England in Sri Lanka
- Thread starter Skater
- Start date
That's a completely fair comparison with no bias whatsoever.
At least we showed some fight today.
We need hundreds!
aussie_ben91
School Cricketer
What a pathetic post. Didn't you see how he batted in Australia? His one of the best batsman in the world & he averages over 50 in Test Cricket and you're suggesting DROPPING him? His also got 10 hundreds to go with 10 fifties which shows he doesn't just throw everything away.
He was incredibly unlucky in this series I reckon. Didn't get out to one false stroke in the entire series. His dismissals were due to either bad umpiring or demons in the pitch.
Why would you drop your best batsman in the side? If anything, that'll make things MUCH MUCH worse.
lancashire666
International Coach
looks like it will finish a draw, hope cook can go on and get a hundred so he can take some confidence with him to new zealand, england should of played swann insted of bopara, ravi is a really good prospect but england simple couldnt take 20 wickets here, and if you cant do that then you wont win anything. and dont forget swann can bat a bit as well, so if england played him, and played broad insted of harmison they could of gotten a little more out of the tail in hte series as broad looks like he will become a really good tailender, with 5 bowlers you need to have 3 who can bat a bit and we would of had that with swann, broad and sidebottom showing he can stick about a bit.
looking at the new zealand tour, england HAVE to win it, they wont be able to complain about not being used to the conditions there so its time for a few people to step and and show they are better than they have shown so far
looking at the new zealand tour, england HAVE to win it, they wont be able to complain about not being used to the conditions there so its time for a few people to step and and show they are better than they have shown so far
Jaztheman
Chairman of Selectors
Well before this innings Chaminda Vaas had decent inning stats, 4-28 off 9.5 overs and a 90 score. Hopefully we can salvage a draw on the last day but it could be a little hard, we could do we some high scores to give us some more confidence, nonetheless his ninth test 50. 
Come on England!
Come on England!
King Pietersen
ICC Board Member
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2006
- Location
- Manchester
One bad innings and suddenly England are the most over-rated team in the world, and a crap team. Typical English mentality, getting all the praise in the world when winning against West Indies, and winning the odi series' against India and Sri Lanka, but as soon as we have an off patch the typical English mentality comes out. The majority of English people have no faith in the ability of the players, which cant exactly give them much confidence. We're still a great team, and thanks to a crap ashes and 2 average series we've dropped to 5th in the world. We still have world class players in Pietersen, Bell, Vaughan, Cook, Collingwood, Hoggard, Harmison, Panesar and Anderson. We may not be the team we were in 2005, but thats hardly unexpected considering the injury problems, the changes in the team every test.
I feel that the bowlers picked for the last 2 tests havent helped, James Anderson was my player of the summer for England, bowled magnificently against India, had the top players really worrying, and his 5for was magical. To drop him after one dissapointing test, and go for an uncapped Broad and an out of touch Harmison was asking for trouble. I also feel that Ryan Sidebottom is massively over-rated, he may give his all but he blatently isnt good enough. He bowls the odd good ball, but more often than not bowls it jus a little too short and often bowls too straight, especially to lefties. Harmison, Hoggard, Anderson and Panesar is the best bowling attack we have atm, and once we get Freddie and Simon Jones back we'll have an even stronger bowling attack, with depth.
We WILL win in New Zealand, they're a dissapointing team, and i dont think have anything on us. It amazes me how people suddenly believe that England are completely hopeless, because of one dissapointing innings. We're not a bad side at all, and will be challenging for the top test spot once again by the time the 2009 Ashes comes around. Just have some belief, and get behind the lads for once.
I feel that the bowlers picked for the last 2 tests havent helped, James Anderson was my player of the summer for England, bowled magnificently against India, had the top players really worrying, and his 5for was magical. To drop him after one dissapointing test, and go for an uncapped Broad and an out of touch Harmison was asking for trouble. I also feel that Ryan Sidebottom is massively over-rated, he may give his all but he blatently isnt good enough. He bowls the odd good ball, but more often than not bowls it jus a little too short and often bowls too straight, especially to lefties. Harmison, Hoggard, Anderson and Panesar is the best bowling attack we have atm, and once we get Freddie and Simon Jones back we'll have an even stronger bowling attack, with depth.
We WILL win in New Zealand, they're a dissapointing team, and i dont think have anything on us. It amazes me how people suddenly believe that England are completely hopeless, because of one dissapointing innings. We're not a bad side at all, and will be challenging for the top test spot once again by the time the 2009 Ashes comes around. Just have some belief, and get behind the lads for once.
Leicester Fox
Chairman of Selectors
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2006
- Online Cricket Games Owned
You need to accept we're crap, you can call all our players world class but the fact is every other side in top 4 or 5 in the world can match/better them. No-one was going mental after the wins against the Windies, we all knew they were crap which is why suddenly everybody started going whats happened to Windian (is that a word?) cricket. There was no way Anderson deserved to be in for the second test, he was shocking in the 1st. We will never get Fred and Simon Jones back. I'd love to be wrong but I'm not going to be, they'll play the occasional game but their just walking injurys. Saying we will win is the attitude that costs us, with Bond they can beat anyone and it's going to be tough, any tour is. I tell you what when you'e got up at 4am for every day of this series and you stayed uo to watch nearly every day of the ashes and CBS then you can talk about getting behind the team.
lancashire666
International Coach
i dont think people are going off just 1 bad innings, including this sri lanka series we have lost 3 of our last 4 test series! that is not good form, i think we will beat New zealand and then everone will start saying that all is great, but considering the quality of players availble england are performing terrible at the moment, yea we have injures and seriously miss players like treso and flintoff but england havnt had just 1 band innings, they have had a bad 12 months and i think we need some changes, dropping strauss was a big change for the team but vaughan hasnt seemd to comfortable opening, id bring strauss back for new zealand and put vaughan back at 3 where he is world class with KP at 4 and bell at 5, bowling wise, i would rather have anderson or broad playing than harmison, he had done very well in the past for england but has been avaraging around 40 since the ashes 2005 and his place should be given to a younger player, id deffo play hoggy and monty which would leave sidebottom, anderson and broad playing for 2 slots
RoboRocks
Chairman of Selectors
We are not crap. We've just had a bad series which can happen to anyone. I'm we'll recover from this since New Zealand are struggling at the minute so there is no need to panic as an England supporter.
Stephen Bailey
Executive member
There is a reason we only drew with Sri Lanka at home, there is a reason we lost to India at home, there is a reason why we lost 5-0 to Australia, there is a reason we've lost this series and let's be honest, we hardly smashed the West Indies as well as we should've. We currently aren't good enough, quite simple.
I have absolutely no doubts at all that the 2004/5 side would've lost just one of those series and made sure they gave the West Indies a damn good seeing to.
On the series we would've lost it would've been the Ashes, the Australia batting line up was just too good. I reckon the series against India would've been an absolute belter. The Indian bowlers really impressed me with their skill in the bowler friendly conditions we had until the last test at The Oval.
Joe has pretty much covered the rest.
aussie_ben91
School Cricketer
I wonder if James Anderson's ever gonna play Test Cricket again. There is almost no way his average of 39 with the ball is ever going to improve to the standard it needs to be.
rickyp
International Coach
That's coz hes not English
Anyway, having watched the whole test, as well as the previous ones, I can see that while England were garbage, they were also playing well below their own standard. They just don't have the mental strength teams like Australia have, when they start losing, they REALLY start losing, just giving up seems a trend in a lot of their players, unlike the 05 ashes aggression.
They cant make excuses for this performance, but S.Jones is imo in the top 5 best bowlers in the world, and without him you will always struggle. Shame he doesn't look like coming back.....ever.
Looks like Donald's vision of having Jimmy lead the attack won't come true.
