Ashes 2015 - Australia tour of England July/September 2015

[C Boomer]

with the ball old i wouldn't mind clarke giving it a rip himself a couple of overs.

Even better, what about Clarke throwing the ball to Steve Smith ?

An absolute cracking bit of captaincy !!

A Tedious Routine !

Monday to Friday twice daily
I commute on a weekly ticket,
as the wheels of the train go around,
clickity, clickity, click it,

A tedious routine and though
I'm thoroughly sick of it,
unless my 6 numbers come up in the lotto
for the next twenty years, I'll just have to stick it !

But what keeps me happy is come Saturday
is knowing, I'll be at the wicket,
leather v willow, ball striking bat
playing and enjoying cricket!........

A sample from my compilation @ A Tedious Routine C Boomer's Cricket Poetry. - Entertainment on PlanetCricket Forums

 

[grkrama]

simply fantastic

 

[C Boomer]

As we watch England meekly surrcumb to a rampant Australian attack with the cloudy skies being their only hope of salvation, we have learned two glaringly obvious facts from this very enjoyable ashes series:

1. Lyth & Butler are not up to the required standard of test match batsmanship

&

2. The Australian selectors must be kicking themselves for not picking Peter Siddle from the start of this current ashes series !

 

[Markkkkk]

To be fair Buttler is a very good ODI batsmen, he is probably in the top 3/4 most talented batsmen in English cricket...

 

[IceAgeComing]

Its good that England won the Ashes, although this game and the series revealed a few things that ought to be questioned.

Firstly Buttler was very lucky that England won in Trent Bridge; he's had a shocking series (averaged 15, only Lyth and Anderson were worse) and with Bairstow around the side he's no longer indispensable. Honestly other than Root England weren't very good with the bat: only him, Cook and Moeen Ali averaged over 30 across the series. Moeen needs to play in the top six: he's not a frontline spinner and his batting is way too good to be stuck at number 8. I'm not a big fan of messing people around by dramatically moving them up the order: so I'd bring Hales or Compton or another county opener in to open rather than stick Moeen up there: and I'd also bring in Ballance for the UAE because he was incredibly good against India last year and the Windies earlier this year and the ball won't be moving around. I'm not an expert in county cricket bar Sussex (who don't really have anyone worth pursuing bar perhaps Chris Jordan, although Oli Robinson has had a first good season and is younger than me, although his bowling is just regular County stuff that probably wouldn't work internationally but he's still a kid), so I can't offer any other suggestions.

The bowling is a lot better: they were lucky that Finn and Broad were very good across the series and able to cover for the lack of Anderson. Stokes had a good series with the ball although wasn't very good with the bat; and I just remember that he wasn't exactly great in the West Indies and the UAE has similar conditions. Mark Wood has been a little disappointing with the ball (he outbatted large amounts of the England side though) although he's apparently not been 100% fit and he's still young and with the three other seamers doing good they can afford to carry someone just trying to get into the swing of things. Spin is a real problem: they need to find a frontline spinner and the only realistic prospect is Rashid (people are mentioning Ansari: I think he's one of those players that's not good enough with either bat or ball to be worth pursuing although he might be worth taking to the UAE): Moeen didn't have the control that you need in order to have a spinner play defensively which frankly England could have done with at Lords and the Oval.

 

[C Boomer]

To be fair Buttler is a very good ODI batsmen, he is probably in the top 3/4 most talented batsmen in English cricket...

The very same thing was said at a time of Eoin Morgan and indeed, skipper of the ODI team but doesn't get a look in now at test cricket ??

 

[IceAgeComing]

Well he was dropped by Middlesex for First Class games earlier this year, which says it all really

 

[richowebbo]

The very same thing was said at a time of Eoin Morgan and indeed, skipper of the ODI team but doesn't get a look in now at test cricket ??

I think Morgans form before the NZ series was very poor, and he's not been great in the CC eother, so I guess he needs lots of runs before he gets selected again.

Surely Bell and Lyth's last Test Match. ON form, there is no way the can continue to be picked. I'm sad for Lyth, as he was great to watch for Yorkshire last season. Bell is past his best and doesn't deserve to be in the team at 3 or 4. Hales should open and after weighing up all the options, I'd like to see Compton back playing at 3. I don't think we should have moved Root, but maybe he'll learn to play at 4. We can't continue being nothing for 3, or we will get slaughtered on tour. It's all well and good recovering with the fans behind you, but its different away from home. I think Compton would provide some necessary calmness at 3, like Trott used to bring. With Hales in the side, we have a bit on attacking threat. Moeen could easily bat at 5 if England want to drop Bairstow and bring in a full-time spinner. Who that spinner will be is not easy, as there aren't many quality spinner about. Maybe just bring in Rashid and hope he does OK.

 

[IceAgeComing]

why are you dropping bairstow and not the guy that did literally nothing all series

 

[bigred]

Very interesting comments from Ian Bell. Seems like he might be considering retirement. I'm very surprised given his age but I suppose with his form being poor he'd rather retire than be dropped. Saying that, Bayliss doesn't seem to want him to go.

 

[bigred]

After seeing Swann and Nasser do their player ratings, I thought I'd do mine.

Cook 7
Lyth 2 (caught well)
Ballance 3
Bell 4
Root 9.5
Bairstow 4.5
Buttler 5 (thought his keeping was good)
Stokes 7
Ali 6.5
Broad 9
Anderson 7
Wood 7
Finn 7

Warner 7
Rodgers 8
Smith 7.5
Clarke 3
Voges 4.5
Marsh S 1
Marsh M 7
Watson 1.5
Haddin 1
Nevill 5.5
Johnson 7
Starc 6.5
Hazlewood 6
Siddle 7.5 (more if he'd played in the 3rd and 4th tests I'm sure)
Lyon 8

 

[blockerdave]

Well this hasn't gone to plan. This was supposed to be a party atmosphere, rolling over the Aussies one last time in a triumphant wonderful party. But it's been the equivalent of us turning up to our own party, vomiting on ourself, hitting on your girlfriends mother and falling asleep in the punch bowl.

i didn't know you were at my wedding reception?

 

[Deleted member 149013]

Possible England teams for the UAE Series?

Option 1

Cook

Lees

Taylor

Root

Ali

Buttler

Willey

Ansari

Wood

Broad

Anderson


Option 2

Cook

Hales

Taylor

Root

Ali

Vince

Bairstow

Stokes

Rashid

Wood

Broad


Also on tour Finn and Dawson

 

[blockerdave]

Very interesting comments from Ian Bell. Seems like he might be considering retirement. I'm very surprised given his age but I suppose with his form being poor he'd rather retire than be dropped. Saying that, Bayliss doesn't seem to want him to go.

regardless of age, he's played 10 years of international cricket, and has been extremely lucky to remain in the side over the last two. given his form, with the two tours coming up (poor record against spin and the south africa away) he probably has enough self-awareness to accept he very well might not be in the side anyway by the end of that and may feel it's better to go out on a team high, if the personal high is to be denied him.

he'd go up (marginally) in my estimation if he did retire.

 

[dp458]

Possible England teams for the UAE Series?

Option 1

Cook

Lees

Taylor

Root

Ali

Buttler

Willey

Ansari

Wood

Broad

Anderson


Option 2

Cook

Hales

Taylor

Root

Ali

Vince

Bairstow

Stokes

Rashid

Wood

Broad


Also on tour Finn and Dawson

These teams are mere pipe dreams

Itll be

Cook
Ali
Bell
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Buttler
Rashid
Wood
Broad
Anderson

With Finn,Woakes,Plunkett as the bowlers
Taylor, Ballance, Hales
And maybe Ansari
to make up the squad

Willey is nowhere near test selection, same for vince if he isnt in the odi squad, he isnt gonna get test

That team has one too many a bowler in my opinion

and personally id go for the UAE

cook
hales
bell
root
ballance
ali
buttler
rashid
wood
broad
anderson


and for south africa, same squad minus ansari, and team

cook
hales
bell
root
ballance
stokes
ali
buttler
woakes
broad
anderson

have to go horses for courses, in my view