GRcade

The strawberry float, I've posted in the past. Has the time machine been fixed?

I blame Drummy for this

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Appalling.

Cook has stepped down as Test captain.

One would assume Joe Root is the planned successor...

That's got to be pretty much a done deal.

Well played Alistair, now focus on Tendulkar's test centuries record. Only another 21 to go!

Thing is, right, England have this unofficial policy of giving the captaincy to their best batsman. A problem with this is that on occasion, the decision making required when fulfilling this role has appeared to weaken the captain's batting. Cook was undeniably affected by this for almost 2 years but fortunately for him he was the captain and also had many years of batting brilliance to fall back on to keep his position in the team secure for far longer than basically any player's should be when experiencing a loss in form.

Joe Root has the potential to become the greatest England batsman EVER. I think appointing him as captain is pretty dangerous considering that for so long now, England has repeatedly relied on him to save their innings after numerous top order collapses. Now that Cook is free from the burden of captaincy, you would hope that his batting might improve (although it has in general been very good in the last couple of years). But what if Root’s batting then goes the same way as Cook’s when he took on the captaincy? You are in essence trading one for the other. I just think England would be better off leaving Root (and now Cook) alone and deploy them to score a gluttonous amount of runs.

The problem is if not Root then who? The likely line-up for the next test if everyone is fit will be: Hameed, Cook, Jennings, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Ali, Woakes, Broad, Anderson and there’s a space in the middle-order for someone.

The only other real option for captian is Stokes and I don’t know if I’d be happy with that either.

Incidentally, with regard to that spot in the middle-order, if Roy can sort out his woes against spin then I’d like to see him given a shot. Lord knows that the Aussies are going to have their quicks ready for November and Jason Roy absolutely loves it when the ball is coming onto the bat.

Is there space in that line up for a Mike Brearley sort of captain, contributing little with bat or ball but being a brilliant captain? The only other option at the moment is Morgan and I don't rate him as a captain. Maybe someone in county cricket is great at that sort of thing? Bowlers should never be captains so that would only leave Bairstow in the current squad but is that giving a wk even more to think about in the field when he should just be concentrating on keeping?

Rex Kramer wrote:Is there space in that line up for a Mike Brearley sort of captain, contributing little with bat or ball but being a brilliant captain? The only other option at the moment is Morgan and I don't rate him as a captain. Maybe someone in county cricket is great at that sort of thing? Bowlers should never be captains so that would only leave Bairstow in the current squad but is that giving a wk even more to think about in the field when he should just be concentrating on keeping?

I would not choose Bairstow because if he is to become the long term WK then he has enough on his plate learning that trade. Speaking of JB, Boycott made a comment at the end of the test series that I totally disagree with about WKs should never bat higher than 7. I see no issue with JB batting at 5.

Morgan isn't on the table though I actually think he is a pretty decent limited overs captain.

Flintoff managed being captain OK so I think Stokes is in with a shout if they choose to not go with Root (although this seems massively unlikely).

Hi chaps,

Just a heads up that the Pakistan Super League (kinda like the IPL/Big Bash and seems to be really attracting all the big names (Gayle, McCullum etc all there... and plenty of interest from Roy/Billings/Jordan/Morgan etc) is free to view.

Just reg for free on:

https://www.cricketgateway.com/pakistan ... aming.html

and you can live-stream in browser.

Scratch that - I don't think it's free. No idea why it just let me watch for a while...!

Root's been confirmed as the new captain.

Roooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot.

Let's hope the captaincy somehow helps him turn the 50s into hundreds/daddy hundreds.

Boom Boom has retired from all international cricket.

Duckworth Lewis Method

In a rather surprising start to the series, Australia have managed to bowl India out...

... for 105.

Hameed and Jennings have struggled against Sri Lanka A so far... In contrast Liam Livingston has scored 2 centuries and a half century. Really think he's a strong contender to break into the first XI this year.

So many top order options!

PaperMacheMario wrote:.

Livingstone is more of a middle order player - if JB moves up to 5 as he should, Livingstone could play at 7 which would be a decent place to blood him into the team.

PaperMacheMario wrote:.

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