The Ashes 2021/22

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Bruce Wayne said:
I'm not sure Wood is the answer he's often touted as being either. He averages 39 against Australia. As you say, Broad and Anderson have always done best at home and it's far from clear that any of those looking to take their place are really up to the job, and the less said about the spinners the better.

The batting has been even worse though, with Burns, Pope, Crawley and Hameed getting just 205 runs between them across 18 innings at an average of 11! For four members of the top 6 to average 11 between them after 4 matches is utterly woeful, and that between all four of the sorry buzzards they have as many runs as Malan, who himself is only averaging 29 just shows how utterly awful the batsmen have been.
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I worry about Hameed because he has too few scoring shots. Crawley has basically only had one score, it just happenned to be a big double hundred. I'm not sure he's good enough. I would probably stick with Pope moving forward because he averages almost 60 for Surrey so obviously has some talent. Buttler's position also has to be called into question at this stage. Bairstow is more likely to get a big score than him. Malan I think deserves a longer run too.

Where you find 2 new openers from though, I have no idea. But I really would prefer a left and right combo. It just works better and upsets the bowlers and field positions. They might just need to start picking the best 6 batsmen and then sorting out the order from there. If there are no top specialist openers, then better middle order players will need to adapt.

The spin bowling is a bit of a mess. Ali is still by far the best option, but has retired from tests as far as I know. Root probably needs to use himself as the spinner and play the extra pace bowling all rounder like Woakes instead. There's no point picking a spinner just for the sake of it.
 

ToffeeTim said:
I worry about Hameed because he has too few scoring shots. Crawley has basically only had one score, it just happenned to be a big double hundred. I'm not sure he's good enough. I would probably stick with Pope moving forward because he averages almost 60 for Surrey so obviously has some talent. Buttler's position also has to be called into question at this stage. Bairstow is more likely to get a big score than him. Malan I think deserves a longer run too.

Where you find 2 new openers from though, I have no idea. But I really would prefer a left and right combo. It just works better and upsets the bowlers and field positions. They might just need to start picking the best 6 batsmen and then sorting out the order from there. If there are no top specialist openers, then better middle order players will need to adapt.

The spin bowling is a bit of a mess. Ali is still by far the best option, but has retired from tests as far as I know. Root probably needs to use himself as the spinner and play the extra pace bowling all rounder like Woakes instead. There's no point picking a spinner just for the sake of it.
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Indeed. If you take that huge score from Crawley out of the equation, he averages 18 across 28 innings. It's not just that he doesn't get big runs, but he doesn't even get modest runs. Against Australia he averages 11, New Zealand 4(!), India 16, and Sri Lanka 8. Those are across 13 innings as well so not like a one off test match. It's just really bad. It's got to the point where someone like Gary Ballance or Ravi Bopara would be established members of the lineup just by virtue of averaging over 30 as opposed to 10-20.

As you say, it's not like there are plenty of players banging the door down demanding selection. The whole domestic scene seems a mess. I've always been an Essex fan since the Gooch days, and so one part of me is happy they've been winning stuff lately, but another part of me thinks its rubbish because there is not really anyone there who would push for England selection. It's not good when medium pace trundlers like Sam Cook and Jamie Porter do "so" well, and yet here we are with Cook averaging 20 and Porter 24 over a pretty long period of time.
 
Bruce Wayne said:
I'm not sure Wood is the answer he's often touted as being either. He averages 39 against Australia. As you say, Broad and Anderson have always done best at home and it's far from clear that any of those looking to take their place are really up to the job, and the less said about the spinners the better.

The batting has been even worse though, with Burns, Pope, Crawley and Hameed getting just 205 runs between them across 18 innings at an average of 11! For four members of the top 6 to average 11 between them after 4 matches is utterly woeful, and that between all four of the sorry buzzards they have as many runs as Malan, who himself is only averaging 29 just shows how utterly awful the batsmen have been.
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Its not baseball with some fat statistician able to call the shots, pace matters in oz
 
England have called up Sam Billings to join the squad from the Big Bash. Buttler has an injured hand and Bairstow injured his thumb during his innings today.

While the Big Bash is no sort of preparation for Test cricket, I would also like to have seen Joe Clarke called up, especially if Stokes can't play the final game. Bat him at 5 or 6, tell him they are looking at him for the future, so this game would be a bonus for him. The alternatives are to recall Pope, play Lawrence who hasn't had an innings for ages, or play Billings. Clarke has talent and would probably already have been picked but for his off-field misdemeanors, and the series is lost, so why not?
 
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BigMick said:
England have called up Sam Billings to join the squad from the Big Bash. Buttler has an injured hand and Bairstow injured his thumb during his innings today.

While the Big Bash is no sort of preparation for Test cricket, I would also like to have seen Joe Clarke called up, especially if Stokes can't play the final game. Bat him at 5 or 6, tell him they are looking at him for the future, so this game would be a bonus for him. The alternatives are to recall Pope, play Lawrence who hasn't had an innings for ages, or play Billings. Clarke has talent and would probably already have been picked but for his off-field misdemeanors, and the series is lost, so why not?
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Mentioned billings to my mates earlier this morning to replace Buttler as he seems to be in good nick and is already in Aus. About 2 hours later it was announced that he'd been called up. At the end of the day he can't really do any worse than Jos.
 
Ivo said:
Mentioned billings to my mates earlier this morning to replace Buttler as he seems to be in good nick and is already in Aus. About 2 hours later it was announced that he'd been called up. At the end of the day he can't really do any worse than Jos.
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Agreed. Apparently Pope has been seen practising his keeping in the nets, so they might go that route, but I'd prefer to see Billings given a go, even if it's just a reward for his near wasted summers touring around as a covid substitute.

Buttler surely has to be finished as a test player.
 
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good pressure bowling from Anderson and broad, one or two wickets before the pressure is relieved will be the first time this series that the Aussies are thinking of anything other than a massive win(for a short period of time before they cruised to a 4-0 lead)
 
Might as well have picked Livingstone, not sure in what batting position, but he surely couldn’t have scored less runs than Hameed/Burns/Crawley. All 3 have been shockingly bad, but Hameed especially, he’s making Geoff Boycott look like Viv Richards such is his scoring rate
 


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