🦗 TMS India vs England 4th Test

[Bens-Glenn]

Strange how things turnout given a few injuries and players being out of form. This side has been trying to find the right balance for a while.

Fully fit side for first test of summer is looking something like this right now:

Cook
Hameed
Jennings
Root

Stokes
Bairstow
Woakes

Broad
Jimmy

2 spots up for grabs I’d say?

[Aggpass]

Moeen walks in to any England team. Then pick one of ball wood and rashid on form, fitness and pitch

[Bens-Glenn]

I like Moeen would be good to see him score plenty and cement spot at 5

[Aggpass]

I think he’s definitely in our best xi. Best spinner on a flat pitch, one of our most consistent batsmen. Only question is where he bats. I’d probably have him below bairstow at 7 personally

[Bens-Glenn]

We almost have to many options in that 5-8 area. If Rashid continues to improve he could be the go to spin option?

Then you have the keeper issue, do you want Bairstow batting at 5 and keeping? Not to mention Butler who is too good to not make an impression again in tests

[The_Excession]

Would genuinely be surprised to see Jennings regularly in our standard 11. He’s only played one innings! Having said that, that place at 3/4 does look like the one up for grabs, so Jennings has as good a chance as anyone at the moment. Duckett will get another go too, and I do think we’ll want to get Buttler in the test team for the long term. Tom Curran will be demanding a place before long too, probably Anderson’s long term replacement. Plus Finn has some sort of legal right to be in the squad somehow.

Cook
Hameed
Root
? Jennings or Buttler or Duckett, Buttler obviously not at 4
Bairstow
Stokes
Moeen
Woakes
Rashid/Ball/Wood
Broad
Anderson

[The_Excession]

The_excession makes snap judgements on the current England Lions, for no reason other than I’m too awake to go to bed.

N Gubbins - Crap. Never going anywhere with the name Gubbins, let’s face facts.
K Jennings - still feel he’s a one season wonder, but prepared to be wrong.
T Alsop - Dunno. Possibly owns a butcher’s shop in 1930.
D Bell-Drummond - could well be the one who steps up next
T Westley - seems like he should be shit, but does score a lot of runs and takes the occasional wicket
J Clarke - serious talent. Unlikely to be at Worcester for long
L Livingstone - slogger, will disappear
B Foakes - OK, plays for Surrey though so will no doubt appear for England
L Dawson - fine, unspectacular
O Rayner - will go back to county cricket where he will be in and out of the Middlesex side next year
Jack Leach - Dunno. Would have liked to see him in India, can’t actually recall ever seeing him play.
S Curran, T Curran - going to be big news for England over the next ten years, maybe not yet though
T Roland-Jones - pretty consistent performer, probably about number 7 or 8 in the England rankings
J Ball - looks good, above Roly-Jo in the rankings
J Fuller - injury prone, thought he was a New Zealander? Guess that never stopped us
C Overton - feisty, career could go any direction
S Meaker - injury prone, properly fast, never going to string enough matches together to really succeed.

[Bens-Glenn]

Excellent work, look forward to seeing how some of these turn out

Ben’s Foakes and Stokes together is going to be the real gold potentially here

[Avery]

was just thinking, we could really do with getting Rahul out here, then hero Mo delivers. Nice one, Hero Mo.

[asita]

I thought Rayner was a regular fixture for Middlesex? He certainly causes seems to cause mayhem whenever Surrey play him.

Foakes is a great prospect. I’m no expert but people really rate his glove work and his batting kept Surrey competitive last year.

The Curran’s are very exciting. I’d been watching Sam from behind the arm last summer and it was only after I joined a friend sitting square that I really got how fast he is. Could be England’s best left-armer since Underwood. Tom, by comparison, is the consistent one - that’s both his bowling action and his fitness. I think he played every game for Surrey last summer. Oh, and they both bat.

As to Meaker, yeah, it’s a shame but he is almost a perma-crock. Will be a great asset for a county as rich as Surrey that can afford to keep a genuinely quick bowler playing only a third of the season but I doubt he’ll make it to England.

[crisps]

My old man reckons Cook won’t be captain by the summer. I’ve bet £20 with him that he will. I know there’s been a bit of chat about him stepping down, but I can’t see him going before he’s done another Ashes, and his form’s not bad enough to push him out. My dad reckons his “eyes have gone”.

[The_Excession]

I thought Rayner was a regular fixture for Middlesex?

He was last year, but that was the first time really. He’s another I’m putting down as “one good season”, but we’ll see. The pitches in the CC were better for spin in general than they have been recently, maybe that will continue.

[Aggpass]

Rayner is another one for our ludicrously tall spinners club. 6’5" according to wikipedia

[asita]

That’s what I was going to say. I’m not sure he does anything special but he gets crazy bounce.

[colonel_getafe]

Would be interested to see Moeen’s batting av. breakdown based on batting position. Seems like he does a lot better batting up the order, and that he’s therefore wasted at 7/8. I feel like he’s good enough to be a specialist bat and they could get away with picking another spinner, even in English conditions.

[Avery]

I’m pretty sure they said om TMS yesterday that seven is by far his best position. Elsewhere he’s in the 20s

[Aggpass]

this is from August, but still:

97.16: Ali’s batting average at No. 7 in Tests - the highest by far for any batsman with at least 500 runs in that position - he has made 583 runs with three hundreds and two fifties at No.7. It is also the highest he averages in any batting position. Elsewhere in the order, Moeen averages 23.97, with 839 runs from 39 innings.

[Aggpass]

up to date, he should definitely be our 7

[colonel_getafe]

Interesting, my memory is extremely faulty. That’s a huge difference as well.

[kenako]

I feel the same about Hameed at the moment tbh, he’s only done it over 3 matches on Indian pitches, but he can only perform on what he’s given, and he should definitely be in there for the start of the summer’s tests, injuries allowing. Jennings, let’s wait and see, but getting another top 4 batsman has been a pain in the arse for ages now.

I think Jimmy is on the way out, I’d probably play him in 2/4 or 3/5 tests, save him for the best conditions for him. Too slow if there’s no help from the pitch. Plus Wood is maybe the reverse, but fragile, so play him in the games that Anderson doesn’t.

Ali definitely has to play at the moment, offers too much with bat and ball to overlook him, and he’s probably enough spinner for most english grounds (maybe stick in rashid as well for oval and old trafford).

Buttler is doing enough to be picked on batting alone. I’d be very tempted to give him the gloves and have Bairstow as a pure batsman at 5.

Cook*, Hameed, Jennings, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Ali, Buttler+, Woakes/Rashid/Ball/Finn, Broad, Anderson/Wood. Gives you 2 pacemen, Ali with spin, Stokes as an all rounder, plus one more proper bowler, but also gives you 8 proper batsmen (plus Woakes if you go that way).