All that work to get back to parity, then throw it all away. Can't remember a time when so many of the top 6 were still trying to prove they belong in the international game.
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Probably not, but...................the bowlers do well to get Australia out for 267 and then England slide to 31-4 and staring at an innings defeat.
All that work to get back to parity, then throw it all away. Can't remember a time when so many of the top 6 were still trying to prove they belong in the international game.
I quite like Hameed but has a habit of using the edge of his bat too often and his confidence must be shot again. Most commentators I hear say that Ollie Pope is the most naturally talented of the younger batsmen coming through, but doesn't get in the team.
The schedule and too much white ball cricket doesn't help.
dropped burns who averaged 11 fair enough but to bring in crawley who averaged 12 not looking good
They are terrible.
Things over the years may get worse as well. Cricket at school level is now mainly played in private schools whereas in Australia its the main summer sport.
However it doesn't take away the hopeless management and captaincy of Root.
Silverwood needs to go.
It has been awful from the preparation phase onwards.
However, with quite obvious disregard for the longer version of the game in favour of white ball cricket, it was obvious what was going to happen.
The counties and franchises are now only interested in slog and out so the technical skills required for the longer forms of the game Re just not there.
I genuinely believe that test cricket is not long for this world.
I could write stacks on this subject, but I’ll try and keep it fairly short. First, England’s top order has been suspect since Andrew Strauss retired about ten years ago and was carried by Alistair Cook until he packed up. Second, opening the batting in Championship cricket is one of the hardest jobs in sport because games are played in very bowler friendly conditions (for quicker bowlers anyway) in early spring and autumn with a ball that also helps them so much that journeyman seamers can make a decent career for themselves.
Season in, season out, the best opening batsman in county cricket, in terms of run scoring, has been Rory Burns, but to score those runs he’s decided to adopt a weird and not very wonderful technique which was always going to make facing class test match attacks harder than it needed to be. Much was made of the ball which Starc cleaned him up with from the first delivery of the series, but, for me, it was almost a leg stump half volley which a confident, orthodox opener would have gratefully clipped away for four or one first ball or not.
Second behind Burns in county cricket may well be Dom Sibley who is probably the most aesthetically displeasing specialist batsman I’ve ever seen in test cricket, but you’re not telling me that Burns and Sibley played like they do now when they were kids? Both of them have probably been made into what they are now by the conditions they have to play county cricket in.
It’s the same with spin bowling, why is it that England have not had a proper test class spin bowler since Graham Swann? Playing virtually no four day cricket in high summer on dry, hard wickets has a lot to do with it.
Unless the cricket authorities grasp the nettle and change the calendar so that at least some four day cricket is played during every month of the season on pitches that ensure a more even battle between bat and ball, England’s test team is going to continue to be full of Joe Root and belligerent one day specialist batsmen who play one good innings in every four or five and “typical English seamers” who, more often than not, get found out when they go on an overseas tour.
I was listening this morning. I was waiting for the inevitable to happen. Every time a bowl was bowled you felt a wicket would fall and I am not that convinced that the Australian bowlers are as good as some of those in the past. This must be the worst, or one of the worst, batting sides by England ever and you just know they have no chance of winning either this match or the next one. It's embarrassing.
Watched the last hour and exceptional Aussie bowling in an electric atmosphere. Only openers with excellent technique and strong mental attitude would have held out against that and Hameed and Crawley looked like dead men walking. No idea where England go from here, another abject performance and total humiliation.
Disappointed in buttler, think he'd be an absolutely fantastic 7 in a good batting lineup. As there isn't the quality above him, I think he needs to move up to 3 or 4. Give him a couple more series and if he still can't score runs then he needs to be dropped from the test side. With the quality the lad possess I cant understand why he isn't averaging 45+ in tests
Definitely a possibility. I admire the fact he's given it a good go, he's so in demand in the t20 leagues that he would have made a good few financial sacrifices in order to play tests. Just find it so frustrating he hasn't found runs easier to come by. Unbelievably talented player.
I’ve given up on Buttler. He is a talented cricketer but not the most intelligent of players.
Ridiculous that he keeps wicket ahead of Foakes.
The ECB take a lot of the blame for this. Last season there was barely any red ball domestic cricket from the end of the first week in June through to September. Just how stupid is that? In the meantime we had this franchise nonsense and T20 taking centre stage plus the Royal London Cup..it’s a shambles of a calendar.
The hundred has a lot to answer for, absolute joke competition.
Would love to see them get rid of the hundred (although I know it will never happen ).
Replace it with a 2 or 4 team mini comp in middle of season. I'd like to see either a North v south representative, or a 4 team comp, 1 overseas player per side. Make the sides up of the best domestic players that season and have a couple of showpiece games out of it. Both 4 day and 20 overs. Try and give the players a stepping stone between the domestic and international game
I think they all talent but like most teams you need to have preparation for the Ashes home or away .
Although talented battters they need to improve discipline, concentrate and patience the old skool stuff .
As stated in another post it runs alongside the one day cup so no it would not allow more 4 day cricket.
They play about the same amount of county cricket as Austrailia play Sheffield Shield cricket.
It's down to bad coaching and players giving away their wicket too easily.
Only Root has the patience to wait for scoring ball to come along as the bowlers get tired.
All the others want a boundary every over.
I think the issue is that the hundred is given the best time-slot. The result is that the 4 day game is pushed to the extreme ends of the season. Damp conditions then lead to the kind of wickets that reward your 70/75 mph seamer over real pace or spin. We need to get the 4 day stuff more evenly spread through the summer, rather than squashed into spring and autumn.
I do think a couple of good North v south type representative games would do wonders for competition levels aswell
Am I alone in cringing when I read / hear the word 'batters' instead of batsmen??
Ye gods, it is political correctness gone mad - they are after all men (at least by gender if not status...)
Batsmen used to wait for a bad ball for a scoring opportunity. These days, because of the amount of one day cricket, the mindset is that every ball is a scoring opportunity. They're all, on the whole, impatient.