The Ashes 2021/22
- Thread starter wasteyouryouth
- Start date
wasteyouryouth
Verified
Bairstow looking imperious.
wasteyouryouth
Verified
The BT commentary is about 1 second ahead of the action.
wasteyouryouth
Verified
One more then Mark Wood is in.
beechcroft
Panel of Selectors
If I was still living in ol' Blighty, I certainly wouldn't have stayed up to watch this.
Punk_Sk8r
National Board President
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2006
Great shot by Butler!
It's quite entertaining, I want to see how badly they can get mopped up
B
Bigby Wolf
Guest
Lol.
wasteyouryouth
Verified
That was dire.
They rinsed us similarly after the India series last year... nice to see it going around
Imho, there is absolutely zero coincidence between this and Root's post-Adelaide comments
CerealKiller
Staff Member
B
Bigby Wolf
Guest
This is reminding me of India's tour of Australia
and England in 2011.
England just like India back in the year looked pretty poor and was absolutely thrashed in almost every facets of the game.
and England in 2011.
England just like India back in the year looked pretty poor and was absolutely thrashed in almost every facets of the game.
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reminds me more of England in 2006... and 2013... and 2017
I have heard this but then it (I think) doesn't take much in cricket to change nationality? And play for another nation.
Many thanks, I have spent the entire morning reading all the posts and you have brought me up to date and taught me every wrong, right and can be improved upon in English cricket. The post quoted above is where my bookmark entitled me to enter the thread (after a cheeky soiree on BBC sport ( disappointment found me prepared though). I feel there is no hope for the series here and should just go home to live another day.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-Field Leadership
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:
Openers
1.
2.
R.
R.
R.
Top Order Batters
3.
4.
R.
R.
Middle Order
5.
6.
R.
R.
R.
Wicket-Keepers
7.
R.
R.
Fast Men
Pick two, any two
Seamers
10.
11.
R.
R.
R.
R.
Spinners
R.
R.
R.
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This would be a good thing to happen but it's there an awards thing were we try and find some 'positive' to the unbridled mayhem that has happened?
It'd be impossible for the second placed guy because he's Hashim Amla, so he's 1) retired from international cricket and 2) tied to RSA. As for the other two (David Bedingham and Chris Cooke respectively), I'm not sure either has citizenship yet. Cooke's 35 so his chances may be cooked (Cooke-d?) by that, but Bedingham might be worth keeping an eye on in the future
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