England vs India first test

All this talk of no red ball cricket inhibiting is is nonsense. These guys have played long form cricket since they were kids. Harry Brook came off the back of a wild T20 blast campaign to score a century in the Championship in difficult batting conditions. It's a matter of poor application and lack of talent.

Sibley is a great leaver but not a great blocker and absolutely useless on the offside. In conditions like yesterday he'll inevitably get one that comes in miles and hits the pad or one that goes out and gets a nick because there's no scoring pressure. India could just keep attacking him until a ball was too good for him.

Lawrence is talented but looks out of his depth. Just like Vince did when he was younger.

Buttler is no more a red ball player than me. He's arguably best short firm batter in the world and has had the odd innings where he applies himself well in tests but he's too inconsistent. Yesterday he looked like a village cricketer against quality red ball bowling. I'd rather we had a specialist keeper who can block to hold an end for Root than a wildcard like Buttler.

Crawley, Root, Bairstow and Curran did well and Burns had proven he's a decent opener and it's not like there's loads of competition.

I'd like to see Brook and Hameed given a shot. I would be open to James Vince being given another shot now he's older and wiser. He's a quality batter with a 360 game.

As an aside I think we need to stop with Broad and Anderson playing together now. We need to be giving runs in the side to more young bowlers. Going into the Ashes, Anderson won't provide much threat in Aussie conditions, Archer may or may not be close to fitness, Wood us an injury liability and Woakes is the wrong type of bowler. We also may not have Stokes. Surely we need to be looking at Stone, The Overton brothers and any other decent quick prospects before we head out there? In Australia we'll want 2 of Anderson, Broad, Curran & Woakes, a spinner and 2 genuine quicks available for every game.

 

That's a pretty good analysis. Scheduling has been congested for a long time and will remain so. The averages of the current side are dire other than Root, as bad as the 90s when Australia were a force.
There was some poor dismissals yesterday but equally there was bowling that would have troubled top quality batsmen.
What's the answer? The top brass at the ecb will be scratching their heads.

 

I realise I've disrespected Robinson who should be in the conversation for Australia to

 

The absolute last thing I'd be doing is introducing another slogfest competition to congest the cricketing calendar even more and therefore demoting technique, grit and character even further down the pecking order.

 

You can hardly blame "the current slogfest" for how this lot batted, no matter how much you dislike it.

 

If Joe Public can see what the problem is and pundits on both Sky and the BBC why can't the ECB?

 

I don't blame the slogfest directly (yet), but its another competition of that ilk. The ECB openly outlined a desire to be more competitive and target ODI tournaments and T20. But with that push and with the backdrop of T20 cricket becoming more dominant and prioritised, its pushed technique further and further down the list of priorities.

Adding this new competition is just creating more problems further down the line and is only likely to exacerbate our problems, not start to address them and resolve them eventually.

 

I'd like to see a return to "red ball" one day cricket. With players wearing whites. It might marry one day skill with players getting "red ball" experience.

 

mebbe not but they have apparently been out for less than 200 in 8 of their last 12 innings.
None of the openers to have the patience or technique for test cricket these days

 

Archer out for the whole year. Not sure who Root and Silverwood have handled worse, Archer or all of the spinners they’ve had available.

 

Jeez. Out squad for the Ashes should be interesting there’ll be nobody going at this rate.

 

Due to central contracts there isn't any fear of being dropped. No reprisal for being out of form. I remember when you were in the one day international side because you'd been demoted from the test side.

 

Quality from Jimmy Anderson.

 

Just switched on after dog walk and Jimmy gets a wicket. Great timing!

 

Kohli gone first ball!

 

Nothing on the BBC.

 

Yay! Although I do like to watch him bat!

 

He's on his hat trick. Come on Jimmy!!

 

Run out... 4 down!

 

We've got em rattled!!