1st Ashes Test England v Australia June 16-20 1930hrs @ Edgbaston

[western royboy]

After Sobers (who was peerless), David Hookes was the cleanest left-handed hitter/timer of the ball I ever saw, until Gilchrist. Even then, I'd be troubled to say which was better in full flight, although Gilly's record certainly was better.
There's NO doubt he was up to Test standard but the WSC years intervened and the broken jaw severely dented his confidence.
That said, he was argumentative/difficult --- a troubled individual --- and because he was all hand-eye and timing, spinners troubled him.

Watching Hookes when he was on, WOW, he was breathtaking, awesome. Game-changer.
He kicked the door down to Test selection with three sublime Shield tons.
Baz/Stokes would love to have him @ #5, now.
I watched his 5 consecutive fours against Greig, open-mouthed. Looks like Greig gave him a send-off at the end of this:

I was fortunate to meet Hookesy on a few occasions and he helped me a bit when I started coaching. I certainly loved his attitude but his pragmatism as a coach was outstanding. On one occasion I got in behind him and talked a bit about his International career and he was never disappointed with the opportunities that he got. He sort of intimated that he just lacked a little bit to be a Test class bat in that era and his record shows that. In today’s day and age he would have been a sensation. That he was taken too soon is a much bigger shame.

 

[Jim Prideaux]

As I suggested a few pages back - I seriously doubt Robinson of his own volition sat down and penned this nonsense article, he simply agreed to have his name associated with it as he's obviously happy being publicly promoted as the 'Ashes Villain'.
While this may or not be the case one thing is for sure, Robinson is definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed....

A ghost writer would’ve asked him for quotes, and then had him review it. He definitely said all of that, but probably doesn’t know which end is the business end on a pen.

 

[The Passenger]

 

[darcytiger]

The Poms really don’t do “full credit to the boys, take it one game at a time, they’re a great opponent and we’ll have to be at our best to beat them” do they?

They’re all walking clickbait headlines.

 

[Pistol Night]

The Poms really don’t do “full credit to the boys, take it one game at a time, they’re a great opponent and we’ll have to be at our best to beat them” do they?

They’re all walking clickbait headlines.

There's a difference between confidence and full blown floggishness

 

[grumbleguts]

Lets face it, although Australia won they only won because England actively chased a victory on a pretty flat surface. If England played abit more safe this pitch was a Draw pitch every day of the week.

Also that was a pretty lazy attempt for a catch when Australia still needed 50 odd to win by Stokes.

So... what you're saying is... England were so far up themselves that they made a huge mistake. Yep, checks out.

 

[philreich]

Yep the obsession with Crawley is amazing.

Since Stokes was made captain he's averaged 28.2. Very ordinary. But it's worse than that.

The one hundred and one of the 50s was against Pakistan in Rawalpindi where 4 of England's top 5 and 3 of Pakistan's top 4 all made hundreds. So the greatest road of all time. He also got a 50 against Ireland.

Apart from that Pakistan test and the Ireland test he averages 22 since Stokes took over the captaincy.

One can understand why the England camp want batsmen-friendly wickets for the rest of the series. They won't admit it publicly, but I'm sure they respect the ability of our bowlers on pitches that offer more than Edgbaston.

 

[kickazz]

One can understand why the England camp want batsmen-friendly wickets for the rest of the series. They won't admit it publicly, but I'm sure they respect the ability of our bowlers on pitches that offer more than Edgbaston.

Yeah that's it, but on the flip side it relies on our batting to fail, which is a big call given we have 4 of the top 10. (Not to mention giving Davey Warner Aussie conditions to bat on may indeed become the joker in the pack no one saw coming)

And this is why they are trying to talk us in to playing 'faster' with the bat - hoping we throw away our wickets like they do.

Honestly, if they had traditional English wickets, they would likely struggle against our bowling. But with bazball they may just fluke a 350 on a tough pitch and that would put a LOT of pressure on Australia. Massive risk, but could come off.


Current plan of flat wickets and trying to get us to throw our wickets away via trash talk is not going to cut it.

 

[gordo2016]

After Sobers (who was peerless), David Hookes was the cleanest left-handed hitter/timer of the ball I ever saw, until Gilchrist. Even then, I'd be troubled to say which was better in full flight, although Gilly's record certainly was better.
There's NO doubt he was up to Test standard but the WSC years intervened and the broken jaw severely dented his confidence.
That said, he was argumentative/difficult --- a troubled individual --- and because he was all hand-eye and timing, spinners troubled him.

Watching Hookes when he was on, WOW, he was breathtaking, awesome. Game-changer.
He kicked the door down to Test selection with three sublime Shield tons.
Baz/Stokes would love to have him @ #5, now.
I watched his 5 consecutive fours against Greig, open-mouthed. Looks like Greig gave him a send-off at the end of this:

Greig gave him a mouthful but was the first one to walk in to the Aussie dressing room after play with a couple of bottles of beer to tell him "well played."

 

[luthor]

I'm getting seriously pissed off with the number of unreachable wides the English bowler are getting away with

 

[Andronicus]

I'm getting seriously pissed off with the number of unreachable wides the English bowler are getting away with

Wait til you see how the rest of the series goes.