashes series.
The ECB will look at everyone’s performance throughout the tour. In that respect nobody is certain about their future whether it is the captain, coach, top six batsmen or the bowling attack. Everyone is under scrutiny.
For me, if I have the chance to play I will do my best and keep having conversations. I will keep talking to whoever about my future. I feel I can still offer something to this team and hopefully I will get the chance to do so.
There have been a lot of challenges in Australia. The preparations were by no means ideal. The lack of outdoor practice for a start. We spent a lot of time in the indoor school in Brisbane. Trying to get your overs in by bowling indoors is not ideal.
You are not getting used to the surfaces, your body is not attuned to the conditions. For guys who have not played here before it is a different style of surface from home. Here there are sand-based outfields and rock hard pitches and your body takes a while to adjust to those.
Clearly batters need time in the middle to get confident and used to the conditions. But we should still be better than we have been.
Even the build-up to the tour, the Zoom meetings over the families, it was all nervous energy spent on stuff that was not the actual cricket.
We have never been in the position before of going into a series without any kind of warm-up games.
We managed two days of the Lions game but the conditions were nothing like a Test match. We played at a club ground in Brisbane that had been rained on for two weeks straight. It was like playing at a club ground in England on a Saturday afternoon when it has been raining and you try to mop up yourself and go out and play even though it is not quite fit.
The jump going from that to the Gabba, playing against a really good Australia team in quite a daunting arena is chalk and cheese.
It is hard to win Test series with low scores but we have not been good enough in all areas really and they have played well. Yes our scores have not been high enough but there have been two games when we have not even bowled them out in the first innings. We are yet to take 20 wickets in a Test. It is not just the batsmen’s fault. Bowlers have to take some responsibility as well.
You need to start winning, especially if you have a youngish side. Those players need to learn how to win. The wins have been pretty scarce. This series has been disappointing but generally it has been a disappointing 18 month period. We lost both series in the English summer which never happened in my career before. We are still trying to find a way to get results.
Everything will be looked at after this series. Using the Kookaburra in county cricket has been suggested.
You could not use the Kookaburra they have in Australia in county cricket. They would have to put an extra layer of coating on it. We had to change the ball in Sydney a lot because it ballooned up due to the wet outfield.
But if they manufacture a ball suited to English weather, I would not be against using it. It could be a good thing to give younger bowlers experience with a Kookaburra ball so it is not foreign for them if they play Test cricket abroad.
County pitches will be looked at too no doubt. I grew up at Old Trafford and still play championship cricket there. They are great batting pitches, and the county games we play are as close as you will get to a Test pitch in England.
I’ve played on some poor pitches in county cricket too but you play on poor pitches sometimes in Test cricket as well. We can’t use it as an excuse.
If I don’t play in Hobart I will be quite proud my last Ashes cricket in Australia was getting the big block out to Steve Smith.
There would be more pride if I had been facing Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, no offence to Steve. I felt like it was a break of luck that the seamers could not bowl because of the light. It made me more confident in the dressing room.
It was a nice moment to be with Stuart Broad at the end as well, walking off the field together, not with a win but at least a slight sense of achievement.

There was a bit of chat from the close fielders about my reverse sweep and whether I would get that out. The Shannon Gabriel (“why did he do that?”) thing came up as well but I was just concentrating at that point and delighted when Steve dragged down the last ball and bowled a long hop.

We shared a smile when he did not land it where he wanted to. I said “what was that?” Tongue in cheek. It was a nice moment.
 
planetgeli said:
I'd be going Lawrence for Stokes, Billings for Buttler and Robinson for Leach at Hobart. Lawrence deserves a chance and Stokes should never play this game, side strains can be made a lot worse. Hobart doesn't look like it needs a spinner fm/mf does the job.
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Totally agree about Stokes. It's a dead rubber, why risk it? I'd be tempted to bring in Woakes for his batting and because Hobart might suit his bowling a bit more, but given it's a dead rubber, actually your four best bowlers should be playing and sod the tail. Despite all the selection shenanigans, the four best seamers in this squad are clearly Robinson, Anderson, Wood and Broad. Root can fill in with a few overs with the old ball if necessary.
 
This article predicts the following team:

Crawley
Burns
Malan
Root
Stokes
Bairstow/Pope depending on Bairstow’s injury
Billings
Woakes
Robinson
Wood
Broad

A bit harsh on Anderson, although these conditions may be more favourable to Woakes than previous venues.
 
Unless Hameed is totally shot mentally, Burns should not be playing. He's had his time.

I'm a little puzzled by the 'blame the Duke's ball' noises going around at the moment tbh. Blame shite pitches (and scheduling), not the ball. A ball that goes soft as fuck after 30 overs doesn't exactly challenge the batters. Problem in Aus has been that England have generally been four down by the time that point is reached.
 
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I don't understand what rationale there could be for leaving out Anderson. You're not saving him for anything. At this stage in his career, I think the thinking with Anderson should be simplified - if he's fit, he plays. Don't save him up cos you don't know when he's going to end.
 
What's the deal with everyone flying off to the Windies for some T20 matches straight after? I'm assuming they are giving most of the team a rest and not expecting them to fly out on Monday?
 
souljacker said:
What's the deal with everyone flying off to the Windies for some T20 matches straight after? I'm assuming they are giving most of the team a rest and not expecting them to fly out on Monday?
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I believe it's a totally different squad. There wouldn't be a massive overlap anyway but the handful of players who would be in both are being rested.
 
Eoin Morgan (Middlesex – captain), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Tom Banton (Somerset), Sam Billings (Kent), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), George Garton (Sussex), Chris Jordan (Surrey), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Tymal Mills (Sussex), David Payne (Gloucestershire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Phil Salt (Lancashire), Reece Topley (Surrey), James Vince (Hampshire).
 
surreybrowncap said:
Eoin Morgan (Middlesex – captain), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Tom Banton (Somerset), Sam Billings (Kent), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), George Garton (Sussex), Chris Jordan (Surrey), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Tymal Mills (Sussex), David Payne (Gloucestershire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Phil Salt (Lancashire), Reece Topley (Surrey), James Vince (Hampshire).
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Tidy squad.
 
There’s further rumour Anderson won’t be playing. Noting this venue is predicted to be the most swing friendly of all grounds thus far. Sacking Silverwood and Root is not a sufficient punishment.
 
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