irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Jan 14, 2021 13:09:04 GMT
The return of England to Test action. Anyone any thoughts on this. I caught bits of it sporadically and had the following thoughts.
-Typical Sri Lankan wicket and we normally struggle on those. So it was good to see us dig in. Root looked particularly classy against the spinner and Bairstow played like a proper Test Batsman again and will hopefully continue to make my case that he still has a stronger 2nd act as a Test batsman left in him.
-Some pretty abysmal batting from the Sri Lankan. They looked incredibly rusty and made a huge number of basic errors in their poor effort with the bat. I don't think we had to work particularly hard for those wickets. Didn't really see enough to be able to judge our bowling but assuming it must have been pretty on the money.
-Interesting team selection. You wonder if there's now quite a lot of politics in the dressing room over how they treat Anderson and Broad from now on......
-Galle and the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad are the 2 overseas Test venues I would most like to visit someday. Spectacular backdrops to both of them.
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jackthegas
David Pritchard
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Post by jackthegas on Jan 15, 2021 10:43:50 GMT
My overriding thought is one of concern regarding the state of Test cricket outside of England, Australia and India .
I know Sri Lanka have injuries, but the lack of quality in their team is stark. The batting yesterday was abysmal, and that is supposed to be their strength. Looking across the globe, New Zealand are strong at the moment, but they play so few Test Matches that I wonder how long that will last. The South African team has weakened markedly over the last decade. Are they heading the same way as the West Indies? The big three have to stop being so small minded and ensure that the finances of other test playing nations is sound so that they can invest in their first class set up, promote good governance and compete with the pay offered by the T20 circuit.
Regarding this test, Root has batted well, Lawrence looked comfortable and Bairstow reminded us that he has the potential to be a quality test match batsman. The bowling attack was so poor though that I am not sure I am going to read too much into this innings. Despite Bess taking the wickets, Leach bowled better. Bess is the better batsman and fielder, but Leach is the better bowler at the moment. I understand why Bess is a more appealing option in England as it's difficult for a spinner to get into the game (especially given how much the ball has swung over the last 5 years), but, in my opinion, Leach is the clear number 1 outside of the UK and on flat pitches.
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warehamgas
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Post by warehamgas on Jan 15, 2021 21:33:14 GMT
I agree about the two-tier test match system that seems to be here at the moment. England, India and Australia will come through this pandemic much stronger than the other countries. I worry about the future of Test cricket because I think we are at the tipping point in the balance between Tests and one-day cricket. As ever it will be what the public want that determines what becomes the most important form of cricket. Am I right in thinking that it’s only England and NZ who don’t have an international 20/20 competition now and from next year, if it happens, England will have “the hundred” leaving only NZ without one. One of the results of this must be that young cricketers want to excel in one day cricket or 20/20 more so than County Cricket/Test match cricket and see the riches to be gained in this area. Sri Lanka, SA, WI, are struggling to produce competitive teams against the stronger nations. NZ produce a few very good, cricketers and do manage to compete well against the bigger nations but they do have Kane Williamson!
And of course the big three have to take on a bigger responsibility but I’m not sure that they will do that. The IPL has become a massive success for India and I can’t see the Indian BOC or even Cricket Australia taking their foot off the pedal. The good sport- Australia lasted about two years before the gamesmanshïp resurfaced again In this series against India with Paine and Smith and their antics. The trouble is of course that crowds against the smaller nations in Test matches, apart from England, are fairly poor. In England our crowds are still very good but we’re still a fairly traditional cricket-watching country.
As for this match, I’ve seen about an hour of it. Well done England, they’ve had so many bubbles over the past year yet they’ve seemed to have created a good culture and a determination to do well. Our bowlers did very well and Broad seems more determined the older he gets. Bess and Leach both bowled very well and Bess got a tad more turn and a bit more luck. I’ve said this before but in the run up to this series I couldn’t read anything without the writers putting the series in the context of Ashes-preparations. An England test match series never seems to exist on its own merits now, it’s all about preparing for a future Ashes series either here or in Australia. Test matches are all about the top three teams playing each other now and that’s a great shame. But we seem to have developed some real depth to our test match squad. Well, we seem to have done that but once we’ve played Australia I’ll probably change my mind! And of course it’s difficult to read too much into what happened yesterday because Sri Lanka were absolutely woeful, but you can only play what’s in front of you.
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Jan 16, 2021 18:39:42 GMT
I agree about the two-tier test match system that seems to be here at the moment. England, India and Australia will come through this pandemic much stronger than the other countries. I worry about the future of Test cricket because I think we are at the tipping point in the balance between Tests and one-day cricket. As ever it will be what the public want that determines what becomes the most important form of cricket. Am I right in thinking that it’s only England and NZ who don’t have an international 20/20 competition now and from next year, if it happens, England will have “the hundred” leaving only NZ without one. One of the results of this must be that young cricketers want to excel in one day cricket or 20/20 more so than County Cricket/Test match cricket and see the riches to be gained in this area. Sri Lanka, SA, WI, are struggling to produce competitive teams against the stronger nations. NZ produce a few very good, cricketers and do manage to compete well against the bigger nations but they do have Kane Williamson! And of course the big three have to take on a bigger responsibility but I’m not sure that they will do that. The IPL has become a massive success for India and I can’t see the Indian BOC or even Cricket Australia taking their foot off the pedal. The good sport- Australia lasted about two years before the gamesmanshïp resurfaced again In this series against India with Paine and Smith and their antics. The trouble is of course that crowds against the smaller nations in Test matches, apart from England, are fairly poor. In England our crowds are still very good but we’re still a fairly traditional cricket-watching country. As for this match, I’ve seen about an hour of it. Well done England, they’ve had so many bubbles over the past year yet they’ve seemed to have created a good culture and a determination to do well. Our bowlers did very well and Broad seems more determined the older he gets. Bess and Leach both bowled very well and Bess got a tad more turn and a bit more luck. I’ve said this before but in the run up to this series I couldn’t read anything without the writers putting the series in the context of Ashes-preparations. An England test match series never seems to exist on its own merits now, it’s all about preparing for a future Ashes series either here or in Australia. Test matches are all about the top three teams playing each other now and that’s a great shame. But we seem to have developed some real depth to our test match squad. Well, we seem to have done that but once we’ve played Australia I’ll probably change my mind! And of course it’s difficult to read too much into what happened yesterday because Sri Lanka were absolutely woeful, but you can only play what’s in front of you. Absolutely right - as a passionate cricket fan it really distresses me how narrow our world has become on this. Since when did everything become about the Ashes and the World Cup? It used to be that a Test Match (even outside the context of the series it was being played in was an event in itself). Now even potentially interesting tricky tours like Sri Lanka (and yes I know they are underpowered but we have not traditionally done well there) are being seen some kind of Ashes warm-up. There is no future in marketing the game like that. You have to make each series and each contest an event or you may as well just reduce the Test game to 3 countries. It's really rather sad.
At the heat of it is that cricket has always had an elitist and 2nd rate governance model that has allowed its top countries to dominate. Historically that was England, who I think it's fair to say, did a lot to hold back the potential of the game in Asia for many years. Now it's the Indian BOC who run the game in a very short-term money orientated way and are also interlinked with some pretty nasty nationalist politics in India. For example, it is an absolute disgrace that Pakistani players continue to be banned from the IPL but no one who matters says a dickey about it because of the power they have. Say what you like about FIFA but that level of political interference would not be allowed to stand in Football. Until control can be more evenly distributed or until another genuine power block emerges it's hard to see what is going to stop the current drift. At least the Indian players still seem to care about Test cricket - you feel someone like Kohli still sees it as the pinnacle. But you can't blame a WI, Pak, Bang, SL, SA or NZ player for jacking in the pittance they make as an international player to puruse the T20 riches. It's a bit depressing.
As for this game - I've enjoyed. Sri Lanka have dug in much better in the 2nd innings. Although I wonder if that late England Leach wicket might have broken their spirit a bit. We'll see but it's good to see some fight. They are making us work to win this when I thought they might just fold again. Jack is right that this is one of the poorest SL bowling attacks we've seen but it was still nice to see some of the old Joe Root back. I think his rhythm has been off. It's easy to take the cliched line and say the captaincy has gotten to him but I feel like the pacing of his innings have been off. Either he gets uncharacteristically bogged or, as happened quite a lot in the Ashes last year, he's too manic. What I always liked about Root was that he was this steady accumulator - he was the sort of player where you suddently look up and notice he's on 30 without seemingly much effort. I love that sort of player and he hasn't quite had that recently. I think I agree that Leach is the better bowler than Bess overall but I'm not sure he's shown enough evidence of being a constant 2nd innings match winning taking threat to be worth the trade-off from Bess's fielding and batting benefits (plus I'm sure Wareham would like him to stay at Somerset all next season!).
P.S I'm fairly sure New Zealand does have T20 comp actually - I think it's currently being played on BT Sport. As far as I know it's the same kind of thing but I imagine NZ domestic cricket is more limited on who it can attract internationally. These things have become ubiquitous. My friend is involved in West of Scotland Cricket Club in Glasgow (where they played the first Scotland v England football international) and they had Charl Langeveldt as their overseas player the season before last. The reason he was there is because he was trying to get a place in the new 'European T20 League' which was going to have teams in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin and Amsterdamn and was to due to include a whole load of 'Oh yes, I sort of remember him type players' from all over the World. It didn't happen because the funder pulled out at the last minute but it had a TV contract ready to go and everything. So tinpot T20 comps of questionable standard are clearly something of a boom industry.
PPS. Not striclty England related but I'm quite proud of it - my club has teamed up with a pharmacy to become a vaccination centre. We will give up the clubhouse for the next 3 months for people to get vaccinated (nothing to do with me I hasten to add - all the Chairman's work).
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Post by lostinspace on Jan 17, 2021 12:34:25 GMT
nothing is easy when it comes to England and cricket, weaseled out the SL's for a competitive score, but setting up a " pretty routine win" But no, and just what Bairstow was thinking was beyond a joke!!
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jackthegas
David Pritchard
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Post by jackthegas on Jan 17, 2021 22:30:31 GMT
It’s actually developed into a really decent Test match. From a neutral perspective, wouldn’t it have been fascinating if Sri Lanka had set England 150 to win. England will probably feel that they should have scored 500 in the first innings and really put the game to bed.
I thought both Leach and Bess bowled better as the innings went on, which is hardly a surprise given the lack of match time both have had (especially Leach). I take the point regarding Bess and there is a strong case for sticking with him. He’s a bit like Sam Curran in that he usually manages to find a way to influence games. On the other hand, Leach has a really decent record with an average below 30. He’s never really had an extended run in the side. I think his control is decent and would improve with an extended run in the side. I think my question is whether he spins it enough to be effective on flat wickets.
It’s been a real tonic to have some cricket to watch. I’ve really enjoyed both the tv and radio coverage. TMS in particular have done an exceptionally good job of covering the test in my opinion. I know it’s human nature to feel that things were better in the past, but I think this match has demonstrated that we are pretty lucky to have a group of terrific broadcasters covering cricket in this country at the moment. Compared to the quality of the coverage endured by our counterparts in New Zealand and Australia, we are very lucky. I think Sky must be pretty much the only tv broadcaster left who don’t have three commentators working together at the same time. Long may it continue!
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bluetornados
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Post by bluetornados on Jan 18, 2021 16:23:48 GMT
Well England wrapped up what turned out to be an easy 7 wicket victory.
Bess took 8 match wickets, Leach 6, Broad 3, Curran 2 & 1 run out.
Root scored over 200 match runs, Laurence 94 & Bairstow 82 all stood out.
Next Test is on Friday 22nd Jan in Galle at 04.30am.
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warehamgas
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Post by warehamgas on Jan 18, 2021 20:49:16 GMT
www.espncricinfo.com/story/sri-lanka-vs-england-1st-test-made-in-somerset-pride-as-dom-bess-jack-leach-share-14-wickets-in-galle-win-1248364Thought you might be interested in this if you haven’t seen it. Irish, I didnt know that Pakistanis weren’t allowed in the IPL, how was that allowed to happen? Surely the ICC have to sanction a competition, I know the Indian BOC are strong but surely it cuts across ICC diversity rules. As you said just imagine FIFA doing that! I’d also forgotten that the NZers had a 20/20. Whatever, I’m sure that the England “hundred” will be planned to rival the Big Bash and the IPL which it has a chance to do being played when it is (our Summer when not many other countries are playing cricket). Yes I would have liked to see Leach have a full season for Somerset but I am genuinely pleased that he could have a full season with England. I won’t say we are prouder of our England cricketers than other counties but from Harold Gimblett through Fred Rumsey to Botham, Rose and Marcus have all been celebrated as England cricketers without the moans of Surrey and Yorkshire over losing their players. Perhaps it’s because we’ve had so few. Jack is a genuinely nice guy and after what he’s been through over the past year I’m really pleased for him as I am for Dom Bess. There will be harder days ahead but it’s been a good start for England.
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Jan 19, 2021 15:07:26 GMT
www.espncricinfo.com/story/sri-lanka-vs-england-1st-test-made-in-somerset-pride-as-dom-bess-jack-leach-share-14-wickets-in-galle-win-1248364Thought you might be interested in this if you haven’t seen it. Irish, I didnt know that Pakistanis weren’t allowed in the IPL, how was that allowed to happen? Surely the ICC have to sanction a competition, I know the Indian BOC are strong but surely it cuts across ICC diversity rules. As you said just imagine FIFA doing that! I’d also forgotten that the NZers had a 20/20. Whatever, I’m sure that the England “hundred” will be planned to rival the Big Bash and the IPL which it has a chance to do being played when it is (our Summer when not many other countries are playing cricket). Yes I would have liked to see Leach have a full season for Somerset but I am genuinely pleased that he could have a full season with England. I won’t say we are prouder of our England cricketers than other counties but from Harold Gimblett through Fred Rumsey to Botham, Rose and Marcus have all been celebrated as England cricketers without the moans of Surrey and Yorkshire over losing their players. Perhaps it’s because we’ve had so few. Jack is a genuinely nice guy and after what he’s been through over the past year I’m really pleased for him as I am for Dom Bess. There will be harder days ahead but it’s been a good start for England. Yes - ultimately you have to say that both spinners did the business in this match and were the difference between the teams. Despite Sri Lanka being at something of a low ebb, we should still be pretty pleased with having outbowled in the spin department on their patch. That hasn't happened all that often. Obviously, doing the same in India and Pakistan (where it increasingly seems like we will actually be touring which is quite exciting) is another order of magnitude harder. But you can't knock a promising sign. The mark against both Bess and Leach was that they hadn't yet really proven they could be real match winners at Test level - now they have.
The ban on Pakistani players from the IPL is one of the great unspoken scandals of world sport but somehow it never seems to get any tractions. In many ways it's extremely sad. Whatever personal views of the IPL and the pernicious impact of T20 I might have, there's no doubt that it galvanises young Asian cricket fans like nothing else both in South Asia and abroad. Had it followed a logical expansion trajectory then there was the possibility of a pan-Asian T20 competition with teams in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Not only would this have been a financial and sporting juggernaut but it would have been a great force for good in binding young people of that region together and gone some way to evening up the international playing field (at least as far as that part of the World is concerned). Instead the greed of the Indian BOC coupled with epic levels of corruption and thoroughly depressing levels of nationalist prejudice has meant that the IPL has some rather nasty undertones to it.
On the plus side though - what an amazing Test at the Gabba!
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Jan 24, 2021 12:32:33 GMT
This 2nd Test has been a bit more attritional. Short of another SL batting collapse it's looking like it will probably be a draw. Where would England be without Root though? On the one hand it's great he's in such imperious form heading into the India series. On the other hand he's not getting as much help. We do have an inexperienced lineup in these conditions. Makes me think they should have called up Jennings on a horses for courses basis.
Also, is there any more to say about Anderson? Everytime the 'hot take' brigade in punditry land declare him finished he completely embarrasses them!
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jackthegas
David Pritchard
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Post by jackthegas on Jan 24, 2021 20:52:24 GMT
This 2nd Test has been a bit more attritional. Short of another SL batting collapse it's looking like it will probably be a draw. Where would England be without Root though? On the one hand it's great he's in such imperious form heading into the India series. On the other hand he's not getting as much help. We do have an inexperienced lineup in these conditions. Makes me think they should have called up Jennings on a horses for courses basis.
Also, is there any more to say about Anderson? Everytime the 'hot take' brigade in punditry land declare him finished he completely embarrasses them!
You are a lot more confident than I am! If Sri Lanka can bat all day tomorrow, they will put England under immense pressure on day 5. Even if they only manage 180 in the third innings, England are likely to be chasing 210 with 4 sessions left in the match. That will not be easy. Plenty of work left for England. I am a bit surprised that they didn’t pick Jennings, but I’m glad they didn’t. Crawley and Sibley have both struggled, but they are both young enough to benefit from the experience. It’s interesting to see the next generation of batsmen coming through. With Lawrence making a positive impact, and Pope to come back in, Bairstow will be desperate to do something match defining in the second innings. There must be a chance that this side could move on without him over the next 12 months. Anderson and Broad are ridiculous aren’t they. Anderson is bowling as well as ever, all be it, he has struggled for fitness over the last 18 months. Broad is bowling better than ever. It was a bit of a master stroke retiring them from ODI cricket 5 years ago. |
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Jan 25, 2021 18:47:47 GMT
This 2nd Test has been a bit more attritional. Short of another SL batting collapse it's looking like it will probably be a draw. Where would England be without Root though? On the one hand it's great he's in such imperious form heading into the India series. On the other hand he's not getting as much help. We do have an inexperienced lineup in these conditions. Makes me think they should have called up Jennings on a horses for courses basis.
Also, is there any more to say about Anderson? Everytime the 'hot take' brigade in punditry land declare him finished he completely embarrasses them!
You are a lot more confident than I am! If Sri Lanka can bat all day tomorrow, they will put England under immense pressure on day 5. Even if they only manage 180 in the third innings, England are likely to be chasing 210 with 4 sessions left in the match. That will not be easy. Plenty of work left for England. I am a bit surprised that they didn’t pick Jennings, but I’m glad they didn’t. Crawley and Sibley have both struggled, but they are both young enough to benefit from the experience. It’s interesting to see the next generation of batsmen coming through. With Lawrence making a positive impact, and Pope to come back in, Bairstow will be desperate to do something match defining in the second innings. There must be a chance that this side could move on without him over the next 12 months. Anderson and Broad are ridiculous aren’t they. Anderson is bowling as well as ever, all be it, he has struggled for fitness over the last 18 months. Broad is bowling better than ever. It was a bit of a master stroke retiring them from ODI cricket 5 years ago. Well I enjoyed that. Sri Lanka's 2nd terrible batting effort of the series sunk them but they made us wobble a bit again. Not terribly confident of our chances of turning over an Indian side that will be brimming with confidence. I think we are about right in the World rankings really - a notch behind Aus, NZ and India but a decent way ahead of the rest.
We need that new generation to solidify to push us to the next level. They've shown flashes and are bedding in. I'm certainly not sure about these openers in India - they will need to learn quickly as I expect they will face another trial by spin. Getting Pope and Stokes (is that right?) back will make a big difference. So the batting is a question mark.
The bowling on the other hand looks decent. I think our bowlers against their batsmen will be the more intriguing and higher quality side of the equation in the Indian series.
I'm not as down on Bairstow as you are. I thought he looked alright and contributed to our 2 most important partnership. Although ultimately he missed 2 golden opportunities to push on and stake a claim. I like his experience though. You need some old heads in a side with this many newbies I feel.
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jackthegas
David Pritchard
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Post by jackthegas on Jan 25, 2021 19:47:07 GMT
You are a lot more confident than I am! If Sri Lanka can bat all day tomorrow, they will put England under immense pressure on day 5. Even if they only manage 180 in the third innings, England are likely to be chasing 210 with 4 sessions left in the match. That will not be easy. Plenty of work left for England. I am a bit surprised that they didn’t pick Jennings, but I’m glad they didn’t. Crawley and Sibley have both struggled, but they are both young enough to benefit from the experience. It’s interesting to see the next generation of batsmen coming through. With Lawrence making a positive impact, and Pope to come back in, Bairstow will be desperate to do something match defining in the second innings. There must be a chance that this side could move on without him over the next 12 months. Anderson and Broad are ridiculous aren’t they. Anderson is bowling as well as ever, all be it, he has struggled for fitness over the last 18 months. Broad is bowling better than ever. It was a bit of a master stroke retiring them from ODI cricket 5 years ago. Well I enjoyed that. Sri Lanka's 2nd terrible batting effort of the series sunk them but they made us wobble a bit again. Not terribly confident of our chances of turning over an Indian side that will be brimming with confidence. I think we are about right in the World rankings really - a notch behind Aus, NZ and India but a decent way ahead of the rest.
We need that new generation to solidify to push us to the next level. They've shown flashes and are bedding in. I'm certainly not sure about these openers in India - they will need to learn quickly as I expect they will face another trial by spin. Getting Pope and Stokes (is that right?) back will make a big difference. So the batting is a question mark.
The bowling on the other hand looks decent. I think our bowlers against their batsmen will be the more intriguing and higher quality side of the equation in the Indian series.
I'm not as down on Bairstow as you are. I thought he looked alright and contributed to our 2 most important partnership. Although ultimately he missed 2 golden opportunities to push on and stake a claim. I like his experience though. You need some old heads in a side with this many newbies I feel.
Yes. Sri Lanka just didn't get enough in their second innings did they. I don't think they batted very well at all, but Leach and Bess clearly come in to the game more when it's spinning. I saw Phil Tuffnell comparing Embuldeniya and Leach's actions earlier in this test. Basically, he reckons Leach is quite closed off making it difficult for him to create an angle and get any dip on the ball. I think he looks pretty effective when it's turning, but a bit impotent when it's flat. I guess a drawback of him playing lots of cricket on turning pitches might be that he doesn't need to put many revs on the ball. I think India will play us on flat pitches and our bowling attack looks less well equipped in those conditions than there's. I'm glad Sibley spent some time at the crease today. He's a limited cricketer, but he seems to find a way. I agree that he will probably struggle in India, although conditions will probably bring their pace attack into the game a bit more. Jadeja is injured too. Not sure they have another left arm spinner. Perhaps this will help him? It's not necessarily that I have a downer on Bairstow. I think he's one of the top 5 batsmen in the country, and it's a real shame that, for whatever reason, save for a golden 18 month period, he's not really fulfilled his potential. I just feel that he's on the fringes of the first XI at the moment, and there are three young players in Pope, Crawley and Sibley that have all contributed significantly at times in the last 18 months. Things can move on rapidly in sport. Go back 24 months and it was hard to envisage Bairstow falling behind Buttler and Foakes as first choice keeper. He's looked at home in this series, but I think he will feel frustrated that he hasn't been able to do enough to force his way back into the first XI. Looking forward to the India series, but I'll be surprised if we aren't beaten 4-0. I'll be delighted if we can compete with them though. I think Australia and India are the best sides in the world at the moment. I like New Zealand, but I'm not sure there is much between us and them. New Zealand are very good at home, but haven't played a lot of test cricket away from home lately. It's a real shame we only ever seem to play 2 test series against them. I think we have 5 against India this summer, and 2 against New Zealand. I'd rather 4 and 3. |
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Jan 27, 2021 0:52:26 GMT
Well I enjoyed that. Sri Lanka's 2nd terrible batting effort of the series sunk them but they made us wobble a bit again. Not terribly confident of our chances of turning over an Indian side that will be brimming with confidence. I think we are about right in the World rankings really - a notch behind Aus, NZ and India but a decent way ahead of the rest.
We need that new generation to solidify to push us to the next level. They've shown flashes and are bedding in. I'm certainly not sure about these openers in India - they will need to learn quickly as I expect they will face another trial by spin. Getting Pope and Stokes (is that right?) back will make a big difference. So the batting is a question mark.
The bowling on the other hand looks decent. I think our bowlers against their batsmen will be the more intriguing and higher quality side of the equation in the Indian series.
I'm not as down on Bairstow as you are. I thought he looked alright and contributed to our 2 most important partnership. Although ultimately he missed 2 golden opportunities to push on and stake a claim. I like his experience though. You need some old heads in a side with this many newbies I feel.
Yes. Sri Lanka just didn't get enough in their second innings did they. I don't think they batted very well at all, but Leach and Bess clearly come in to the game more when it's spinning. I saw Phil Tuffnell comparing Embuldeniya and Leach's actions earlier in this test. Basically, he reckons Leach is quite closed off making it difficult for him to create an angle and get any dip on the ball. I think he looks pretty effective when it's turning, but a bit impotent when it's flat. I guess a drawback of him playing lots of cricket on turning pitches might be that he doesn't need to put many revs on the ball. I think India will play us on flat pitches and our bowling attack looks less well equipped in those conditions than there's. I'm glad Sibley spent some time at the crease today. He's a limited cricketer, but he seems to find a way. I agree that he will probably struggle in India, although conditions will probably bring their pace attack into the game a bit more. Jadeja is injured too. Not sure they have another left arm spinner. Perhaps this will help him? It's not necessarily that I have a downer on Bairstow. I think he's one of the top 5 batsmen in the country, and it's a real shame that, for whatever reason, save for a golden 18 month period, he's not really fulfilled his potential. I just feel that he's on the fringes of the first XI at the moment, and there are three young players in Pope, Crawley and Sibley that have all contributed significantly at times in the last 18 months. Things can move on rapidly in sport. Go back 24 months and it was hard to envisage Bairstow falling behind Buttler and Foakes as first choice keeper. He's looked at home in this series, but I think he will feel frustrated that he hasn't been able to do enough to force his way back into the first XI. Looking forward to the India series, but I'll be surprised if we aren't beaten 4-0. I'll be delighted if we can compete with them though. I think Australia and India are the best sides in the world at the moment. I like New Zealand, but I'm not sure there is much between us and them. New Zealand are very good at home, but haven't played a lot of test cricket away from home lately. It's a real shame we only ever seem to play 2 test series against them. I think we have 5 against India this summer, and 2 against New Zealand. I'd rather 4 and 3. That's a pretty decent summer programme though isn't it? Agreed it's a shame there's not more balance but we never do play many against NZ. TV money talks. I'm not sure I entirely agree. I feel New Zealand are decent. I think they have a depth and class in their batting that we're lacking a bit and their seam attack is plain nasty (although not as deep as ours). Both teams lack a real quality spinner that could push them to the next level. India exposed Australia who I think have been a bit overrated. They can be deadly but I find their attack a bit one note and lacking variation and there maybe signs that Lyon might have passed his peak. Their batting is extremely hot and cold. All of these teams struggle to win away consistently which is why India's series win was such a statement - as it would be if we were to do the same to them next month.
Really looking forward to that series - hopefully it will be the making of one or two of these young batsmen and one of our spinners. Tufnell is always good value when discussing spin technique. I think it's less to do with the wickets they are playing on in domestic cricket than how we develop spinners. For all the special programmes and efforts to produce attacking spinners over the years we still very rarely do. I think Leach and Bess are fine but they are both classic English spinners - they bowl quite flat, relatively quick and with an emphasis on repitition and accuracy over variation and accuracy. We produce by the numbers spinners in droves but it's rare we develop a truly attacking one. Tufnell was one, Swann was another, Parklnson is the one we have now who fits that bill (although I'm not sure he's good enough). We want our spinners to do everything and it's critical they can eat up overs so seamers can rest which is why we don't produce high risk-high reward types very often.
Tufnell was in that mold and, in fairness, was a seriously underrated and mismanaged talent (partly self mismanagement) in many ways. Swann only got to that point after he'd spent 10 years in the game and changed his whole approach. You have to be brave - get it wrong and it might cost you your career. If we want to attack I still think Moen might be a better option than either Bess or Leach because of the loop he bowls with. In the mid-long term though I'm not sure any of them are definitely going to be the answer.
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