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Prospective England openers

The Rat said:
But if a player is a top order batsman in the county championship and has played there all his career

Why would you bat him 5 or 6? It’s a totally different role

You wouldn’t put an opener there would you?

He’s getting picked because he scores runs against the new ball
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Personally I think it’s a massive step up, remember Ponting starting his test career at 6, it allowed him to gain confidence rather than been chucked in.

It gets their confidence up rather than destroying it straightaway and gives them a easier role to build it up.

It’s a massive difference imo, playing county cricket at 3 and test cricket at 3 and it clearly hasn’t worked for a number of years, trying new player after new player!

We have been 2/3 down for next to nowt test after test for a number of years, so maybe the change that is required is getting our more accomplished batsman higher up the order to prevent that, rather than trying player after player in that position?
 
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scotch said:
I think he should be in the team but at 6...but then you look at the other options for 3 (Bracey, Duckett and Bohannon) and I think right now they are better players and Root then gets to bat at 4 with Bairstow and Stokes to come.

Lawrence is in a race to be fit as tore his hamstring
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I'd go for a speciialst number 3 from one of those you mentioned, it shouldnt be purely based on who has scored most runs etc, those in the know need to figure out which one is technically and mentally the best for test cricket.

I'd have Bairstow at 7 and possibly Brook or someone like Vince at 5.

They need technically correct players to start with.

The opening one is the most difficult, I really am not sure I'd keep either, but Crawley's average this year is a tough one, but the selectors viewed him as someone suited to test pitches not county pitches

I dont agree with people thinking Key being involved will mean he defs get picked though. Key will just want to win.
Voice of fair play said:
Personally I think it’s a massive step up, remember Ponting starting his test career at 6, it allowed him to gain confidence rather than been chucked in.

It gets their confidence up rather than destroying it straightaway and gives them a easier role to build it up.

It’s a massive difference imo, playing county cricket at 3 and test cricket at 3 and it clearly hasn’t worked for a number of years, trying new player after new player!

We have been 2/3 down for next to nowt test after test for a number of years, so maybe the change that is required is getting our more accomplished batsman higher up the order to prevent that, rather than trying player after player in that position?
Click to expand...

Mate, we have tried Root at 3 countless times and it never works, he ends up back at 4 and then results improve

Thats the thing you constantly forget to mention, Root has played loads pf tests at 3 and it didnt help results at all
 
The Rat said:
I'd go for a speciialst number 3 from one of those you mentioned, it shouldnt be purely based on who has scored most runs etc, those in the know need to figure out which one is technically and mentally the best for test cricket.

I'd have Bairstow at 7 and possibly Brook or someone like Vince at 5.

They need technically correct players to start with.

The opening one is the most difficult, I really am not sure I'd keep either, but Crawley's average this year is a tough one, but the selectors viewed him as someone suited to test pitches not county pitches

I dont agree with people thinking Key being involved will mean he defs get picked though. Key will just want to win.


Mate, we have tried Root at 3 countless times and it never works, he ends up back at 4 and then results improve

Thats the thing you constantly forget to mention, Root has played loads pf tests at 3 and it didnt help results at all
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Vince haha
 
The Rat said:
Lawrence won’t score runs consistently at test level

He gets out early too often as he plays across the line


My point being there is talent in England, especially in the middle order

We need to get out of this mentality of just continuing to pick players who aren’t scoring runs

We give them far too long, you wouldn’t keep picking a bowler who took no wickets

There will be players in England who do well in convinced

Selection needs to be better and more ruthless

I think pope is a talented lad but it got to the stage where he just gets picked in every single squad no matter how bad he was
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Maybe right about Lawrence just think he deserves the New Zealand series at least, he’s talented maybe a good coach can get the best out of him
 
Sibley looked great there
Good 100 for Burns but he needs big big 100s to get back in contention

Sibley could carry bat here
 
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Ive nissed loads on here last few days due to being busy at work:

Sibley 142 no
Jennings 110
Dickson 170 and 100
Cook 107 (I know he has retired but will keep putting his scores in for the crack)
Browne 0
Burns 107
Haines first ball 0 on the back of his 17 in the first innings
Libby 17 and 0 (hes way back down the list I reckon - poor start t the season)
Lees 27 and 60 not out
Dickson 104 and 105
Stoneman 26
Robson 0

The likes of Crawley, Compton didnt play in this round.

I think LEES will play in the first test. The likes of Sibley and Burns got massively needed runs. No idea what direction they will take but there are plenty now showing a bit of form.
 
rentaghost said:
Ive nissed loads on here last few days due to being busy at work:

Sibley 142 no
Jennings 110
Dickson 170 and 100
Cook 107 (I know he has retired but will keep putting his scores in for the crack)
Browne 0
Burns 107
Haines first ball 0 on the back of his 17 in the first innings
Libby 17 and 0 (hes way back down the list I reckon - poor start t the season)
Lees 27 and 60 not out
Dickson 104 and 105
Stoneman 26
Robson 0

The likes of Crawley, Compton didnt play in this round.

I think LEES will play in the first test. The likes of Sibley and Burns got massively needed runs. No idea what direction they will take but there are plenty now showing a bit of form.
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Just reading Stokes interviews (and IMO Stokes is getting the team he wants and the biggest say in selection for the NZ series) it will be Crawley and Lees.

Nobody has made a standout to say "pick me"

Key likes Haines but cant see him getting picked.

I mentioned in another thread, Stokes says he wants one of the younger lads as VC and the word is it might be Crawley, which seems mad.
 
The Rat said:
Just reading Stokes interviews (and IMO Stokes is getting the team he wants and the biggest say in selection for the NZ series) it will be Crawley and Lees.

Nobody has made a standout to say "pick me"

Key likes Haines but cant see him getting picked.

I mentioned in another thread, Stokes says he wants one of the younger lads as VC and the word is it might be Crawley, which seems mad.
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Aye as much as I wouldn’t open with Crawley I did suspect they would start with him
 
The Rat said:
Just reading Stokes interviews (and IMO Stokes is getting the team he wants and the biggest say in selection for the NZ series) it will be Crawley and Lees.

Nobody has made a standout to say "pick me"

Key likes Haines but cant see him getting picked.

I mentioned in another thread, Stokes says he wants one of the younger lads as VC and the word is it might be Crawley, which seems mad.
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Yeh, looks as if Stokes will have the team he wants with some feed in from Key. Also think Ben will consult his big mate Joe so he'll have unofficial input. I'd say there are 2 batsmen( they're make and they bat so they're batsmen)_who've made standout pick me i.e. Dickson and Brook.
They'll stick with Crawley so a top six of
Lees
Crawley
Malan
Root
Brook
Stokes.
 
Parkside said:
Yeh, looks as if Stokes will have the team he wants with some feed in from Key. Also think Ben will consult his big mate Joe so he'll have unofficial input. I'd say there are 2 batsmen( they're make and they bat so they're batsmen)_who've made standout pick me i.e. Dickson and Brook.
They'll stick with Crawley so a top six of
Lees
Crawley
Malan
Root
Brook
Stokes.
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I think that will be the case Crawley will play I think Key likes him and wants to play positively
 
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