England Tour of West Indies - 2019

[LiveLoveABD]

None of Kohli, Williamson or Smith bat at 3 so why should Root?

Ali in the top 6? Behave.

Typical foolish post. Last time I checked, Williamson has been batting 3 for donkey's years. As for Kohli and Smith? Kohli has Pujara to make life easier and I say this with arrogance. A lot of Tendulkar's runs were made because of the donkey work done by Dravid. He is a countryman, but a lot of those runs are down to the work done by Pujara. Khawaja has saved a test in the sub continent and proven to be a valuable first down. When you look around the English dressing room, you will find a lot of all rounders but rarely a bloke who will wear his scars or take the bowling on. Root has the capacity to do both. Instead of being negative and just batting to a number, he can set the tone in tests. The worst part is, the bloke has the ability to do so.

 

[Bevab]

Chris Gayle has been on fire today. Amazing performance from a player who's nearly 40, and still hits the ball nearly 20 metres further away than most other players.

 

[aditya123]

WI could still be the dark-horses for the WC. They seem fearless and after a really long time seem like they are out there to win. If the bowling can manage to field an attack that has Gabriel, Thomas and Roach in addition to folks like Holder, Braithwaite and Bishoo/Nurse, WI have a side for the WC. If the batting bats can bat sensibly, they probably have as much or more firepower than India and even England in their top to middle order. Hetmyer, Hope, Lewis and the new guy Campbell all seem good enough. Holder, Pooran, Braithwate can slog it out as well. Nurse is a big hitter. WI are better than most people think. I`m not even talking of people like Russel, Samuels etc.

Also, this shows the vulnerabilities of the English bowling on good tracks.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

WI could still be the dark-horses for the WC. They seem fearless and after a really long time seem like they are out there to win. If the bowling can manage to field an attack that has Gabriel, Thomas and Roach in addition to folks like Holder, Braithwaite and Bishoo/Nurse, WI have a side for the WC. If the batting bats can bat sensibly, they probably have as much or more firepower than India and even England in their top to middle order. Hetmyer, Hope, Lewis and the new guy Campbell all seem good enough. Holder, Pooran, Braithwate can slog it out as well. Nurse is a big hitter. WI are better than most people think. I`m not even talking of people like Russel, Samuels etc.

Also, this shows the vulnerabilities of the English bowling on good tracks.

Sri Lanka are no different. They do have the ability to crush the big teams like South Africa or Australia or England or even their Asian counterpart India with ease. They scored 350+ against South Africa and England at home and comprehensively beat them in those matches. Even in NZ, even after the result being a whitewash but they played so well and looked to snatch the game away from New Zealand in all 3 matches they played. They came to India and bowled them out for 112 and won the match by 8 wickets within 20 overs !!! Not very sure about Australia though as they haven't played the Aussies in the One-day for a long time with last match being played back in 2016. But the fact is they look to be a very good One-day side

 

[Velocity]

WI could still be the dark-horses for the WC. They seem fearless and after a really long time seem like they are out there to win. If the bowling can manage to field an attack that has Gabriel, Thomas and Roach in addition to folks like Holder, Braithwaite and Bishoo/Nurse, WI have a side for the WC. If the batting bats can bat sensibly, they probably have as much or more firepower than India and even England in their top to middle order. Hetmyer, Hope, Lewis and the new guy Campbell all seem good enough. Holder, Pooran, Braithwate can slog it out as well. Nurse is a big hitter. WI are better than most people think. I`m not even talking of people like Russel, Samuels etc.

Also, this shows the vulnerabilities of the English bowling on good tracks.

Could as well be every team in this World Cup, it's no different. Even teams like Sri Lanka and Afghanistan host talented batsmen and bowlers who can shine and appear as dark horses for the WC. But what separates WI, SL and AFG from the other teams? They are all so inconsistent in their performances that your statement almost seems far fetched. This WC has so many teams that are just like the Windies and have the players to bat and bowl well. There really remains the question if the Windies can carry this sort of batting form into the WC and really be considered a dark horse. The real favorites in this World Cup are India and England, with NZ and Pak as the dark horses, as they are consistent in their performances. WI in my opinion, cannot be considered a contender just yet after one game.

I agree with your assessment of England's bowling. They have loads of allrounders in their arsenal but they lack that X-factor somewhere in their bowling. Jofra Archer might fill that void up soon, but England lacks a fast bowler of good substance besides Plunkett.

 

[Bevab]

Could as well be every team in this World Cup, it's no different. Even teams like Sri Lanka and Afghanistan host talented batsmen and bowlers who can shine and appear as dark horses for the WC. But what separates WI, SL and AFG from the other teams? They are all so inconsistent in their performances that your statement almost seems far fetched. This WC has so many teams that are just like the Windies and have the players to bat and bowl well. There really remains the question if the Windies can carry this sort of batting form into the WC and really be considered a dark horse. The real favorites in this World Cup are India and England, with NZ and Pak as the dark horses, as they are consistent in their performances. WI in my opinion, cannot be considered a contender just yet after one game.

I agree with your assessment of England's bowling. They have loads of allrounders in their arsenal but they lack that X-factor somewhere in their bowling. Jofra Archer might fill that void up soon, but England lacks a fast bowler of good substance besides Plunkett.

Plunkett was really poor in the previous game, could barely hit 130s towards the end. Woakes is probably their best pace bowler at the moment. England's strength has never been their bowling, even if they concede 400, their batsman will chase down 401 with ease which is all that matters on the dead pitches of England. Archer might be the missing piece of the puzzle, but surely it is too late to try and induct him into the team now? Especially when England have a pretty much set bowling plan for most of the games? Would like to see Tom Curran given more chances in the playing XI, he's generally been impressive whenever he's bowled and can also bowl at the death.

Sri Lanka and West Indies are dark horses largely because their batting line-ups and approach to ODIs are modern. They've both got players who can easily take your team to 300+ scores, the only issue as pointed out is their sheer inconsistency. Neither of them have a batsman like Kohli or Root, the steady accumulator who can also play at a high strike rate (although it looks like Hope might fill that void for the Windies) and lack a decent bowling attack in addition. In contrast, I doubt that Afghanistan has players who are capable of being highly aggressive throughout the innings with the exceptions of Shahzad and Nabi, and Bangladesh's lack of a middle order batsman who can reliably be aggressive and finish games is well documented. New Zealand and the current Champions Trophy holders are in no way dark horses, I would have them amongst the favourites.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

I feel for the Windies that they lost the last match but the bowling performance was really disappointing from them. If the bowlers were a bit better they could've made a huge difference in the match. And the English batsman stood once again. I don't know what special magic they have in their batting that 4 out of 10 times there is a 350+ score by them. That's a massive number and doing that with this ease shows the amount of big hitting talent they have. They are really fortunate to have their entire batting line-up in form just before the World Cup. And just look at the Windies batting line-up stepping up and have Gayle is this sort of form is something really magnificent. This team still has the fire-power to actually win the World Cup. But both teams needs to do something about their bowling big time !!!!!

 

[zimrahil]

I feel for the Windies that they lost the last match but the bowling performance was really disappointing from them. If the bowlers were a bit better they could've made a huge difference in the match. And the English batsman stood once again. I don't know what special magic they have in their batting that 4 out of 10 times there is a 350+ score by them. That's a massive number and doing that with this ease shows the amount of big hitting talent they have. They are really fortunate to have their entire batting line-up in form just before the World Cup. And just look at the Windies batting line-up stepping up and have Gayle is this sort of form is something really magnificent. This team still has the fire-power to actually win the World Cup. But both teams needs to do something about their bowling big time !!!!!

I think you are understating the ease of the batting pitch?

 

[Deleted member 193590]

I think you are understating the ease of the batting pitch?

I would agree zim ,if it wasn't for mark wood bowling so well.so there must of been something in the wicket for the bowlers?
I think england and the windies both lack a bit in the bowling department,but that's what makes them so exciting to watch.
I also think india are struggling with there bowling watching them against the aussies.
But apart from Trent bridge I think the bowlers will have a better chance in england.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

I think you are understating the ease of the batting pitch?

The thing is after conceding 400 you cannot say that you bowled good enough but the pitch was batting friendly. If it is 330-350 it is understandable but 400 is something that just having a good pitch doesn't make much of sense.

I would agree zim ,if it wasn't for mark wood bowling so well.so there must of been something in the wicket for the bowlers?
I think england and the windies both lack a bit in the bowling department,but that's what makes them so exciting to watch.
I also think india are struggling with there bowling watching them against the aussies.
But apart from Trent bridge I think the bowlers will have a better chance in england.

You are forgetting a fact the 2 out of India's 5 best bowlers were not playing this series and the fact is bowling in T20Is is something different which requires more variations but in one-day you don't need to have much of variations as batsman themselves are taking time to settle which is not the case in T20Is. It is India's batting that is letting them down at the moment. The bowlers are still bowling well

 

[aditya123]

Are the WI back or what! If they can keep this up over the next 4 months, we have a spicy World Cup on the cards.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Are the WI back or what! If they can keep this up over the next 4 months, we have a spicy World Cup on the cards.

They've been threatening and building a team for a couple of years now. Something has definitely sparked inside Chris Gayle as well. Anyone can win the world cup on a given day, but India's quality is streets ahead of any other cricketing nation in the world.

 

[abhi_jacko]

Great to see WI performing so well. Hope they can continue this into the world cup. And Gayle seems to be raking up some serious batting-form here

But he is becoming more and more obnoxious in his off field comments with each day passing. Getting very annoying and hard to like. Especially when he is part of a team which is very likable for neutral fans. His universe boss, self praising schtick is cringe worthy

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Great to see WI performing so well. Hope they can continue this into the world cup. And Gayle seems to be raking up some serious batting-form here

But he is becoming more and more obnoxious in his off field comments with each day passing. Getting very annoying and hard to like. Especially when he is part of a team which is very likable for neutral fans. His universe boss, self praising schtick is cringe worthy

I don't think there is anything wrong in that. It suggests that he is a sort of very light-hearted and of humourous nature. You need such people around in a team environment

 

[Dutch]

39 for 9.....what the....