*Official* Road to the 2010/11 Ashes

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by GeraintIsMyHero

You say finally as if this will be his eighth series in Australia...

Also 'against someone else' doesn't carry the same weight as it did in 2006 I'm afraid. You lot are ranked 5th in the world

That's not to say Anderson doesn't have a lot to prove, his record away from home isn't good enough and it's fair enough to expect him to fail. I just think that counting the last away Ashes series for anything when it comes to Anderson is misguided and that his battles with conditions are a bit overplayed. I mean I always read on this site about how it's a batsman's game these days and Anderson has averaged low-twenties for the past year or so, IIRC.

Edit - 22.64 since the last Ashes. Yeah we've played some crud teams in that time but we did go to South Africa, a much better team than Australia. Jimmeh rules.

No, just that he's never been outstanding against us, anywhere he's played. I haven't watched him against too many other teams. We beat that much better team than us in SA too, so Mitch rules as well

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by flibbertyjibber

Yeah and they stuffed you in Australia.

Absolutely stuffed us...

[Marcuss]

Originally Posted by Son Of Coco

No, just that he's never been outstanding against us, anywhere he's played. I haven't watched him against too many other teams. We beat that much better team than us in SA too, so Mitch rules as well

Except for Anderson it was his most recent winter tour... whereas we all know what Johnson managed overseas last year.

[tooextracool]

Originally Posted by Son Of Coco

Not at all, just don't believe he has lived up to the hype. We heard about how much he'd turned into a match-winner last Ashes. Ho-hum.

If things have changed since then, then we'll see this time around.

Hes always been a match winner when the conditions have suited him even when he was a fresh face 20 year old. Have things changed since then? well he has a much greater command over swing bowling to the point where Id argue that when the ball is swinging he is the best in the world. The problem is when it isnt swinging, which is when he struggles to take wickets and that has not changed. However, over the summer hes been working on bowling the right lines and lengths even when the ball isnt swinging. So while he might not take wickets, at least he might be able to keep it tight. With Swann in the side, England can afford to have a bowler as mercurial as him who requires the right conditions to become threatening.

[aussie tragic]

Australia's 12 month Batting form leading into the Ashes

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | Cricinfo.com

Disecting the stats, funny how the top scoring batsmen follows the batting order....however the 50/100 conversion ratio is only 10 hundreds and 36 fifties for the top 7so not good enough..yet again, North exposed as the weak link....

...wow at Hauritz averaging 34 with the bat, time to move him up to # 8 (Johnson only averaging 12)...in fact Hilfy averages 23 so Johnson maybe should bat at # 10

For bowling, not too many surprises, except that Watson is significantly under utilised

Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | Cricinfo.com

[tooextracool]

Read this story about Pietersen earlier this week. Is a bit worrying to hear him say something like this to be honest:

My career is 'on the way down' admits Pietersen - Cricket, Sport - The Independent

[Shri]

Needs to get the skunk hairdo again to get back to form imo.

[King Pietersen]

Originally Posted by tooextracool

Read this story about Pietersen earlier this week. Is a bit worrying to hear him say something like this to be honest:

My career is 'on the way down' admits Pietersen - Cricket, Sport - The Independent

The quote was taken out of context. He meant that he's over 30 now and is heading towards the end of his career in age terms. He didn't mean he is declining as a cricketer, just that he's reached 30 and knows he's only got a few years left in the game.

From his Twitter: "I was merely talking about age and that's it!! I'm in SA at the moment to get back playing at my best.. And It felt great today.."

[GIMH]

Originally Posted by grecian

nah again

Flintoff bowled incredibly well in the first innings and created pressure which jimmy, brilliantly capitalised on.

So Freddie was great in two innings, and Jimmeh was in one.

Yeah fair points, ill let you have this round

[aussie]

Originally Posted by Uppercut

It's conventional wisdom that banging it in is the way to success in Australia but there's barely been a bowler this millennium to go there and support that theory. Even the ones that bowled really well got absolutely smashed- check out how many wickets Kemar Roach and Ishant Sharma left with.

Australia's recent home batting failures have all been exclusively down to swing. At the SCG last year against Asif and Sami, at the MCG the year before when Steyn took ten and at Perth the year before that against (of all people) RP Singh and Irfan Pathan. Jimmeh's absolutely crucial.

All true. But the conventional wisdom more goes back to what used to happen in AUS pre 2000s, since pitches in AUS i.e Perth haven't been as bouncy this decade as before.

A good swing bowler will come into play in the matches your rightly highlighted. But all those seaming conditions basically appeared once over a course a series. Eerything else was flat & that really is Anderson's challenge - to bowl well when it isn't swinging.

A good hit-the-deck/bang-it-in type bowler in top form really hasn't toured AUS much since 2000. The only one is remember was Ntini & Nel in 05/06 & Akhtar 04/05 they did pretty well.

[Woodster]

I think on the Anderson debate, we all recognised how crucial he can be in the right conditions for his style of bowling, that is swinging conditions. I would suggest he is the best in the world when conditions are stacked in his favour, and we also appreciate the fact it is when the going is not so good that will define exactly how good a bowler he is.

Thought that was one thing Hilfenhaus did in India, proved the ball doesn't have to swing round corners for him to do a more than efficient job for his side. Changed his tactics and was still effective. Jimmy must show he is capable of doing a similar job for England this winter.

[GingerFurball]

Originally Posted by zaremba

A fair amount of special pleading here, tbf. His record away from home is poor because on the whole he's been poor away from home. I don't really buy the "leader of the attack" thing. In fact I don't know what it means or how it's relevant.

True, and I've admitted that. But he's played twice as many games at home than he has away from home and it's only since 2008 that he's been regarded as a first choice bowler - his career away from England up until then is a scattering of one off Tests here and there, with 3 Tests of an Ashes series in Australia when he'd played virtually no First Class cricket in the 2006 domestic season due to injury.

The time to properly judge Anderson away from home is after 4 or 5 seasons of consistently bowling in all conditions - something he's only had for 2 seasons of a 7 year Test career.

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by Marcuss

Except for Anderson it was his most recent winter tour... whereas we all know what Johnson managed overseas last year.

Yes, his most recent tour in conditions that generally suit quick bowling.

As I said before, the same things were being said about him before The Ashes last year. We'll see at the end of the year, maybe things have changed. going on recent form our batting line-up will certainly give him a helping hand at some stage. If it's swinging then he might not need it.

[FBU]

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

True, and I've admitted that. But he's played twice as many games at home than he has away from home and it's only since 2008 that he's been regarded as a first choice bowler - his career away from England up until then is a scattering of one off Tests here and there, with 3 Tests of an Ashes series in Australia when he'd played virtually no First Class cricket in the 2006 domestic season due to injury.

The time to properly judge Anderson away from home is after 4 or 5 seasons of consistently bowling in all conditions - something he's only had for 2 seasons of a 7 year Test career.

Yes I would agree with that.

[BoyBrumby]

Trying to work out which bowler was the guilty party, tbh. Has to be (my guess) Tiny Tim or Swanneh for my quid, Can't really imagine Broad, Tremlett, Finn or Panesar having much of a right hook.