The Cricket Thread

[JCRD]

We ought to treat the rest of today and tomorrow like a one dayer and go for it... better that than a half and half approach

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Remind me; who are we giving the role to instead?

Stokes?

We need someone who knows how to set a field and how to use bowlers. You’d expect a bowler to know how to do both of those things.

 

[karennina]

Remind me; who are we giving the role to instead?

Does Stokes come across a a bit too dim?

Buttler, the only other candidate, seems quite clever, but not sure he has an appetite for it. After the WC he said he now didn't care what else happened in his career...

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Jason Roy looks like a tail ender...

 

[thebenjamin]

Root needs binning. His captaincy is painfully bad.

I feel a bit for Root. This pitch is for spinners and we don't have one. Moeen Ali is in the worst form of his career. Plus This generation of Duke balls don't swing, so that negates pretty much our entire attack. So he's looking at the whole series of dry spinning pitches with only part time spinners and no swing with an attack of world class swing bowlers. Not sure what he can do other than select Archer and hope he performs miracle.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

I feel a bit for Root. This pitch is for spinners and we don't have one. Moeen Ali is in the worst form of his career. Plus This generation of Duke balls don't swing, so that negates pretty much our entire attack. So he's looking at the whole series of dry spinning pitches with only part time spinners and no swing with an attack of world class swing bowlers. Not sure what he can do other than select Archer and hope he performs miracle.

Root and the selectors are partly to blame for that as well. They left out Jack Leach and Adil Rashid from the squad entirely and they’re arguably better spinners than Moeen. They’re certainly in better form than him.

 

[Wsussexspur]

Jason Roy looks like a tail ender...

With Jason Roy if we are going to persist with him in test cricket then have to accept that a lot of time he will get low scores but on some occasions he will smash a quick 100 and look brilliant.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

With Jason Roy if we are going to persist with him in test cricket then have to accept that a lot of time he will get low scores but on some occasions he will smash a quick 100 and look brilliant.

I honestly don’t understand the batting order. Roy bats at 6 for Surrey in red ball cricket and Denley opens. If Roy isn’t comfortable, move him down the order and promote Denley.

 

[thebenjamin]

Root and the selectors are partly to blame for that as well. They left out Jack Leach and Adil Rashid from the squad entirely and they’re arguably better spinners than Moeen. They’re certainly in better form than him.

Agree with that. I guess they're hoping that his batting will return to former glories, but he's basically only a part time batsman now as well as a part time spinner.

 

[karennina]

So he's looking at the whole series of dry spinning pitches with only part time spinners and no swing with an attack of world class swing bowlers. Not sure what he can do other than select Archer and hope he performs miracle.

Select Archer and Leach? If we really decide swing is dead, we could, additionally, take the nuclear option and drop one of Broad and Woakes for Stone.

 

[Buggsy61]

Has a Captain ever been stripped of the captaincy mid series?

Root is an embarrassment.

Famously Ian Botham in 1981 - the rest is history

 

[Arnoldtoo]

Stokes?

We need someone who knows how to set a field and how to use bowlers. You’d expect a bowler to know how to do both of those things.

Which field settings did you feel were especially stupid today?

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Which field settings did you feel were especially stupid today?

There were multiple issues with Root’s captaincy today.

Moeen bowling the first over of the day to Smith. He must’ve seen what Australia’s pace bowlers did first thing yesterday morning. Coupled with the fact Smith averages 96 against Moeen, it was just a very stupid thing to do.

Denley and Root bowling. Just no. I’m pretty sure Root was given an over with the new ball too. Linked to that...

Bowling Denley when the Aussies are sat in their whites on the balcony, ready to declare. Root basically gave them free runs. Broad/Stokes/Woakes should’ve been on, roughing up their bowlers.

In terms of fielding, it was absolutely criminal that Root didn’t have a leg slip/leg gully in for Steve Smith. There was at least three times he’d played the ball off his legs into that position.

I appreciate you might like Joe Root, or just don’t deem anyone else worthy of the captaincy, but you can’t defend him today and simply saying “well, he’s not doing a good job but who else is there?” wont win us the Ashes.

 

[SteveH]

we don't play red-ball cricket enough!
limited over cricket rules!
today is the result

 

[Arnoldtoo]

There were multiple issues with Root’s captaincy today.

Moeen bowling the first over of the day to Smith. He must’ve seen what Australia’s pace bowlers did first thing yesterday morning. Coupled with the fact Smith averages 96 against Moeen, it was just a very stupid thing to do.

Denley and Root bowling. Just no. I’m pretty sure Root was given an over with the new ball too. Linked to that...

Bowling Denley when the Aussies are sat in their whites on the balcony, ready to declare. Root basically gave them free runs. Broad/Stokes/Woakes should’ve been on, roughing up their bowlers.

In terms of fielding, it was absolutely criminal that Root didn’t have a leg slip/leg gully in for Steve Smith. There was at least three times he’d played the ball off his legs into that position.

I appreciate you might like Joe Root, or just don’t deem anyone else worthy of the captaincy, but you can’t defend him today and simply saying “well, he’s not doing a good job but who else is there?” wont win us the Ashes.

It's not that I like Joe Root, and he surely has more to learn as a captain, but I do respect that the people who make and help make decisions on and off the field aren't doing so from a position of lesser knowledge than myself.

E.g. When our three seamers are knackered you can't always ask them to rough up the opposition bowlers; they'll end up presenting juicy long-hops instead of bouncers.

And when the ball is new the spinners get more bounce and have more chance of getting a wicket - especially when the pitch has died and the seamers aren't as potent as in the first 3 days.

And someone like Steve Smith - second only in the Test batting averages to Don Bradman - might spot a leg slip/gully and be equipped to avoid him. He might even have hit the ball there 3 times because there wasn't anyone there, rather than having been forced into it.

Field placings are worked out not just by Root, but by a small team studying how the opposition play. Hence Stokes was fielding almost at silly mid-on because Smith asks his co-batsman to move further to the side of the crease because he doesn't like anyone in his eyeline.

But most of all, when I read someone saying that he hopes Moeen 'never plays for England again', despite being the leading Test wicket taker in the last 12 months (according to Gower [I think] in commentary) I can't help but think the reactions are somewhat extreme. He's having a bad run, but let's at least stay sensible.

 

[UncleBuck]

He's only captain because the other options were/are nonexistent. Who is next in line?

I’d vote for our Kiwi, at least he’s got some spunk about him.
In hindsight that’s got Beefy written all over it so maybe not!

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Has a Captain ever been stripped of the captaincy mid series?

Root is an embarrassment.

Steve Smith

 

[Deleted member 27995]

I'd give it to Hildreth in our third incarnation of the test squad to play at Lords.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

It's not that I like Joe Root, and he surely has more to learn as a captain, but I do respect that the people who make and help make decisions on and off the field aren't doing so from a position of lesser knowledge than myself.

E.g. When our three seamers are knackered you can't always ask them to rough up the opposition bowlers; they'll end up presenting juicy long-hops instead of bouncers.

And when the ball is new the spinners get more bounce and have more chance of getting a wicket - especially when the pitch has died and the seamers aren't as potent as in the first 3 days.

And someone like Steve Smith - second only in the Test batting averages to Don Bradman - might spot a leg slip/gully and be equipped to avoid him. He might even have hit the ball there 3 times because there wasn't anyone there, rather than having been forced into it.

Field placings are worked out not just by Root, but by a small team studying how the opposition play. Hence Stokes was fielding almost at silly mid-on because Smith asks his co-batsman to move further to the side of the crease because he doesn't like anyone in his eyeline.

But most of all, when I read someone saying that he hopes Moeen 'never plays for England again', despite being the leading Test wicket taker in the last 12 months (according to Gower [I think] in commentary) I can't help but think the reactions are somewhat extreme. He's having a bad run, but let's at least stay sensible.

I find it hard to believe Chris Woakes would be knackered after only bowling 13 overs in the entire innings. I’m pretty sure didn’t bowl at all in the morning session, which is odd in itself. Unless he’s carrying an injury.

I appreciate what you say about spinners with the new ball but my specific issue was the fact it was Root bowling with it. He’s nothing more than a part time spinner and only helped Australia to blunt the ball.

My point about the need to have a fielder in the leg slip/gully position isn’t simply to target him into playing it there, it’s to force him to play into a position he’s most uncomfortable with. I vaguely remember them showing a graphic that demonstrated his weakness around the 5th/6th stump area.

I appreciate Moeen’s recent efforts but they were in a spinner’s paradise. He’s been bang out of form all summer and rewarding poor form sets all sorts of bad precedents.

 

[Buggsy61]

Never liked Root as a captain, not least because the batting form of one of the worlds top players has definitely suffered.
Having said that Stokes, and maybe Buttler are probably the only real alternatives.
Surely we should have enough to bat through tomorrow and move onto the second test all square and with a full bowling attack.