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Australia v England, 2nd Test, 4th December 0400

willo said:
Could be any number of them. Atkinson in particular was a disgrace how he got out today.
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His bowling has been shite too. He also name dropped Carse along with himself as letting Australia score too quickly.

Smith has also been horrific, with the bat and the gloves. I think he & Pope are in real danger of being dropped.

That’s 4 who could drop out.
 

Eggman said:
Tell that to the fast medium Neser, Boland and slightly quicker Starc.

It’s where you bowl, not how fast.

Even when we won 3-1 in 2010/11, it was Anderson, Tremlett, Finn and Bresnan who bowled us to victory - none of them lightning quick, but bowled a persistent line and length, regularly bowling out a decent batting lineup
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Exactly, building pressure with Swann able to hold an end when he wasnt taking wickets. Oh and being shit hot in the field to keep the pressure up all the time and top class batsmen batting like test batsmen not like they are teeing off at a driving range. Best performance of my lifetime and i dont think il see it again.
 
ZeeZee said:
I can sort of see what he’s saying.

In football terms it would be like having pre season start at the end of July and then running the players ragged for the week before the first Saturday of the season.

Mentally and physically it’ll weaken the players. But the reason for doing so is not having the correct pre season. Which is exactly what England have done on this tour. A summer again focussed on the short ball format and too many players involved in franchise cricket.

People can go on and on about training between tests but the bowlers aren’t suddenly going to be able to handle a four or five day test match cause they have bowled long sessions in the build up to a test.

We all saw this coming. Totally underprepared.
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That’s the thing they didn’t have a pre season 😂
 
Inside Forward said:
The Oval Test against India was the first time I wondered about Smith’s mental toughness. We really needed him to step up that day and instead he played three or four wafts outside off stump and then finally nicked one with his feet going nowhere. It was piss poor.
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I think Smith will be one to drop out. He’s been pretty horrific since that test you mentioned really.
 
They’ve had enough of Pope. You don’t go from captaining the last test of the summer to not being Vice Captain for the following away tour unless they’re serially considering dropping you.
 
DonaldDownTheWing said:
Judging from what Stokes said in that interview, I think he’s absolutely raging with Brook. Brook is his vice captain and supposed to back him up, but so far brook has been a liability.

Yes he’s got some runs but the way he plays doesn’t help the team. When he comes in it means the Aussies have taken a wicket and their tails are up, Brook needs to tire them out again.

Duckett’s got no runs either.



It’s probably the best idea tbh. Stokes has a fairly solid defence and can bat time when it’s required.
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Stokes absolutely cannot bat at 3, it’s a terrible idea.

He’s already carrying the burden of being captain and our best bowler who we often need to bowl long spells because the others are incapable.

If we then ask him to bat at 3, “score at 1 an over” and hold the batting together, because the rest of them are shit, it would break him once and for all.

The answer is two solid openers and a 3 that are reliable and capable of big scores under pressure.

However, as a solution, we’re a million miles away from it.
Safc98 said:
They’ve had enough of Pope. You don’t go from captaining the last test of the summer to not being Vice Captain for the following away tour unless they’re serially considering dropping you.
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He should have been dropped years ago, he is unbelievably lucky to have played the number of games he has. Same goes for Crawley.

It’s actually staggering how many mistakes this administration have made in their time in charge.

But it’s well and truly caught up with them now.
 
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Salem Street South said:
Stokes absolutely cannot bat at 3, it’s a terrible idea.

He’s already carrying the burden of being captain and our best bowler who we often need to bowl long spells because the others are incapable.

If we then ask him to bat at 3, “score at 1 an over” and hold the batting together, because the rest of them are shit, it would break him once and for all.

The answer is two solid openers and a 3 that are reliable and capable of big scores under pressure.

However, as a solution, we’re a million miles away from it.

He should have been dropped years ago, he is unbelievably lucky to have played the number of games he has. Same goes for Crawley.

It’s actually staggering how many mistakes this administration have made in their time in charge.

But it’s well and truly caught up with them now.
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I dont think stokes has even been particularly good with the bat the last few years. 2 hundreds which were great but I dont think he has the consistency to bat 3 any better than pope. Just more square pegs in round holes
 
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SAFC11 said:
I dont think stokes has even been particularly good with the bat the last few years. 2 hundreds which were great but I dont think he has the consistency to bat 3 any better than pope. Just more square pegs in round holes
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He’s been bad far more than he’s been good, I agree. But he has excuses given his workload.

He has the ability to do it (bat 3), I’ve no doubt, but as you say it’s square pegs in round holes and what we need is to address the glaring, and long standing issues, that our top order are not fit for purpose, haven’t been for a long time, and the reasons why.
 
Think this has been a bit of a breaking point for some sections of the media. Felt as if they were carrying a lot of goodwill still going into this series but Agnew has declared Bazball "Dead" and "Unsustainable" earlier after saying jobs will be on the line after the first test. I know Vaughan can blow with the wind but he's getting more vocal in the media, even Broad seems totally exasperated at the moment and Matt Prior probably isn't commentating on the third test due to concerns he will go up in flames live on air.
 
Tbf to Brendan, getting to 4 days was some achievement. If we under prepared again we wouldve been beaten inside 2 days.

So we can expect to be beaten within 3 days next test match if we prepare properly.

Well done baz
 
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