England in Sri Lanka March-April 2011/12

[Sureshot]

Another MASSIVE setback for England in an already disastrous tour - England in Sri Lanka 2012: Broad out of Sri Lanka tour | Cricket News | Global | ESPN Cricinfo

Finn should come in. It's high time to blood youngsters like Hales, Stokes and James Taylor in the squad now, make them used to the SC conditions.

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Also, Bresnan should come in for Monty. Compensates for Broad's loss with the bat too and at least he will field and bowl better than him.

Despite Monty having an ineffective game here, he was brilliant in the UAE and you need two spinners out there.

Stokes is a long way off Test cricket.

 

[Themer]

Monty does a job decently. He probably isn't going to improve much from where he is at the moment but he is easily the second best spinner in England and capable of doing that job ok at Test level.

 

[Dipak]

Stokes is a long way off Test cricket.

He was brilliant for Durham though.

 

[fk915]

Who's Brad? We already knew Broad would probably miss the second test.

Now he is back home, Daddy will tuck little Broad in the bed and read a story ...

 

[swacker]

Finn should come in.

Finn's a strike bowler though, he'll take wickets, especially the lower order and the tail which is something we struggled with in the last test. Poor batting and not being able to knock over the tail cheaply is what cost us in the first test.

 

[Anjula]

Mathews In and Broad Out

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

dunno if mathews will play, unless they are going to drop an opener and re-shuffle the line up. despite chandimal getting out a bit cheaply he looked in pretty good form and he only needs to reign in the attacking a bit and he should make a big score. samaraweera also looked alright and was only done in by a bit of really bad luck in the 1st innings when he was set.

Dilshan hasn't been very good for a while but I don't see him being dropped yet so it's probably thirimane that's most at threat.

it's also been anounced he's cutting down on bowling so playing him as a bowler at 7 isn't going to be possible as he couldn't bowl a decent share of the overs.

 

[barmyarmy]

As I said in my article it's going to be a flat 600+ deck so we'll need 5 bowlers.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I don't think it's going to be that flat, it's not at the sinhalese sports club which is the really bad one, it's the P Sara Oval, they don't play there that much but there hasn't been a draw there since 2003.

the highest innings total there ever 541, against bangladesh as well, so 600 can definitely not be assumed. it's an easy mistake to make because there's 3 test grounds in colombo.

 

[barmyarmy]

Thanks for that. I had assumed it was the road. Well that's better news from the POV of getting a result.

 

[Mike23]

Thanks for that. I had assumed it was the road. Well that's better news from the POV of getting a result.

Im sorry to burst that bubble, i doubt we could get in 90 overfs per day due to the weather.

Daily Weather Forecast for Colombo, Sri Lanka - weather.com

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

actually having a gander at the past matches there a really good thing for england is that it's a pitch the team batting first has lost more often than not.

maybe not the best place to win the toss though, I wouldn't pick fielding in sri lanka.

 

[Owzat]

As I said in my article it's going to be a flat 600+ deck so we'll need 5 bowlers.

I disagree with theories that flat decks require more bowlers. If the pitch is doing nothing then all you are doing is weakening your batting on the offchance your fifth best bowler might do something your four best bowlers can't.

Chances of forcing a win simply by playing the extra bowler are still extremely slim, the only difficulty would be choosing whether to play one spinner or two in a four man attack and frankly I would go for two spinners IF the pitch is flat because they'll be doing a lot of bowling and if it is humid then bowling pace will be a thankless task.

The only real gain you might hope for is to bowl them out for 450 instead of 550, if we're going to bowl them out for say 300 or less than I doubt it would take five bowlers. The inclusion of five bowlers is pointless either way, if the pitch is bowler friendly then it is a waste of time playing a fifth bowler, if it is flat then it's simply sharing the bowling hundreds around and maybe avoiding one or two. With at least one spinner in the side bowler fatigue should never be an issue.

Really is a shame England haven't had a good part-time bowler for a while, a Collingwood or Hick would be fantastic for the team balance as they were both very capable. Problem with both is they only tended to get a bowl when the pitch wasn't doing a lot, an over or three here and there with little prospect of a wicket.

I guess if it is flat then Patel will quite possibly get a second chance, and maybe flatter to deceive.

 

[barmyarmy]

I think it's a basic flat decks equals longer in the field equation. Bowling 120+ overs in that heat would be a nightmare for 4 bowlers.
Anyhow as StinkyBoHoon said it's at the P Sara Oval not the sinhalese sports club.

 

[angryangy]

The thing is that you can't strategise yourself into a great performance. If the wicket is flat, big individual scores are crucial. You can't just pick an extra batsman and bank on everyone getting 50.