England v India (2nd test) Lords

[The Rat]

Aye, he keeps making the wrong call after winning the toss for one

that was the right call

I’ve not heard one person say it wasn’t

We could really do with Stokes being available like he’s a massive miss.

On Buttler he has all the talent in the world, he could easily be our De Kock or Pant but for whatever reason it hasn’t quite worked out. He was excellent last summer I agree. Perhaps they could clarify his role, wouldn’t mind them just telling him to go out and tee off

We got to bowl in the best conditions and bat in the best conditions not sure the decision after winning the toss was the wrong one

yeah In his defence he is always in early so Maybe he thinks he can’t do that

pant always has more runs from his top order

I do know what you mean though

there would need be acceptance from the fans like

 

[smoker]

We could really do with Stokes being available like he’s a massive miss.

On Buttler he has all the talent in the world, he could easily be our De Kock or Pant but for whatever reason it hasn’t quite worked out. He was excellent last summer I agree. Perhaps they could clarify his role, wouldn’t mind them just telling him to go out and tee off

We got to bowl in the best conditions and bat in the best conditions not sure the decision after winning the toss was the wrong one

Errr we batted fourth, the hardest innings in any fc match, and were bowled out for 120. You need to have more than a 27 lead from the first innings to justify fielding first.

 

[Jack Torrance]

Errr we batted fourth, the hardest innings in any fc match, and were bowled out for 120. You need to have more than a 27 lead from the first innings to justify fielding first.

We should have had a much better lead and a much easier chase today. Some shit cricket doesn’t mean it was the wrong choice. It was still a road today, let’s face it we would have been out for under 200 if we batted first on that 1st day

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

ive got to be honest with you, saying Morgan could have been red ball captain his perhaps the maddest thing I’ve read on the cricket forum

What's so mad about it?

You're the one who said Test captaincy is "bollocks" so can't have done any harm surely.

 

[smoker]

that was the right call

I’ve not heard one person say it wasn’t

Literally everyone was questioning it at close on day one man.

Adelaide as well.

"Root's captaincy often lacks imagination and reason. His tendency to have long discussions with senior players is reminiscent of Alastair Cook at his worst," Ian Chappell.

Sadly I am scratching my head to think who could reasonably replace him.

What's so mad about it?

You're the one who said Test captaincy is "bollocks" so can't have done any harm surely.

TBF Johnson/The Rat thought sacking Cook as odi skipper and replacing him with Morgan was mad.

I think Morgans lack of fitness and recent red ball experience is an issue

 

[The Rat]

Literally everyone was questioning it at close on day one man.

Adelaide as well.

"Root's captaincy often lacks imagination and reason. His tendency to have long discussions with senior players is reminiscent of Alastair Cook at his worst," Ian Chappell.

Sadly I am scratching my head to think who could reasonably replace him.

TBF Johnson/The Rat thought sacking Cook as odi skipper and replacing him with Morgan was mad.

I think Morgans lack of fitness and recent red ball experience is an issue

nobody was

every single pundit on both sides and Kohli would have bowled

Literally everyone was questioning it at close on day one man.

Adelaide as well.

"Root's captaincy often lacks imagination and reason. His tendency to have long discussions with senior players is reminiscent of Alastair Cook at his worst," Ian Chappell.

Sadly I am scratching my head to think who could reasonably replace him.

TBF Johnson/The Rat thought sacking Cook as odi skipper and replacing him with Morgan was mad.

I think Morgans lack of fitness and recent red ball experience is an issue

no I didn’t

so you revert to type and start making stuff up when someone calls you out for saying something that wasn’t true

nice

What's so mad about it?

You're the one who said Test captaincy is "bollocks" so can't have done any harm surely.

what’s so bad about it?
Seriously?

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

TBF Johnson/The Rat thought sacking Cook as odi skipper and replacing him with Morgan was mad.

I think Morgans lack of fitness and recent red ball experience is an issue

If it was going to happen it would have been 2 or 3 years ago, too late now.

 

[mackembhoy]

It’s strange how some players perform at county level every year but are never in the mix - Chris Dent, Alex Lees and Mid 2010’s James Hildreth for example.

It's absolutely mental James Hildreth never played for England.

Consistently better than so many that have had a chance.

He'd have been a much better 3 than Westley,Compton,Ballance,Denly

Definitely would avoided Root ever being shoved there.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

what’s so bad about it?
Seriously?

Yep, why was it such a bad idea? Note my original point: "Bringing Eoin Morgan in to captain for a couple of years may have also been an option but that boat has sailed now." I'm not saying it should happen now, it's too late. 2 or 3 years ago would have been the time to do it. He's a better captain than Root and may have led this team into something that's not a complete shambles like he did with huge success with the One Day team.

 

[The Rat]

Yep, why was it such a bad idea? Note my original point: "Bringing Eoin Morgan in to captain for a couple of years may have also been an option but that boat has sailed now." I'm not saying it should happen now, it's too late. 2 or 3 years ago would have been the time to do it. He's a better captain than Root and may have led this team into something that's not a complete shambles like he did with huge success with the One Day team.

on what basis is he a better red ball captain than root?

and we weren’t a shambles before this year, you obviously didn’t watch it

too busy watching the t20 wondering why willey wasn’t taking the new ball ahead of James Anderson

It's absolutely mental James Hildreth never played for England.

Consistently better than so many that have had a chance.

He'd have been a much better 3 than Westley,Compton,Ballance,Denly

Definitely would avoided Root ever being shoved there.

he’s unlucky

tbt in his prime we were very solid then they clearly thought he was too old I guess

would have been interesting for sure

 

[Jack Torrance]

It's absolutely mental James Hildreth never played for England.

Consistently better than so many that have had a chance.

He'd have been a much better 3 than Westley,Compton,Ballance,Denly

Definitely would avoided Root ever being shoved there.

Ballance had a decent test record tbf and has an excellent first class average. Obviously had a technical flaw against quicker bowlers but not sure I’d say Hildreth was consistently better. I agree Hildreth deserved a call up at some point though

 

[mackembhoy]

on what basis is he a better red ball captain than root?

and we weren’t a shambles before this year, you obviously didn’t watch it

too busy watching the t20 wondering why willey wasn’t taking the new ball ahead of James Anderson


he’s unlucky

tbt in his prime we were very solid then they clearly thought he was too old I guess

would have been interesting for sure

I don't even think it was necessarily his age.

Taunton was a road at the time.

Hilarious now that was used against him.When the countless players we've tried in the top 3 can't even build an innings consistently.

With players struggling to bat time and stay in on roads!!!

 

[rentaghost]

I know what you mean there

in his defence he was unbelievable last summer, people forget that, one of our best ever chases in test cricket and he played proper

but you do think have a swing, he’s as talented as anyone

btw we would have won this test with Ben stokes

that shouldn’t really be forgotten in slll of this

he was a huge huge miss today

he’d have bowled all morning and batted all afternoon


does he? He captained really well yesterday

Kohli isn’t a better captain than Root like he just has a better team

I know you look to be supportive but this morning was amongst the worst captaincy I have ever seen. I don’t think he’s a bad captain but I’ve never watched a game and been so bemused by what was going on. However he has mountains in the bank, will know he fucked up and won’t make the same mistake again.

 

[mackembhoy]

Ballance had a decent test record tbf and has an excellent first class average. Obviously had a technical flaw against quicker bowlers but not sure I’d say Hildreth was consistently better. I agree Hildreth deserved a call up at some point though

Ballance probably an unfair name to use. Probably what we've tried since him would be more where Hildreth should have got the nod.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

on what basis is he a better red ball captain than root?

and we weren’t a shambles before this year, you obviously didn’t watch it

too busy watching the t20 wondering why willey wasn’t taking the new ball ahead of James Anderson

Best One Day captain we've ever had, if he came into the Test team he'd only be replacing some bum with an average of 30 anyway so not like we'd be losing out in that regard. Superb tactically, great leadership skills, doesn't take any shit, has a vision of how he wants his team to play and implements it. Clearly a much better leader than Root, he just hasn't had the chance to prove it in Test cricket and never will now.

Root would have scored even more runs without the burden of captaincy too IMO.

 

[rentaghost]

It's absolutely mental James Hildreth never played for England.

Consistently better than so many that have had a chance.

He'd have been a much better 3 than Westley,Compton,Ballance,Denly

Definitely would avoided Root ever being shoved there.

He should have been tried but scored lots of runs on what was for years the flattest pitch in England. Was supposed to have flaws against quick bowling but plenty of others have been tried with plenty of flaws. It’s hard to say if he would have been more successful than the players you mention but any superior record will be as much to do with Taunton as anything else. That’s not to say he shouldn’t have had a go but I’m not as sure he would have been any more successful than those who tried and failed.

 

[mackembhoy]

He should have been tried but scored lots of runs on what was for years the flattest pitch in England. Was supposed to have flaws against quick bowling but plenty of others have been tried with plenty of flaws. It’s hard to say if he would have been more successful than the players you mention but any superior record will be as much to do with Taunton as anything else. That’s not to say he shouldn’t have had a go but I’m not as sure he would have been any more successful than those who tried and failed.

I went on to acknowledge that in my next post.

There is a value to scoring runs on roads though.

Numerous players we've tried just can't do it.

We English have lambasted players like Rohit and Warner for being flat track bullies.

Despite them being absolutely outstanding home players.

Yet when we get our chance in these conditions we don't make anywhere near enough and it's been like that a lot over the past 9 years.

Not to attack Root but he averages 35 I believe in Australia and one ton. Yet he's the best batsman I've seen for England

 

[hudson88]

A huge, huge current issue is the scheduling.

We’ve dropped Crawley. Can he go back and score big runs at Kent? No, because their next game is a T20 in 11 days.

Dan Lawrence? Essex don’t play next until 2 weeks today.

We’re in the middle of August, middle of our big test series of the summer, and there’s no professional red ball cricket being played. Players dropped can’t go away and work on their game, or score some confidence building runs. Nobody is able to be banging on the door for selection, as the ECB have boarded the bloody thing up.

It’s an utter shambles, and it starts at the very top. You can blame the lads on the field today for many things - lack of quality, lack of bottle, lack of plans, becoming too involved etc. But until things change massively at the top, things will not improve for us in test cricket

 

[Boo]

As bad as we were today and as as annoying the Indians are to some that was fantastic test match cricket. What a match.

It was and we should remember that India are clearly in the Top Two test sides (the table didn't lie). But these first two matches have clearly revealed the deficiencies in the English side.

 

[smoker]

I know you look to be supportive but this morning was amongst the worst captaincy I have ever seen. I don’t think he’s a bad captain but I’ve never watched a game and been so bemused by what was going on. However he has mountains in the bank, will know he fucked up and won’t make the same mistake again.

Similar mistakes with their tail enders in the first test. Also standards of fielding, something you look to the captain to enforce, have been appalling. He seems to ask the opinion of every senior player indicating he isn't confident in the role. I also dislike the way he has a crack on when we are losing a game, couldn't imagine Morgan doing this.

I thought he captained the team well in SA and SL, seems to be losing the plot the longer he works with Silverwood.