England's tour of India - 2021

[Khan Sahab54]

Sad to see Axar Patel missing his well deserved five wicket haul.

 

[Aislabie]

Bet the batting coaches at Loughborough are feeling very proud of themselves.

Also this could end the statistical quirk of Stokes being the seamer with most Test wickets without ever taking the new ball

Post automatically merged: Mar 4, 2021

JIMMY

 

[Aislabie]

There's something very 90s England about Ben Stokes as an opening bowler

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

There's something very 90s England about Ben Stokes as an opening bowler

Botham?

 

[Ashutosh.]

Sad to see Axar Patel missing his well deserved five wicket haul.

Sad to see Axar Patel missing the next six test matches (WTC final and five matches on England tour).

 

[Ashutosh.]

JIMMY

I don't know whether his name is James Anderson or Jimmy Anderson.

 

[Aislabie]

Jimmy Anderson, 5-5-0-1.

 

[Aislabie]

Horrendous start from Bess - floaty no-ball, and half-tracker

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Ebony RB saying 'Bumrah had to leave due to personal reasons,' during a pandemic, sounds far more serious than the reality that he's gone off to plan his wedding.

 

[Bevab]

The test team?

There is a T20I series that follows the tests and given that the T20 World Cup is in India this year, it may prove to be rather important.

I do like this hypothetical team that England can put out.

Buttler
Hales
Malan
Bairstow
Stokes
Morgan
Mo/Curran
Archer
Jordan
Rashid
Wood

Root is the big question mark. I still think he could do the job that his brother Billy does in the T20 Blast as a floating anchor, especially since he is also very handy as a finger spinner. This is assuming that Mo continues his poor form for England.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

There is a T20I series that follows the tests and given that the T20 World Cup is in India this year, it may prove to be rather important.

I do like this hypothetical team that England can put out.

Buttler
Hales
Malan
Bairstow
Stokes
Morgan
Mo/Curran
Archer
Jordan
Rashid
Wood

Root is the big question mark. I still think he could do the job that his brother Billy does in the T20 Blast as a floating anchor, especially since he is also very handy as a finger spinner. This is assuming that Mo continues his poor form for England.

Only India has a better T20 record than England, since Hales last played. And England have probably played their first XI three times. 11 wins + 1 super over win and 5 losses. 3 wins out of 3 with the first XI.

If Jason Roy gets dropped there's about five or six options that don't involve Hales (Bairstow/Malan/Banton/Salt/Vince/Stokes opening, Root/Billings/Livingstone into the middle order). Are they better options than Hales? Maybe not, but if Morgan and/or Smith don't want Alex Hales in the side it's irrelevant, but there is no shortage of options.

At the same time, if they need to bring someone in they know exactly what they're going to get from Hales. There's T20s in the summer and then two in Pakistan before the World Cup. A home series, where bubbles might no longer be necessary, could be easier reintroduction than at the end of a long spell away from home in a bubble.

Incidentally, Roy's last six matches for England, they won five. The one loss, he got the highest score in the match (70 from 38). The last four he had poor scores. Some captains might, but Morgan isn't dropping someone for four below par performances (see Moeen).

I seem to remember a similar panic about Roy's form before the World Cup and he ended up being one of the stand outs, so much so they had the ridiculous idea to put him in the test team.

 

[Khan Sahab54]

I feel sorry for Alex Hales

 

[Khan Sahab54]

and then two in Pakistan before the World Cup.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

I feel sorry for Alex Hales

 

[Bevab]

Only India has a better T20 record than England, since Hales last played. And England have probably played their first XI three times. 11 wins + 1 super over win and 5 losses. 3 wins out of 3 with the first XI.

If Jason Roy gets dropped there's about five or six options that don't involve Hales (Bairstow/Malan/Banton/Salt/Vince/Stokes opening, Root/Billings/Livingstone into the middle order). Are they better options than Hales? Maybe not, but if Morgan and/or Smith don't want Alex Hales in the side it's irrelevant, but there is no shortage of options.

At the same time, if they need to bring someone in they know exactly what they're going to get from Hales. There's T20s in the summer and then two in Pakistan before the World Cup. A home series, where bubbles might no longer be necessary, could be easier reintroduction than at the end of a long spell away from home in a bubble.

Incidentally, Roy's last six matches for England, they won five. The one loss, he got the highest score in the match (70 from 38). The last four he had poor scores. Some captains might, but Morgan isn't dropping someone for four below par performances (see Moeen).

I seem to remember a similar panic about Roy's form before the World Cup and he ended up being one of the stand outs, so much so they had the ridiculous idea to put him in the test team.

I don't want Hales in the side because Roy seems to be in poor touch, I want him in there because I believe him to be the better T20 batsman (Roy is the better batsman in ODIs). I would have argued for the same even a couple of years ago and with how well Hales has improved in recent times it really is a no brainer.

I do agree that the one reason that should keep a player of his quality out is the actual reason in this instance (and Morgan deserves to select the XI he feels will work best). But as the article points out, Hales is very close to being an indispensable player that you simply cannot leave out especially if he has cleaned up his act.