The Cricket Thread

[Trips]

Just seen that Brook is the only English batsman with more 30+ scores than Jofra this series ffs

 

[jd1981]

This bowling attack is clueless totally incapable of creating sustained pressure, seem happy to just allow Australia to score 1-2 runs here and there. Khwaja comes in and absolutely no pressure applied just happily let him get settled.
We need to be chasing a sub 300 score we will be chasing a 400> score.

 

[jd1981]

It’s just not very hard for the Australian batsmen England length is too short and they offer up at least 1-2 bad balls an over to score off. They know Archer is the best bowler so they just see him off and score off the rest.
Reality is Australia are just better than us in every aspect of the game.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Reality is they probably have more than enough if they declare now. And I imagine they will add a further 150 or so fairly quickly in the morning to make a chase out of the question.

 

[jd1981]

Reality is they probably have more than enough if they declare now. And I imagine they will add a further 150 or so fairly quickly in the morning to make a chase out of the question.

Yep could easily be all over this time tomorrow to set us up for a delightful sporting day again.
Mental strength of the players is incredibly weak too and they look cooked once things go against them. I don’t expect a consolation win either.
If it goes on to be another 5-0 it mean our last 4 tours have been 5-0, 4-0, 4-0, 5-0 erm ECB take a long hard look at yourself and ask why it keeps on being so bad.
Yes 3/4 series we’ve had inferior sides but not that inferior, poor preparation is a big factor but that’ll never change trying to squeeze meaningless 1 day series here and there for an extra few quid.

 

[leedswolf]

Ashes going to be won after 10 days of cricket...

 

[BillyDee]

Shortest Ashes series since 1921

 

[leedswolf]

Shortest Ashes series since 1921

Yep, only 8 days in 1921 and in England...

 

[basher]

Being brutally honest it's at the stage, even before now, that you may as well sack test cricket off.

The players, coaching staff, people who run the game don't give a shit about it. If they did they'd do something about it... instead they'd rather go off playing golf and having a jolly than put the effort in and play some minutes against decent opposition.

Said it before but they are cheating the paying public serving up this dross. Zero prep, straight off the plane and into a test series, because there's no time as the schedule is full of crap.

Until it's taken seriously they may as well not bother as this isn't entertainment.

 

[Bigbadwulf07]

at least we can blame it all on the Carey decision!

 

[Wilf Wolf]

The Sheffield Shield is a very high standard compared to the Championship and is a great place for Test cricketers to develop. Our talent is too thinly spread across 18 counties and to compound things the Championship is behind T20 and The Hundred in priority. Maybe a merger of some smaller counties and a single league with 9of 10 teams would improve things.

Failing that start giving players who have done well in three day cricket a chance rather than giving the likes of Crawley and Pope enough chances they eventually make a big score and repeat the cycle of predominant failure with occasional good score again and again.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

You don't need to cut the counties. You need to cut the fucking hundred and play more longer format games

 

[Wilf Wolf]

You don't need to cut the counties. You need to cut the fucking hundred and play more longer format games

But that’s not going to happen. The Hundred keeps the counties financially viable. Like it or not it’s here to stay and the three day game will have to find a way to fit in with it.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

and play more longer format games

Pointless if the quality is too diluted. Too many games and players don’t have to take every one seriously and can get away with failure. Make every game matter and then the cream will rise to the top.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

But that’s not going to happen. The Hundred keeps the counties financially viable. Like it or not it’s here to stay and the three day game will have to find a way to fit in with it.

It keeps SOME counties viable (ish). It fucks the others over completely and is a fucking great millstone in the calendar. Our spinners are shit. Because the best conditions for spin are taken up by thrash it about pyjama bollocks

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

The bounty for The Hundred has already been taken and now it's simply a franchise tournament played on English and Welsh soil.

It isn't the cause of these problems though. Not even close.

 

[Tony Towner]

Ashley Giles 4 years ago, just before being sacked after the last hammering in Australia:

unless we look at more systemic change and a collective responsibility and collective solutions, we can make whatever changes we want. You can change me, change the head coach, change the captain, but we’re only setting up future leaders for failure. That’s all we’re doing. We’re only pushing it down the road.

Whoever is just about to be sacked 4 years from now will be able to say the same things. The Key, Stokes, McCullum era has had some excitement and some frustration, but the different on field approach hasn't done anything to address these key flaws as it can't, in some ways it's exacerbated them. County form being ignored in favour of selecting players for a tour 2 years away which ultimately we have been humiliated in, being a prime example

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I'm taking comfort from it not being that twat Labuschagne scoring the runs.

Objectively we've lost 1700 or so Test wickets from Anderson, Broad, Woakes* and Mo* retiring in the last two years so you'd think most bowling attacks would go through transition in those circumstances. These lot aren't good enough though.

*Not that these two would be enticing picks in Aus but y'know

Just shouting THE HUNDRED because you don't like it is disingenuous at best. We lost 5-0 12 years ago with a miles better team, ditto 19 years ago. What happened there then?

 

[Tony Towner]

Anderson didn't retire, he was retired, another decision made 18 months out with this series in mind, he certainly was worth his place on merit at that point.

It's not really The Hundred when it comes to the Test team (or least it's just an extension of an existing issue), it is with the 1 day side though as that's the format that's been sacrificed in it's favour. We've not been playing a significant amount of Championship cricket in high Summer for well over a decade, it's just that it was the conventional T20 tournament that was in that slot previously.

The Australian sides in the years you highlighted were also way better than the current one too.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I have to reject the idea that there's ever been a window in England when it's been a spinner's paradise, it just hasn't been. You aren't missing out on those conditions wherever you place franchise cricket. Even when it was favourable, who were your best spinners - Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shane Warne, Jeetan Patel and Simon Harmer. None likely to take many Test wickets for England.