Has been hugely promising for a long time, but really kicked on this year. A bit of a Dom Sibley in terms of temperament, which if anything is counting against him at the moment.
Alongside Rob Yates, probably one of the next two they try - but Alex Lees is highly regarded as a leadership candidate
Now the county championship is split into two divisions with promotion and relegation usually (eight and ten teams in each division respectfully). But during covid they played a reduced tournament called the Bob Willis trophy.
England have so many problems that it's frankly hilarious, but I'm currently awake with the shits so let's effortpost.
Coaching and Selection
Let us start with the biggest problem in the England set-up: the set-up itself. Chris Silverwood asked for complete control over the national side and he got it, combining the head coach and head selector role into something akin to a hands-on football manager.
Unfortunately, in his dual-role he is an utter failure: he consistantly fails to select the best players available (Ben Foakes says hi) and the players he does select seem to consistently get worse the longer they spend around the England set-up.
This is all the more frustrating given that the perfect candidate for his job was already in the dressing room. Paul Farbrace was the architect for a lot of what would ultimately be attributed to Trevor Bayliss in the white ball game. He has since gone to Warwickshire and revitalised their red ball team with players like Rob Yates improving markedly since his arrival. Either he should be made Head Coach or given an all-powerful Director of Cricket role with oversight all the way from the top down to the (recently shambolic) Under-19 team.
For selection, I would be very keen to bring in Duncan Fletcher as a Head Scout. At a time when county cricket tells us depressingly little of value, it may be worth picking the brains of the man who discovered Michael Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick, Simon Jones and Steve Harmison when they were statistically mediocre county players. If you had Farbrace as Head Coach, Fletcher could be Director of Cricket.
Planning and Priorities
England has become a one-day specialist cricket nation at all levels. My first choice would be that the Hundred gets yeeted into the sun. My second choice would be that the County Championship be re-structured to create a more high-quality cricketing set-up like New Zealand did. My third choice would be to just be honest and front up to Test cricket being an afterthought.
On-FieldLeadership
The captaincy is often given to the best player (if possible, best batter) in the team, largely because they areleast likely to be dropped. Often they are not the best captains, but the difference they make is hard to quantify. However, I would love to see Root unburdened from the captaincy: the only options are: Ben Stokes (only just back off a mental health break), Jos Buttler (would have to play as a specialist bat), Rory Burns (not exactly a cast-iron selection) or Ollie Robinson (recent "scandal" and a bowler-captain). My pick of those would be Rory Burns. Seriously. Plus he can go and field at mid-off and not be in the way. But realistically Root keeps it by default.
Jos Buttler
England's wicket-keeper takes a lot of "spectacular catches". This is because his footwork is trash. If he moves properly, most of these "spectacular catches" are regulation. I can understand England not wanting to pick a Michael Bates type keeper who has to bat at nine, but Ben Foakes is more than good enough to hold a bat at seven. He is more than good enough to hold his catches. Get him in, and get keepers like him in the 'A' team.
Opening Batters
They're not good. They've not been good for a long time. As I've already said, I would be appointing Rory Burns as England captain if I had to take the burden off Joe Root. But I also couldn't exactly argue if he lost his place in the team.
Most of England's crop of openers are "funky". They have lots of moving parts. Burns gets into weird positions. Dom Sibley plays leg-side cricket. Haseeb Hameed plays with a high backlift and low hands. Zak Crawley averages 31 in first-class cricket.
Realistically, there are two options: either pick the best young players and give them 20 Tests each (even if you rotate them a bit), or pick the batters with the best techniques even if their experience as openers is limited. The former gives you Hameed, Crawley and Yates. The latter gives you James Vince, Ben Stokes and Rob Yates. Hey, Rob Yates is on both lists! Pick Rob Yates.
Spin
There isn't any. In this Test, England's three-man spin attack was Joe Root, Dawid Malan and Ollie Robinson. While Robinson might prove a very handy upside for tours of Asia and the West Indies, England need his seam.
Either England pick someone for simply being the best spinner (in which case it might be Parkinson) or they pick someone who is a batting all-rounder but savvy enough to learn on the job (in which case it's Liam Livingstone). Liam Dawson is the Ashley Giles shaped middle ground.
Ollie Pope
Good grief.
All the fast bowlers are broken (almost)
Jofra Archer was broken through overbowlingin the year of our lord 2019. Mark Wood has a chronic injury that he manages, but how long for? Ollie Stone is from the Shane Bond school ofback injuries. Brydon Carse had to be flown home for similar reasons. Saqib Mahmood and Luke Wood are both fit and firing, but for some reason kerp not being picked. These fast bowlers are precious (and Luke Wood offers something England have possibly never had: left-arm 90mph that takes red ball wickets). There has to be some way of managing these bowlers without them filling up the Loughborough sick bays.
Cut some dead wood
Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Stuart Broad are all players who should be moved on from in the Test team. Ollie Pope is occupying the Ramprakash sweet spot where he's too good not to average 60 in the Championship thanks to batting in London, so he'll keep getting recalled until his batting average falls all the way to the mid 20s. Broad seems to be the bowler who doesn't feel the need to follow the team's plan. Buttler and Bairstow have played 133 Tests between them and I think that's enough.
In the interests of completeness, please find a nice fun team suggestion in the spoiler:
Staff
Director of Cricket: Duncan Fletcher
Head Coach: Paul Farbrace
Openers
1. Rory Burns (possible )
2. Rob Yates
R. Haseeb Hameed
R. Jake Libby
R. Zak... Crawley?
Top Order Batters
3. Dawid Malan
4. Joe Root (possible )
R. James Vince (yes really)
R. Sam Hain
Middle Order
5. Ben Stokes
6. Liam Livingstone (also, spinner)
R. Ollie Pope
R. Dan Lawrence Sam Billings
R. Keaton Jennings might do okay here tbf
Wicket-Keepers
7. Ben Foakes
R. John Simpson
R. Ben Cox
Fast Men Jofra Archer Mark Wood Ollie Stone Saqib Mahmood Brydon Carse Luke Wood Pick two, any two
Seamers
10. Ollie Robinson (possible ; third spinner in Asia)
11. Jimmy Anderson
R. Craig Overton
R. Chris Woakes
R. Sam Cook
R. Darren Stevens (seriously, give the man one Test before he retires)
Spinners
R. Matt Parkinson
R. Dom Bess
R. Liam Dawson
Also a note for the Poms who may not keep track of overseas happenings: James Vince is the best overseas bat in the BBL (Alex Hales is really the only challenger but he was shit to start this year). Don't get why he isn't with the Ashes team - he'd slot in nicely at three if you do what was suggested by a pundit (can't remember who) and open with Malan and... well he didn't say who else, but possibly a wheelie bin, couldn't be much worse than Burns and Hameed right?
So far, the Ashes have been terribly one-sided. Yes, England did attempt to pull off an unlikely heist in the day-nighter, but just goes to show that the Aussies have learnt from the mistakes of the previous summer. That said though, Australia weren't poor last summer, it was simply an outstanding effort of dead-batting from the Indians that ensured they didn't get their hands on the trophy.
The English have every right to be worried. The hype surrounding the Ashes was unreal. The performances, well, they have been below par tbh. What needs to be done has been outline very well in thread, however, I'd still like to provide my 2 cents for what its worth.
The primary reason for England's misfortunes. However, with English cricket, it has always been a one-dimensional focus. In the early 1990s they were a pretty strong ODI outfit, who then started playing an outdated brand of cricket (akin to India today). In the years that followed right uptil the CWC 2015, their approach towards cricket was to simply become the best Test side ever. (again similar to India today).
Post the exit of 2015, they brought in specialists, revamped the setup and have now focused energies entirely on ODI cricket. To ensure parity, it seems they have set aside a pool of Test cricketers under a different captain. The fact that they cannot focus on all formats is actually hurting their chances. They surely are a hell of an outfit in ODIs/T20s, but the Test game, is where they lack at present.
Plus, the rotation policy hasnt helped their cause. Players come in and out; and for the team to adjust every now and then, its a huge task.
IMO, Fletcher is done and dusted. His best time came with England as coach. However, with India, he was simply not there. Dunno, whether it was the environment or what, but England might be better served by having someone else-say Arthurr/ Whatmore in that role.
Sure, so New Zealand until the mid-2000s had an entirely amateur domestic set-up. The regional teams functioned more like the very top level of club cricket.
The result of this was that the teams prepared facilities designed to suit their own strengths (dibbly dobbly wibbly wobbly bowlers like you'd see in club cricket) and a huge amount of New Zealand's best players could not afford to play cricket in New Zealand.
NZC, prompted by a players' strike, finally put in the money to bankroll their six-team domestic structure, and they took central control of what playing conditions ought to be by employing professional groundstaff directly from NZC. The benefits have been marked: not only do New Zealand's players arrive in the national team with experience on similar playing surfaces, they also arrive as established professionals. Additionally it also becomes a more attractive place for players from elsewhere like Wagner, de Grandhomme and Conway to come and ply their trade.
- - - - -
For England's domestic set-up, I would consider the following:
Strictly enforced minimum standards for pitch preparation. This does not mean that pitches should be uniform, but it does mean that they should be comparable to what one might find in international cricket.
Sensible scheduling: the County Championship is too much cricket. There's a reason no cricket nation asks for more than ten first-class games from its players per season.
Bin off The Hundred. The T20 Blast remains a great competition and a great night out. It can also be scheduled with breaks for Championship games more easily.
Build up local rivalries: The Roses, The London Derby and so on. Market them - maybe even create trophies and stuff like the Calcutta Cup. Anything to create that extra bit of intensity and fan engagement.
Bring back the old knockout cup for one-day cricket. If it's going to be marginalised for T20 then at least make it something unique. Those first-class vs minor county matches last year were magical, and a great opportunity for some overlooked players to shine.
A substitutions system for Championship cricket so that teams can still give opportunities to proper spinners even if Day One is not the time for them. Also review this after a season in case it turns out to be trash.
With eight Championship fixtures per season (plus maybe some end-of-season play-offs), all played on the best possible surfaces, each with a week of recovery in between - they can actually start to bridge that intensity gap that currently exists between first-class and Test cricket.
I would also consider something radical like only capping active international players from outside Europe. This would allow Dutch, Irish and Scottish players to continue improving in the county game, and it would allow top uncapped talent (like the next Devon Conway) to come over and improve the county game and their own prospects. There's no need for "Kolpak" rules here; if someone wants to play county cricket and they're good enough, let them play.
A substitutions system for Championship cricket so that teams can still give opportunities to proper spinners even if Day One is not the time for them. Also review this after a season in case it turns out to be trash.
This won't be very popular if the BBL is anything to go by, but the rest of it seems like a good way to improve. Maybe they should hire you! Couldn't do worse than a lot of those executives if all the news around Yorkshire et al is anything to go by
This won't be very popular if the BBL is anything to go by, but the rest of it seems like a good way to improve. Maybe they should hire you! Couldn't do worse than a lot of those executives if all the news around Yorkshire et al is anything to go by
I've read that Anderson and Broad act like bullies, both on and off the field. This would help explain why Root publicly admonished his bowlers yesterday for not bowling fuller lengths. If this is true, then they both have to go or, at the very least, strongly disciplined. It doesn't matter that they two of England's finest bowlers, they are not bigger than the team.
If true, it also shows that Root is a weak leader, and should be relieved of the captaincy, which will probably happen after the Ashes anyway, if England continue to lose as they have done. And are the management afraid of Anderson and Broad as well? It would appear so.
Bullying should not be tolerated in sport, anymore than it is elsewhere.
I thought this was done and dusted with the 'Brexit' ? That's the reason why the South Africans have all moved back and are now vying to be a part of their national setup.
I thought this was done and dusted with the 'Brexit' ? That's the reason why the South Africans have all moved back and are now vying to be a part of their national setup.
There are still blokes like Beddingham with another nationality who count as a domestic player and the increased overseas limit now means that a few of those former Kolpaks are now just overseas players.
Part of England's misfortunes lie in not selecting the best XI. At the Gabba, making Anderson sit was a mistake. He plays only one format, doesnt partake in any T20 leagues, so resting him for the 1st match wasn't clearly the way forth. Growing up, the Aussies never rested McGrath for the 1st match of an all important series. neither did I see this happening in the West Indies.
Secondly, the issue of openers- they haven't really found a stable opening pair. My question to the local is about Keaton Jennings though? Can he not be tried in that position again?
I don't remember him scoring outside the subcontinent. So maybe that's not the best thing to do so. He would perhaps become another walking wicket in these conditions.
England have so many problems that it's frankly hilarious, but I'm currently awake with the shits so let's effortpost.
Coaching and Selection
Let us start with the biggest problem in the England set-up: the set-up itself. Chris Silverwood asked for complete control over the national side and he got it, combining the head coach and head selector role into something akin to a hands-on football manager.
Unfortunately, in his dual-role he is an utter failure: he consistantly fails to select the best players available (Ben Foakes says hi) and the players he does select seem to consistently get worse the longer they spend around the England set-up.
This is all the more frustrating given that the perfect candidate for his job was already in the dressing room. Paul Farbrace was the architect for a lot of what would ultimately be attributed to Trevor Bayliss in the white ball game. He has since gone to Warwickshire and revitalised their red ball team with players like Rob Yates improving markedly since his arrival. Either he should be made Head Coach or given an all-powerful Director of Cricket role with oversight all the way from the top down to the (recently shambolic) Under-19 team.
For selection, I would be very keen to bring in Duncan Fletcher as a Head Scout. At a time when county cricket tells us depressingly little of value, it may be worth picking the brains of the man who discovered Michael Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick, Simon Jones and Steve Harmison when they were statistically mediocre county players. If you had Farbrace as Head Coach, Fletcher could be Director of Cricket.
Planning and Priorities
England has become a one-day specialist cricket nation at all levels. My first choice would be that the Hundred gets yeeted into the sun. My second choice would be that the County Championship be re-structured to create a more high-quality cricketing set-up like New Zealand did. My third choice would be to just be honest and front up to Test cricket being an afterthought.
On-FieldLeadership
The captaincy is often given to the best player (if possible, best batter) in the team, largely because they areleast likely to be dropped. Often they are not the best captains, but the difference they make is hard to quantify. However, I would love to see Root unburdened from the captaincy: the only options are: Ben Stokes (only just back off a mental health break), Jos Buttler (would have to play as a specialist bat), Rory Burns (not exactly a cast-iron selection) or Ollie Robinson (recent "scandal" and a bowler-captain). My pick of those would be Rory Burns. Seriously. Plus he can go and field at mid-off and not be in the way. But realistically Root keeps it by default.
Jos Buttler
England's wicket-keeper takes a lot of "spectacular catches". This is because his footwork is trash. If he moves properly, most of these "spectacular catches" are regulation. I can understand England not wanting to pick a Michael Bates type keeper who has to bat at nine, but Ben Foakes is more than good enough to hold a bat at seven. He is more than good enough to hold his catches. Get him in, and get keepers like him in the 'A' team.
Opening Batters
They're not good. They've not been good for a long time. As I've already said, I would be appointing Rory Burns as England captain if I had to take the burden off Joe Root. But I also couldn't exactly argue if he lost his place in the team.
Most of England's crop of openers are "funky". They have lots of moving parts. Burns gets into weird positions. Dom Sibley plays leg-side cricket. Haseeb Hameed plays with a high backlift and low hands. Zak Crawley averages 31 in first-class cricket.
Realistically, there are two options: either pick the best young players and give them 20 Tests each (even if you rotate them a bit), or pick the batters with the best techniques even if their experience as openers is limited. The former gives you Hameed, Crawley and Yates. The latter gives you James Vince, Ben Stokes and Rob Yates. Hey, Rob Yates is on both lists! Pick Rob Yates.
Spin
There isn't any. In this Test, England's three-man spin attack was Joe Root, Dawid Malan and Ollie Robinson. While Robinson might prove a very handy upside for tours of Asia and the West Indies, England need his seam.
Either England pick someone for simply being the best spinner (in which case it might be Parkinson) or they pick someone who is a batting all-rounder but savvy enough to learn on the job (in which case it's Liam Livingstone). Liam Dawson is the Ashley Giles shaped middle ground.
Ollie Pope
Good grief.
All the fast bowlers are broken (almost)
Jofra Archer was broken through overbowlingin the year of our lord 2019. Mark Wood has a chronic injury that he manages, but how long for? Ollie Stone is from the Shane Bond school ofback injuries. Brydon Carse had to be flown home for similar reasons. Saqib Mahmood and Luke Wood are both fit and firing, but for some reason kerp not being picked. These fast bowlers are precious (and Luke Wood offers something England have possibly never had: left-arm 90mph that takes red ball wickets). There has to be some way of managing these bowlers without them filling up the Loughborough sick bays.
Cut some dead wood
Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Stuart Broad are all players who should be moved on from in the Test team. Ollie Pope is occupying the Ramprakash sweet spot where he's too good not to average 60 in the Championship thanks to batting in London, so he'll keep getting recalled until his batting average falls all the way to the mid 20s. Broad seems to be the bowler who doesn't feel the need to follow the team's plan. Buttler and Bairstow have played 133 Tests between them and I think that's enough.
In the interests of completeness, please find a nice fun team suggestion in the spoiler:
Staff
Director of Cricket: Duncan Fletcher
Head Coach: Paul Farbrace
Openers
1. Rory Burns (possible )
2. Rob Yates
R. Haseeb Hameed
R. Jake Libby
R. Zak... Crawley?
Top Order Batters
3. Dawid Malan
4. Joe Root (possible )
R. James Vince (yes really)
R. Sam Hain
Middle Order
5. Ben Stokes
6. Liam Livingstone (also, spinner)
R. Ollie Pope
R. Dan Lawrence Sam Billings
R. Keaton Jennings might do okay here tbf
Wicket-Keepers
7. Ben Foakes
R. John Simpson
R. Ben Cox
Fast Men Jofra Archer Mark Wood Ollie Stone Saqib Mahmood Brydon Carse Luke Wood Pick two, any two
Seamers
10. Ollie Robinson (possible ; third spinner in Asia)
11. Jimmy Anderson
R. Craig Overton
R. Chris Woakes
R. Sam Cook
R. Darren Stevens (seriously, give the man one Test before he retires)
Spinners
R. Matt Parkinson
R. Dom Bess
R. Liam Dawson
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Duncan Fletcher
