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Post by coverpoint on Sept 27, 2017 3:19:40 GMT
Who will be selected?
Top three:
On the plane: Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman
Waiting by the phone: Keaton Jennings, Tom Westley
Outsiders: Haseeb Hameed, Sam Robson, Joe Denly, Nick Gubbins, Rory Burns
My choice would be Cook, Stoneman and Westly. Why is Luke Wells not on this list with 1,143 runs @ 64? Jennings, Hammed, Wells and Burns should be selected for the Lions. Aussie born Sam Robson is bound to get a mention. I am not sure why Gubbins is getting a mention as he only averages 24 in the county championship this season. Denly has had a good season for Kent.
Middle order
On the plane: Joe Root, Ben Stokes
Waiting by the phone: Gary Ballance, Dawid Malan, James Vince, Alex Hales
Outsiders: Ian Bell, Liam Livingstone, Sam Northeast, Dan Lawrence
Root and Stokes are dead certs. I think Malan will be selected. Ballance has technical flaws that will be ruthlessly exposed by the Aussies. Hales if you take away his one double century against Derbyshire has done very little. I am not Vince's technique is up to test cricket. Bell has been terrible for Warwickshire. I would opt for Malan. With Livingstone, Northeast and Lawrence being selected for the Lions.
Wicketkeepers
On the plane: Jonny Bairstow
Waiting by the phone: Ben Foakes
Outsiders: Jos Buttler, Alex Davies
Bairstow and Foakes for me with Alex Davies being selected for the Lions.
Seamers
On the plane: James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes
Waiting by the phone: Mark Wood, Jake Ball, Craig Overton, Steven Finn
Outsiders: Liam Plunkett, Jamie Porter
Anderson, Broad, Woakes are dead certain to be selected. Please not Finn! Overton is a player with real Bothamesque potential. Ball can generate height and bounce which could be useful in Australia. His selection may depend on the form and fitness of Mark Wood. Plunkett is another bowler who can fulfill this role. Porter's performances for Essex demand selection for the Lions at the very least. Josh Tongue for the Lions is not a bad shout either.
Spinners
On the plane: Moeen Ali
Waiting by the phone: Mason Crane, Adil Rashid, Jack Leach, Liam Dawson
Outsiders: Samit Patel
Moeen Ali and? For me it should be Jack Leach. Leach has 44 wickets @ 27. Dawson has 30 wickets @ 26. Rayner has 20 wickets @ 39. Patel has 16 wickets @ 34. Crane has 16 wickets @ 41. Rashid has 10 wickets @ 50 in the county championship.
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Post by hhsussex on Sept 27, 2017 9:35:51 GMT
Not much to build one's hopes up in this lot: Joe Root (Yorkshire) captain, Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Jake Ball (Nottinghamshire), Gary Ballance (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Alastair Cook (Essex), Mason Crane (Hampshire), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Dawid Malan (Middlesex), Craig Overton (Somerset), Ben Stokes (Durham), Mark Stoneman (Surrey), James Vince (Hampshire), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire) www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/41409370Batting weaknesses: Ballance, Malan, Stoneman, Vince Bowling weaknesses: Ball and Overton unproven at this level and a lot to take on if Broad or Anderson are injured. Woakes was fine in one series, but will he be as good on firrmer wickets? Moeen needs careful strategic management, when to bowl him, when to take him off. Crane is the modern Salisbury. At least they picked a good back-up keeper. |
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Post by coverpoint on Sept 27, 2017 18:19:49 GMT
Not much to build one's hopes up in this lot: Joe Root (Yorkshire) captain, Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Jake Ball (Nottinghamshire), Gary Ballance (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Alastair Cook (Essex), Mason Crane (Hampshire), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Dawid Malan (Middlesex), Craig Overton (Somerset), Ben Stokes (Durham), Mark Stoneman (Surrey), James Vince (Hampshire), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire) www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/41409370Batting weaknesses: Ballance, Malan, Stoneman, Vince Bowling weaknesses: Ball and Overton unproven at this level and a lot to take on if Broad or Anderson are injured. Woakes was fine in one series, but will he be as good on firrmer wickets? Moeen needs careful strategic management, when to bowl him, when to take him off. Crane is the modern Salisbury. At least they picked a good back-up keeper. Is this the weakest Ashes squad ever? Aussies will be licking their lips at the prospect of bowling at Stoneman, Ballance / Vince and Malan. Crane is unproven at county level. Leach would have been selected if he was playing for a more fashionable county. |
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Post by joe on Sept 27, 2017 18:33:04 GMT
Not much to build one's hopes up in this lot: Joe Root (Yorkshire) captain, Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Jake Ball (Nottinghamshire), Gary Ballance (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Alastair Cook (Essex), Mason Crane (Hampshire), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Dawid Malan (Middlesex), Craig Overton (Somerset), Ben Stokes (Durham), Mark Stoneman (Surrey), James Vince (Hampshire), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire) www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/41409370Batting weaknesses: Ballance, Malan, Stoneman, Vince Bowling weaknesses: Ball and Overton unproven at this level and a lot to take on if Broad or Anderson are injured. Woakes was fine in one series, but will he be as good on firrmer wickets? Moeen needs careful strategic management, when to bowl him, when to take him off. Crane is the modern Salisbury. At least they picked a good back-up keeper. Is this the weakest Ashes squad ever? Aussies will be licking their lips at the prospect of bowling at Stoneman, Ballance / Vince and Malan. Crane is unproven at county level. Leach would have been selected if he was playing for a more fashionable county. Baylis in interview during the break in the ODI said that Leach would be in the Lions squad to be called up if needed. He said they thought the leg spin of Crane would get more bounce on the flat Aussie pitches. |
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Post by coverpoint on Sept 27, 2017 20:03:42 GMT
Is this the weakest Ashes squad ever? Aussies will be licking their lips at the prospect of bowling at Stoneman, Ballance / Vince and Malan. Crane is unproven at county level. Leach would have been selected if he was playing for a more fashionable county. Baylis in interview during the break in the ODI said that Leach would be in the Lions squad to be called up if needed. He said they thought the leg spin of Crane would get more bounce on the flat Aussie pitches. Crane isn't even the number 1 spinner at Hampshire. |
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Post by hhsussex on Sept 28, 2017 14:39:42 GMT
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nemmo
Captain 2nd XI
Posts: 285
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Post by nemmo on Sept 28, 2017 19:23:50 GMT
Playing a young spinner like Crane who is still learning his trade in the Ashes is a good way to set them back several years. The fact that Leach doesn't even get a look in is nuts. Wells should probably be in the Lions this year. When is Archer available for England because I rate him far more than either Ball or COverton?
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Post by joe on Sept 29, 2017 7:49:44 GMT
Playing a young spinner like Crane who is still learning his trade in the Ashes is a good way to set them back several years. The fact that Leach doesn't even get a look in is nuts. Wells should probably be in the Lions this year. When is Archer available for England because I rate him far more than either Ball or COverton? I will be surprised if Crane plays a game, I can see him being the water boy as he was this summer. Archer doesn't qualify for another 5 years, he's 2 years into a residential qualifying period of 7 years. I can see him getting frustrated and hungry for international success before that though and playing for the Windies. |
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Post by moderator1 on Sept 29, 2017 9:09:12 GMT
Playing a young spinner like Crane who is still learning his trade in the Ashes is a good way to set them back several years. The fact that Leach doesn't even get a look in is nuts. Wells should probably be in the Lions this year. When is Archer available for England because I rate him far more than either Ball or COverton? I will be surprised if Crane plays a game, I can see him being the water boy as he was this summer. Archer doesn't qualify for another 5 years, he's 2 years into a residential qualifying period of 7 years. I can see him getting frustrated and hungry for international success before that though and playing for the Windies. Or, getting frustrated etc, going on the increasingly lucrative T20 circuit internatioinally and forsaking Test cricket and possibly all other forms of the game. Its the biggest challenge we face in learning how to harness the success of the revamped T20 formula and channel not only money into the red ball game but a sense of purpose and achievement in playing it. On the evidence of this year's county championship, with last year's champions relegated to Div 2 and the tendency to regard the blocks in which the matches are played as ends in themselves - Notts top-ending their season with Patterson and Broad in for the first few, then a different squad for the Aug/Sept matcheds - there isn't a lot of value there. |
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Post by tiptoes on Sept 29, 2017 10:36:38 GMT
No excuses, people have done time for less. If Joe Public threw a punch at a football match, he'd be spending Xmas behind bars.
Still fairly early days, but from what we know he was in a student hangout at some Godforsaken time during a Test series, the worse for wear due to over consumption of alcohol. Three reasons to question his maturity and committment to the England cause for which he is numerated nicely. Never mind the real crime of his vicious assault.
So a couple of guys are giving abuse to a homosexual pair holding hands. In a 2 against 2 situation I wouldn't want some 3rd party intervening on my behalf, I'd rather fight my own battles. But if this star cricketer with the ego the size of a planet feels the need to intervene, he could have done it more tactfully than using uttering profanities at the offenders, although the set to occured after this verbal confrontation if reports are to be believed. Persuasion usually has a better outcome than force in these circumstances.
My brother knew the victim of Brian Moore's physical assault when the England hooker was a player at Nottingham back in the late 80s. Apparently the victim was a mouthy chap always looking for trouble, and after the 3rd goading, Moore, never one who was slow to lash out could hold back no longer. His assault was probably more justified than Stokes's, yet no more lethal, for which he received a suspended sentence. In those days rugby was an amateur game so he wasn't a paid representative for the sport.
Shed no tears for Stokes. He's been given a long leash and still none the wiser. He deserves everything he gets, and more.
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Post by hhsussex on Oct 6, 2017 14:11:06 GMT
Steve Finn added to the squad, central contracts for Tests matches awarded to Moeen Ali James Anderson Jonny Bairstow Stuart Broad Alastair Cook Joe Root Ben Stokes Chris Woakes and more disiplinary censure for behaviour during the one day series against West Indies for Ball, Bairstow and Plunkett. www.ecb.co.uk/news/488709Just at the moment there isn't much to choose between the England cricket team and Theresa May's speech for unwanted interruptions, croakiness and bits dropping off. |
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Post by joe on Oct 6, 2017 16:13:41 GMT
Steven Finn? I thought Strauss said he’d made himself ‘ unselectable ‘? He’s had an awful season with Middlesex apart from his final game where he picked up an 8fer. It’s a backward step as far as I’m concerned, I’d rather have seen Plunkett in the squad, at least he’s a decent No9 and looks in good rhythm at the moment. Makes you wonder whether Beefy was right about the conflict of interest in selectors being county chairmen etc. Would Finn have been considered if Fraser wasn’t a selector?
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Post by hhsussex on Oct 30, 2017 7:46:44 GMT
I hadn't really looked that closely at the fixtures for this tour until just now and a couple of things strike me as odd. Firstly I think this is the first time since 1974/5 that the tour has immediately gone on to New Zealand following the full Ashes series. I remember at the time the reasoning for doing away with this structure which had been in place since 1932/3, that it was too long a spell away from home to sustain the quality of the play and freshness of the squad, that there was a complete contrast between the playing conditions in the 2 countries meaning that a different balance was needed for each leg of the tour, and finally that New Zealand were no longer a pushover to be fobbed off with a couple of Tests tacked on to the more profitable Australian tour and deserved a proper dedicated series of their own. I wonder which of those statements is no longer applicable now that England will be on the road from the begininng of November to the beginning of April?
The second point follows from this. England will have the customary abbreviated warm-up at the start of the tour with a 2 day game against Western Australia next week followed by 2 4-day games, one of them day/night, against "Australia XI" sides, then they will play the whole 5 Test series without any intervening matches for practice or finding form. In fact they then continue through the various whiteball internationals and on to New Zealand for both whiteball and 2 Tests with only one non-International game, a T20 against the Australian Prime Minister's XI at the beginning of February. There is a 12 day gap between the 5th ODI against New Zealand on 10th March and the first of the 2 Tests starting on 22nd March. What happens then? Will a new squad be flown out purely for the Tests, or are they all going to be engaged in bungee-jumping or counting sheep or other popular Ndew Zealand pastimes?
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Post by hhsussex on Nov 7, 2017 9:11:48 GMT
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Nov 7, 2017 15:17:34 GMT
Good ol' Richards, the convivial Sir 'V'itten Viv. He says that England will "look like kittens" without Ben Stokes in the Ashes side. What are England like with Stokes in the squad? Voracious tigers, perhaps?  www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/41904790 |
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