One of the comments underneath the article starts like this:


I don't think Jimmy or Broad are on their way out yet, but otherwise there's a lot to agree with in that assessment, especially the opening sentence.

Let's all bash England.

No but after a tough summer of tests here we ought to be better prepared for a tough testing series in India for the winter. Where are the up and coming new bloods , why wasn' t anyone tried instead of the incumbents who kept on failing.

Its a b*gger as usually when we go off for the winter with an unsettled and unready squad we get stuffed.

Australia doing well in a dead rubber at 235/1

They always used to slate us for playing well in an already decided series

TBH easier for Australia to play well when the pitch is an old style subcontinent pitch played on one of the slowest decks in Sri lanka.

if Australia lose in SSC Colombo then they are hopeless when the ball moves a bit.

Again we come to the question of how long do you try people for ? Are you suggesting Gary Ballance should have gone after just 1 or 2 matches ? James Vince, for me, was worth persevering with. He was playing in a winning side rather than bringing in somebody new to the team who would have not only that to adapt to, but make instant runs.

Now is the time to chop and change the team, not during a series you are winning.

Vince and Ballance will probably go and there will be a huge question mark over Hales. Personally i would take Ballance to India but i feel he will get replaced by somebody like Bell-Drummond.

Although press is stating Vince won't be touring, hales 50-50 from touring and ballance guranteed to play 1st test in India.
Hales won't be playing 1st test in India and Vince dropped all together.

i would persevere with ballance, i thought he showed during his early appearances that he had a good attitude and temperament for test cricket, and whilst i wouldn't have brought him back when they did, the fact he is in the team now i dont like seeing us make potentially three changes to the top 5

i know there has been alot of discussion about team balance, assuming stokes will come back, and rashid comes in as a second spinner the XI will look something like this

cook
a n other
root
ballance
stokes
bairstow
moeen
woakes
rashid
broad
anderson

i'm not sure they really need stokes + 3 seamers for the pitches we will see in bangladesh and india but they cant drop woakes after the summer he has had and wont drop broad or anderson

Totally agree. I actually think Ballance was a bit unfortunate to be dropped when he was last summer, but had done very little, if anything, to justify being recalled this time around. His early record shows that there is a decent player there but he has a few technical issues to overcome.

Hales will almost certainly be in the tour party I'd have thought, I'd stick with him for the time being. Vince probably won't be and can have no complaints. Pretty 30s and 40s aren't going to cut it, especially when you keep getting out in the same way.

Vince could be one of those annoying players who do well in the county game, are great to watch and have undoubted talent but just don't perform in an England test shirt

My XV1 for the touring party(s)

I think I may rest Jimmy or Broad for the Bangla part as well

Bangladesh

Cook
Hales
Root
Ballance
Moeen
Stokes
Bairstow
Woakes
Rashid
Finn
Wood
Ball
Liam Dawson
Jason Roy
Sam Billings
David Willey

Then for India, replace Willey, Roy and Finn with Broad,Bell-Drummond and Jimmy

There's a lot of cricket coming up so I think a lot of squad rotation is likely

No with Ballance the longer the summer went on the more he attempted to deal with his dismissals and the opponents tactics. As for Hales and Vince it saddened me to see how they struggled with their poor temperaments. I would rather have seen Rashid at the Oval he would most likely have scored more runs than Vince and his bowling could have been a threat in the fourth innings.

Perhaps i'm casting my mind back too far to the past but India is still one country where they can exert a lot of pressure on a struggling batsman.

I wouldnt take Vince there and would look for a new man in his place.

Hales has a tourettes type tic in his batting the longer he goes on the sadder it is to see him playing loose get out shots as an opener. I'd rather see him play some 4 day games this season and start to pull himself together.

Ballance has become a bit of a grinder but if he's not facing a leg spin bowler like Yasir then his chance may improve.


Anyway Darren thanks for the response, its good to discuss the problems that the selectors have in front of them this summer.

Although h was the world record holder in 1965, Fred Truman was just dropped from the test team. He was never given the chance to retire from test cricket. . Nobody should be undropable.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-...y/1046551.html

some quite generous scoring there

its ok saying finn was unlucky but he gets 5/10 for taking 5 wickets @ 70

Nasser scoring was worse, how Pakistan had players rating lower than Vince, hales or even ballance was shocking.
I don't really read much into it since some of the English players get ranked higher than they should.
Nasser is generally awful in ranking players after a series.
Prefer Bob Willis method of giving grades than numbers, since people can't take it seriously and impossible to get average and statistics into it.

In general always annoying how players get 6 or 7 all the time, England mostly had 7 where as Pakistan had Low scores and some very high score in particular the pace men for Pakistan not sure how most got 8 or 7.
If anything England seam option were better but didn't have killer spells and Pakistan pace men were mostly average and poor but had killer spells through out the series.

haven't seen the pakistan ratings

how finn was given a higher ranking than ballance is a bit bizarre, surely a batsman averaging close to 30 across a series deserves more than a bowler taking just 5 wickets @ 70

Actually scrap that was thinking of Finn.
Although Nasser did give loads of 7s and scoring was higher than dobell on average.
Then again maybe not Shan masood got 2 and hafeez got 2.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.dai...?client=safari

Not looking positive for James Vince as he has been left out f the one day quad

Liam Dawson is in aa are the returning Ben Stokes and Mark Wood
Finn is out for 4 weeks with the hamstring injury he picked up at the Oval

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-...y/1046767.html

England ODI squad: E Morgan (capt) (Middlesex), M Ali (Worcestershire), J Bairstow (Yorkshire), J Buttler (Lancashire), L Dawson (Hampshire), C Jordan (Sussex), A Hales (Nottinghamshire), L Plunkett (Yorkshire), A Rashid (Yorkshire), J Root (Yorkshire), J Roy (Surrey), B Stokes (Durham), D Willey (Yorkshire), C Woakes (Warwickshire), M Wood (Durham).

wonder if we will see any of the first choice players rested for the bangladesh tour, assuming it goes ahead, i half expected to see root and bairstow left out of this ODI squad

If the batting lineup was more settled then you could see Root 'rested' for Bangladesh. As it is, I think he has to play.

thats kinda why i thought he might get rested for the ODIs where in theory we have alot more options

5 from Yorkshire but also

No complaints about the ODI squad - pretty strong & lots of flexibility.

really breaks the heart to see australia getting thumped again by sri lanka