England tour to South Africa December 2015/February 2016

[IceAgeComing]

this rabada guy is pretty good

If Woakes could only bat as well as say Finn, he wouldn't get a look in.

I agree with this; and that's why I think that they should look at someone else. The way I think of it is that you need to pick your four main bowlers based exclusively on their bowling: if they are good with the bat then great! From what I've seen of Woakes; he looks like someone that might take a few wickets in England but someone that'll certainly struggle when he isn't on a green pitch - sure he's good with the bat but he's batting at nine, you shouldn't need to rely on your number nine to regularly score runs! Sure a bowler needs some time to get into the swing of things; but I doubt that you'd find any top class international bowlers that only averaged 55 after their first five tests

 

[stefan]

Excellent from young radaba. Morkel is in trouble if steyn and philander gets fit.

Brilliant from the young man, pretty dire shot from taylor but the balls to get root and bairstow were great.

Also have to appreciate the role abbot has done. Not had any wickets but the pressure he has build by going for under 2 has been immense.

 

[PokerAce]

Rabada has really impressed. Shame he didn't have Steyn and Philander here to support him. Steyn, Philander, Rabada, Morkel now there's a pace attack !

 

[bigred]

If I were Bayliss, I would've instructed Ali and Stokes to be really positive after lunch. If we poke around we're going to lose. We could lose trying to snack it, but if England get another 175/200 pretty quickly then we could still win.

 

[cricket_icon]

I've been so impressed by Rabada this series, what with Steyn's injury, Morkel's inability to pick up the slack (as usual), sub par fielding, an up and down batting order...the one constant has been a 20 year old kid. Brilliant!

 

[bigred]

I've been so impressed by Rabada this series, what with Steyn's injury, Morkel's inability to pick up the slack (as usual), sub par fielding, an up and down batting order...the one constant has been a 20 year old kid. Brilliant!

Yeah. I think you just compare Rabada to Woakes, and it's embarrassing. Have the same experience in international cricket but one looks like he could end up as a world class seamer. The other...... well, I think we all know.

 

[cricket_icon]

Yeah. I think you just compare Rabada to Woakes, and it's embarrassing. Have the same experience in international cricket but one looks like he could end up as a world class seamer. The other...... well, I think we all know.

I don't even know what Woakes is doing here, I would have preferred Plunkett.

 

[stefan]

a Bit unfair to compare radaba and woakes tbh. KG was already a star at under 19 levels don't recall woakes ever being talk about as a world beater or potential world beater.

 

[bigred]

a Bit unfair to compare radaba and woakes tbh. KG was already a star at under 19 levels don't recall woakes ever being talk about as a world beater or potential world beater.

Yeah, unfair on Rabada. He's played a fraction of the cricket Woakes has. Woakes has had 'potential' and been in an around the England team for about 3 years now.

 

[cricket_icon]

I will however say, I'm not impressed at all with the SA batters in this series, woeful at times and I don't care who scores a century in a dead rubber, when the pressures off and the opponents intensity is low, any batsman can score runs. SA are going to have to look long and hard for good batsmen and give AB and Amla a telling off for letting their side down as seniors, yo-yoing the captaincy as if it didn't matter.

 

[stefan]

I will however say, I'm not impressed at all with the SA batters in this series, woeful at times and I don't care who scores a century in a dead rubber, when the pressures off and the opponents intensity is low, any batsman can score runs. SA are going to have to look long and hard for good batsmen and give AB and Amla a telling off for letting their side down as seniors, yo-yoing the captaincy as if it didn't matter.

The batting has been disappointing but till this much they didn't pick the right batting lineup and even in this one they got the number 5 wrong imho.

I have been really disappointed in ab's performances and his press conference attitude hasn't helped.

 

[bigred]

There's a vacancy to open the bowling for my club's 2nd Xl if Chris Woakes wants it.

 

[PokerAce]

Lol, reviewing Amla for Caught Behind is a waste. He walks when he edges it. I have great respect for him from the tour SA had in India. There was a point when India fielders would not even appeal to the Umpire. More like like to Amla, did you edge it? If Amla didn't move everyone went back to their fielding positions instantly.

I don't know why England would review a walker? Now thats something out of a Zombie movie

 

[bigred]

Even though I agree players need a run, I reckon Bayliss may have seen enough of Hales. I think he probably wants somebody I've a Compton in the top three, so will stick with him against Sri Lanka.

I think Taylor could still fail here and they'll give him another series.


It's quite weird that England have been pretty strong for a while without a number 2, 3 or 5 contributing. You could argue number 8 also, but I think Ali is doing a decent job. I think Ian Bell might be licking his lips. 2 or 3 early season hundreds and he's right back in there. I wouldn't be surprised if he does well. Being dropped often makes you more hungry. It worked for players like Strauss, Butcher and Prior.

 

[PokerAce]

Compton shows how to waste a review ... why would he review that.