England in Sri Lanka Red Ball
- Thread starter Paddy O'Dors
- Start date
ProfessionalMackem
Striker
Aye mate, bit harsh. But team comes first. Getting a win here will set the rest of the tour up nicely.
wayne entwhistle no9
Winger
Well done England and don't want to take anything away from them but this is the most ordinary Sri Lankans side I have seen since they came into test match cricket.
Comeback_Kenwyne
Winger
This good enough for you marra
I think it’s an awful idea that could completely ruin the lads confidence.
Yes, very good from Stokes and encouraging. He was the only one you could conceivably drop for Bairstow because he's clearly not fit enough to be an all-rounder, so you're picking him on his batting alone. Now he's contributed too, basically the entire team has contributed to this dominant position apart from Root and Burns.
The balance of the team looks good. Sure, an extra seamer (Broad) and an extra batsman (Bairstow) will come in for Leach and Rashid in England. Against the West Indies, you're probably looking to bring in just the extra seamer - so you have a 3+2 attack in favour of the seamers (this may well just be Stokes though, if he's recovered).
So no, Bairstow sits it out. Of course he's in England's best XI players - but then so is Stuart Broad, with his 400+ test wickets. Horses for courses keeps him out - and there's no f***ing way Bairstow is a better player of spin than Foakes or Jennings on this evidence. Absolute quality batting from them. You can't drop Ali, you can't drop Root, you can't drop - or certainly shouldn't drop - Buttler. You can't drop Curran either - he's our opening bowler! So who else is there? Burns... No. Burns is different to what we have elsewhere in terms of technique, so no he has to play until the summer too. Completely agree - you don't bring him in for one test then peddle him, that is not the way to manage teams and people.
Some sympathy with this - but they still did South Africa in Galle recently, so lets not be too mean-spirited about an excellent performance.
Unlike South Africa, we have comprehensively outbowled them. Our spinners have been excellent - all three really, and it's a balanced spin attack. If Ali maintains this consistency and we can bring those two options in when needed, suddenly we are a top-order batsman away from being an all-court side. Hopefully its Burns...
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Ageing trundler
Midfield
Let's not dwell on how poor Sri Lanka are. We did manage to lose a test in Bangladesh after all so any good performance in the sub-continent is to be applauded. England have been excellent on the whole.
Jack Torrance
Striker
South Africa and Australia got battered in Sri Lanka
Comeback_Kenwyne
Winger
Probably not, but he deserves a crack ahead of Bairstow because of his willing imo.
You can't drop anyone anyway, its impossible. Everyone has contributed apart from Root and Burns who are, for different reasons, undroppable. The attack has a nice balance.
Think pitches will be like this throughout. This one is usually the real turner, but hasn't been the total ragger it normally is i.e. this is a much more conventional Sri Lankan pitch. I would love to have a look at Stone, but difficult to see him outbowling Leach or Rashid. Anderson and Curran probably the best bets too - and he'd have to be a lot better than Curran to justify his selection given what else Curran offers. We could maybe rest Jimmy if we won this and the next test, but lets cross that bridge when we get to it...
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Bri
Striker
no 3 is not Ali's position but nor is it anyone else's. They can probably get away with it in SL but not in the Ashes - but then we wont play 3 spinners against the aussies so he could move down the order for someone else at 3, such as Roy.
They’ve thrashed Australia and South Africa recently
Let’s not go down that road
Stoke has the technique to play 3 mind
I hear this all the time
When we won in South Africa it was because they were poor etc
TheRey
Winger
99 according to CricinfoSure I heard on the Talksport 2 commentary as I was drifting off to kip that the highest successful run chase in Galle is 95? Can't be right is it?
Comeback_Kenwyne
Winger
Would prefer Stokes over Roy. I don't think we need to expand the group tbh. I think for Ashes you probably bring in Woakes for Curran (like for like, really) and then Broad and Bairstow for Leach and Rashid.
Though, if we're going down this route, then I think Bairstow maybe the one from the engine room to break into the top order. I would say he probably has the highest ceiling in terms of batting talent out of Stokes, Ali, Buttler. Plus Stokes and Ali will be very key bowlers in the Ashes, we don't want to burn them out. Crucially, he has already re-invented his batting twice - once, to correct his technical deficiencies when first breaking through, twice to turn himself into the best ODI opener in the world. This is pretty impressive tbh - Stokes, Ali and Buttler have all adapted at different times but more mentally than technically. Therefore, my question is, if Bairstow puts his head in gear, is there any reason why he couldn't make the same journey as David Warner and turn himself from the best ODI opener in the world - which he is - into a genuinely destructive test-class opening batsman? If Warner can do it, why not Bairstow? We can then give him a bit more latitude to be attacking by dropping Jennings to three which his natural test position imo anyway.
Couldn't agree more on people being down on us. They've been ordinary, yes, but we've made them look ordinary. Not many teams turn up to Galle and outspin Sri Lanka. Given where we were in India and Bangladesh not so long ago, this is seriously impressive development.
Smith is doing a canny job ironing out Bayliss minging selection too. Seems an age ago we had Tom Curran, Craig Overton (both of whom aren't even the best cricketers in their family!) toiling away in Australia, with f***ing Mason Crane has back-up spinner. But it was only a year! Credit to him then - even with the ones that haven't worked, you can see his thinking.
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Agree with almost all of that apart from I think Curran is a fair ahead of woakes now
I’ve got a feeling Rashid will stay in the team actually, if you think how much we struggled on a flat pitch against the Aussies last time
Anyway miles away that
Comeback_Kenwyne
Winger
Woakes is arguably better with the duke than every bowler except Jimmy. He's certainly better than Curran - and up there with Broady and probably better than Stokes, unless its swinging round corners. He did also get a match-winning 100 against India!
It's a nice problem to have. I like Curran away - he's stump to stump. Definitely better bet for this series.
We want shooting to shit if we give Steve Smith flat pitches too. Lets have proper pitches like we had with India. Better for us, better for entertainment.
S
stephen cartwright
Guest
excellent play all around so far bar moderns batting
I don't have a firm choice between the 2 personally, just I'd say the feeling is Curran is ahead now. Remember he is Ed Smith's pick which will give him an advantage. Batting is so consistent, he scoring the runs of a top order player.
Aye agree, to be fair Mick Hunt the Lords groundsman was always his own man and never took requests from others
I love watching cricket on English pitches, I never get why people try and underplay it, doctored etc, its so good to watch
The ashes series in Australia was so so f***ing boring, I honestly don't mind losing, if its good cricket, but that was tedious, awful pitches with an awful ball.
Ageing trundler
Midfield
An embarrassment of riches in the seam bowling department with Anderson, Broad, Sam Curran, Stokes, Woakes all being capable of putting in match-winning performances.
ProfessionalMackem
Striker
As a England fan, we've never really had it this good. Just short on a few quality top order batters now.
Embarrassment at home mind
