Sri Lanka tour of England 2024 - 3 Tests

[cricfan123]

Matthews is still the hardest hitters of a cricket ball even at 39 years of age

 

[blockerdave]

Given how both of the Sri Lanka innings started, they’ve made a proper match of this

 

[Aislabie]

Given how both of the Sri Lanka innings started, they’ve made a proper match of this

Really good to see it.

One or two wickets quickly after tea and bums will be squeaky

 

[wasteyouryouth]

 

[icyman]

Sri Lanka did pack a punch and nobody could have expected them to compete as well as they did. What changed? Surely it cannot have been Jayasuriya's inclusion in the coaching staff.

Or was it a different England without Crawley and Stokes. Perhaps the nerves nerves of Pope, who was captaining for the 1st time?

 

[Till Valhalla]

1st L. Seam

 

[blockerdave]

Root is just incredible

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Root is just incredible

And he's gone

 

[blockerdave]

Commentator’s curse

 

[Supreme General]

We are all living in Gus Atkinson’s world right now and I couldn’t be happier

 

[wasteyouryouth]

 

[Aislabie]

This is interesting to me because it's not just Hull who's on there.

Josh Hull - 11 wickets @ 84.55 (9 matches)
Saqib Mahmood - 5 wickets @ 80.80 (4 matches)
Pat Brown - 7 wickets @ 65.47 (6 matches)
Ollie Stone - 17 wickets @ 47.29 (8 matches)
Zaman Akhter - 33 wickets @ 42.97 (13 matches)
Brydon Carse - 20 wickets @ 42.10 (9 matches)

If you throw in Bashir as well, then one has to wonder - why is the County Championship?

 

[wasteyouryouth]

This is interesting to me because it's not just Hull who's on there.

Josh Hull - 11 wickets @ 84.55 (9 matches)
Saqib Mahmood - 5 wickets @ 80.80 (4 matches)
Pat Brown - 7 wickets @ 65.47 (6 matches)
Ollie Stone - 17 wickets @ 47.29 (8 matches)
Zaman Akhter - 33 wickets @ 42.97 (13 matches)
Brydon Carse - 20 wickets @ 42.10 (9 matches)

If you throw in Bashir as well, then one has to wonder - why is the County Championship?

And Chris Woakes averages 220 in the County Championship this season

 

[Aislabie]

And Chris Woakes averages 220 in the County Championship this season

It's weird innit - I love the Championship as much as the next cricket nerd, but it seems as if the powers that be have more or less resigned themselves to it not being fit for purpose as a talent pathway. And while I know that Strauss and Key have each wanted to make changes in the name of High Performance, nothing has really stuck, partly because of the (often understandable) intransigence of county memberships

I'm not entirely sure what changes I would make myself, but it seems clear that Something Must Be Done

 

[Supreme General]

I wouldn’t say the County Championship isn’t fit for purpose in terms of talent production. I feel like we’ve just changed the goalposts on what we consider successful and needed for the England team. It’s what a lot of other sports have done as well, you look at underlying stats to fit in to the required roles you want to fill. Rather than just looking at raw numbers as the be all and end all