Concur, the run-a-ball knocks from Bairstow seems at the moment to be more important than his average work behind the stumps - but let's see what happen's if/after he drop's Smith or Labuschagne early who then go onto ton up...?
1st Ashes Test England v Australia June 16-20 1930hrs @ Edgbaston
- Thread starter Gough
- Start date
- Tagged users None
RussellEbertHandball
Flick pass expert
I thought that Wood was a certainty for Lords until I read cricket analyst Jarrod Kimber's take of what happened on Day 3 only yesterday ( well I watched his video which he uses the script of the video as an article). If Kimber's analysis is right, they probably wont play Wood unless there is an injury.
England's medium-fast glut
The best bowlers, but not the quickest, get it done.
wickets.substack.com
You might be justified in wondering why I have spent all this time speaking about the great Ken Higgs. It's not just the berserk backside or even the weird curved run-up on the way in. It's what Ken Higgs represents, England's medium-fast seam bowling in perfection. And yet in 1968, this beast of a seam bowler would play his final Test. [ he retired from first class cricket in 1986]
Why? Because at any one time, England has a bucketload of Ken Higgs around. You are what your conditions dictate in Tests, and English cricket produces line and length wobblers more than anyone else ever has.
You see them playing club cricket, on village greens or right throughout the lower levels of English pro cricket. Jogging in, placing it on a line, nipping it both ways. Batting in English cricket is overcoming their nagging metronomic boring existence. There is no doubt that England is the home of the medium-fast seamers.
That is what we have in this Test. England may have chosen Mark Wood for this match if they knew just how dire the surface would be. Getting his pace on this wicket would have been interesting, especially with his lower trajectory.
But Wood has struggled on good batting decks in Edgbaston before, and also, he's not been good in England. Chances are that England thought this was their best bowling attack, and with Jofra Archer's injuries, it would be hard to argue it isn't.
........
If you're playing along at home, that's six English bowlers with 200 wickets being considered fast. And this is over the history of the game. Where they had to find blokes in mines, or occasionally phone someone up north and ask them if they owned bowling boots. Now England has this incredible system of professionalism. Keeping guys out of the County system that turns so many quicks into donkeys. The best sports science for cricket, dieticians, biomechanists, physios, body imaging software and everything else they need.
All that money, planning and effort. From that, they have Josh Tongue, Saqib Mahmood, Olly Stone, Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. Not one is fit or talented enough to push their normal bowlers out of the team.
.......
So they end up in a Test match where they need to make something happen on a flat surface - they ordered. So Stuart Broad and Ollie Robinson have to bowl intimidatory bowling on a pancake wicket.
Part of this is because - if my Ben Stokes bowling doomsday clock is right - we don't have many deliveries left. And he bowled at 80MPHish in the first innings. If he does have 800 balls left to go, that's probably 500 if he bowls a couple of fast short bowling spells.
No one thinks of fast bowling and Ollie Robinson at the same time. Even Stuart Broad - who had periods of speed earlier in his career - is not really an ideal option for the short bowling tactic. As Jasprit Bumrah might once have shown.
It gets worse for them, as under the Bazball reign, the short bowling option seems to be their plan B, or C, or sometimes almost D-Z. It's like coach Brendon McCullum was fully converted all those years watching Neil Wagner do this for New Zealand. Not to mention that when fit, Stokes will deliver as many bouncers as he can until he's running in on bloody stumps.
.......
But the real question is can England do this on all the flat pitches they ordered this summer? Ollie Robinson was treated today like he bowls 14MPH quicker. Stuart Broad is also in enforcer mode in what should be the armchair part of his career. Ben Stokes can only sit and watch men two men yards slower than him for so long before he'll give it a go. And even the thought of using Jimmy this way should wake up English fans at 2 AM drowning in their own anxiety juice.
England have decided that skill is their most important weapon. They are picking their best bowlers. And today they found a way to make that work. To win this series, they will need to work out how to do that at least another five times. Probably more.
The main part of Bazball's success was not attacking, it was making the most of what they have got. You could argue in the days of Ken Higgs England would discard that kind of bowler looking for a more complete version. Now they try and get the most out of it. Today England kept Australia's total in check with Jimmy Anderson being himself, Ben Stokes being a facsimile, and two taller bowlers bouncing the crap out of Australia at 78PMH.
It's not what Higgs would have done, but it worked.
- Mar 21, 2016
- 4,517
- 4,791
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
- Other Teams
- ColoradoAvalancheLiverpoolFCGrenobl
This is what I suspect they will do too. They will need to roll us quickly with that lineup.
doing the ifs buts and maybe for any sport is silly but test cricket especially.
We lost the toss, away from home, got nothing from our 2 best batsman, Boland had his worst game of his career so far, head threw his wicket away. And we still won.
So you can argue we only just won, but you can just as easily argue we could have won by more. That’s just how it goes.
No one should begrudge England for thinking they can match it with us, it’s the over the top pats on the back they are giving themselves that is embarrassing.
We lost the toss, away from home, got nothing from our 2 best batsman, Boland had his worst game of his career so far, head threw his wicket away. And we still won.
So you can argue we only just won, but you can just as easily argue we could have won by more. That’s just how it goes.
No one should begrudge England for thinking they can match it with us, it’s the over the top pats on the back they are giving themselves that is embarrassing.
Root is their best batsman.
You don’t want to burden him with the job of being the front line spinner as well.
The hands of stone
Norm Smith Medallist
- Sep 13, 2020
- 6,359
- 17,431
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
If what they have been rolling out post test is the actual attitude and midset this series will be over within 4 days .
Aussies will win Lords and be 2-0 up and the English will implode .
Ill give Mccallum more credit than that and think he will straighten them up a bit .
Its been the most bizarre and attitude to a loss I've seen and the fact they are making it public is real denial type stuff
I'll be stunned if Joe Root is England's sole spinner. I think Rehan Ahmed will be their front line spinner.
English grounds are small - finger spinners are preferred for accuracy - Warne is in reality the exception it’s a long time since the Pom’s had a leg spinner of any test quality but Bazball explains the possible selection of the young leggy - but s**t it’s risky
- May 14, 2017
- 11,447
- 12,844
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- West Adelaide
Young bowler, risky option, great, although ...
... I did enjoy Moeen's juicy full tosses.
- May 14, 2017
- 11,447
- 12,844
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- West Adelaide
Here's some more of Crawley's Bazballian bullshit, translated:
"“I think the pitch will suit us a bit more so I think we’ll win by, I don’t know, 150 runs?"
==> WE want to win. It's important. We will win by 150 runs, give or take.
“We’re not about results. We’re not about winning or losing, we’re about entertainment. That’s why we took [this loss] better than other losses perhaps, because it was great for the game"
==> Winning is not important to us, as long as we put on a good show. The loss was not important because it attracted so much attention. To how great, yet carefree, we are.
“Of course we’re there to win and it helps our brand and what we’re trying to do."
==> Of course, winning is important. Our brand is about winning. Winning is what we try to do.
"If we win, we get more traction. But I don’t think we’ve lost anything other than a game of cricket.”
==> If we win, which is important and doesn't really matter ... <<fizz, sputter, melt>>
sorry, but the bullshit translator melted down after the last bit
, like HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey" which had a kind of mental breakdown when confronted by what it perceived to be human contradictions which threatened the mission.
Next presser, Crawley will be chanting: "Four legs good, two legs better"
"“I think the pitch will suit us a bit more so I think we’ll win by, I don’t know, 150 runs?"
==> WE want to win. It's important. We will win by 150 runs, give or take.
“We’re not about results. We’re not about winning or losing, we’re about entertainment. That’s why we took [this loss] better than other losses perhaps, because it was great for the game"
==> Winning is not important to us, as long as we put on a good show. The loss was not important because it attracted so much attention. To how great, yet carefree, we are.
“Of course we’re there to win and it helps our brand and what we’re trying to do."
==> Of course, winning is important. Our brand is about winning. Winning is what we try to do.
"If we win, we get more traction. But I don’t think we’ve lost anything other than a game of cricket.”
==> If we win, which is important and doesn't really matter ... <<fizz, sputter, melt>>
sorry, but the bullshit translator melted down after the last bit
, like HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey" which had a kind of mental breakdown when confronted by what it perceived to be human contradictions which threatened the mission.Next presser, Crawley will be chanting: "Four legs good, two legs better"
Last edited:
- Mar 21, 2016
- 4,517
- 4,791
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
- Other Teams
- ColoradoAvalancheLiverpoolFCGrenobl
Reckon a teenage leggie might throw a few very full ones up.Young bowler, risky option, great, although ...
- Sep 15, 2011
- 31,636
- 48,187
- AFL Club
- West Coast
If they bring in a young leggie, reckon the Aussies will look to belt him out of the park and break his confidence.
Hope they don’t ruin his confidence. Has the potential to be a genius.
- Jun 19, 2006
- 10,050
- 18,455
- AFL Club
- Geelong
Dropping Foakes was absolute insanity by England.
The funniest thing is that he's a better batsman than the players they're picking as batsmen. He averages 40 in first class cricket not 15! He averages almost 40 in test cricket since Stokes became captain.
He averages 9 more than Crawley in FC cricket, 4 more than Stokes and more than Brook when he was selected to debut.
But they're leaving out their best keeper because he isn't a good enough bat.
The funniest thing is that he's a better batsman than the players they're picking as batsmen. He averages 40 in first class cricket not 15! He averages almost 40 in test cricket since Stokes became captain.
He averages 9 more than Crawley in FC cricket, 4 more than Stokes and more than Brook when he was selected to debut.
But they're leaving out their best keeper because he isn't a good enough bat.
- Apr 30, 2015
- 13,621
- 24,449
- AFL Club
- West Coast
But does he Bazball??
grumbleguts
User name to post ratio checks out
Well, largely to do with a massive umpires error in Brisbane. It made the news main section with how bad it was and he was dropped for the series.
grumbleguts
User name to post ratio checks out
Probably a strike rate with the bat of 50 in TC isn't entertaining enough for them. He has a good range of shots, without trying to hit every second ball for 4. Quite a decent bat for a keeper.
grumbleguts
User name to post ratio checks out
True, but at least Anderson bowls the balls that get him wickets.
grumbleguts
User name to post ratio checks out
WTF? Have you been under a f**king rock?
He was banned for racism. He is as racist as they come. Follow him on twitter for some fun racist racism.
Yeah wait until there is a dead rubber at least
Geez need a separate thread for this, would be fun.
We made fewer runs.
But * off you ******* prick
We lost so we won.
Similar threads
- Poll
- Poll
