I knew you weren't having a go. I wouldn't drop him nor would I have if he'd got out for single figures. I think we need to mix up the openers but I have no idea who to replace them with.
Keep Burns in he’s shown he can play a proper innings Roy’s not an opener don’t know if he’ll be able to play down the order? Don’t know who to bring in Sibley probably. Anybody’s going to struggle the Aussies have a brilliant bowling attack unfortunately.
Just watched the highlights on channel 5. ( would have been a wreck watching it live ) went out and checked scores at lunch and normal tea interval. Put tv on when 9 required. Proper scary. One of the best highlight programmes watched ever. Some of Stokes shots were unreal. Come on England, retake the ashes.
There are numerous bad decisions by the umpires affecting both teams throughout a game. If you manage your reviews sensibly you get them overturned. if you don't, it's swings and roundabouts. Some go your way, others don't.
You seemed to have been waiting for that. I’d still rather have Sam Curran ahead of him. One swallow doesn’t make a summer. How many brain dead needless shots has he played? Fantastic win, completely against the odds. But let’s assess the context. It doesn’t remove the 4th time this year we’ve been all out for less than 100. It doesn’t remove the single lowest top score by an English batsmen ever... yes ever. And it doesn’t remove that if we’d batted even averagely in innings one, we’d have needed a very easy 40-50 to win in our final innings. My feeling from afar is we didn’t deserve to win. Hopefully our gutless selectors don’t bottle the job required of them and make the tough calls required. When Stokes averages over 50 I’ll consider him a test batsmen. It’s currently an abysmal 35.9.
Did you consider Andrew Flintoff and Ian Botham to be test batsmen? Stokes has a better batting average than either of them. He also has a better bowling average than Flintoff. You clearly don't know what you're talking about when evaluating an all-rounder. Batting Stokes 35.89 Botham 33.54 Flintoff 31.77 Bowling Botham 28.40 Stokes 32.22 Flintoff 32.78
He doesn't or rather shouldn't average 50 because he is an "all-rounder". The majority of test players who have averaged 50 or over over their international careers are few and far between, indeed they are considered to be 'greats' (and almost all are batsmen only). 35 is a decent average for an all-rounder. I personally do not like Stokes as a person but he gives the team balance and does make a decent contribution with the ball. (Ian Botham's test average was 33.54!).
Stokes was initially a better bowler than batsman when he first entered the international scene. He has become international class on the field of play and has grown up since his off field inddiscretion.
How many games has stokes won us? How many has he failed to turn up in? If you think stokes can be classed in the same breath as those all rounders in one lucky innings, you need to put the bottle down and go to bed.
He's not fit to lace Bothams' boots but he is clearly a very good all-round player. The stat's don't lie here.
If he’s going to pretend to be a number 4/5 batsmen, 50 is my expectation... until he gets 350+ wickets if he wants to judged as a bowling all rounder He’s no jacques Kallis is he?
The stats are of different eras. In the days of Botham you had fierce bowling line ups. Even in flintoffs day you had some fantastic bowlers who are greats. With bats with no edges, with worldwide average bowlers, he’s still a poor all rounder. Just watch the majority of his innings aside from today and see how inadequate a number 5 he is. And let’s be fair, he should have been out multiple times anyway. He’s been very lucky today.
Lbw, dropped catch, few catches going close to hand. But if you want to be conned by a bit of lucky slogging, that’s your choice. I take it you don’t watch much cricket.
No he's not as talented as Kallis but he may finish his career with much better averages: that we can't predict. Kallis also played in far more talented south african teams. He's told to bat where he does so he certainly doesn't pretend to be a number 4 or 5, he's only batting as high because of the inconsistency of thise that come before him.
On the channel 5 highlights Geoff Boycott said it was the best innings he'd seen live in 50 years. I assume he doesn't know what he's talking about either
