England in the West Indies



Don't think either of our openers are good enough for this level on performance so far, need to see them after working with a decent batting coach.
I just think we're in the position of picking the best we have, we might not have anyone 'good enough' before the Ashes, someone might emerge by the end of next season for the winter tour. For the time being Burns is probably the best we have and I'd rehabilitate Stoneman as his partner.

For a long time I've wanted to pick 3 opener and have the third at 3 in the line up - do we have 3 'possibles', I doubt it.
 
Don't think either of our openers are good enough for this level on performance so far, need to see them after working with a decent batting coach.

Shouldn’t need coaching mate

How olds Burns? Should know his game inside out

Stoneman a much better player than both them, he’s a natural talent, no obvious weakness, although I accept he didn’t do enough to nail it down. What I mean by natural is not a manufactured technique than can be picked apart by test bowlers

Stoneman did on in winter before last although he faded badly. He batted time a lot and got fair few 50s.

I just think we're in the position of picking the best we have, we might not have anyone 'good enough' before the Ashes, someone might emerge by the end of next season for the winter tour. For the time being Burns is probably the best we have and I'd rehabilitate Stoneman as his partner.

For a long time I've wanted to pick 3 opener and have the third at 3 in the line up - do we have 3 'possibles', I doubt it.

Fair point

Burns has so many moving parts and looks to score almost every shot, is he really the best we have. I know been scoring lots over last few years

I just look st Vince and then look at Burns. Convinced Vince would score more over a long period of time, but maybe I’m talking shite.
 
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Without defending homophobic abuse, which I’m really not attempting to

If you grow up in a country where it’s illegal how much can you criticize someone. Hard for someone to break that cycle of opinion I guess

Burns is skittish. Jennings looks more the part, but he is error prone.

Skittish is spot on

He never looks in to me
 
Ali gonna end up our highest wicket taker for spinner ain’t he?

If we'd got on top of them earlier (caught that Hetmyer chance in Barbados and skittled them for 180) it would have been a different series I reckon

Never gonna win a test match in West Indies with Sam Curran opening the Bowling

I love the lad but that was such s bad selection, stokes bowled a disgraceful amount of overs first few tests
 
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Moeen is a good test bowler now.

Aye, hope the people on here saying Leach is better than him are giving their head a shake.

He's been absolutely brilliant this test - and is averaging 23 on pitches prepared for seam. There is no debate about England's number one spinner.

Ali gonna end up our highest wicket taker for spinner ain’t he?



Never gonna win a test match in West Indies with Sam Curran opening the Bowling

I love the lad but that was such s bad selection, stokes bowled a disgraceful amount of overs first few tests

Sam Curran is a great competitor and will come again. But probably as a batting all-rounder, because at 5ft9 and sub 80mph, I'm afraid he's just not got the raw attributes to be a test class seamer. To pick him, on a bouncy deck, over our 6ft 6 seamer with 400 plus test wickets... I said it at the time, but that is the worst selection howler I can ever remember in all my time watching England. And I include the 90s!
 
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Shouldn’t need coaching mate

How olds Burns? Should know his game inside out

Stoneman a much better player than both them, he’s a natural talent, no obvious weakness, although I accept he didn’t do enough to nail it down. What I mean by natural is not a manufactured technique than can be picked apart by test bowlers

Stoneman did on in winter before last although he faded badly. He batted time a lot and got fair few 50s.



Fair point

Burns has so many moving parts and looks to score almost every shot, is he really the best we have. I know been scoring lots over last few years

I just look st Vince and then look at Burns. Convinced Vince would score more over a long period of time, but maybe I’m talking shite.

I'm a big fan of Stoneman but I do think he has a couple of clear weaknesses. 1) Spin - He doesn't play it particularly well, gets bogged down against accurate spin and if he gets through the new ball I always think Lyon has his number - if he gets another chance he will have to work out a method. 2) I think he has a problem when the ball gets softer which is more a problem when using the kookaburra abroad. Clearly he found it difficult against the short ball against the Aussies also. That said hes gutsy and is good as we have got IMO.

Theres a lot people don't know about Stoneman. When he came back from NZ just before the Pakistan series him and his lass had some awful news. Early scans had shown problems with the babies heart and throughout the English summer this was at the forefront of their minds. When the baby was born it had to have open heart surgery after 3 days but to the best of my knowledge it is doing well. One thing for sure is he would never use any of that as an excuse.
 
Aye, hope the people on here saying Leach is better than him are giving their head a shake.

He's been absolutely brilliant this test - and is averaging 23 on pitches prepared for seam. There is no debate about England's number one spinner.



Sam Curran is a great competitor and will come again. But probably as a batting all-rounder, because at 5ft9 and sub 80mph, I'm afraid he's just not got the raw attributes to be a test class seamer. To pick him, on a bouncy deck, over our 6ft 6 seamer with 400 plus test wickets... I said it at the time, but that is the worst selection howler I can ever remember in all my time watching England. And I include the 90s!
I agree about having him as a batting all rounder rather than a bowler who can bat. He has a very decent tecnique with the bat and if he turned his attention to that, he could become a bit of a Shane Watson type player, handy to chuck the ball to when we need something different, but in the team to score runs primarily.
 
I agree about having him as a batting all rounder rather than a bowler who can bat. He has a very decent tecnique with the bat and if he turned his attention to that, he could become a bit of a Shane Watson type player, handy to chuck the ball to when we need something different, but in the team to score runs primarily.

He's very young and his technique is excellent - very solid defence, but with great ball-striking too.

His bowling may come along too. Jacques Kallis managed to have a decent career with not much in the way of pace of bounce. But again he was a nice medium pace nibbler whose main role was batting.

At the moment we don't really need him because we have a genuine all-rounder in Stokes. Two, arguably, given Ali has a fair few test hundreds. Therefore, if he wants in he's going to have to radically improve one of his suits. For me, batting looks the better bet.
 
He's very young and his technique is excellent - very solid defence, but with great ball-striking too.

His bowling may come along too. Jacques Kallis managed to have a decent career with not much in the way of pace of bounce. But again he was a nice medium pace nibbler whose main role was batting.

At the moment we don't really need him because we have a genuine all-rounder in Stokes. Two, arguably, given Ali has a fair few test hundreds. Therefore, if he wants in he's going to have to radically improve one of his suits. For me, batting looks the better bet.
All the attributes needed by a test match opener really. If he can get his head down and focus on that, we could solve one of the issues with the top 3.
 
Without defending homophobic abuse, which I’m really not attempting to

If you grow up in a country where it’s illegal how much can you criticize someone. Hard for someone to break that cycle of opinion I guess



Skittish is spot on

He never looks in to me

A fair point.

It is a bit like when casual racism was endemic at football grounds in the 70s and 80s.
It needed to be brought into the spotlight.
Whether it changed peoples views or not, it certainly educated the next generation.
Hopefully this homophobic incident will make people think in the West Indies.
Even if it changes the opinion of only a few, it is a start.
Also, Root saying that could be a help to some kids, unsure of their sexuality, growing up in a homophobic environment.
 
Aye, hope the people on here saying Leach is better than him are giving their head a shake.

He's been absolutely brilliant this test - and is averaging 23 on pitches prepared for seam. There is no debate about England's number one spinner.



Sam Curran is a great competitor and will come again. But probably as a batting all-rounder, because at 5ft9 and sub 80mph, I'm afraid he's just not got the raw attributes to be a test class seamer. To pick him, on a bouncy deck, over our 6ft 6 seamer with 400 plus test wickets... I said it at the time, but that is the worst selection howler I can ever remember in all my time watching England. And I include the 90s!

Darren Pattison for Caddick runs it close!
 

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