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Post by fraudster on Jun 22, 2015 22:05:54 GMT
Surely Cook will embrace this positive brand of cricket on his return, while Bell, Anderson and Broad are always chirpy and positive, aren't they? Maybe not. I suspect the old guard will struggle this summer, except probably Anderson, and guys like Stokes, Root and Buttler will really shine. Hope so anyway. Broad's very lucky that we've recently produced an average set of seam bowlers in county cricket. Moeen is too, as long as you change the word seam to spin.
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Post by hhsussex on Jun 24, 2015 8:50:17 GMT
Well that was all very pleasurable and unexpected. Excellent cricket in all three formats by both sides, and some interesting new talents emerging. The new structure for England seems to have got the best out of several who have previously under-achieved and the good spirit with which New Zealand play their cricket has been infectious. The results must be better than even Colin Graves anticipated with his rather dismissive statements about "expectations" back in the early spring.
The only disappointment, for a purist, is that two Tests doesn't make for a representative series, and the results bear that out. Would a three or four Test series have shown the growing confidence and esprit of a side at ease with itself and it's expectations that the one-day series exemplified? Or did the one-day squad lay down a marker to the old stagers? Despite everything that has been said about the one-day games becoming increasingly a measure of how far one side can outbat another, there were proportionately more successes amongst the England one-day bowlers than the Test squad. At different times Stokes, Rashid, Willey and Finn all bowled important spells that affected the balance of the one-day matches, whereas in the Tests Wood looked fast and promising, and only Broad really made inroads.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Jun 24, 2015 9:19:00 GMT
A fantastic series for England. Their confidence, self-belief and cricketing mojo has returned just at the right time. It's amazing what a change of coach can do to a side. A new energy, new attitude, new approach - one can see how some of the players under Flower and Moores were feeling suffocated or even marginalised by cliques. And this view is emphasised by the excellent GD interview with Craig Kieswetter this week. The only concern: Have England peaked too soon? www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/889487.html
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