GRcade

The absolute f***

Middle-order really blew a perfect opportunity to make decisive scores but fortunately Woakes, Broad and Wood made up for it scoring 110 between them.

Balladeer wrote:The absolute f***

Once more with (a different) feeling.

Woody! Love Wood.

(waits)

That was devastating. England 3 Diarrhoea 1.

Something that puzzled me the other day was the insertion of Tom Banton into the ODI team for the practice matches.

1) He is better suited to T20 at this stage of his career.
2) Surely Sam Hain, with the highest List A average of all-time, is the guy who should be coming into the team? I noticed he again scored an unbeaten century the other day for the Lions vs. Cricket Australia XI.

This recent obsession over Banton is a bit OTT.

All white ball games for now are basically World T20 prep. Sam Hain probably won’t be playing in the World T20. I suppose Banton might? I don’t really care about T20s.

Pretend like you do for the sake of this thread. Provide some savage hot-takes or something.

15 players per squad, first-choice XI is probably Roy, Bairstow, Malan, Morgan, Stokes, Buttler, Moeen, TCurran, Archer, Jordan, Rashid (if fit). Four squaddies will be Banton, Parkinson, SCurran and Woakes.

Denly and Pat Brown have an outside chance.

Could someone please explain this Under-19 Cricket World Cup Plate final to me, please?

If you go out in the group stage you play another knockout for the loser’s prize.

Balladeer wrote:If you go out in the group stage you play another knockout for the loser’s prize.

As I suspected. Pfft! says I. PFFT!

Ha! Absolute shambles.

Whoooooooo’s up for some Jennings?

Giveth with one hand (Foakes) and taketh with the other (Jennings)

But you cannot argue with his (Jennings) inclusion though, his record against spin is excellent. As much as I love to gooseberry fool on the ECB they have got this squad selection spot on. Recalled Foakes and no Bairstow too.

First XI should be: Sibley, Crawley, Denly, Root, Stokes, Pope, Foakes, Curran, Leach, Bess, Wood.

I’d have scrapped Parkinson for Dawson myself. Parkinson’s a young talent but isn’t ready at this point for this stage. Otherwise it’s sound. Wish the ECB hadn’t pissed off Moe, but a list of all the things I wish the ECB hadn’t done would be a loooooong list.

Balladeer wrote:a list of all the things I wish the ECB hadn’t done would be a loooooong list.

Yes, even if you only limited it to the last 12 months.

I do think their last few squads have been better than usual though.

I have some grudging respect for Ed Smith as a selector, for the most part. Left field picks such as Bess and Denly have come off, and for a while I could even see the sense in Buttler. Bairstow has been a funny one, though. You could look at it through the lens of ‘keeping him happy for the sake of the World Cup’ I suppose, but it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Then there’s Jason Roy.

Balladeer wrote:I have some grudging respect for Ed Smith as a selector, for the most part. Left field picks such as Bess and Denly have come off, and for a while I could even see the sense in Buttler. Bairstow has been a funny one, though. You could look at it through the lens of ‘keeping him happy for the sake of the World Cup’ I suppose, but it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Then there’s Jason Roy.

It's difficult to know quite how much each decision has to do with him. If, for example, Joe Root had gone to him and said "I need Jason Roy for the Ashes" is Ed Smith really going to say no?

Things have definitely got better since he came in, there's been good and bad decisions, but probably more of the former, thankfully. The general direction of the Test team, in terms of the style of play and the personnel, seems to have far greater clarity to it.

The thing with YJB is that he's going off to the IPL and then he's got a summer full of LOIs so he isn't going to be playing any red ball cricket. Hopefully Smith and Co stick by their word and don't re-select him until he improves.