New Zealand tour of England - May/June 2015

[bigred]

Don't quite believe in 'checking the data.'

Put him in a contest against a good batting side and he will not win you games, consistently. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, white ball cricket is over bits and pieces all rounders. It demands specialization in one field, with added dimensions.

Good batting sides? He was just playing at the World Cup. Few good batting sides there.

You're right, he won't win you many games with the ball but he gets through his ten overs more economically then most of the other bowlers. That's why I'd have him in as an opener, ahead of Roy so you could pick at potential match winning spinner like Rashid.

 

[Deleted member 149013]

The main concern and the worrying thing is England’s top six. There are about to play in the Ashes and the top 3 batsman are left handers plus Johnson with a new ball and Starc in the mix, I can see it been a recipe for disaster and prone to collapse.

Ballance doesn’t know where his off stump is and the issue of going on to the backfoot, I can’t see this been put right in a month.
Lyth he has done well but Australia will be a whole new challenge for him.

I would choose Buttler to open with Cook it’s a new role for him but I believe him to be more than capable of this and to play the Warner role at the top of the innings. Cook would anchor and Buttler would be the aggressor I think you need someone hitting boundaries early and to take the shine of the new ball. The evidence is there as the new ball is the best way to get wickets with the English pitch conditions.

Stokes impressed playing in the top six but will he be consistent in that role? Which also highlights the problem they have with Ali and his role in the team. Because I think Rashid has proven in one match he is the better spinner.
I would go with this line-up

Cook (c)
Buttler (wk)
Lyth
Root
Taylor
Ali
Stokes
Rashid
Wood
Broad
Anderson
Woakes 12th man

 

[bigred]

The main concern and the worrying thing is England’s top six. There are about to play in the Ashes and the top 3 batsman are left handers plus Johnson with a new ball and Starc in the mix, I can see it been a recipe for disaster and prone to collapse.

Ballance doesn’t know where his off stump is and the issue of going on to the backfoot, I can’t see this been put right in a month.
Lyth he has done well but Australia will be a whole new challenge for him.

I would choose Buttler to open with Cook it’s a new role for him but I believe him to be more than capable of this and to play the Warner role at the top of the innings. Cook would anchor and Buttler would be the aggressor I think you need someone hitting boundaries early and to take the shine of the new ball. The evidence is there as the new ball is the best way to get wickets with the English pitch conditions.

Stokes impressed playing in the top six but will he be consistent in that role? Which also highlights the problem they have with Ali and his role in the team. Because I think Rashid has proven in one match he is the better spinner.
I would go with this line-up

Cook (c)
Buttler (wk)
Lyth
Root
Taylor
Ali
Stokes
Rashid
Wood
Broad
Anderson
Woakes 12th man

There are three things wrong with this.

1. You are making Buttler open for the first time in first class cricket in an ashes test. He's also keeping wicket. There have been very few openers that have kept wicket and done both jobs well.

2. Lyth is an opener. He opens for Yorkshire in every match. Why should he bat at 3?

3. We don't need 6 bowlers and therefore you need to pick your strongest 6 batters in the country. It's madness if you believe that Ali is better than Bell, Hales, Ballance or Vince. I'm not saying that Ballance's best position is 3. It might be better in the long run that he bats 4 or 5. But he'll certainly score more runs than Ali.

 

[Deleted member 149013]

There are three things wrong with this.

1. You are making Buttler open for the first time in first class cricket in an ashes test. He's also keeping wicket. There have been very few openers that have kept wicket and done both jobs well.

2. Lyth is an opener. He opens for Yorkshire in every match. Why should he bat at 3?

3. We don't need 6 bowlers and therefore you need to pick your strongest 6 batters in the country. It's madness if you believe that Ali is better than Bell, Hales, Ballance or Vince. I'm not saying that Ballance's best position is 3. It might be better in the long run that he bats 4 or 5. But he'll certainly score more runs than Ali.

Hales is unproven at test format and I don’t think will be risked.

Vince I can’t see England handing him a debut in the ashes.

Bell and don’t get me wrong is not a bad player but unfortunately has passed his prime.

Ballance has a good England future ahead but right now is a liability and I can see him been an easy wicket even lower down the order.
Ali is better than number 8.

6 bowlers is great your talking 5 test matches plus think of the options you have to turn to when nothing is happening and the pitch is flat or you need to break a partnership. You have 2 fast bowlers, 2 Fast mediums and 2 Spinners plenty of variety.

I understand the concern with Buttler I know he hasn’t opened but that doesn’t matter I don’t think. It would be a Warner/Gilchrist role.

 

[Aislabie]

Wait, when did Grant Elliott become one of the best ODI batsmen in the world?

(And as I write that, he gets trapped LBW, but still - he's been quality for the last 18 months or so, but who would have predicted it beforehand?)

 

[PokerAce]

Hmm ... so the kiwis paidback in kind I guess.

 

[MUFC1987]

Wait, when did Grant Elliott become one of the best ODI batsmen in the world?

(And as I write that, he gets trapped LBW, but still - he's been quality for the last 18 months or so, but who would have predicted it beforehand?)

But surely now, with all the regulation changes and with scores going up, batsmen are going to be scoring more, because it's easier than it used to be. Therefore average players are looking a lot better now, than they did 10 or 15 years ago. That's the difference for me. Much in the same way that bowlers look a lot worse. It's just a much harder game for them.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

When did England pitches become absolute roads? Back to back 400 scores and they say sub continent pitches are road?

 

[Deleted member 149013]

When did England pitches become absolute roads? Back to back 400 scores and they say sub continent pitches are road?

It was meant to happen and wasn’t no accident, one pitch but it’s a majority. Conspiracy theories..

 

[Aislabie]

But surely now, with all the regulation changes and with scores going up, batsmen are going to be scoring more, because it's easier than it used to be. Therefore average players are looking a lot better now, than they did 10 or 15 years ago. That's the difference for me. Much in the same way that bowlers look a lot worse. It's just a much harder game for them.

This is true, but what impresses me more is how clever a cricketer he has become.

For instance, there was that time he completely psyched out Andy Ellis and made him look very daft indeed:

 

[IceAgeComing]

The only thing that I'd do for the test team for the first test is bring Taylor or someone similar in for Bell and consider Rashid for Moeen - it just confirms how stupid they were in the West Indies to not give him a test since we are judging the guy on his performances in the Championship last year and in ODI cricket... I personally would rather drop an older player who's not been in form for over a year rather than the younger guy who was playing very well a month ago (in totally different conditions, I admit) although if he failed again to good seam bowling it might open a spot for someone else. I'd personally slot Taylor in at 4 and leave Root at 5: there's no point messing with the position of a guy in great form, even if it is moving him up the order.

In terms of seamers, I'd go for Anderson/Broad/Wood/Stokes to start the Ashes (I was always very unsure of the latter after his shocker of a year last year but I've come round provided he's your fifth bowler) but have Plunkett and Jordan as backups just in case something happened - I'd still have them bowl in county cricket but perhaps request that they not be used as much as normal... The only reason I'd drop Stokes would be if we got a total dustbowl (which might be a possibility if we get weather like the last few days for the rest of summer) and you wanted to have two spinners because Ali's the guy that you'd bring in and I think that dropping the third seamer would weaken your bowling attack way too much.

When did England pitches become absolute roads? Back to back 400 scores and they say sub continent pitches are road?

You kinda want roads for ODIs and T20s; since it encourages big hitting and actually guarantees a full game which the grounds want. The first two tests this summer have been on good test pitches where the bowler has something on his side, and its in test cricket where people moan about roads since it pretty much guarantees that you get a draw with two half decent teams.

This is true, but what impresses me more is how clever a cricketer he has become.

For instance, there was that time he completely psyched out Andy Ellis and made him look very daft indeed:

I've seen this before and I saw it as the bowler being incredibly stupid rather than elliot and hodge doing anything spectacular

 

[shravi]

You kinda want roads for ODIs and T20s; since it encourages big hitting and actually guarantees a full game which the grounds want. The first two tests this summer have been on good test pitches where the bowler has something on his side, and its in test cricket where people moan about roads since it pretty much guarantees that you get a draw with two half decent teams.

but the higher the first innings score, the harder it is to chase. roads virtually guarantee that the team batting first will win anywhere but the subcontinent (dew). i understand fans want to see more runs scored, and big hits, but there are going to be far fewer close games.

 

[IceAgeComing]

I dunno, based on the first ten overs of this game this one could be interesting, provided that England don't have their traditionally funny collapse

 

[shravi]

on average, though. just look at the world cup. there are obviously exceptions.

 

[IceAgeComing]

lol I bet someone somewhere is going to describe that four off the splice of the bat by Hales as some perfect ODI experimentation