England Cricket Team Thread

[Lord Rother]

So, green pitch, Lord’s, late Spring, overcast....

Has anybody any clue why the fcuk Root chose to bat?

[borofan]

So, green pitch, Lord’s, late Spring, overcast....

Has anybody any clue why the fcuk Root chose to bat?

Apparently because it was dry underneath like the pitch they played the Saffers on last year, which turned square on the last day, so he didn't want to bat last.

Mind, the lead Pakistan are buliding at this moment, they might end up batting last anyway...

[Lord Rother]

Root’s captaincy all over the place.

The media don’t seem to be piling into him just yet but some of what he was doing yesterday smacked of someone completely out of his depth.

I really hope he can turn it around but what with this and his increasing tendency for the Vince style drive and nick I have a nasty little feeling we might be watching a spectacular fall from grace this summer.

[Penk!]

What a shower. Absolutely pathetic once again from England, across the board.

[Lord Rother]

Bad times but I’m feeling oddly ambivalent.

[Lord Rother]

We need to panic.

There is something about the culture that appears wrong. Make big changes now because although it will probably be painful, without a reboot we are going nowhere.

If Root is going to stay as Captain then he needs to be the ruler. There are too many old boys with big character and influence over the culture so I think Cook and Broad should go as well as Malan and Stoneman.

I am not suggesting Cook and Broad are divisive but this mess can’t be changed by tinkering, it needs bigger surgery than that.

[Diamond Dog]

Quite seriously, you can't drop Cook. That's ridiculous - he's the one guy we have that seems to understand that Test matches are played over five days, not three.

[Lord Rother]

I just think Root is finding it difficult to get his message across or to find his way as captain to the team because of the presence of too many older players.

If the culture is going to change then some faces need to go.

It’s not Cook’s fault, a less divisive character you couldn’t find but his shadow looms over Root. I suspect he is bright enough to see it himself and will retire gracefully.

[Diamond Dog]

We may have to face the possibility that Root just isn't a very good captain, of course.

[Lord Rother]

He certainly doesn’t look it at the moment.

[WG Kaspar]

To be fair, the pool of available players isn't that great. The way the county championship is scheduled I would imagine that more and more average players will find themselves in the England side. Anderson is 35. Is there anyone worth their salt to replace him? Take out Broad as well and I'm not sure they have a better attack than the Windies.

[Penk!]

So Stoneman has been dropped for Jennings.

Jennings has been in fine county form, but has he worked on the technique that got him into trouble and lost him his place in the side last year? Otherwise it could be another Ballance: lots of runs domestically, but too easily found out at international level.

Wood retains his place. OK, we get it, they want someone capable of bowling a bit faster, but where is the evidence that he is good enough for this level? To be honest, given that batsmen all around England are struggling against medium-fast seam bowling at this time of year, just give Porter or Coad a go. Do like India and pick the bowlers to suit the conditions. Woakes should play in the second test: he might not have had much success down under, but he destroyed the Pakistan team that came to England two years ago, and his lower-order runs are valuable too.

Small steps - the biggest problems are at organisational and coaching level - but this team is obviously in need of improvement.

[Penk!]

Much better morning from England.

Woakes for Wood is a sensible selection.

[Penk!]

So plenty of posts when England are collapsing, but tumbleweed when they complete a convincing victory.

Hard to find fault with that game: no real big scores but lots of players who got in and stuck around on what seemed to be a tricky pitch. Good bowling and fielding all round.

It's only one game - you know what they say about swallows and summers - but it's a step in the right direction. Give Clarke a go instead of Malan against India, maybe, but Jennings did a decent enough job and Woakes is a much better pick in English conditions than Wood.

[Darkness_Fish]

The problem is, England didn't exactly look that stable with the bat still, only Buttler really marched on to a big score when he got in, but the rest at least contributed. On the plus side, most of England's wickets fell to really good balls, rather than last-test's slashing at something 3 feet wide of off for no reason.

I don't know if it was a good performance by England in challenging batting conditions, or a bad day at the office for Pakistan. Or both.

[Diamond Dog]

It's an improvement, but that really is damning with faint praise.

It would be lovely if, just once, we had a 250-300 partnership by two players both getting in and going past 150. Just once.

[Penk!]

Didn’t seem to be the conditions for big scores, though. The ball was moving all over the place, wickets falling regularly, top-level seamers on both sides.

[Diamond Dog]

But other teams seem to be able to do it, even under less than ideal conditions - and that doesn't really explain how so many (yet again) got themselves in but failed (yet again) to carry it through to a ton, or more.

[Penk!]

I don't know about that. I think you sometimes get pitches where any team will struggle to make runs and where even when "set" a batsman can never feel comfortable, and then a gutsy and gritty 30-40 is valuable.

I doubt, having seen Virat Kohli and Steven Smith down the years, that they would have done any better in the conditions at Headingley this weekend.

[Lord Rother]

England giving Australia a fearsome battering at the moment.

290-1 off 32 overs.

Could 500 be on?