creeeeeeeekeeeeeet

[Bruce Rioja]

What's happened to young Sam Curran, by the way? I have high hopes for that boy but he seems to have fallen off the radar.

[Worthy4England]

What's happened to young Sam Curran, by the way? I have high hopes for that boy but he seems to have fallen off the radar.

Not had a very good 2021 - 87 runs in 6 innings @ 14.5 and 6 wickets at an average approaching 60....? We don't have a radar large enough!

[Bruce Rioja]

What's happened to young Sam Curran, by the way? I have high hopes for that boy but he seems to have fallen off the radar.

Not had a very good 2021 - 87 runs in 6 innings @ 14.5 and 6 wickets at an average approaching 60....? We don't have a radar large enough!

Ooof. Blimey. I didn't know that. Still, he'll do no fecking worse etc etc

[jimbo]

[tweet] https://twitter.com/timwig/status/14717 ... 22369?s=21[/tweet]

[jimbo]

[tweet] https://twitter.com/timwig/status/14717 ... 22369?s=21[/tweet]

I think this shows that despite all the talk about planning for conditions we rarely manage to nail selection and tactics overseas.

[BWFC_Insane]

[tweet] https://twitter.com/timwig/status/14717 ... 22369?s=21[/tweet]

I think this shows that despite all the talk about planning for conditions we rarely manage to nail selection and tactics overseas.

Is the attack really the big issue? We have no spinner, which is a huge problem. But I think you can perm a more than adequate test attack out of our bowling options. Not as good as Australias sure. But enough.

The lack of a spinner, and a batting line up is primarily our weakness.

[jimbo]

[tweet] https://twitter.com/timwig/status/14717 ... 22369?s=21[/tweet]

I think this shows that despite all the talk about planning for conditions we rarely manage to nail selection and tactics overseas.

Is the attack really the big issue? We have no spinner, which is a huge problem. But I think you can perm a more than adequate test attack out of our bowling options. Not as good as Australias sure. But enough.

The lack of a spinner, and a batting line up is primarily our weakness.

The attack is a big issue, or rather selecting the right combination of bowlers overseas is. We got it wrong in India, and have done again here IMO.

Here we’ve picked the same 3 bowlers and had the exact same toil over 2 days. Every Ashes mauling we have reviews and talk of lessons learned yet here we’ve done the same thing and had the same result.

I do think the attack selection in this test is linked to the batting though. If Anderson and Broad play, then Woakes shouldn’t as they’re too samey. However Woakes is needed to bolster the weak batting.

[Prufrock]

Attack is v much an issue too, just slightly less of one. I said last week I worried about us taking 20 wickets and still v much do.

I have a bit of sympathy in that there was at least a plan with Archer, Wood and Stone and injuries have ruled out two of those and obviously limit Wood. Again it's a longer term issue where we aren't producing bowlers suited to bowling anywhere other than at home.

[BWFC_Insane]

Attack is v much an issue too, just slightly less of one. I said last week I worried about us taking 20 wickets and still v much do.

I have a bit of sympathy in that there was at least a plan with Archer, Wood and Stone and injuries have ruled out two of those and obviously limit Wood. Again it's a longer term issue where we aren't producing bowlers suited to bowling anywhere other than at home.

I mean we have if all fit our best attack for overseas, at least Australia and the Windies in ages. They just aren’t all fit.

The spin department is a massive weakness. Obviously we’d love a Starc or a Cummins. But I don’t think our bowling options, fast bowling options are bad apart from injury issues.

[Bruce Rioja]

Barring Malan and Root, what an absolute shit-show. What are our predictions? An innings aaaaaand....?

[jimbo]

Barring Malan and Root, what an absolute shit-show. What are our predictions? An innings aaaaaand....?

I think they’ll bat again to just grind our bowlers into the dirt and then give themselves 4 sessions to bowl us out. Extra overs in our legs will just build fatigue for the rest of the series. There aren’t many chances to rest.

[jimbo]

Our ability to just completely fall apart in a session is staggering. We’ve been doing it so long now.

[Bruce Rioja]

I've just watched Pope's dismissal about a half a dozen times know. I'm at an absolute loss as to what he was even thinking.

[jimbo]

Another thing, if we do lose 4 or 5-0 here I think Root will pack in the captaincy. Who on earth do we give it to? There’s only Stokes who isn’t 2 or 3 bad games away from being dropped and he’s got so much else on his plate that that’s a non starter.

[Worthy4England]

Buttlers was no better. Had to stretch to get the outside edge there. It really is very poor test match batting. If I recall, Pope's previous exit was a howler too.

Just too many batsmen not up to it mentally nor technically.

The bowling, there ain't many teams got a bowling attack that could regularly get teams out for the runs we score, and when I add into the equation that they can't concentrate for longer than 20 overs before they start shelling catches, I have some sympathy. Can't look at bowling stats in isolation of catches dropped and call a reasonable conclusion.

[jimbo]

Our third highest partnership this innings is 8.

[Worthy4England]

Not lasting as long as it takes to write a post bemoaning how shit they are.

[jimbo]

Buttler the test cricketer really pisses me off. There can’t be many players who’ve had a 50 test career and made such little impact. You can point to his average of 31 being just about ok but how many games has he actually influenced? I think there’s probably only 1.

[BWFC_Insane]

End of the day you can talk about ability all you like. And that’s a long term fix. But I’m not having it that we have the correct mental application and attitude. I’m not having it that many of these players couldn’t have worked on their games to improve them.

The same technique that fails time and time again is just repeated. Where is the application. The desire to improve.

I think on top of being an poor side they are also lazy and mentally weak. And that’s why I think anger and indignation is justified towards the players. Bring them home now. In ridicule and disgrace. They don’t deserve more caps. Shameful.

[BWFC_Insane]

Buttler the test cricketer really pisses me off. There can’t be many players who’ve had a 50 test career and made such little impact. You can point to his average of 31 being just about ok but how many games has he actually influenced? I think there’s probably only 1.

Buttler is a victim of the batting. He’s only going to make an impact being aggressive yet the batting dictates he’s had to try and play like a proper batsman when he’s not able.

Frankly again were the batting better we wouldn’t be picking Buttler for tests.

But that’s the issue. He’s at least tried to change his game but he’s not a test batsman and it’s blindingly obvious. And he’s not a great keeper either.