England in Australia

[Octavius]

wow amazing news about Trescothick flying home with a reoccurrence of the stress related illness

But in a way i think it will help balance England a lot better.

Heres how;

Now you can push everyone up the order and play Collingwood, which takes bowling pressure off Flintoff.

I think this will be the answer for Englands dilemna.

To be fair to Collingwood he didnt really deserve to be dropped in the first place as he was batting pretty well in recent series.

now the team should look like;

Strauss
Cook
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Jones
Panesar (i hope this is the choice)
Anderson
Harmison
Hoggard

 

[aussie1st]

I agree Collingwood batting is quite decent especially if England collapse. We have had problems with him in the past in ODIs where he played basically went into test match mode. If he finds a partner then there could be a good partnership. Of course he then adds bowling and fielding to the side.

 

[genghis_khan]

Tresco leaving could well be a blessing in disguise for England imo...Strauss and Cook have looked very solid so far, and so often we see teams tour Australia with openers that are just cannon fodder to the Australian new-ball (ie Richardson, Sinclair - Farhat, Butt (04/05) Gayle, Smith - de Villiers, Smith (05/06). whereas Cook and Strauss look better than that.

 

[kodos]

Collingwood is England's version of Hussey but of course Hussey is a class above Collingwood but Collingwood can still do a damn decent job. Collingwood to me looks the most technically correct batsman and the batsman that can get England out of a sticky situation.

Disappointing to see the departure of Trescothick but his health is a primary concern. Cook and Strauss will surely be the openers now and I really want to see Shah or Joyce to be recalled up but I'd expect it to be Key.

 

[andrew_nixon]

Joyce has been called up to replace Trescothick.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/6149210.stm

 

[MUFC1987]

Joyce is a strange one in my opinion. Fletcher said he's been called up to cover a number of positions. Apart from for England in 2 or 3 games, when has he actually opened?

 

[sifter132]

Since my last post, just been looking at Flintoff's test figures starting with the SA series in 2003 to get a better idea of what his "real" averages might be - this is the series he really stood up with the bat averaging over 50 in a series for the first time with a century and 3 50's.

He has played 36 tests starting from that series for 2,484 runs at 40.07, and he's taken 153 wickets at 27.92. Those are good all rounder numbers, but not spectacular in any one area. Anyway, that probably backs up my idea a little more...England would ideally play Flintoff at 7, Read at 8, and Collingwood in the top 6 somewhere for bowling support. That would leave 3 spots for specialist bowlers, with Flintoff effectively a specialist bowler. Personally, Flintoff needs to bowl more overs and perhaps playing him at 7 would convince him of that. You only live once, and holding him back cause he could get injured if he bowls too much just seems a little...soft?

 

[CricketFan999]

Soft? Bowling is an extremely demand action. The chance of risk is high enough when fit, you want to bowl him alot he'll either have to not bowl full steam or risk injuring himself alot worse than he was before. Remember these are real people, not just names on a screen and in newspapers. If he gets overbowled and injuries himself badly it could the end of him as a bowler or even a cricketeer (thats the worst case possible obviously).

 

[genghis_khan]

Collingwood is England's version of Hussey but of course Hussey is a class above Collingwood but Collingwood can still do a damn decent job. Collingwood to me looks the most technically correct batsman and the batsman that can get England out of a sticky situation.

True, every good team needs a middle-order rock, Collingwood appears the man.

 

[Sureshot]

Since my last post, just been looking at Flintoff's test figures starting with the SA series in 2003 to get a better idea of what his "real" averages might be - this is the series he really stood up with the bat averaging over 50 in a series for the first time with a century and 3 50's.

He has played 36 tests starting from that series for 2,484 runs at 40.07, and he's taken 153 wickets at 27.92. Those are good all rounder numbers, but not spectacular in any one area. Anyway, that probably backs up my idea a little more...England would ideally play Flintoff at 7, Read at 8, and Collingwood in the top 6 somewhere for bowling support. That would leave 3 spots for specialist bowlers, with Flintoff effectively a specialist bowler. Personally, Flintoff needs to bowl more overs and perhaps playing him at 7 would convince him of that. You only live once, and holding him back cause he could get injured if he bowls too much just seems a little...soft?

Only 4 genuine bowlers? Nope. Almost defeats the point of playing a genuine all rounder.

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/24249.html

Joyce's stats. Pretty good record.

MUFC - I think Joyce opens with Ed Smith for Middlesex.

 

[Skater]

@Punk (from the Coverage thread): It's not anyone's fault the coverage starts at 11.00pm! That time here is 9.00am in Australia, which is almost the start of the day. You can't expect them to play floodlit test matches for the benefit of us!

 

[evertonfan]

And besides, it's motivation to get up earlier for school.

 

[puddleduck]

Nope Sureshot. Joyce normally bats at 4 for Middlesex. Last season Smith and Compton often opened the batting. Hutton can as well, but then he's not very good with the bat

 

[Deleted member 11215]

ill be getting up at 6 everyday to watch our asses get kicked

 

[Octavius]

I am very lucky, here in NZ the ashes coverage starts from 12pm til 8pm, unfortunately i work full time so i will only catch the last 3 hours on TV, but i am negotiating some afternoons off (i work in the health industry so time off is difficult).