[Cricket] Second Ashes Test - England vs Australia - Lords

[vegster]

I dread to think what will happen if we have to face the Mitchell's on a seaming pitch with some bounce.

 

[vegster]

Morgan, Bairstow & Taylor all come into the reckoning now.

Bell, Ballance & Lyth will all be fortunate to escape the axe now.

With no natural opener to come in unless they go for Hales but I'm not sure his the answer, they may toy with the idea of Root opening with Cook. Then who bats 3? We seem to have players more suited for number five. Some big decisions needed before Edgbaston my feeling is they will keep Bell and Ballance with Lyth the one to make way.

Get Paul Mckenna in to tell Moeen Ali that he is, in fact, Hashim Amla and he always bats at 3 .

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Boycott,again hits the nail on the head,when he talks about negating the pitch. Just shows you how good the Austrailan attack is.

 

[Billy the Fish]

It's a worry for the rest of the series how they can come back from such a hammering

 

[big nuts]

James Taylor 107 not out at Horsham currently. Bairstow is scoring heavily in County Cricket they seem the most likely to come in, although as I previously mentioned Morgan & Hales also have a chance.

My team for Edgbaston

Root
Cook
Bell
Taylor
Bairstow
Stokes
Butler
Ali
Broad
Wood
Anderson

Still looks a flaky top order to me, but that's the best we have. Prey Bell comes good on his home ground - He still has a very strong test record.

 

[*Gullsworth*]

Words fail me, losing by over 400 runs to a bang average Aussie team on a batting pitch. How do you come back from that? What if we were playing a good Aussies team? (shiver)

 

[Prince Monolulu]

The amount of wickets we took

 

[jakarta]

With no natural opener to come in unless they go for Hales but I'm not sure his the answer,.

That would be the bloke that got 3 runs today against Sussex and has only got past 50 once in last dozen or so innings?

 

[Papa Lazarou]

That would be the bloke that got 3 runs today against Sussex and has only got past 50 once in last dozen or so innings?

Root can open

 

[Gwylan]

Words fail me, losing by over 400 runs to a bang average Aussie team on a batting pitch. How do you come back from that? What if we were playing a good Aussies team? (shiver)

I wouldn't have called them bang average - their number 3 and 4 batsmen both have averages above 50 and two of their pace attack have averages below 30. They're not the Windies of the mid-80s or Waugh's Aussies but they're a useful team

 

[vegster]

Root can open

Didn't we try that a couple of years ago before moving him back down the order ? I remember Boycott saying something along the lines of " This boy will open for England one day, but not yet, he's not ready "

 

[vegster]

I wouldn't have called them bang average - their number 3 and 4 batsmen both have averages above 50 and two of their pace attack have averages below 30. They're not the Windies of the mid-80s or Waugh's Aussies but they're a useful team

You might expect us to be bowled out for 103 facing Lillie and Thompson but this lot ? In 1975 the standard Aussie fielding positions were 4 Slips, 2 Gullies, a Short leg, Fine Leg and Mid off or Cover. If we put the 2015 team back to 1975, this lot would not have made 50.

 

[*Gullsworth*]

I wouldn't have called them bang average - their number 3 and 4 batsmen both have averages above 50 and two of their pace attack have averages below 30. They're not the Windies of the mid-80s or Waugh's Aussies but they're a useful team

Sorry Gwylan I disagree with you for once, in my opinion they are * a bang average AUSSIE team* A poor Aussie team could have beaten us on this wicket and with our present form. A good Aussie team would have skittles us out for less than 50 today. Our performance in Cardiff defeated this bang average Aussie team but would not have beaten a good Aussie team. Sorry to keep banging on about it

 

[Stumpy Tim]

England are a young team & we need to stick with them. They'll have ups (the first test) and downs (this test). The last thing we should do is make wholesale changes - that's the mistake we used to make in the 90's.

I do feel sorry for Taylor though - he should be in the team. He's probably the Bell replacement when he finally retires

 

[KZNSeagull]

Just watched the highlights of the ICC World 2020 Qualifier between Papua New Guinea and USA. Sadly, there was no-one playing that we could steal for the England team. PNG wore rather cool caps though.

 

[The Spanish]

Didn't we try that a couple of years ago before moving him back down the order ? I remember Boycott saying something along the lines of " This boy will open for England one day, but not yet, he's not ready "

He still isn't, seeing as the criteria for bringing an england opener is to be a very low scoring cheap wicket and habitual bottle job

 

[Hampster Gull]

Ffs

 

[Gwylan]

You might expect us to be bowled out for 103 facing Lillie and Thompson but this lot ?

Sorry Gwylan I disagree with you for once, in my opinion they are * a bang average AUSSIE team* A poor Aussie team could have beaten us on this wicket and with our present form. A good Aussie team would have skittles us out for less than 50 today.

Disagree entirely. Decent Aussie teams have failed to grind us into the ground over here. As I said, Waugh's team did but that was an exceptional team. Lillee and Thomson you say? They played just two series over here - 11 games - W 2. L3, D 6. - their record in England wasn't that exceptional. And that's been the case for years: decent Australian bowlers have found English pictures hard to exploit - he team of the 90s and Bradman's Invicibles aside.

This team has three decent pace bowlers (as opposed to the L&T years), a steady opening pair (which none of the sides of the 70s and 80s had) and a reasonable spinner. As I said, they're not world beaters but this is a better than average Aussie side. The first game was a team that hadn't adjusted to English pictures (as NZ failed to do in their first test this summer) but they'd give any test side a decent game (they beat SA, the number one side in the world last year)

 

[knocky1]

Talking of skittles. When England collapse the tail has a slog. Broad was 100-1 to be top scorer in the Second Innings yesterday. Worth a pound or two in the next three games perhaps?

 

[Simster]

Talking of skittles. When England collapse the tail has a slog. Broad was 100-1 to be top scorer in the Second Innings yesterday. Worth a pound or two in the next three games perhaps?

Broad will never score big in an innings that matters. He might score a few when we're 7 down and still 300 short of our target but he's far too easy to tie down if need be. A bit of short stuff mixed up with the odd ball at a full length and he's out within half an hour.