Should have got his arse in the way! Anderson, well done son ( stop going on about him being 39 all the time!
After 3.5 days of hardly anything, the England bowlers seem to have found a ball that's doing something! Got to use this well for the first 30 overs before it goes soft.
I do like the look of Foakes. A fantastic take down to a ball that went down leg and kept going. And his batting early looked very good until Potts needlessly ran him out.
He should have been playing years ago when we kept messing about with Bairstow and Buttler. Neither are anywhere near as good behind the stumps
Completely agree. I first saw him playing for Surrey in the t20's and was very impressed with his keeping. Hopefully we'll give Brook a try in Bairstows place in the final NZ test.
Doubt it will happen for the final test, but of Baistow doesn't get a big score in the last test, can't see him staying in the side. He should be concentrating on white ball cricket anyway.
Agree he should have carried on so it was Potts that was the one run out. Once one person changes there mind, anything can happen though!
Agree, we were far too generous in giving our middle order test after test to try and cobble a score together.
We’ve messed bairstow about for far too long. He’s been our best batter (bar root) for the past year. He’s in the team on merit now and deserves a long run. It’s a shame they can’t fit brook in right now I’d have him in at 4 with root at 3. That’s not going to happen however
Not sure he's been messed about, the winter was the first spell of prolonged form he's shown in the test team for a while, and there have been times a place for him has been found, when not really warranted. With Foakes and now Pope getting runs, Bairstow is going to have to do something that he's not been able to do yet to stay in the side. And that is score heavily at 5, unless Stokes switches places with him.
Unbelievable achievement. EDIT: I thought such an amazing achievement deserved a thread of it's own. So I posted a brand new thread that Jimmy Anderson had reached 650 wickets. Strange that such a post which celebrates an incredible British sportsman should be bumped into a random cricket thread. I guess the admin who moved it disagreed. Maybe all football threads will be moved under one umbrella topic in future. Bizarre, but not unexpected.
I like Jonny, he's one of my favourite players across all forms when he's at his best. There is no doubt he's been messed about royally by the England set-ups over the years too. However, having had a decent Winter, if he was serious about Test cricket long-term he should have returned home after the West Indies tour and played some County games. He chose to take up a contract in the IPL however, had a patchy time and now seems out of sync in terms of the requirements of Test match batting. On the other hand he pocketed £700,000 for two months' IPL 'work'.
Throughout his career he's had several instances of struggling to change back into test mode. I think he's a good player in the short form, but I wouldn't be turning to him now. Agree that over the years some of the decisions on chopping and changing him have been odd to say the least.
About 3 or 4 yrs ago he played at 5, 6, 7 and 8 and then got dropped from test cricket. He’s never moaned
Just the sheer longevity of it is an achievement in itself, when you look at what is happening to the likes of Archer, Stone, Mahmood, Fisher, Robinson etc... Maybe there was something about our system 15-20 years ago that was better for seam bowlers than we have now. 650 wickets at 26.5 is incredible.
You're right. The length of time is a feat in itself. To then turn out those figures and still be performing at 39, given the focus on fitness now, truly impressive. Though apparently not impressive enough to have it's own thread ;-)