Sri Lanka in England 2011

[offdriven4]

Very puzzled how Dernbach has managed to leapfrog Shazad & Onions. England selectors rate Dernbach oddly high of late.

where is bresnan in all this????

 

[Haarithan]

where is bresnan in all this????

Ruled out for the entire test series.

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BBC Sport - Batsman Jonathan Trott named ECB cricketer of the year

No real surprises there , thoroughly deserved it .

 

[lewissaffin]

Unless Chris Woakes has an injury which would rule him out, he could be a good replacement for Anderson. He has taken 24 wickets this season at 18.54 a piece and has scored 262 runs with a best of 129. He missed the Lions game through injury but I'm not sure if he is fit now.

 

[Owzat]

SL have never won a test match in India too.

Vaughan never beat India, Sri Lanka or Pakistan as England captain yet some talk about him in the same breath as great captains.

It is time some fans realise that scoring 5000 runs against ZIM and BANG don't make them a great team.

While it may spark off a certain poster I would like to show you some stats that your ZIM and BANG comment brought immediately to mind.

vs ZIM/BAN : 176 wkts @ 15.10 (SR 42.23, ER 2.14)
vs WIN/NZE : 164 wkts @ 20.58 (SR 50.34, ER 2.45)
vs PAK/AUS/IND/ENG/SAF : 460 wkts @ 26.41 (SR 61.63, ER 2.57)

In SRI/BAN/PAK/IND : 612 wkts @ 21.69 (SR 53.21, ER 2.45)
In AUS : 12 wkts @ 75.42 (SR 131.00, ER 3.45)
In ZIM : 26 wkts @ 27.54 (SR 77.65, ER 2.13)

Very good figures generally, but certainly a heavy weight of wickets against the two opponents you mentioned (22%) and 76.5% in what some might consider countries that would help spin.

But perhaps most interesting of all, regardless of economy, another spin bowler took more wickets against better opponents :

Spinner one vs PAK/AUS/IND/ENG/SAF : 460 wkts @ 26.41 (SR 61.63, ER 2.57)
Spinner two vs PAK/SRI/IND/ENG/SAF/ICC : 523 wkts @ 25.05 (SR 57.39, ER 2.62)

Take out their respective home countries from each other's figures and you get :

Spinner one (vs P/I/E/S) : 401 wkts @ 24.99 (SR 60.44, ER 2.48)
Spinner two (vs P/I/E/S/ICC) : 464 wkts @ 24.98 (SR 57.86, ER 2.59)

What you have to remember is spinner one played a lot of games in helpful conditions with wickets taken in his home country accounting for 61.6% of all his wickets compared to 54.9% for spinner two in his own country (not sure it is much advantage either)

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Unless Chris Woakes has an injury which would rule him out, he could be a good replacement for Anderson. He has taken 24 wickets this season at 18.54 a piece and has scored 262 runs with a best of 129. He missed the Lions game through injury but I'm not sure if he is fit now.

England called up Dernbach, had you not seen the news? Personally I would have liked to see Woakes come in, although word is Finn will play at Lords (home ground and all that) Finn is a bit expensive for my liking, takes away a degree of control if one or more of your bowlers is conceding at four an over which is near enough Finn's Test career ER so far. Even against Bangladesh he went at 3.77 rpo, it's fine when your SR is low ie you're taking wickets at frequent intervals, but if there isn't a lot in the pitch or the batting side dig in, it gives them the edge

 

[War]

Unless Chris Woakes has an injury which would rule him out, he could be a good replacement for Anderson. He has taken 24 wickets this season at 18.54 a piece and has scored 262 runs with a best of 129. He missed the Lions game through injury but I'm not sure if he is fit now.

Dont think young Woakes is test material just yet to be fair. More suited to ODI/T20s. I would put Waokes in the same category as James Harris & Stuart Meaker as "work in progress young quicks".

The only quicks that should really be considered for test cricket are:

Anderson
Tremlett
Broad
Finn
Onions
Shazad
Bresnan

I'm reserving judgement on Dernbach for now until he plays tests, since im not too convinced about him just yet.

 

[cricket_icon]

i don't agree with the dernbach call up with onions and shahzad still playing well and both of whom have international experience.

 

[Themer]

onions and shahzad still playing well and both of whom have international experience.

Its too early for Onions in my opinion and Shahzad has been whacked around in all the first class matches I've seen so far this season.

 

[cricketlover172]

Vaughan never beat India, Sri Lanka or Pakistan as England captain yet some talk about him in the same breath as great captains.

Was never having a go at Murali. Was talking about Sanga and Jaya, both of whom had poor record outside SC even before IPL. SL could never win a test in India with Murali which has similar conditions(pitches,weather ) like SL. Then how are they going to win against such a good English side in alien conditions without Murali.

IPL is just a excuse .

 

[barmyarmy]

Anyone else hearing this rumour about Vaas getting a call up?
For me England should have gone with Onions ahead of Dernbach. A more like-for-like replacement too.

 

[Highlander999]

I reckon they might need to. Vaas has been tearing up the CC Div 2 this season with both bat and ball and considering he just finished Northants latest match with 10 wickets, I would reckon he probably is a lot more threatning then any of the current SL seamers.

 

[War]

I reckon they might need to. Vaas has been tearing up the CC Div 2 this season with both bat and ball and considering he just finished Northants latest match with 10 wickets, I would reckon he probably is a lot more threatning then any of the current SL seamers.

Nah that would be disaster for SRI. The fact that Vaas has been doing well in CC Div 2, is more of an indictment of how poor that standard of cricket is in that division, rather than a sign of how Vaas or any player may go in international cricket.

Vaas was totally passed when he last played tests in 2008. SRI rightfully ended his career then. They are much better off sticking with what they have & recalling Dilhara Fernando & Walegedera.

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Its too early for Onions in my opinion and Shahzad has been whacked around in all the first class matches I've seen so far this season.

Once a player has played international cricket & done well. One shouldn't place too much emphasis on how they do when the go play a play FC cricket. All we should look for is just that they are bowling overs & have not broken around. Since many players tend to take it lightly in FC cricket once they are international regulars to a certain degree.

Since i personally would struggle to believe even if Shazad has not be averaging fantastically for Yorkshire so far this season. That in a just a few months after the world cup, in a year in which he has made steady progress in international cricket, that he would have lost any edge in this bowling.

 

[Haarithan]

The 37-year-old Vaas has hinted at being available for an international return and, with Sri Lanka beaten in the first Test in a match where they were without seamers Nuwan Pradeep and Dilhara Fernando through injury, a bowler of his class would not go amiss.

"It's good to see Vaasy going strong, and he looks after himself," former Australia batsman Law told reporters at Lord's on Wednesday.

"But we've picked a squad, and settled on it, so to draft someone in to make up the numbers wouldn't be the right way to go about it.

"We've got to put faith in the players we've got in the squad now, and try to go forward, although if there's an injury then we'll consider (calling up Vaas)," he added.

*Lets a huge sigh of relief*

 

[angryangy]

Nah that would be disaster for SRI. The fact that Vaas has been doing well in CC Div 2, is more of an indictment of how poor that standard of cricket is in that division, rather than a sign of how Vaas or any player may go in international cricket.

I don't think it says that much about Div 2 in particular because I know how slow Damien Wright is and he has a pile of wickets in Div 1.

In fact, I'd be pretty confident that if you tallied up the stats of the top half dozen or so stock medium pacers across both divisions, it'd be better than the tally for the pacemen chosen for England and the Lions so far this season.

It can be very much a fact of the county game, but also first class cricket in general, that these veterans who simply make few errors do all the more damage. However, combined with the lack of success from many of the "good" bowlers, it makes for an interesting paradox. Perhaps it could be said that just too many errors are being made.

 

[Themer]

That in a just a few months after the world cup, in a year in which he has made steady progress in international cricket, that he would have lost any edge in this bowling.

I think you underrate the importance of rhythm that a bowler needs before he starts producing on a consistent basis. I truly believe that both Onions and Shahzad are good enough for the level but see no need in throwing them into test matches if they aren't producing the goods at First Class level. Just look at Harmison, would be devastating one series then plays in a few First Class games before the next series and is completely underwhelming due to lack of match practise.

In fact I'd pick Shahzad as things stand regardless of the wickets, or slight lack of, if he wasn't going for some many runs as it shows he has control and is bowling decently just without reward. Leaking a lot of runs by a player such as he would to me suggests he needs a few more games to get back into the swing of things and find his line and length.

 

[Papa_Smurf]

I thought Finn was going to replace Anderson. Unless you guys are talking about a replacement for Broad.

Which reminds me, anyone else notice how similar both Gul and Broad are? Both are one of the most prominent seamers going. Both are lethal in the limited overs formats of the game (arguably 2 of the best going around). But both struggle to find their lines and lengths in Tests. They can be brilliant on their day, but very inconsistent. Broad's got 103 @ 35.17 and Gul's got 124 @ 34.41. Eerily similar