England players and selection discussion thread

[BoyBrumby]

Root over Billings all day long, surely?

His offies could even be useful in the UAE too.

 

[Pothas]

Suggest you look at their stats especially at 3 (and the t20I batting rankings).

Quite aware of these things.

Probably worth considering what Root could have been doing if he had been playing, he was excellent in the last world cup.

 

[Jack1]

Billings looks an extremely weak option on paper I have to say. You’d be wanting Hales or Root over him from a squad strength perspective.

 

[kevinw]

Billings looks an extremely weak option on paper I have to say. You’d be wanting Hales or Root over him from a squad strength perspective.

Billings is a 'good lad in the dressing room' pick. He's only ever had a handful of decent innings for England, but I suppose he covers a lot of bases.

 

[honestbharani]

Wonder how much of Root's test form renaissance is due to him not playing T20s.

 

[Apex Predator]

Damn not picking Root is madness. His sweeps & reverse sweeps could have been very handy against someone like Ashwin if they had faced each other in KO's. Malan tbh doesn't look like has too many options vs quality spin.

 

[Nintendo]

Malan's issue is that he strikes at 100 for his first 20 balls then starts to accelerate. It's much harder to do that on a slow, sticky pitch than on a SENA pitch. Saw the same issues in the recent india tour and the one ipl game he played. Root has every shot in the book to spin for boundaries and rotates the strike superbly. If you want an anchor, I would have taken him instead of malan, especially since root can also bowl some handy spin.

 

[ImpatientLime]

billings is also in because the meme is he plays spin well. not sure how true it is but it is a regular soundbyte.

parkinson not even in as cover is just weird tho. dawson picked over him because he does everything to a below average standard and nothing particularly well at this level. lovely conservative english choice.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Already mentioned in the Road to the Ashes thread, but worth a mention in a more sympathetic context I think: Moeen has announced his retirement from Test cricket.

Think it's a good call from him because he's been a de facto white ball specialist for a few years now but the England selectors kept recalling him for Tests anyway, when he's no longer got the game for them. Could be a genuine match winner with bat and (especially) ball at his best in the format, and a really likeable guy.

Hope he continues to have success in the shorter formats from here on.

 

[Shady Slim]

Already mentioned in the Road to the Ashes thread, but worth a mention in a more sympathetic context I think: Moeen has announced his retirement from Test cricket.

Think it's a good call from him because he's been a de facto white ball specialist for a few years now but the England selectors kept recalling him for Tests anyway, when he's no longer got the game for them. Could be a genuine match winner with bat and (especially) ball at his best in the format, and a really likeable guy.

Hope he continues to have success in the shorter formats from here on.

always been a fan and wish him all the best. with him and denners denly out broad becomes one of the few likeable blokes left in the team imho

 

[kevinw]

Already mentioned in the Road to the Ashes thread, but worth a mention in a more sympathetic context I think: Moeen has announced his retirement from Test cricket.

Think it's a good call from him because he's been a de facto white ball specialist for a few years now but the England selectors kept recalling him for Tests anyway, when he's no longer got the game for them. Could be a genuine match winner with bat and (especially) ball at his best in the format, and a really likeable guy.

Hope he continues to have success in the shorter formats from here on.

I don't think he wanted to tour Australia and his return in this series had something of the 'stop-gap' about it. His numbers don't tell the whole story, in all formats really. He's been a pretty decent contributor over several years, when he was moving up and down the order and doing a frontline spin role because as a country we don't produce spinners or we don't have captains who know what to do with spinners. With no Mo, England have to decide how they will use spin going forward. Maybe it's good news for Leach but I suspect Bess will be back if he's over the yips. Not sure Mo has a long shorter format future for England. Livingstone is nailed on for that big hitter/a few overs of spin role. I hope Mo has a couple of good years in the IPL. Who would begrudge him?

 

[morgieb]

When on was one of the funnest cricketers in the world. Seems like a really good guy too. He will be missed.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Likeable guy but a very meh test cricketer imo

 

[honestbharani]

Good player, fun to watch. Hated that he kept winning games against India with the ball, seems like a nice guy. Wish him all the best.

 

[vcs]

I think Leach is a very good spinner and Mo's retirement will solve a selection headache for England. Expecting Leach to be given a run and make the spot his own.

 

[morgieb]

I think Leach is a very good spinner and Mo's retirement will solve a selection headache for England. Expecting Leach to be given a run and make the spot his own.

Still wouldn't be surprised if they took a punt on Bess.

And if Stokes doesn't come back soon it'll be a much bigger selectoral headache than the one Moeen gave them.

 

[theegyptian]

Moeen did a pretty good job for most of his career. Weren't really any better options as spinners apart from maybe Leach in the last 2 or 3 years. Stepped up after the Ashes of 13/14 when England were devoid of replacements for Swann, on the back of a reasonable (but not oustanding) county career to that point.

 

[Jack1]

Still wouldn't be surprised if they took a punt on Bess.

And if Stokes doesn't come back soon it'll be a much bigger selectoral headache than the one Moeen gave them.

That would be pathetic. Leach or Parkinson.

 

[Bijed]

In an objective assessment of his career in a vaccuum, it would be wrong to just overlook the times where Moeen didn't contribute much, but in the context of the England sides he played in (generally shaky batting, no definitively better spin option*), the good performances he put in more or less make his career good by themselves, even if the bits in between weren't great.

One of those where the next generation may well wonder how he played so many tests, whilst a lot of England fans from now remember him quite fondly.

*I do rate Leach above him but I don't think we've seen enough of Leach at test level to consider the case at all closed

 

[Aritro]

England to play three one dayers in the Netherlands next year.

England's tour of Netherlands rescheduled for June 2022

Three ODIs will take place in gap between home Tests against New Zealand

www.espncricinfo.com

It will be interesting to see how they cope with Netherlands' renegade vision of "Total Cricket" where everyone who bowls also has to bat.