Squad announced - Chris Woakes in, Dom Sibley out:
https://wisden.com/stories/ashes/england-name-17-strong-squad-for-mens-ashes-tour
As the only all-rounder, there is a lot of weight on Chris Woakes's shoulders.
Squad announced - Chris Woakes in, Dom Sibley out:
https://wisden.com/stories/ashes/england-name-17-strong-squad-for-mens-ashes-tour
As the only all-rounder, there is a lot of weight on Chris Woakes's shoulders.
Interesting squad. Someone will have to let me know what Crawley has done since being dropped to earn being in it.
Sibley averaged more this year in domestic and test cricket.
Then even if you don’t take either, Yates has been superb, or you’ve got Haines, Libby and Robson all with 1000 run seasons.
Feel it’s another case of if the ECB likes you, you’re sorted.
It's difficult to see how you pick a credible XI from that squad. The bowling is short of pace (especially once Wood gets injured as he inevitably will); the batting, Root excepted, isn't much more than County standard; and who on earth gets to bat at seven? Much though we love him, I don't think Woakes is a Test match bowler in Australian conditions so he'd be playing as a batsman. Buttler's batting record isn't great against a red ball and that would leave only four bowlers.
Oh dear. Could be embarrasing.
I agree with most of that, though I don't see why Chris Woakes can't be successful in Australia where there is a long tradition of fast-medium bowlers doing well, from Maurice Tate through to Glenn McGrath
Of course, we could be wrong and the team may return in triumph. I recall the late Martin Johnson saying of the 1986/87 England team in Australia: “There are only three things wrong with this England team: they can’t bat, they can’t bowl and they can’t field.” They came home with the Ashes as well as two one-day trophies, as Gladstone Small would no doubt tell you.
Not a good start to the first test. At this rate there may be a new record for the shortest Ashes series ever.
Another bad day for England.
That gibe directed at the England side of 1987/7 by the late Martin Johnson - "Can't bat, can't bowl, can't field" - may at last be coming true, though - Jack Leach apart - the bowling seems to have held up reasonably well.
Felt sorry for Woakes, Wood and Robinson. They bowled well, impossible to cover how bad Leach and Stokes were though. And as for the fielding...
I've always felt Leach has been a tad overrated. Not a bad bowler as such but I do tend to think he relies on batsmen making mistakes against him as opposed to him actually getting them out. And it's not the first time he's been utterly pumped.
Yet another poor performance by England. It is very unlikely they will come back to even draw the series.
Questions need to be asked about the selection of th squad and side. Pope and Burns do not look like test, players, I'd suggest it they didn't play for Surrey they would not be in the squad!
Can't argue with that, Highveld! Pope and Burns both averaging 12 so far and lucky to have managed even that. Best get Rob Yates on the next plane back to Australia.
Chris Woakes is having a strange series - no luck with the ball (and not bowling at his best) but third in the batting averages behind Malan and Root.
Although Australia are undoubtedly the stronger side, if England had held all their chances, the scores would be much closer.
I'm beginning to get concerned that England will come calling for Mark Robinson at this rate...
THe ECB definately do need to change the England coach, as well as revising the seasons schedule so that proper red ball cricket is played throughout the season.
Hopefully the new coach &/or selectors realise that there are good players outside of their favoured counties.
The decline of our ability to play Test Match cricket was predictable - and indeed predicted - from the moment we became obsessed with Donkey Slog. It's taken twenty years to get into this pickle and it isn't going to get fixed in a hurry. Sadly.
Those massive bonuses awarded to the top people at the ECB who were responsible for launching The Hundred look even more embarrassingly inappropriate now than they did at the time.
I see that England have now sunk to bottom in the Test Championship table:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-world-test-championship-2021-2023-1268315/points-table-standings
Chris Woakes has scored more runs in the series, from 3 games, than the total from the Surrey pair of Burns and Pope, from a combined total of 6 games.
I think I had a dream last night that England had managed a half-century opening partnership. Then I woke up and found that they were all out for 124.
Good lord that was awful from start to finish. Christ what are they gonna do to the county game now on the back of that? Heaven knows but it is a worry. Maybe a reset but I worry there'll be further erosion and damage done to reinforce the madness of the last 5 to 10 years poor scheduling