Adil Rashid

Off topic.Great to see Ryan Sidebottom get a 5 for at Taunton for Yorkshire.

 

That was a decision off the pitch and opponents. England was brilliant in that game.

 

Ha, ha, ha - so it was tactical then and you've defeated your own argument!

Not that your explanation is credible as that'll be the pitch and opponents against whom fellow spinner Moeen had the best economy rate against whilst knee-jerk replacement Ball went the distance. And if England rated Rash as highly as you say they do then they'd trust him to bowl in all circumstances, like Yorkshire do!

You really should stop digging and stick to politics, you have even less of a clue on cricket than football!

 

Shouldn't make tactical changes, erm, right?

 

Firstly I don't think it's was quite that easy. They went for bankers because of fitness issues with Stokes.

Ball's bowled this Tournament and Spin against a Asian teams risky.

 

If it was in the sub continent, on their slow turning pitches, fair enough, but I don't see how it's so risky here in England.

And if they insisted on only playing one spinner, the it should have been Ali who made way as Rashid is head and shoulders above him as a spinner.. But the modern games penchant for only playing players who can "bat a bit" makes him almost untouchable(rightly or wrongly) in the current set up.

 

Willey for Ball and Bairstow for Roy.

 

I suppose one good thing about Roy getting out so early every game is that it gets Stokes in quicker.

I'm sure all of us can agree that watching that lad in full flight with the bat is a sight to behold. (Hope that doesn't put t'mockers on him).

 

When on form, we have some truly fantastic players with the bat. And one of the massive reason these players have been able to express themselves is Joe Root.

The lad plays some brilliant, old school cricket which allows the flair players like Stokes and Butler to play their natural games. That century he scored against Bangladesh was as good as you will see in my opinion...

 

Agree mate, it's old school but still with a modern scoring rate too.

 

I watched the Bangladesh with an old mate who had come over from Antiga to catch up with the family. He was watching Root, and was going ape **** as he was playing a few dot and dab shots for one or two, rather than pinch hitting every ball for 4 or 6. His complaint was that "its a limited over game and he needs to score at at leat run a ball). When he was on 50(from about 60 balls I think(, I had him a £20 bet that he would get at least 100 and would do it at over a run a ball. Lad was pissed off when he had to hand over the money.

He has been blinded by only really watching T20 cricket in that Caribbean Premier League, and no longer appreciated either the skill involved, or how important it is for any great team to have a player who can sit in and provide a foundation for the big hitters to do their stuff...