The Cricket Thread

Drumstick wrote:Rooty tooty!

Well that was a joke. Bring on the second-best ODI team in the... oh.

On another topic, I'm very sad I can't find a linkable version of the Virat .gif.

Balladeer wrote:Well that was a joke. Bring on the second-best ODI team in the... oh.

On another topic, I'm very sad I can't find a linkable version of the Virat .gif.

I had a go at creating one. Behold:

With any luck we'll be getting plenty of mileage out of that this summer.

Drumstick for Forumite of 2018. Big cheers sir! That’s going to get all of the use. :mrgreen:

Yesterday was weird. Perfect conditions to bat long around the country and almost every county fell flat on their collective faces. The one notable guy that didn't? Oh, that's right, Rory Burns. Hope the ECB are taking note (spoiler: they aren't, as will be proven by their selection for the first test).

Herath has announced that the England series will be his last. Should be a good one for him given we are quite average at facing spin (although better than South Africa who have just been destroyed).

Rory made the mistake of imploding a bit during the India A game, when the selectors’ eyes were actually on him. Not sure his runs will be able to counteract that entirely.

The Sri Lanka tour will be lambs to the slaughter. I’d like to see England playing Moe over Stokes and two other spinners there. Won’t happen, and doesn’t really matter since only Cook will get any runs at all.

Come on Durham!

This is the documentary that was mentioned a couple of months ago in the middle of an English test match about match-fixing. It's definitely worth a watch. I'd be interested in peoples' thoughts after seeing it...

I watched it a couple of days after the news broke. Worrying, seemed to imply Mooen or Root were in on it.

Rashid back in the Test squad.

Drumstick wrote:

With any luck we'll be getting plenty of mileage out of that this summer.

Oho yes we will.

Ed Smith, upon his appointment: "Now I'm the Billy big bollocks, we'll be using lots of data as well as making the county scene matter again" or words to that effect.

Fast forward to May: "We're ignoring County cricket in favour of form shown in the IPL."

Fast forward some more: "We're ignoring County again by leaving out the standout batsmen, and also, just for good measure, we're going to include a guy based on his ODI form that doesn't even play first class in the County system. Suck it."

‘...but we’re also going to include a chap who has nothing going for him but all the county wickets.’ That being Jamie Porter.

I’m as confused as Virat was above.

It is kind of mind-blowing but it is also the exact kind of nonsensical, harebrained idea I expect from our friends at the ECB.

The inclusion of Porter is good, he's been knocking on the door for a few years and deserves a go.

I'm going to assume that they wouldn't have gone ahead and created this furore if they weren't intent on playing Rashid, so that means the line up might be something like this:

Cook, Jennings, Root, Moeen, Bairstow, Stokes, Buttler, Rashid, Broad, Porter, Anderson

?

Ooh I don't know, the ECB loves to pick Rashid and not play him, thus pissing off Yorkshire no end. Picking him during one of the two formats he's playing in would be even more #ECBantz.

Thinking about it (CONTROVERSY TIME), I think I actually like the Rashid pick more than the Porter one. Still wouldn't have picked him, mind... but I would have picked Moe, and Rashid turns the ball a different way, unlike Bess. Granted they could and should have picked Leach, but Ed Smith's right when he says he hasn't played much of late. Hasn't been taking oodles of wickets very recently too. (Still a better pick than Rashid though.)

Porter, on the other hand, has absolutely been knocking on the door, but it's a door marked 'right-arm not-that-quick seamer' and it's got Jimmy Broad Stokes and even a fit Woakes on the other side. He feels like a straight swap for Jimmy, only Jimmy's still there and taking wickets. The seam attack you suggest, Drumstick, is very one-note. If the spinners go for runs (and that's a given with almost any English spinner at some point), there's nothing new to try. I'd go for SCurran over Porter: he may be as slow as the frame rate in the Switch port of The Sexy Brutale, but he offers something, anything, different.

Neither is a good pick, mind; but I think I find Rashid actually less bad. Go figure.

England XI for first Test

Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

Absolutely no expectations whatsoever.

Rashid over Moe... (whacks face into door repeatedly)

Not that they left themselves any choice after the whole furore. Still.

Balladeer wrote:Rashid over Moe... (whacks face into door repeatedly)

Not that they left themselves any choice after the whole furore. Still.

I dunno, Moeen's batting in test matches wasn't up to much over the winter and I don't think you can pick him over Rashid based on his bowling. There should be enough batting in that team without having to have Moeen coming in at 8 to save the day. That's a big should though.

This will be interesting.

I’m actually thinking about the bowling. Moe destroyed India last time they came to England, and he took 8 at 21 against Somerset in the last round of CC. The round Rashid didn’t even play.

I guess we’ll see.

I don't understand the Curran selection over Porter, I don't understand Malan's continued inclusion at the expense of Rory Burns who is averaging over 70 this season... And I don't understand handing the vice captaincy to a guy that has been back in the team for two matches after years in the wilderness.

Imma have a go at this...

Drumstick wrote:I don't understand the Curran selection over Porter...

I’m very much in favour of this. I think Woakes/Porter is the future, and when Jimmy drops out Porter should come straight in, but he just doesn’t seem to offer much over Broaderson while Broaderson are still in the team. Another good rfm. Especially because he likely won’t take the new ball.

I’d prefer to see someone with a bit of pace, but Curran’s left-arm angle is at least something different. There’s also the fact that, with England’s batsmen being (to put it kindly) a bit toss, having the worst 9 10 Jack since Mullally Tufnell Giddins in Broad Anderson Porter probably isn’t a great move.

Drumstick wrote:I don't understand Malan's continued inclusion at the expense of Rory Burns who is averaging over 70 this season...

I don’t like this either. I feel Burns has been typecast as an opener at a time when Keaton hasn’t deserved the drop yet, when he could quite easily come in at 3. This is more of a consistency pick, I think, combined with Malan’s decent Lions performance for India A, but surely this has to be last chance saloon for Dawwwid.

Drumstick wrote:And I don't understand handing the vice captaincy to a guy that has been back in the team for two matches after years in the wilderness.

They really really like Buttler huh. It does seem a bit soon, granted, but he’s done it well enough in white ball and I’m not sure the skill set differs that much in red. I prefer this to Anderson, frankly, who could drop from the team at any moment.

So one good decision, one questionable decision, and one possibly decent decision that’s a bit too soon from my point of view. Burns should definitely be in the squad though.

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