#4872

It’s the manner of the collapse that’s so disappointing. Lose by an inning in three days? It’s a bit shit but at least there’s no expectation. Losing eight and a bit overs before the end of play on the last day? Fuck that.

1 Like
#4873

One of the more pathetic defeats of recent years. Can’t even think of much we can do to make it better. Players just fundamentally aren’t up to it.

#4874

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2 Likes
#4875

I think better captaincy this morning bowing to Shami and Bumrah would have helped. But equally taking the captaincy off Root might screw up the confidence of our only good Batter.

#4876

Who would you give the captaincy to, though - Buttler, Burns, or like idk Bairstow?

#4877

You need to give it to someone who is at least sure of his place in the team so…Anderson?

#4878

Yeah dunno really. Except definitely not Bairstow! Perhaps unfair to single out Root. Without him and Jimmy this team looks pretty abject.

#4879

Banked

#4880

“Looking forward” to watching the lowlights later this evening having listened to a lot of this match. Difficult to blame Root too much, he must have been on the field decision making for most of this match, either as captain or batting with little downtime to strategize or get his own head together. He and Anderson are practically the team. The blame really needs to go to the other senior players (Bairstow, Buttler, to a lesser extent Moeen who hasn’t really been treated well). Amazing how much weaker the team looks without Stokes, and Curran isn’t the player he was last year.

The new batsmen are really poor. Sibley’s only merit was sticking around, and he failed at that. Burns just isn’t good enough. Haven’t seen enough of Hameed to judge, but swapping him out with Crawley again doesn’t seem like it would work. Yikes, what a mess.

2 Likes
#4881

This must be our worst ever top 3, whichever 3 you pick of those used this summer. Went on a bit about root as captain up thread, not going to ramble on again but it’s way down our list of problems.

We fundamentally cannot bat and it isn’t going to get better for a long time. Burns is our best opener and wouldn’t get near the squad in any other era. Sibley is totally out of his depth. Hameed can be given some more chances because everyone else has had hundreds, but I’m not optimistic. Bairstow is back being our second most reliable batter, but that’s like saying Mars is our second favourite planet to live on. Buttler seems to be turning back into the one day pumpkin by the second.

And there isnt anyone else. Hopefully stokes will come back, pope seems to have the talent but after that the cupboard is bare. I genuinely think we might see Adam lyth and Gary ballance getting back in the conversation. Fuck me we are buggered.

5 Likes
#4882

We do seem to have a lot of issues and i will throw in a couple more.

One of oldest lines in the book but we just don’t seem to bat in partnerships at all. Saying that would you want to watch Sibley bat from other end?

Also been the case for a long time but we are a team of 7’s and 8’s

Break before next test might help us out a bit hopefully

#4883

:laughing:

5 Likes
#4884

So much this.

Bairstow and Buttler, two of our now senior batters, have records that wouldn’t have gotten them near the side 10-15 years ago. Both average 34.

Top 7 a decade ago also against India:

Strauss (41)
Cook (45)
Trott (44)
Pietersen (47)
Bell (43)
Morgan (30)
Prior (40)

The only one of the current lot that would get near the top 7 above is Root for Morgan.

In that four-match series England scored 474, 544, 710 and 591 with a lowest score of 221.

How times change!

1 Like
#4885

I would find this combination more noteworthy if I was unaware of any Australian cricketers

1 Like
#4886

Just want to re-emphasise how much this England test side has been set up to fail with the schedule and the general lack of priority they’ve been given by the ECB. I tend to think that the batters are more average than bad and they’ve been put in a shit situation. Although Sibley is bad tbf.

2 Likes
#4887

Exactly. When you de-emphasise the long format to the extent they have you can’t be surprised when there’s no one capable of playing an innings for more than an hour. If they could actually practice the game in actual matches these batsmen might well prove capable enough to at least hold the fort. But they can’t.

The more I think about it the more I despair of the Hundred and everything it stands for, with the exception of trying to make women’s cricket mainstream and some of it being free to air.

5 Likes
#4888

Who would have put up the best show against India in the test match we’ve just suffered through?

  • The team they actually put out
  • A team of 11 fully fit Chris Woakeses

0 voters

#4889

I’ve gone with the woakes’s but I’m a bit worried about the variety in the attack.

1 Like
#4890

Yep. No first class matches for six weeks in the middle of the season, with (in theory at least) the most competitive matches binned off to cold and damp September. The perfect preparation for facing Australia’s pace attack in the middle of their summer. A joke.

#4891

I’ve said this before, and will say it many times again in the future, but Kohli is the most Australian cricketer I’ve ever seen from outside of Australia.

2 Likes