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England players and selection discussion thread

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
My issue with the "where saving test cricket" statement's from the guys in the group is that it seems to have correlated with them doubling down on a lot of argressive, dumb stuff on the field. I liked stokes and mccullum when they first came together because it seemed like they'de taken a team that couldn't win to save there lives and A. Loosened some players like bairstow up, B. Adapted some agressive, white ball strategy that made the team better (coming down the pitch to pacers to disrupt the length, even root's reverse scoop) and C. Found a way to use irregular bowling/fielding strategies to take 20 wickets even on flat pitches.

Around the start of the last home ashes they started making those "saving test cricket" statements to the media, and at the same time they appeared to me atleast to be doubling down on stuff unnecessarily (short ball play and lyon at the start of the ashes both good examples). Maybe bazball was just all hype, under root they dominated at home, smashed a poor SL in SL and were competitive in NZ before drawing a home ashes and getting obliterated in India much like stokes did, but I feel like they've gone from controlled, planned agression mixed with good cricket to brainless play.
I agree that comments about 'saving test cricket' were best kept behind closed doors rather than stated publicly. I gather that's what McCullum said at the interview when he was asked why he wanted the England job, which is fair enough. But it shouldn't have gone beyond the confines of the England set-up.
 

ImpatientLime

International Regular
the captain of one of the big three prattling on about 'saving test cricket' is quite something to behold.

the sense of self importance went off the scale sometime ago with this group.
 

howitzer

State Captain

Remember they just retired a person who is bowling faster and with better control.
In fairness to Woakes he tends to require some cricket behind him to get into good form but, yeah, biases aside, is he actually a better option than Anderson anyway? Even 41(2/3) year old Anderson. Probably not.
 

howitzer

State Captain
It's just that the reasons that they have ****ed off Anderson also apply, at least to some degree, to Woakes to me so in that regard it makes no sense.
 

FBU

International Debutant
Well Woakes can bat...
but can he replace Archer, Wood, Atkinson, Pennington, Robinson, Potts. Maybe Stokes, Key and McCullum have told him they see him leading the attack in Australia.
 

centurymaker

Cricketer Of The Year
He hasn't scored a Test fifty since 2021. I think they are overrating his batting. There are a couple of other fast bowlers around who can do a similar job.

Plus I highly doubt he will be taken to Australia as he will be close to 37 by then. He even admitted that it looks unlikely, given his away record. (The headline published was clickbait).
 

danzydab

U19 Debutant
Potts was batting pretty well this season for Durham albeit on some pretty flat surfaces. I wonder if he can bat no.8 for england away from home
 

Chin Music

State Vice-Captain
It all takes me back a bit to the last England tour of the West Indies, without Broad and Anderson. Sure, some of the other personnel appear to no longer be in the picture, such as Craig Overton and Matt Fisher. But I'm not entirely sure you are going to learn about some of these guys in England compared to overseas matches given the difference in conditions.
 

mackembhoy

International Regular
Potts was batting pretty well this season for Durham albeit on some pretty flat surfaces. I wonder if he can bat no.8 for england away from home
He's not a test number 8. He bats 9 or 10 for Durham.

That Edgbaston wicket was appalling that he scored his ton on

He's a bit like Ollie Robinson in that he can score runs but definitely more suited as a 9.

Carse a better shout as an 8 but then he's banned for a while still and his bowling isn't as good as others.
 

FBU

International Debutant
Same squad for the SL series?

Crawley out of the 100 since his broken finger. Doubtful if will be ready. Does Stokes stay on as an opener, with Lawrence fitting in somewhere? Do they pick someone else? Who?

Will the bowlers stay the same?
 

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