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5th test the oval

essex boy said:
I would question Stokes pertaining to the interesting eroding. Some countries have never attracted big audiences for test cricket historically ala Windies. Stokes is just as culpable as anyone for the state of the test game. Why? It was the IPL which started the demise (he has always been happy to pick up his pay check so a bit double standards for me) where other 20/20 leagues have been created on the back of the IPL which has made the problem worse

The underlying issue is the ICC need to ensure money in the game is spread more evenly so the purported weaker nations can compete more. How can Stokes possibly make England vs Windies more appealing if the two sides are woefully mis matched from ball one?

Consider this, IMO the best spinner in world cricket, Sunil Narine, has played 6 test matches in his career but 519 20/20 matches & 172 one day games. If it were not for 20/20 Duckett, Woakes, Jimmy, Ali would not be playing in this series as players who have been lost to the short form would be playing test cricket ala Hales, Buttler and many others

The cricket at times is entertaining, sometimes foolish. If a side plays on 4 flat wickets, picks 3 x 80-85mpg merchants you wont win many games. The one test we did win, the pitch was tailor made for the aforementioned medium/quicks we had selected. One man selection panels ala Silverwood have never worked and still don't as Stokes has proved
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Hales and Buttler weren't good enough for test cricket
The West Indies beat us in the most recent test series we played against them
The IPL was created on the back of the success of T20 here
How is Narine the best spinner in world cricket if he has only played 6 tests.
 

essex boy said:
I would question Stokes pertaining to the interesting eroding. Some countries have never attracted big audiences for test cricket historically ala Windies. Stokes is just as culpable as anyone for the state of the test game. Why? It was the IPL which started the demise (he has always been happy to pick up his pay check so a bit double standards for me) where other 20/20 leagues have been created on the back of the IPL which has made the problem worse

The underlying issue is the ICC need to ensure money in the game is spread more evenly so the purported weaker nations can compete more. How can Stokes possibly make England vs Windies more appealing if the two sides are woefully mis matched from ball one?

Consider this, IMO the best spinner in world cricket, Sunil Narine, has played 6 test matches in his career but 519 20/20 matches & 172 one day games. If it were not for 20/20 Duckett, Woakes, Jimmy, Ali would not be playing in this series as players who have been lost to the short form would be playing test cricket ala Hales, Buttler and many others

The cricket at times is entertaining, sometimes foolish. If a side plays on 4 flat wickets, picks 3 x 80-85mpg merchants you wont win many games. The one test we did win, the pitch was tailor made for the aforementioned medium/quicks we had selected. One man selection panels ala Silverwood have never worked and still don't as Stokes has proved
Click to expand...
Surely Ashwin is the best in the world.
 
essex boy said:
I would question Stokes pertaining to the interesting eroding. Some countries have never attracted big audiences for test cricket historically ala Windies. Stokes is just as culpable as anyone for the state of the test game. Why? It was the IPL which started the demise (he has always been happy to pick up his pay check so a bit double standards for me) where other 20/20 leagues have been created on the back of the IPL which has made the problem worse

The underlying issue is the ICC need to ensure money in the game is spread more evenly so the purported weaker nations can compete more. How can Stokes possibly make England vs Windies more appealing if the two sides are woefully mis matched from ball one?

Consider this, IMO the best spinner in world cricket, Sunil Narine, has played 6 test matches in his career but 519 20/20 matches & 172 one day games. If it were not for 20/20 Duckett, Woakes, Jimmy, Ali would not be playing in this series as players who have been lost to the short form would be playing test cricket ala Hales, Buttler and many others

The cricket at times is entertaining, sometimes foolish. If a side plays on 4 flat wickets, picks 3 x 80-85mpg merchants you wont win many games. The one test we did win, the pitch was tailor made for the aforementioned medium/quicks we had selected. One man selection panels ala Silverwood have never worked and still don't as Stokes has proved
Click to expand...

What has Narine done for you to label him best spinner in the world? He only plays franchise T20 and if that’s what we’re judging him on he’s nowhere near as good as Rashid Khan
 
FatCat2402 said:
Hales and Buttler weren't good enough for test cricket Pre-occupied with short form to focus on all three formats similar to how Broad and Jimmy concentrate on tests
The West Indies beat us in the most recent test series we played against them I meant at home
The IPL was created on the back of the success of T20 here It was, but the IPL paid the bucks to lure an international circuit of players
How is Narine the best spinner in world cricket if he has only played 6 tests. Just my IMO. Judging how good someone is now is very difficult ie, to me test records are being tarnished because the overall level is very poor
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Liverpool Beachball said:
What has Narine done for you to label him best spinner in the world? He only plays franchise T20 and if that’s what we’re judging him on he’s nowhere near as good as Rashid Khan
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Best bowler in the shorter form. In the long history of the game the best could play both formats we just don't see it in the test arena similar to how Jimmy and Broad have not played short form for many years. Sad really
Stormo said:
Surely Ashwin is the best in the world.
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He was not picked for the World Test Championship
 
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essex boy said:
Best bowler in the shorter form. In the long history of the game the best could play both formats we just don't see it in the test arena similar to how Jimmy and Broad have not played short form for many years. Sad really


He was not picked for the World Test Championship
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That is Rashid Khan. The only people saying otherwise don't have the ability of sight.
 
essex boy said:
Best bowler in the shorter form. In the long history of the game the best could play both formats we just don't see it in the test arena similar to how Jimmy and Broad have not played short form for many years. Sad really


He was not picked for the World Test Championship
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Herath then. It’s certainly not Narine.
 
mackembhoy said:
He's got more wickets than Narine.

He's played nearly as much cricket than him too and he's over 10 years younger?
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Fair point, I did not appreciate how many wickets Khan had taken. I was not trying to have a debate about who the best spinner is but more how a class act ie, Narine is being lost to test cricket similar to Khan, sad he has only played a handful of test matches like Narine.

Stokes swashbuckling brand will not reverse this trend due to the lure of £ in the shorter form
 
essex boy said:
Fair point, I did not appreciate how many wickets Khan had taken. I was not trying to have a debate about who the best spinner is but more how a class act ie, Narine is being lost to test cricket similar to Khan, sad he has only played a handful of test matches like Narine.

Stokes swashbuckling brand will not reverse this trend due to the lure of £ in the shorter form
Click to expand...
More down to Afghanistan only getting given a smattering of tests.

I think we've ruled out playing them cos of the Taliban or something.

Absolute pile of shite. Should be playing a test against them in an India as a warm up for that series.
 
essex boy said:
Fair point, I did not appreciate how many wickets Khan had taken. I was not trying to have a debate about who the best spinner is but more how a class act ie, Narine is being lost to test cricket similar to Khan, sad he has only played a handful of test matches like Narine.

Stokes swashbuckling brand will not reverse this trend due to the lure of £ in the shorter form
Click to expand...
Ahhhh now I agree. You actually make a good point.
mackembhoy said:
More down to Afghanistan only getting given a smattering of tests.

I think we've ruled out playing them cos of the Taliban or something.

Absolute pile of shite. Should be playing a test against them in an India as a warm up for that series.
Click to expand...
Let’s be honest, as sad as it is, if we can organise a test series against West Indies we can organise one v Afghanistan. Not away mind. A one off match would be good.


Having said that, contradicting myself, I hate seeing Ducketts stats where it says his best is v Ireland. Kind of belittles it.
 
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I would think Woody must be injured. But we have hamstrung ourselves in every game by failing to pick the correct 11.

At times we have be so arrogant the way we batted late last night when it was obvious how flat the pitch was.

We have literally played with 10 last 2 tests with just how poor Anderson has been and 9 with Mo getting injured if Wood has gone again.

It’s once again shown when there is no sideways movement we struggle badly.

I was trying to throw it forward to the 2025 Ashes was totally scratching my head for a bowling like up.
 
Durham-Mackem41 said:
I would think Woody must be injured. But we have hamstrung ourselves in every game by failing to pick the correct 11.

At times we have be so arrogant the way we batted late last night when it was obvious how flat the pitch was.

We have literally played with 10 last 2 tests with just how poor Anderson has been and 9 with Mo getting injured if Wood has gone again.

It’s once again shown when there is no sideways movement we struggle badly.

I was trying to throw it forward to the 2025 Ashes was totally scratching my head for a bowling like up.
Click to expand...

To your point about the lack of sideways movement. In the context of English cricket over the last 50 years, England have to the best of my knowledge never had a sustained run of no.1 side in the world. How odd considering the volume of test cricket and how much first class cricket we play. If you consider bowlers win games, we have and continue to be hamstrung by a cultural disease of packing our sides with bowlers who bowl around 79-85mph and rely on conditions to be effective. When, in this series, wickets have been flat we continue to overlook bowlers with extra pace which can get you more wickets on flat wickets. It is why historically SA and Australia play with 2 or 3 quicks as they are bought up playing on hard, flat wickets ala like The Oval. When England have bowlers on this ilk available, they get overlooked ala Tongue or not bowled ala Wood today

It is quite baffling.
 
essex boy said:
To your point about the lack of sideways movement. In the context of English cricket over the last 50 years, England have to the best of my knowledge never had a sustained run of no.1 side in the world. How odd considering the volume of test cricket and how much first class cricket we play. If you consider bowlers win games, we have and continue to be hamstrung by a cultural disease of packing our sides with bowlers who bowl around 79-85mph and rely on conditions to be effective. When, in this series, wickets have been flat we continue to overlook bowlers with extra pace which can get you more wickets on flat wickets. It is why historically SA and Australia play with 2 or 3 quicks as they are bought up playing on hard, flat wickets ala like The Oval. When England have bowlers on this ilk available, they get overlooked ala Tongue or not bowled ala Wood today

It is quite baffling.
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I cant get my head around why the pitches being prepared are flat as a fart. We've got one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket at present - prepare a pitch for him to show off his talents. instead we prepare slow pitches that offer nothing to our attack. Its baffling
 
SAFC2403 said:
I cant get my head around why the pitches being prepared are flat as a fart. We've got one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket at present - prepare a pitch for him to show off his talents. instead we prepare slow pitches that offer nothing to our attack. Its baffling
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I don't get your point at all. If its just a personal attack send me a PM instead

Stokes asked for flat wickets, if you are expecting Wood to do all the bowling so be it. Stokes needed to pick two quicks if he has asked for flat wickets, he has not, Australia have.
 
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