To be fair to Neser, he’s a reasonable bat, he has 5 more first class tons than England’s number 3.
Again the bowling has been poor, and picking Jacks looks to me like the worst decision of the tour (in a big list). The dropped catch off Head made a huge difference to the score, he’s hardly been bowled, so treating him as a specialist batsman his runs haven’t been what’s needed. Would Bashir have been better? We’ll never know, probably not, but picking a spinner, calling him your number 1 even during the series, and then losing your nerve when it came to the Ashes is appalling.
Although to be fair to Jacks it’s not his fault that the seamers seem to think that if the batsman can’t predict which part of the strip they’ll hit with any given ball they’ll get confused.
After the aberration of the MCG normal service has been resumed. One side with the required discipline, technique and application. The other is England. A note re Brook. He is 27yrs old and has played 35 Tests. The penny hasn’t dropped yet.
Credit to the Barmy Army is probably due. They seem less boorish than of old, showing unfailing support but also generous to opposition performances. They are the ultimate expression of travelling in hope rather than expectation. The Richies have been amazing too.
What Ashes series? Has it started yet? I seem to have blanked the series so far from my mind.
More seriously, I’m not sure. I can imagine this team digging in when it no longer matters to the fans. They do have a bloody minded attitude when they feel picked on, in the early days of McCullum’s reign when they were being criticised heavily one of the players (it feels now like it was usually Stokes or YJB) turned the match on its head and they squared the series. Now it seems they do that when it’s too late.
Weird, I seem to have somehow put the first part of my reply in the quotation box where I quoted the above post, dunno how, and I can’t see how to edit it.
I saw some of Root’s immaculate innings taking him level with Punter for test tons. It feels like we won’t see his like for England in a generation and need to enjoy his performances to the utmost before he bows out. A bit like Jimmy Anderson. Skills developed when the long form game was still appreciated and well before the IPL was launched.
When I woke up Bethel had just got his debut First Class century and a pretty classy innings by all accounts. Brook going nicely.
Eating my breakfast Brook gets out to Webster, Jacks lobs his second ball from the same bowler to deep midwicket, Smith runs himself out and an injured Stokes nicks off in no time. Bethel looks like he might be last man standing, which considering his inexperience is quite an achievement.
There was a brief interview with Glenn McGrath where he was asked about coaching England’s bowlers. He looked at past greats with high strikes rates and pointed out their accuracy rather than trying for wickets with variable deliveries. Whoever ends up as our next bowling coach should take note.
Great knock from Bethell, glad he’s managing to catch up on all the red ball cricket he’s missed in recent times due to our coaches master plan.
All true except the bowling coach (if they actually appoint a permanent one) will be focused on white ball now which is precisely where the ‘variable deliveries’ are viewed as an asset over accuracy.
Five months before another Test matches for England.
Well, what could have been? IMV, difficult not to agree with Aggers’ views, and on the basis Stokes is central to this side, how does a coaching team survive performances like this? Through another lens, it’s just shown up most of the positive expectation was false, with a bowling attack which fell apart and couldn’t bowl a length, and batting which self-destructed on too many occasions to count. The most unprofessional of professional cricket tours.
All of the above but churlish not to credit Australia for their performance. They managed without Hazlewood throughout and Cummins for all but one match. Lyon only played once then injured.
Starc was magnificent over five Tests, never dropped his level. Boland also superb stepping up to help lead the attack. Head irresistible at times and personally I loved watching Carey show just what a top class ‘keeper adds to a team. Much as he drives me nuts Labuschagne’s fielding was another level and across the board Australia held their catches and applied pressure when they needed to. Winning away in Australia remains a very big challenge.
Agree – the statements in some quarters this was an Aussie 2nd XI are not only over-stated, but disrespectful. This said, once again, it just goes to show how shallow the depth of English cricket is……and, very sadly, there are no signs this is to change for the positive.
I can’t agree that he is. He’s certainly worth his place as a bowler and a number 6/7 batsman but only when he is fully fit and likely to remain so, which is rarely the case. As a captain he is tactically inept in my opinion - his “bowling plans” are a joke and his toss decisions are often wrong.
The problem is that Brook is nowhere near ready and there is no-one else in line to captain so he’ll probably hang on.
I think Roy Keane would have left this party before the first test.
When you consider our structure and comparative wealth to other test nations this tour has been monumentally embarrassing.
Agree. The ‘personality effect’ of the early years with Stokes has not developed into a more nuanced and effective captain. I also think that his physical issues make selecting him as an all-rounder increasingly tricky. In that role he must be able to take his share of the bowling so the side can pick just 3 other+ seamers plus a spinner (usually) but if he is going to break down often I would select him to bat only. He has the technique to bat higher in the order.
Going to be interesting to see if any changes happen in the coaching/admin setup. The mood seems to be to allow Key and McCullum to continue. I’m not so sure. Clearly McCullum is unlikely to change. See the article below. That lack of humility means I’d sack him from the Test team as a minimum. He has repeated for 2 years ‘judge us after the Ashes’. Well here we are. I suppose on the run-in to the T20WC he gets to stay for the white ball team. I don’t know enough about what Key has or hasn’t done but I think selection needs looking at. There’s only one men’s selector (Luke Wright). Can’t be a busy job though since once you are ‘in’ you get about 40 Tests to play yourself ‘out’. Has to change.
