West Indies Tour of England - July 2020

[wasteyouryouth]

I did go and look back at Brathwaite's record over the last three years along with a look at how openers have fared in general. This most definitely is a lean period for openers with a few like Karunaratne, Warner, Markram looking unbeatable at home but unable to replicate it away. Some like Latham, Masood and Agarwal have fared very well at home and are decent away too. And then there have been the likes of Rory Burns, Elgar who do an adequate to decent job everywhere along with some anomalies like Jennings (bless him) and Tamim Iqbal who at the moment look better away than at home. And Brathwaite averages less than Campbell over the last three years! He has the likes of KL Rahul, Raval, Harris and Bancroft for company and given that none of them are first choice players now it shows how bad Brathwaite has been and how lucky he is that a lack of alternatives has kept him in the team.

I still think this team could easily do better, Chase and Dowrich for example have been adequate but can easily be better with more focus on their batting (their first-class records indicate that there is a lot more to come). A big problem is how pace friendly the pitches have become in recent times over at home. From looking at his overall record, Bonner just appears to be a Chase clone although he might have improved now (@qpeedore could elaborate perhaps). Hope's predicament of not playing a single fC game is the thing that reminded me of Mendis, for a long period he was just going through the motions in ODIs despite not having an actually decent domestic record and was never dropped to rectify it either.

I do think that a bit of coaching could improve their side. Will be interesting to see what Simmons does. Chase is okay-ish for a second spinner but when you have a spinner like Cornwall on the bench and a lack of batting prospects, it makes sense to ask the guy with a good record domestically and looks the part to be more of a batsman than a bowler.

When you look at the dosmetic records for the last 4-day championship there's an array of batsman who have been tried and failed (Devon Smith has 43 tests between 2003-18 with an average of 23.78 ). It's not a short term problem. Like @Aislabie says there is no stand out player. It took Rory Burns five seasons scoring 1000+ runs to get picked (probably 3 seasons too long). Sibley had nine centuries in two seasons before he got picked, he's already got two test centuries. We also have three keepers that'd probably get in most teams as a keeper or batsman. It's easy to judge other countries by the same standards. West Indies would be more improved by Joe Denly, Keaton Jennings and a handful of others that have been discarded by England right now.

It's why I could understand persisting with Hope (and even Campbell). I'd expect Moseley to get a shot sooner but Campbell got two centuries last season so it's not like he's out of form compared with others. Da Silva's runs have all come at 5 for T&T and he got his century opening in the practice match against a bowling line up containing none of the current first choice 4 bowlers. Maybe that will prompt him/selectors/coaches to move him to open but I wouldn't say it puts him in line to go into test cricket.

West Indies cricket seems to be going in the right direction for the first time in 20-years (barring the T20 success) so hopefully it's something that will improve.

 

[Dutch]

Good effort this! (Hoping for a jinx!)

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Good effort this! (Hoping for a jinx!)

At what point do we worry that we might lose, 100 to win with 6 in hand?

 

[Dutch]

At what point do we worry that we might lose, 100 to win with 6 in hand?

IF we lose you just have to bow your head and say well done boys. Not sure England could have gone about it differently.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Jinx!

 

[Dutch]

Jinx!

Ha ha! It always works! Love it.[DOUBLEPOST=1595256969][/DOUBLEPOST]Buttler earning his Kiss And Cuddle Premium Offer with Ed Smith

 

[wasteyouryouth]

 

[qpeedore]

That ball from Woakes to Dowrich would have been given not out if it was WI who were bowling. We'd have reviewed, and it'd have stayed not out.

I'm not saying the umpires are biased, but the umpires are biased.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

That ball from Woakes to Dowrich would have been given not out if it was WI who were bowling. We'd have reviewed, and it'd have stayed not out.

I'm not saying the umpires are biased, but the umpires are biased.

That's why I dislike the umpire's call system. If it's the hitting the stumps it should be out in my opinion.

 

[qpeedore]

I don't mind the umpire's call system, but be consistent. We've seen, what, maybe five or more LBW shouts in England's first innings that were called not out and shown to be clipping the stumps. We've seen more than one in both WI's innings so far that's been given out and shown to be clipping.

Both times it's umpire's call. But one subset was originally given not out, the other was given out.

Why were ours given not out but theirs given out?

 

[Dutch]

Inching closer!

 

[wasteyouryouth]

I don't mind the umpire's call system, but be consistent. We've seen, what, maybe five or more LBW shouts in England's first innings that were called not out and shown to be clipping the stumps. We've seen more than one in both WI's innings so far that's been given out and shown to be clipping.

Both times it's umpire's call. But one subset was originally given not out, the other was given out.

Why were ours given not out but theirs given out?

Human error, maybe some bias. Not just necessarily just home umpire bias. I expect umpire's will have certain bias depending on the player, regardless of nationality, based on their reputation or perceived ability.

You can't avoid human error or those subtle biases which can lead to inconsistencies, that's why I say make the technology consistent.

 

[abhi_jacko]

Broad has been superb in this match. Dont see WI late order surviving 30+ overs here .. if only the top order had shown some of their trademark restraint, this would have been a draw

Now its just a matter of time

 

[Dutch]

32 overs....four wickets! Who will come out on top?

 

[abhi_jacko]

Good decision to get Curran into the attack .. dude makes things happen at the right time