Ashes 2015 - Australia tour of England July/September 2015

[LiveLoveABD]

All those talks of Aus whitewashing Eng and all those cries about Eng producing "flat" wickets so Aus' bowling wouldn't be effective. Looks like the "flat" wickets were out of courtesy and pity more than anything else, to avoid embarrassing this Aus batting lineup

You have got to love the justice cricket provides - bringing bloated heads to the ground and bursting their bubbles

So many such instances have happened in the past, but players, coaches, etc. still don't learn.

I think most of the sensible lads knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park for Australia. I certainly expected England to compete and win a test or two and if they performed well, even win it. 80% of the people were 'iffy' about the Australian batting but an equal number were bullish about their battery of fast bowlers. Honestly, while the negative has upheld itself, the positive really never shone through apart from that one over from Johnson at Lord's and Nathan Lyon as a whole. May be Starc in the first innings over here, but the cat had been belled by then.

Your point about players and coaches is obviously about the Aussies sounding bullish after the second test. Not the first time they've bragged before performing, it, I guarantee won't be the last. It's their nature.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

what is alarming is apart from the eng players no one else seems to have much of an ability to play in swinging and seaming conditions, SA may be an exception but we will know that by the end of this year.

Top of my head the players i would count to play these kind of conditions at-least a bit apart from eng players are

ABD,Amla, sangakara,Vijay, rahanae , kane williamson, Rogers.

that's such a short list for competent players in swing and seaming conditions.

I think there are more players than can deal with it. Clarke was quite good in his previous trip. Smith has a couple of hundreds in England and he will learn. Warner was good as well, he just played careless shots. There's hardly a pretty hundred in these conditions. Everyone plays and misses. World cricket in general, is in a transition phase. England have a young side, Australia soon will, NZ are like England on the rise, India are rebuilding as are SL and Pak and no one really cares about WI if it's not a T20.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Unbelievable how Australia have gifted England the Ashes. Credit to England, but Australia shot themselves in the foot. The choice of shots of some of our batsmen was BS.


The openers were pretty decent- Rogers has been our best batsman so far and Warner has done okay-ish, but should've built on his starts. Smith was poor, playing him at 3 in these conditions doesn't look like a good move. Clarke tried hard but it is clear he doesn't have it anymore. Voges was awful, for someone who has spent several seasons in England he should've done a lot better. And some of the shots he played, sigh. Pretty happy with Nevill behind the stumps, need to persist with him. Mitch Marsh could've played a Stokes-esque role at Trent Bridge, why was he even dropped? Shaun Marsh- no words.

MJ has been our best bowler, even if the stats don't show it. Hazlewood was pretty disappointing in the 3rd and 4th tests, expected a lot more. His line and length went for a flight and it affected the rest of the attack. Starc's stats are flattering, but cannot complain about the team's leading wicket taker. Lyon is an interesting case. All of us know what he offers but he's never going to run through an attack.

Bring Mitch Marsh in for Shaun and perhaps Fawad for Lyon for the 5th test.

Australia basically panicked. They now need to give M Marsh a run.

Johnson has been average. He's threatened, but for him to be effective, he needs a couple of guys to put the squeeze on. Australia are at their best when they bowl defensively but attack in the field. Unfortunately, the batters never gave the bowlers enough room for them to execute. I think, if I had to do a debrief, I would hardly put any of the blame on the bowlers. Johnson was average, Starc and Hazlewood good in patches while Lyon was exceptional. More was expected of Hazlewood, but he will learn. I don't know if Johnson will play on, but I would 100% play Cummins in the last test in place of Hazlewood/Johnson. Up to me, I would go with Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc. This doesn't mean that Johnson is out of the frame, but in case he doesn't come back to England, which is possible, I'd like to see what Pat can do and still allow Hazlewood to grow.

I think the bowlers have shown enough pace and 'venom'. They just need time to grow consistent. That only comes with game time and I don't see what MJ can achieve in a dead rubber other than breaking down or going through the motions or just being there because it's MC's last international vigil.

 

[War]

Series Review

I would usually save my thoughts for this until after 5th test, but i got to say something now because the Oval tests in a lot of ways will now turn out to be the most irrelevant Ashes test since probably the Boxing day test of 2002.

AUSTRALIA:

In a lot of ways this series result has shocked me. I expected given the trends of international cricket in recent times where teams perform so well at home that England would challenge hard. Their performances in the tests vs NZ convinced me they would. But for the life of me I thought AUS bowlers even when Harris got injured were going to me even more lethal in English conditions to be able to push AUS over the line.

They technically didn't bowl badly considering they failed Ballance, Lyth, kept Bell & Cook reasonably quiet & the dangerous Buttler never blew them away with bat. However how AUS batsmen capitulated versus the swing & swing was shocking, i thought they had rectified that a bit.

Coming off the dark period from Ashes 09 to Ashes 13 - the last series loss essentially ends the last two years of from Ashes 13/14 to West Indies 15 revival. Losses in Ashes & in Pakistan shows this success although it brought back some of the old Australia fire of the glory days, they have fell victim to being vulnerable overseas in conditions that are not similar to AUS.

Sad to see Clarke play so badly, if anything he just looked super stiff at the crease more than any serious technical faults - probably his back issues playing up with age. It will be interesting to see if AUS public remember him as captain in the same way as they did with Border, Waugh, Taylor & Ponting. Fact is they took a long time to warm up to him even with recent successes.

Where next for Australia? Key for me is getting some young batsmen - the fast bowling depth is superb, but fact that in last few years AUS have had to resort to picking guys like Rogers & Voges because they were the ones that dominated domestically instead of younger blokes is troubling.

Time for guys like Khawaja, Ferguson, Lynn, Burns, Cooper, Maddinson to step up.


ENGLAND:

The total opposite really, thought their batting without KP would collapse the way AUS bats did to AUS bowlers.

As Nasser Hussain was saying in the post match, focus must immediately turn towards future preparations. ENG are like most teams in world cricket except for S Africa poor tourist. Fact that they can play so well vs NZ/AUS in tailor made home conditions but fail to win in the West Indies team missing half their stars shows this poignantly.

Tours to Pakistan & S Africa will take ENG way outside their comfort zone. So i support idea of Rashid playing at Oval because he has to be given a test before those away series - it was a big mistake not playing him in West Indies & ENG wont get away with using Moeen as spinner overseas. Lyth has to be dropped & i'd pick Compton or Hales.

In the UAE tours i'd be interested to see if selectors might consider letting Moeen open the batting just to help balance out other area's of the side.

Must mention special praise for Ben Stokes. Ever since his hundred in the last Ashes i knew he was special. I mentioned before that where Stokes is now is wayyy above where Flintoff was at this stage of his career.

If we consider that Botham, Greig, Flintoff, Wilfred Rhodes & Trevor Bailey are the elite all-rounds in English history - Stokes once he keeps improving has what it takes not just to be the best all-rounder in the world over the next few years (M Marsh, Corey Anderson will challenge) but the be regarded as the best after Botham in English history.

5 out 7 Ashes series wins for England since the famous 2005 win, is also officially England best sequence of Ashes dominance of AUS in history based on research. AUS have obviously had more dominant holds over ENG most notably the 89-2005 period, but that is worth noting.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Series Review

I would usually save my thoughts for this until after 5th test, but i got to say something now because the Oval tests in a lot of ways will now turn out to be the most irrelevant Ashes test since probably the Boxing day test of 2002.

AUSTRALIA:

In a lot of ways this series result has shocked me. I expected given the trends of international cricket in recent times where teams perform so well at home that England would challenge hard. Their performances in the tests vs NZ convinced me they would. But for the life of me I thought AUS bowlers even when Harris got injured were going to me even more lethal in English conditions to be able to push AUS over the line.

They technically didn't bowl badly considering they failed Ballance, Lyth, kept Bell & Cook reasonably quiet & the dangerous Buttler never blew them away with bat. However how AUS batsmen capitulated versus the swing & swing was shocking, i thought they had rectified that a bit.

Coming off the dark period from Ashes 09 to Ashes 13 - the last series loss essentially ends the last two years of from Ashes 13/14 to West Indies 15 revival. Losses in Ashes & in Pakistan shows this success although it brought back some of the old Australia fire of the glory days, they have fell victim to being vulnerable overseas in conditions that are not similar to AUS.

Sad to see Clarke play so badly, if anything he just looked super stiff at the crease more than any serious technical faults - probably his back issues playing up with age. It will be interesting to see if AUS public remember him as captain in the same way as they did with Border, Waugh, Taylor & Ponting. Fact is they took a long time to warm up to him even with recent successes.

Where next for Australia? Key for me is getting some young batsmen - the fast bowling depth is superb, but fact that in last few years AUS have had to resort to picking guys like Rogers & Voges because they were the ones that dominated domestically instead of younger blokes is troubling.

Time for guys like Khawaja, Ferguson, Lynn, Burns, Cooper, Maddinson to step up.

Like I said earlier, the Aussie bowling is hardly to blame. Sure, you can't compare them to the poms, but I've for very long said this that the saying of 'pick 20 wickets and you win a test' is very flawed. You need batters to rack the runs up. Also, I'm a big believer of 'MATCH SITUATION.' To bowl a spell of 8-15 in the first innings of a test in the first session is very different to a 5-25 when your side is bowled out for 60. I'm not trying to belittle Broad here, I'm just emphasizing the importance of 'runs.'

I'm sorry, but Clarke has always had a 'flawed' technique.(great player of spin in the sub-continet though) He was in his 'prime' for a bit, but other than that he blew hot and cold. I never thought he could play the short stuff with assurance. To compare him to the captains of the past? I didn't see Border play, so no comment. But the other three were all better batters. He's easily the worst contributing captain to a WC win and by far the most over rated. It was Bailey's WC if you ask me because he was the one that was 'babying' the Oz LO team. Did Aus deserve the WC? Arguable. Along with NZ they were the best team, but McCullum was by generations the best leader and the better ODI cricketer. I'm not the Australian public, but for me that was Baz's WC.

How will I remember Clarke? Wonderful batsman (at no.5/6), tactical captain, one of the very best (very old school and flexible, great cricket brain ruined by his mouth piece Warne), excellent ambassador for the game (specially from Australia as they're known to be pricks) but on the whole very over rated specially in limited overs.

The guys you've mentioned as future Oz prospects?

Khawaja? No. Ferguson? Stop gap solution at best. Lynn? No idea. Burns? Good. Deserves to be in the test side. Don't know about Cooper and Maddinson.

 

[midgetwars]

People should be angry that Burns, a YOUNG player got dropped after a decent series against India for S.MARSH.

This is 2013 all over. England haven't really been great, Australia just managed to be worse. (Batting wise). I mean, once again not a single Englishman (bar Root) averages 40+ yet they have a 3-1 lead. Australia meanwhile have 3 batsman averaging 40+. Weird Ashes once again where Australia's bad has been really really bad.

 

[cricket_icon]

People should be angry that Burns, a YOUNG player got dropped after a decent series against India for S.MARSH.

This is 2013 all over. England haven't really been great, Australia just managed to be worse. (Batting wise). I mean, once again not a single Englishman (bar Root) averages 40+ yet they have a 3-1 lead. Australia meanwhile have 3 batsman averaging 40+. Weird Ashes once again where Australia's bad has been really really bad.

The reason English batsman haven't averaged that high is partly because they haven't had much to chase. Now it's true to say that Root has been a stand out but ALi, when given the chance and the time, has batted well enough and Cook has done well right at the top of the order. An under pressure Bell put in two solid innings in the last match...all in all, English batsmen have stepped up to the plate when it was needed and in all honesty ,it hasn't been needed much. When you have two test wins over the course of 4 days play, it says something about the lack of runs from the opposition.

Moving on, I came into this thread to give props to two things that have been instrumental England beating Australia and Cook finding himself as a more versatile captain:

1. Paul Farbrace
2. New Zealand

Now Bayliss may well prove himself to be a top coach but Farbrace has been the man for Englad for the last few months. He has crafted loyalty, skill and aggression out of a batting and bowling uni on a low after the World Cup. The team obviously looks to like and respect him a hell of a lot.

Then we move onto New Zealand and McCullum, it was his fast, aggressive captaincy with the "funky" fields which opened Cook's eyes to what was possible in a test match, the two sides went 1-1 in what was the best test series of the year (Pak/SL is a close second). Cook needed to be more adventurous otherwise McCullum would take the series from him and he rose magnificently to the occasion. It was great seeing Cook trying something new, attacking more profusely, keeping slips for long and having more faith in his players. I believe his man management skills have also improved, just look at how he handled an low on confidence Finn.

Without these two factors shaping the English summer, Cook and his England would not have beaten Australia so resolutely. It's been a disgraceful few weeks for the cricket powerhouse but an Indian summer for England.

 

[Rehan_24]

Disappointing performance by Aussies

 

[richowebbo]

My series review - YAY! WE WON!

That being said, I think Australia were very poor. They could not bowl as a unit and I believe that to be the difference between the two sides. I was certain Steve Smith was going to be a nightmare, but to be honest, he's been disappointing if you remove the Lords test.

I'm am very interested to see what happens with England in the future. I'm not sure if we will keep Lyth after this series, so I expect Hales to come in. That leaves a place at number 3, which I think should be filled by James Taylor, because lets face it, Bell has been pretty appalling. I'd probably move Root to 3 and have Taylor at 4.

 

[Chief]

It was very interesting that Cook, immediately post-match, thanked Peter Moores and praised his impact on the team.

Not sure the ECB will be delighted with that, but I thought it very telling that this was one of his first thoughts.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

My series review - YAY! WE WON!

That being said, I think Australia were very poor. They could not bowl as a unit and I believe that to be the difference between the two sides. I was certain Steve Smith was going to be a nightmare, but to be honest, he's been disappointing if you remove the Lords test.

I'm am very interested to see what happens with England in the future. I'm not sure if we will keep Lyth after this series, so I expect Hales to come in. That leaves a place at number 3, which I think should be filled by James Taylor, because lets face it, Bell has been pretty appalling. I'd probably move Root to 3 and have Taylor at 4.

I've said this before that it was the Aussie batting that got them in the mess. Two baby totals in the first innings of a test. The bowlers are basically sitting ducks. Steve Smith? I think it's unfair to remove tests mate. He would have liked to have done better in at least one of the tests but it can be understood. At times, he's looked good but he's also received two pearls. He's actually looked like the only hope for Australian batting in the future. I think, he's had an alright series so far.

To be honest, Joe Root is simply batting brilliantly. Yes, he's more honed in as far as conditions go, but he's been the real difference. No other pom has got a hundred other than him.

England composition? I was getting dreams about it last night- I would go-

Cook
OPENER
Root (c)
Bairstow
Stokes
Ali
Buttler
FRONT LINE SPINNER
Broad
Finn
Anderson

If it's sub continent conditions, I'd get Wood in for Finn and another spinner in place of Broad.

You just look at the depth of the side. You have 3 quicks, one swings it both ways, one seams it just enough and one tall chap that can swing it and get bounce. If that's not enough you have a 85 mph swing bowler who bats aggressively. A front line spinner and a very competent Moeen Ali with a little bit of Root. Hell, if Buttler gets injured somehow during a game you even have a proper keeper. The side just echoes greatness. It's about growth, management and desire from this point on. The ingredients are all there.

 

[angryangy]

People should be angry that Burns, a YOUNG player got dropped after a decent series against India for S.MARSH.

never mind that Burns is a young player, he is a much better first class player.

 

[richowebbo]

I've said this before that it was the Aussie batting that got them in the mess. Two baby totals in the first innings of a test. The bowlers are basically sitting ducks. Steve Smith? I think it's unfair to remove tests mate. He would have liked to have done better in at least one of the tests but it can be understood. At times, he's looked good but he's also received two pearls. He's actually looked like the only hope for Australian batting in the future. I think, he's had an alright series so far.

To be honest, Joe Root is simply batting brilliantly. Yes, he's more honed in as far as conditions go, but he's been the real difference. No other pom has got a hundred other than him.

England composition? I was getting dreams about it last night- I would go-

Cook
OPENER
Root (c)
Bairstow
Stokes
Ali
Buttler
FRONT LINE SPINNER
Broad
Finn
Anderson

If it's sub continent conditions, I'd get Wood in for Finn and another spinner in place of Broad.

You just look at the depth of the side. You have 3 quicks, one swings it both ways, one seams it just enough and one tall chap that can swing it and get bounce. If that's not enough you have a 85 mph swing bowler who bats aggressively. A front line spinner and a very competent Moeen Ali with a little bit of Root. Hell, if Buttler gets injured somehow during a game you even have a proper keeper. The side just echoes greatness. It's about growth, management and desire from this point on. The ingredients are all there.

Sorry I didn't mean "remove" tests, as I think that is ridiculous. Its like saying, "he wouldn't have been out unless he got that ball"! Doh! What I meant was, the Lords test aside, I've been disappointed with Smiths performances.

Joe Root has been superb. I still have some issues with Cook, as I feel he needs to be contributing more with the bat. His captaincy seems to have moved on, which is great. But I;d like to heap praise on Moeen Ali. He has done great with the bat and has had a real tough time with the ball, but kept going and kept smiling all the way through. Butler has keeped well, but his batting has been a bit disappointing. That is to be expected though because if every batsmen in the side was in form, you'd never get a result in Test Matches!

I can't believe you just said you want to replace Broad though mate! I like you, you're my PC pal, but you've offended a lot of English supporters there! He is our Golden boy at the moment and with JImmy getting on and picking up the odd knock, we need his experience. I'd like to see Rashid giving a chance in the last test. Bowled very well for Yorkshire the other day.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Sorry I didn't mean "remove" tests, as I think that is ridiculous. Its like saying, "he wouldn't have been out unless he got that ball"! Doh! What I meant was, the Lords test aside, I've been disappointed with Smiths performances.

Joe Root has been superb. I still have some issues with Cook, as I feel he needs to be contributing more with the bat. His captaincy seems to have moved on, which is great. But I;d like to heap praise on Moeen Ali. He has done great with the bat and has had a real tough time with the ball, but kept going and kept smiling all the way through. Butler has keeped well, but his batting has been a bit disappointing. That is to be expected though because if every batsmen in the side was in form, you'd never get a result in Test Matches!

I can't believe you just said you want to replace Broad though mate! I like you, you're my PC pal, but you've offended a lot of English supporters there! He is our Golden boy at the moment and with JImmy getting on and picking up the odd knock, we need his experience. I'd like to see Rashid giving a chance in the last test. Bowled very well for Yorkshire the other day.

I've seen England come to our parts of the world and repeatedly make the mistake of playing 3 fast bowlers and one spinner. It wasn't until they got hold of Swann and Panesar together in India that they were able to beat us. I just feel, if you're picking two quicks in the sub continent- You have to play Jimmy. Wood gets the nod because his 'type' of bowler is very effective in our neck of the woods. It's just side balance and composition. I'd actually pick Finn ahead of Broad in the sub continent as well. I just feel Broad's bowling is not best suited abroad. Is he the second best fast bowler in England? Yes. No doubt.

 

[richowebbo]

I've seen England come to our parts of the world and repeatedly make the mistake of playing 3 fast bowlers and one spinner. It wasn't until they got hold of Swann and Panesar together in India that they were able to beat us. I just feel, if you're picking two quicks in the sub continent- You have to play Jimmy. Wood gets the nod because his 'type' of bowler is very effective in our neck of the woods. It's just side balance and composition. I'd actually pick Finn ahead of Broad in the sub continent as well. I just feel Broad's bowling is not best suited abroad. Is he the second best fast bowler in England? Yes. No doubt.

Stokes and Moeen are very useful batsmen, so we could get away with picking 3 more seamers and Rashid.