Cricket

FWIW I think England could well go in with four seamers and just the one spinner after the evidence offered and especially that by the nature of the balls being used in this series.

England have been more than a little surprised by just how prominent the seam carried by this version of the Dukes ball is, the seam staying proud throughout and enabling swing and movement off the wicket which seems to continue for most of the day.

Therefore I suspect their proposed line-up will change to four seamers and only one spinner and may only alter to two spinners if England were to arrive at the Oval on Monday to find it dry and ready to turn, which is unlikely. West Indies have only one specialist spinner in their squad, Jomel Warrican, a tidy left-armer.

Curran’s left-handedness is an advantage on a West Indian island blessed by Trade-Winds. The Barbadian Oval has high stands but still allows the prevailing wind to enter from third man when the bowling is from the pavilion end.

Ideally Curran and Stokes could bowl to the right handers from one end. While the two senior bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad (and Woakes were he to play) share the same end which would be ideally suited to their outswingers, as would Moeen Ali so he can drift his off-spin.

Harnessing the breeze, Moeen Ali this week has bowled more flightily than at any time in his England career, and he dismissed three left-handers in the right sort of ways, caught at slip or stumped – and three of West Indies’ top five batsmen will be left-handed. In case any of their lower-order right-handers hang around, Root has been bowling leg-breaks.

As a batsman Moeen has failed twice as has Keaton Jennings, but Curran is a better bat than Rashid and they should bat all the way to nine and can possibly carry one or two misfiring batsmen. Broad and Anderson are the only real tail enders.

I think Woakes will be unlucky but good to have on standby for injuries and I would make a stab at this line up.

Burns, Jennings, Bairstow, Root, Stokes, Buttler, Ali, Foakes, Curran, Broad, Anderson
 
Trevor Bayliss gives an indication of being close to knowing the starting eleven.

Trevor Bayliss was contemplating what could be a momentous year ahead for English cricket and his last in charge of the team

England's summer features a World Cup and Ashes series on home soil and Bayliss insists his side will embrace the challenge of doubling up at home.

"That happens very rarely [to have a World Cup and Ashes series at home] and it brings pressure with it," added Bayliss, who coached Sri Lanka to the World Cup final in India in 2011.

"[But] it's one with opportunity and an opportunity these guys want to take hold of."

But first it's the five day game and this series in the Caribbean, and with the first test approaching, Bayliss thinks they're almost there with selection...

"We're pretty close to deciding our team," Bayliss said. "We're probably down to a 12, but we'll wait until we get to the ground to see conditions.

"It will either be two spinners and two quicks plus [Ben] Stokes, or one spinner and three quicks, plus Stokes."

I would guess then the side is as my last post unless they play an extra spinner when possibly Rashid (or less likely for me, Leach) would replace either Curran or Broad but I guess the twelve is ...

Burns, Jennings, Bairstow, Root, Stokes, Buttler, Ali, Foakes, Curran, Broad, Anderson, Rashid

He then looked back on the last four days practice..

“The most pleasing thing for me was the attitude in these four days,” said Bayliss, before England took the weekend off, deservedly. “We set ourselves the challenge to be as good as we could in a practice match. That’s a learning process for this group and it’s good to see we’ve been able to do that.” The traditional English way would have been to grumble about the facilities, coast through the practice game, hope everything would turn out alright on the night - and be caught unprepared.

Meanwhile skipper Joe Root was speaking ahead of the weekend break...

“We could get a number of different-type wickets (in the West Indies) so we’ll have to be adaptable as we were in Sri Lanka,” Root said. “We were open to a number of different options and we’re here as a whole squad, not just as an eleven. We’re making sure everyone feels ready and in a position to start and we can go from there.”

Asked whether Curran could open the bowling at Kensington Oval on Wednesday, Root said: ‘He could do, yeah. Why not? We know what Stuart can do with the new ball, we’ve seen him do it for years. So this was a chance for Sam to get an opportunity to do some learning by partnering Jimmy and swinging the ball around. We’ve seen in practice that it has swung for the majority of the day so giving him (Curran) that chance was a way of us growing as a squad and making sure we’re fully equipped, and given me plenty of options for selection in that first game.”
 
Joe Root urges England to think about now not the Ashes as he contemplates starting Adil Rashid in place of Stuart Broad

Stuart Broad or Adil Rashid seems the final selection dilemma facing England as they prepared for the start of the first test at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.

With West Indian Shannon Gabriel looking ominous and finding steep bounce when bowling on the pitch beside the Test surface on Tuesday it was a reminder this will be the first real examination for Rory Burns against the short ball, and yet another serious test against real quality pace for his under pressure partner Keaton Jennings.

So Root understandably focussed especially on the openers...

“Their job and their responsibility is not to worry about the Ashes, their job is to perform well for three Test matches here,” said Root about Burns and his partner, Keaton Jennings. “To have that as a clear focus, and if they look after that I’m sure that’ll look after Ashes cricket and whatever comes down the line. I don’t want the guys to be playing for stuff that’s going to be happening in six months’ time. We have to look after here and now, and make sure we are very aware that these are going to be three hard Test matches where we’re going to have to be consistent. We’re going to have to play well for long periods of time and know exactly what our role is individually, and not be distracted by other things.”

In the Caribbean they are going to have to think on their feet, adapt to situations such as the puzzling pitch in Bridgetown which had a big team of ground staff gathered around it on Tuesday like concerned doctors examining a sick patient.

Two days ago it looked a spinners pitch, mottled and resembling a stained “pub carpet” according to one pundit. But it has been watered twice since then much to England’s surprise, confusing all.

If England go with two spinners then Adil Rashid is ahead of Jack Leach for his ability to bowl big turning balls on any surface and defeat tailenders with his googly. The sea breeze blowing across the ground will help Sam Curran’s swing, and the left-arm variation as well as his batting is so valued by Root, especially as this could be a short low scoring contest.

Curran’s selection would mean Stuart Broad is left out again, confirming his new status as a squad player. However, if the ball is going to seam and hold its shine, then Broad is still one of the best in the business with a Dukes ball. Anderson, Stokes and Curran bowled as a trio on the middle pitches at keeper Ben Foakes on Tuesday morning further suggesting they will be Root’s seam attack.

West Indies have a poor record against spin, they lost all 40 wickets to spin in Bangladesh before Christmas, but Bridgetown historically favours pace and seam so Root will sleep on his final decision.

“The message I've tried to get across is the achievement is to get in the squad because you're never going to win big series away from home with XI players,” he said. “The sooner everyone can be on board with that and understand that, the better. It worked extremely well in Sri Lanka, everyone bought in to how we want to go about things and we have to take that forward now. We've seen that it works and creates a really good environment for us to go and play in a relaxed manner and enjoy the tour.

“If we're in a position to leave someone of Stuart's stature out it's not because of lack of form or lack of ability or because his career is coming to an end. Far from that he's actually looking like he's improving all the time.”

England (possible) Burns, Jennings, Bairstow, Root (capt), Stokes, Buttler, Moeen, Foakes (wkt), Curran, Rashid, Anderson.

Going into a low scoring game with a fragile looking opening pair against real pace and quality seam could spell disaster. So batting very long, right up to number ten in this case, and having late order runs to turn around a poor total, is a massive weapon and something Ed Smith, Trevor Bayliss and Joe Root are all known to heavily favour.

Nick Hoult who i find an extremely reliable source wrote most of the above, his team predictions are almost always right on the money too, so its Broad or Rashid for that last place.

It's behind a paywall but the vast majority is as above

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/201 ... art-broad/
 
Windies batting by choice first up after winning the toss.

Joe Root admitted he would have batted first too.

The England team

England Burns, Jennings, Bairstow, Root (capt), Stokes, Buttler, Moeen, Foakes (wkt), Curran, Rashid, Anderson.

Nick Hoult who i find an extremely reliable source spot on again. It's quite uncanny how he seems to predict it right almost everytime, must have a very good antennae or watch training very carefully.
 
Not sure quite how upset I'd be if I was Stuart Broad, there didn't look an awful lot in the wicket to me, surprising considering the look of it but this is looking a great toss to win now.

It's playing like a very tame wicket, hard work for the bowlers
 
Chris O'Connor said:
Not sure quite how upset I'd be if I was Stuart Broad, there didn't look an awful lot in the wicket to me, surprising considering the look of it but this is looking a great toss to win now.

It's playing like a very tame wicket, hard work for the bowlers
Click to expand...
hes going out with molly king he probly aint even arsed !
 

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