I havn't seen this seconed innings and unfortonatly theres no highlights :/ which sucks.
Kabir Ali, despite the english fans supporting him is absolutly trash. Of all the bowlers he has defiantly looked the worst to me. In second Mahmood, third Bresnan and fourth Plunkett. ALl four of them were not up to standard. Even Harmison was a disgrace. Dayrymple bowled and batted superbly.
THe pace bowling could perhaps be the worst ever in an ODI series. I really hope cricinfo calculates the average bowler RPO, average etc. and compares with some other shocking bowling performances in a series. This last game tops it off. You can't afford to bowl like that to the best opener in ODI cricket.
Strauss's captainy is pathetic. That needs changing before Pakistan. I certainly hope we won't be captaining the tests. I am not saying he was the reason they lost, but he sure didn't help it. It can't be easy when the bowlers are all over the place, but his rotations were extremly poor. The times he took powerplays were ridiculas.
If England played Bangladesh tomorrow, then Bangladesh would pound them too. I am sure of it.
Ok, lets look at the facts. England are without many key players. They can be excused to some extent, but these backup bowlers are not up to standard and should not have been kept. Bresnan is the main one. He bowled bad in 5/5 matches and wasn't replaced. Kabir Ali was worth a second try but he just again proved that he has absolutly no control over his bowling. When he wasn't bowling waist high and higher full tosses, he was bowling wides and half volleys galore. Plunkett bowled well in sections and poorly in others. Sadly he was in the top 2 of the the pace bowlers, him or Harmison who falls in the same category. The selectors didn't do their jobs. Not enough action.
With all Gough's experiance he should have been given a go straight away. Hoggard is accurate, why wasn't he tried?
England, I believe, have no hope at winning the ashes. They have gone downhill in tests and ODI's since then ironically. Injuries are a problem also. Australia have only improved and found new talent. Englands depth needs working on. They need to set up a young player system and train them.
Really though, Tharanga looks like he is going to be a star player for Sri Lanka. What a fantastic series from him. Jaysuria is just amazing. He truly destroyed England. Deserved man of the series. Thats 6 centuries in that series. 2 each for the top 3 for Sri Lanka. That is just amazing. Maybe thats a record. I bet hundreds were broken. Seriously what a one sided series. Not great really. I perfer close games. I still want to see Jaysuria take these bowlers to the cleaners and hear the commentators.
Big changes are needed. At the end of the day, there was no excuse for the England bowlers to bowl that badly. None. There wasn't much international experiance but they all should have been able to do the basics and bowl straight. They had no control. Sri Lankan pacemen, by comparison, bowled very well. Malinga, Vaas, Fernando was a little untidy but looked amazingly accurate compared. He got wickets though which was important.
Improvements are needed. I really hope England put up a fight against Pakistan.
Hard opinions from me, but its just not good enough for a high profile team like England. They are going to need depth for the World Cup, CHamps Trophy, Ashes and they need to find some now!
