England Team Discussion

[blockerdave]

The odious Giles Clarke gave us Stanford, Moores (twice), Downton and worst of all, the disgraceful ICC carve up. He is everything wrong with the ECB.

 

[Skater]

Support seems to be growing for Vaughan. I know in this instance it's only from Ryan Sidebottom, but still. There appears to be a lot of support for Vaughan, some for Alec Stewart and almost none for Strauss.

BBC Sport - Michael Vaughan the right man for ECB role - Ryan Sidebottom

 

[blockerdave]

almost none for Strauss...

Music to my ears. The only good thing about Strauss getting the job would be to get him out of the Sky commentary box... But he would be a disaster in that role. Awful.

 

[bigred]

I think people are being slightly unfair to Strauss. I know he had quite a rigid way of playing the game, and had a uniquely defensive mindset when it came to leading a team. But people must remember that the majority of his time as England captain was very successful. He also realises, from what I heard him saying during the WC, that the game has moved on even in the short time since he retired. He had some pretty radical ideas about how we could improve our one day side for example.

As for his commentary- I for one like the fact that he doesn't stick the knife into the current players like certain ex internationals I could name. Lots of them do it just for show and newspaper headlines. Or to get the most followers on twitter. Strauss gives a balanced view, and will often explain why things have gone wrong in a given match for England, rather than just stating the obvious and labelling it a disaster. We can all do that.

 

[blockerdave]

I think people are being slightly unfair to Strauss. I know he had quite a rigid way of playing the game, and had a uniquely defensive mindset when it came to leading a team. But people must remember that the majority of his time as England captain was very successful.

Strauss was hugely lucky to play against the worst Australian side of the last almost 30 years, and a disinterested India side, while avoiding the best team at that time, South Africa. We played merely 7 test matches against South Africa in Strauss' reign, winning just one and losing 3 - the actual series results being 1-1 away, 0-2 at home. He was a dour, defensive, poor captain.

He was and still is the bland, stats-obsessed, corporate yes man of the type blazers like, and exactly the opposite of what England needs.

He also realises, from what I heard him saying during the WC, that the game has moved on even in the short time since he retired. He had some pretty radical ideas about how we could improve our one day side for example.

As for his commentary- I for one like the fact that he doesn't stick the knife into the current players like certain ex internationals I could name. Lots of them do it just for show and newspaper headlines. Or to get the most followers on twitter. Strauss gives a balanced view, and will often explain why things have gone wrong in a given match for England, rather than just stating the obvious and labelling it a disaster. We can all do that.

I'll give you this, once or twice on the Verdict during the WC he did indeed get close to insightful - otherwise I have never heard him say anything interesting or enlightening in any way.

 

[bigred]

Strauss was hugely lucky to play against the worst Australian side of the last almost 30 years, and a disinterested India side, while avoiding the best team at that time, South Africa. We played merely 7 test matches against South Africa in Strauss' reign, winning just one and losing 3 - the actual series results being 1-1 away, 0-2 at home. He was a dour, defensive, poor captain.

There is no way he can be called a 'poor captain'. His tactics worked. He made it hard for teams to score boundaries, asking people like Bresnan to do a defensive job. He didn't have a fierce quick bowler who could blast teams out, so he worked out a method which he thought would make them hard to beat. He was proved right.

I'm not saying he was as good tactically as a McCullum or a Vaughan, but there are plenty of other things that make up a good captain. He was very popular and respected within the dressing room. He was very good with the media and interviewed well before and after games. He scored important runs with the bat in tough situations. He always stayed calm out on the field and never let anxiety or tension show in his body language. He was always very reflective when planning for a series, making sure that players were aware of the mistakes they had made before. He and Flower were very much into marginal gains, albeit with probably too much attention paid to stats.

 

[blockerdave]

There is no way he can be called a 'poor captain'. His tactics worked. He made it hard for teams to score boundaries, asking people like Bresnan to do a defensive job. He didn't have a fierce quick bowler who could blast teams out, so he worked out a method which he thought would make them hard to beat. He was proved right.

I'm not saying he was as good tactically as a McCullum or a Vaughan, but there are plenty of other things that make up a good captain. He was very popular and respected within the dressing room. He was very good with the media and interviewed well before and after games. He scored important runs with the bat in tough situations. He always stayed calm out on the field and never let anxiety or tension show in his body language. He was always very reflective when planning for a series, making sure that players were aware of the mistakes they had made before. He and Flower were very much into marginal gains, albeit with probably too much attention paid to stats.

Allowing the creation of a dressing room culture whereby screaming at each other on the field of play or passing info to outsiders to mock and alienate a teammate publically on social media is acceptable is poor captaincy in my book.

Relying on attrition to defeat poor teams is also pretty poor.

 

[War]

Andrew Miller: Can Tymal Mills fill England's bowling vaccum? | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

They be talking about the kid...

 

[abhi_jacko]

'I've been different since Ravindra Jadeja incident' - James Anderson | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Awwwww

 

[themusketeer]

'I've been different since Ravindra Jadeja incident' - James Anderson | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Awwwww

Nice excuse for not being effective now.

 

[themusketeer]

Graeme Smith - " If English cricket appoint Strauss as director of cricket , it would amaze me, they need to move away from the head boy old school approach! "

"most forward thinking people I came across in their game are @MichaelVaughan and @StewieCricket think that would be a good place to start..."

 

[dp458]

With Stokes finding form for England, come the english summer we could be playing 3 in Stokes,Ali and Woakes(debut was at 6, 8 FC tons and a higher First class average than stokes) at 6,8 and 9), with Rashid seemingly in the mix, do we think the selectors will do this, and how does ali fit back in for the windies series, he bowled yesterday for Worcs, Does this put Buttler under pressure from the better gloveman, if he might be batting at 8( ala FOster/Read)

 

[_Sam_]

Thing is there's not many good young keepers around at the moment in England who prioritise their keeping over their batting. Its coming to something when someone like Michael Bates, one of the best keepers I've personally seen (and not only from county cricket) is now struggling for a county contract whilst many years ago would be a very strong England contender.

 

[blockerdave]

Graeme Smith - " If English cricket appoint Strauss as director of cricket , it would amaze me, they need to move away from the head boy old school approach! "

Testify!!!

Strauss would be a disastrous appointment; completely undermine any claim of Graves/Harrison to be a new broom.

 

[bigred]

With Stokes finding form for England, come the english summer we could be playing 3 in Stokes,Ali and Woakes(debut was at 6, 8 FC tons and a higher First class average than stokes) at 6,8 and 9), with Rashid seemingly in the mix, do we think the selectors will do this, and how does ali fit back in for the windies series, he bowled yesterday for Worcs, Does this put Buttler under pressure from the better gloveman, if he might be batting at 8( ala FOster/Read)

With Ali coming back for the next Test, I think there are only two people that he can replace.

If they need two spinners, which I think they will in Grenada, then Ali comes in for Jordan. Nasser mentioned in commentary that they could do that and then bring in Rashid for Tredwell, as England won't mind having Rashid in the side as one of two spinners. At the moment, they can't trust him as the only spinner.

The other option is that Ali comes in for Tredwell and it's just a straight swap.

Either of those options would probably mean Ali batting at 7 and Buttler at 8. They won't replace Anderson or Broad for Ali. Stokes batted well enough to keep his place.

My guess is that the team for Grenada will be

Cook
Trott
Ballance
Bell
Root
Stokes
Ali
Buttler
Tredwell
Broad (should be close to the axe, but selectors deem him undroppable)
Anderson