England vs India 2nd test

Only thing I take any comfort from is this Australian side isn't much cop either at the minute. They were distraught at only retaining the Ashes last time they toured.

 

Since our demolition of Pontings team in 2010-11 we've lost 9 out of 10 tests in Australia.

I don't especially rate Australia (though its all relative) at the minute either but you look at the whole England set up and there are multiple questions.

Is Root the right captain? Is Silverwood making a positive difference? Who are our 2 openers? Who should bat at 3? Who should bat at 5? Who should bat at 6? Who is our wicket keeper? Who is our front line spinner? What is the makeup of our bowling attack for Australian conditions?

I'd say you ideally want to go into a test series with maybe one or two selection quandaries, ideally from a position of strength.

You could easily look at that test side and throw just about all of it away and make little difference to its overall success. And that's ahead of a potential Ashes tour.

 

I think there's a case for a purely statistical approach based on averages. At the end of the day Cricket is a sport played by individuals and it's individual performances that make up what the team achieves. Why not just pick the best bowlers and best batsman for a full series and see if they sink or swim?

 

Not sure where we go from here for the rest of this series. Root has said the squad needs to get some rest, so no cricket being played for a week and a half, despite being in desperate need. Would've thought a 2 or 3 day game in the back end of this week would've been called for, and easy enough to arrange, given the majority of the counties don't have any games for two weeks.

Looks like Sibley will be making way, with Hameed opening and straws being drawn for who bats at three. Options are Crawley, Malan, Vince, Pope, Lawrence or Bairstow. None of which inspire much confidence. I'd probably pick Vince, and keep Bairstow at 5 for now.

Ultimately, the county structure needs to change. Not just the schedule, but the whole structure. Players coming through aren't good enough, and it will soon translate into the white ball team. For all the talk of the 100, for or against, from what I've seen, it's a better standard of play than the blast. Lancs have made it through to the quarters of the Blast, despite looking two players short for the majority of the time. I can't see the likes of Banton, Salt etc... emulating the current ODI/T20I team, unless they get to play IPL and Big Bash. So, the question is, how can we improve the standard of competition in the three formats domestically?

But even with the limited players they have available. Silverwood and Root should do better. The danger is, Root's captaincy will be most remembered for breaking Jofra Archer.

 

Disrespect test cricket and this is what you get.

The ECB made a decision to attempt to win a world limited overs competition and that they did. The test team has been left to literally fend for itself however, poor selections, rotated players, a glaring lack of world class top order batters, no spinner they trust, injuries to a genuine world class all rounder and a schedule that is designed to give them the least chance of success it seems all lead to this

we aren’t a bad team, we aren’t the worst ever despite what some say but we are inconsistent and have not helped ourselves.

there's no easy answers unfortunately….4 day cricket is an afterthought… there’s no openers ready to be picked, there’s no mystery spinner running through teams, there’s no middle order batters with tfe consistency to bat all day

for what it’s worth I’d go with this team at Headingley

Burns
Hameed
Malan
Root
Bairstow
Pope
Buttler
Ali / Curran
Robinson
Wood / Mahmood
Anderson

 

I think this point has been made many times but it’s worth reiterating. How can we expect to come back into the series with a bunch of lads who are either not good enough, in bad form and/or lacking confidence when you can’t replace them with lads who have any of those because they’re not playing cricket at the minute? There’s literally one person in the country who is in form in the longer form of the game at the minute, and that’s Joe Root. Sibley has to go, but it’s a poisoned chalice for whoever takes the role on. I have no problem with tournaments like the hundred, but our county (franchise) and national schedules need aligning so that when England are playing a test series the counties are playing 4 day cricket and there are players ready to step in at short notice.

On Joe Root, I don’t believe he’s a great captain and never really have. I’ll always support him but for me he’s just not a natural for the job but as seems to always be the case in cricket, the best player gets the job. Unfortunately we have no-one who can replace him now. I felt for him yesterday because he had clearly lost the plot and it concerns me for his mental wellbeing if this series goes the way we all suspect it will then he follows up with a difficult Ashes tour. He’s under an incredible amount of stress at the minute; holding up a weak batting line up, trying to balance a team with so many injuries, no Stokes as trusted lieutenant, living in a hotel with his young family at home, the discussions about whether players will actually tour Australia with quarantine etc. When all that’s on your plate, there’s no wonder you end up with a session of cricket we saw 24 hours ago.

 

One thing I wondered, and I don't know the answer to this... are other nations having similar levels of mental fatigue as we seem to have in England?

We've had a number of late and had a significant number from under the Flower reign (worth watching The Edge to see the full fall out).

Quite a few captains I can remember have gotten to a point where they have been completely frazzled and all too eager to get rid of the captaincy. It seems 50ish games as a test captain is enough. Root is now into the mid 50s of tests and if he got to the end of this series and the Ashes, I think he'd have more caps as captain than anyone for England.

 

I'm not too sure to be honest, maybe in England it's just more openly talked about and in other countries it's hidden under injuries etc. I'm only speculating there.

One thing I do know is that England play more cricket than any other nation. I've just quickly done the maths, since Jan 2020 and upto and including Jan 2022, England have played/will play 27 test matches, 18 ODIs and 32 T20Is (including a minimum of 5 at the T20 WC in October). This doesn't include the Sri Lanka series which they travelled for in March 2020 which was abandoned due to COVID and 3 ODIs that were scheduled in South Africa, which again were cancelled but they had travelled for. The schedule is absolutely bonkers and it's not conducive to priming athletes to perform at their prime, especially considering the amount of time they have to spend living in quarantine/bubbles. No wonder Root looks like he wants to cry.

 

I want to cry from just watching them most of the time! ;-)

 

Great players dont always make great captains for example-

Boycott
Botham
Willis
Gower
Flintoff
Pietersen

All been given the England captaincy role and all failed at it for one reason or another.

As far as things are now we have no one else staking a claim for the job whilst Root is having to single handedly carry the burden of leading a very mediocre bunch of cricketers who cannot make the step up from county cricket to the national test team.

Burns
Sibley
Crawley
Lawrence
Buttler
Curran

All had enough chances in my opinion.

Lets also not forget that our best bowler (Anderson) is now 39 years of age and Stuart Broad is 35.

Who are going to fill their shoes when they call it a day?


The standard of county cricket in England is a worry as more and more focus is being put on the one day format (50 overs t20 and now the one hundred)

Its down to the ECB to get the right balance otherwise the national test team will suffer and decline rapidly.

 

I was thinking about this earlier. Typically a decent side will try and phase in replacements over time. Given that our team is pretty non descript, I'd keep playing Broad and Anderson (when fit to do so) until they say they want to call it a day.

 

That side would certainly help to strengthen the batting that's for sure. Not sure though that we can go into Headingley with either 3 seamers and a bang average spinner or 4 seamers, when one of them is 39 years old.
This is where we miss a class all rounder like Stokes or even Chris Woakes.

 

If i was on the ECB panel i would be contacting David Bedingham at Durham.

He is South African by birth but also holds a UK visa. 27 years of age and a quality top order batsman with a dirst class average of over 50.

Also think Luke Fletcher of Notts as earned the opportunity of a call up. He might well be 32 but the 6ft 6 bowler has had a good couple of years in the county game yet gets constantly overlooked by the national selectors.



I would drop Sibley Buttler and Curran for the Headingley test.

Burns
Hameed
Malan
Root
Bairstow
Pope
Ali
Robinson
Fletcher
Wood
Anderson

 

You can't say you'll contact Bedingham then not pick him, that's harsh!

 

I meant with regards to his national allegiance in the future. If South Africa cricket never want to pick him for their national team then we ought to make a plea to the lad to consider England (we have history on this-Lamb Hick Pietersen etc )

But i doubt its something that can be fast tracked through. Or would he even consider the idea at all?

 

Screw it...
Lees
Crawley
Vince
Brook
Livingston
Bracey
Abell
Bess
C Overton
Mahmood
S Cook

They couldn't do any worse than this lot.

 

I think you're a bit too quick to write one or two of those names off, and in doing so, gives the coaching staff a get out of jail card. Because I think, while they're no Cook, Strauss and Trott, there is something to work with there.

Curran - His bowling average is lower than Broad and Woakes' were after the same number of tests. Andy Flower invested a lot of time in Broad, and Bell, when many thought he'd had enough chances and weren't good enough. Silverwood and Root need to be clear with him what his role is likely to be long term. Can he be a third seamer, or a 6/7 batsman? At the moment, I'm not sure which is most likely, but if Ali is going to be the spinner he should be given a run to help find out.

Burns - Has three test hundreds, and averaged over 40 against an excellent Aussie attack in difficult conditions in the last ashes. Also got a century and a half century against NZ and 49 in the first innings of this test. He's suffered from the big break between test series which cost him all his rhythm. Coaches need to work with him on how he can reliably (or more reliably at least) get through the first 5 overs. When he does that, he's generally pretty good.

Lawrence - Played 8 tests, where he's batted in 4 different positions, including 3 because Root didn't want to play there. Like Curran a role needs to defined for him, and like Burns, he needs to find a way through his first 15-20 balls. His biggest problem will be if Pope comes in and plays well.

Buttler - He's a bit too patchy, and needs too much time in terms of preparation. He'll start to look good towards the end of the series, at which point his attention will turn back to t20. Maybe best he sticks with white ball. I'd say the same for Bairstow as well, who just cannot play deliveries angled into him.

Not sure on Crawley, he looks good when he's in, then gets out. I think if he can get the right preparation, him and Burns would be our best opening 2 in Aus.

Sibley - He just has an awful lot to work on. Especially now he's hitting his favourite shot in the air, straight to fielders. He needs to go back to Warwickshire and work on his scoring options.

 

I think Tom Abell deserves a chance. Bats, bowls and a natural leader

 

I've been musing whether out of all our opener options, whether Burns would be the best shout to convert to number 3. He just looks so much more comfortable once the shine us off the ball.

 

How long before Kent's Darren Stevens gets a call up for the all rounder role?