GRcade

Stokes gone with nothing to show for it. Game over.

I have literally no confidence in Broad's batting.

Fair result to be honest. England wouldn’t have a single point in this series if Smith hadn’t been injured at one stage.

Thoughts on the same squad being retained for the final test?

I appreciate no-one’s exactly hammering on the door for a call-up, and blooding someone new in an (almost) dead rubber (world test championship points notwithstanding) after which the head coach is leaving.

But I do think wholesale changes will be needed for the matches this Winter - but who’s out there who’ll really be better than what we have at the moment?

How much say does the England coach actually get in the squad? I can see the benefits of giving the new coach a clean sweep of the team but if he's just being given the same 14/15 names then what is the point.

The only positives of this ashes series in my mind are Burns, Stokes, Broad, Leach and to a lesser extent Archer (who I think has been far too overworked in his first summer of international cricket). The rest have been various shades of dog gooseberry fool. But we can't ditch everyone.

It's cowardly. Roy, Buttler and Barstow should have been jettisoned for Sibley, Pope and Foakes.

Sir Geoffrey and Sir Straussy!

Straussy - Yes, Geoffrey - not so much, if being a belligerent, miserable old bastard is cause for a knighthood then I'm well on my way to becoming a Lord.

I kind of don't want any new players to be thrown into the deep end for this last Test when the Ashes are already lost. It doesn't feel like a good place to start careers, it feels like a place to destroy them. See: Simon Kerrigan, Scott Borthwick. The Sibley/Foakes/Pope thing is a good idea thereafter, but they really do need to find space for Sam Curran to play most matches. Out of the surfeit of all-rounders that England have, he's the second-best right now and that's because the best one is absurd.

I'm off to the cricket today! Middlesex vs. Durham. Hoping for fun, sun, and wickets. (No real doubt re. the latter.)

Wow, Boycott didn't even have to black up for his knighthood?!

Cuttooth wrote:Wow, Boycott didn't even have to black up for his knighthood?!

He was too busy beating the gooseberry fool out of a woman to have time to find his facepaint.

Balladeer wrote:I'm off to the cricket today! Middlesex vs. Durham. Hoping for fun, sun, and wickets. (No real doubt re. the latter.)

Not a great morning for you.

Par for the course to be honest. At least there were mugs of prosecco.

Roy and Overton dropped with Curran and Woakes in, Stokes won't bowl. So I guess that means Root still at 3 with Stokes up to 4?

Root has stated Stokes will be playing as a "top four batter" so yes. Stokes Bairstow and Buttler move up one and Curran comes in at 7.

twitter.com/talkSPORTDrive/status/1171798518178242560

Speaking of which, Root dropped twice. Bit late, but quite funny!

FFS Root.

I cba with this "no jinxing" thing - this is gooseberry fool even when we don't post in thread. This track is so flat. So, so frustrating to watch.

We're so average