**Official** England in Bangladesh 2016

[grecian]

I've said this before in the England-Pakistan series thread. The kind of players England are producing now, they will be challenging the traditional notions of what makes a balanced test side more than anyone else in the next few years. I wouldn't be surprised to see an England side with 2 WK batsmen (Bairstow and Buttler) and 3 all rounders.

Well I think we'll just have one wicket-keeper,,but we've had a fair few who can play there, of course Duckett started this season playing there, but decided to concentrate on his batting. Billings also in the ODI's and T20s, and from what many say he's the best gloveman of the lot.

 

[Howe_zat]

SL have already spent a series with two players sharing keeping duties in each match. Not completely implausible

 

[Howe_zat]

Straussy out with England boys in Bangladesh. Could be in charge for the first warmup given that Bayliss is stuck in Aus with visa issues at present.

Get him to open the batting.

 

[marc71178]

SL have already spent a series with two players sharing keeping duties in each match. Not completely implausible

One spin specialist and one pace bowling keeper? Imagine the over rate if they swapped each over.

 

[Howe_zat]

One spin specialist and one pace bowling keeper? Imagine the over rate if they swapped each over.

Eventually we're back to the two man team from school days where you bowl from one end and keep wicket at the other.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Straussy out with England boys in Bangladesh. Could be in charge for the first warmup given that Bayliss is stuck in Aus with visa issues at present.

Thought Buttler spoke very well the other day. Softly spoken but natural and confident speaker in a tough situation. Not ideal for a keeper but certainly useful for a captain. Hopefully we see him in the field with either Billings (my preference) or Bairstow with the gloves.

BD has on arrival visa processing system in place for foreigners. Not sure what the issue could be with Bayliss

 

[Energetic]

Hard to predict the outcome in the ODI series. England's spin attack is not quite as good as Afghanistan's which seem to have troubled Bangladesh's batsman. England's pacers are nothing special. Batting and fielding will be the key for England, but scoring over 300 in Bangladesh pitches is rare these days.

 

[Scaly piscine]

England should win comfortably. Considering most ODis are basically a coin flip, this is one of the few matches where there's a big favourite.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

BD is close to picking up the right combination and order right in time imo. Soumya needs a break probably. Throwing away his wickets all the game every game. Mushfiq will be under pressure this series to perform. Looking at the batting order, a keeper who can play few shots and support mullah late in the order should be ideal. Nurul perfectly fits the role but I think Mushfiq will be persisted with in this series. Mosharraf will probably hold his place due to lack of options. The team will shape up like this for the first match probably,

1. Tamim
2. Soumya
3. Shabbir
4. Shakib
5. Mushfiq
6. Mullah
7. Mosaddek
8. Mashrafe
9. Mosharraf
10. Shafiul
11. Taskin

 

[Scaly piscine]

Thing is Ansari bats 3/4 for Slurrey as well as opening in the past, him at 4 is the least disruptive position, anywhere else means moving players around in the order and his style of batting is not really suited to going down the order because he basically occupies the crease and scores slowly.

 

[91Jmay]

Ansari either bats too 4 or 8. He is not a 5, 6 or 7. Gets bogged down to easily

 

[MW1304]

How about play a specialist batsman instead of shoehorning in another spinner who won't make up the difference with the ball? I still don't get this desire for 3 spinners.

 

[grecian]

How about play a specialist batsman instead of shoehorning in another spinner who won't make up the difference with the ball? I still don't get this desire for 3 spinners.

The problem is our specialist batsmen aren't very good, blimey we're going to play Ballance anyway. Both Moeen and Ansari do bat in the top order in county cricket anyway.

 

[marc71178]

How about play a specialist batsman instead of shoehorning in another spinner who won't make up the difference with the ball? I still don't get this desire for 3 spinners.

Especially not Ansari.

 

[MW1304]

The problem is our specialist batsmen aren't very good, blimey we're going to play Ballance anyway. Both Moeen and Ansari do bat in the top order in county cricket anyway.

They do but I don't consider either of them capable of batting in the top 5 at this level. I'd love to be wrong with Moeen but I doubt he would bat top 5 anyway. We could bat Duckett at 5 if we're opening with Hameed?

 

[grecian]

They do but I don't consider either of them capable of batting in the top 5 at this level. I'd love to be wrong with Moeen but I doubt he would bat top 5 anyway. We could bat Duckett at 5 if we're opening with Hameed?

Possibly, but how many new players will we carry on throwing in before giving Moeen a chance in his roughly favoured position, we haven't a lot to lose. Your way you are throwing Duckett in on debut in a position he hasn't been playing, which is hardly fair on him.

Personally want Duckett to open, not sure why Hameed seems to be pencilled in the side by many,I know who had the better season opening, and is a better contrast for Cook. Think Hameed may only be there in case of an early dropped sprog from Mrs Cook.

 

[FBU]

Possibly, but how many new players will we carry on throwing in before giving Moeen a chance in his roughly favoured position, we haven't a lot to lose. Your way you are throwing Duckett in on debut in a position he hasn't been playing, which is hardly fair on him.

Personally want Duckett to open, not sure why Hameed seems to be pencilled in the side by many,I know who had the better season opening, and is a better contrast for Cook. Think Hameed may only be there in case of an early dropped sprog from Mrs Cook.

Hameed facing Div 1 bowlers.

 

[Dan]

Hameed had a pretty average season compared to all the other CC openers tbf. Like, he didn't stand out statistically at all; 50+ averaging openers was pretty standard this year.


From the Highest Averages list, 20 innings minimum, Div 1 in bold, includes Lions games etc:

Cook: 1278 @ 75.17 (but does include Tests)
Bell-Drummond: 953 @ 68.07
Jennings: 1602 @ 64.08
Gubbins: 1409 @ 61.26
Duckett: 1338 @ 58.17
Nash: 1256 @ 54.60
Trescothick: 1353 @ 52.03
Browne: 1262 @ 50.48
Hameed: 1198 @ 49.91
Dent: 1336 @ 47.71
Stoneman: 1317 @ 47.03

---

Robson: 899 @ 44.95
Burns: 1248 @ 41.60
Lyth: 1133 @ 40.46
Lees: 1199 @ 39.96
Mitchell: 1069 @ 39.59
Mullaney: 1148 @ 39.58
Dickson: 701 @ 38.94
Godleman: 934 @ 38.91

Meanwhile you also had plenty of guys who have opened in the past stacking up runs: Northeast (1402 @ 82.47), Madsen (1292 @ 58.72), Westley (1435 @ 57.40), Petersen (1134 @ 49.30), Cosgrove (1279 @ 49.19); Trott (1051 @ 45.69), Rogers (1010 @ 43.91), Wells (955 @ 43.40) and Denly (733 @ 38.57). And Cosgrove was coming off an Australian summer averaging mid-20s.

This was a very, very good year to be an opening/top order batsman in the County Championship.

 

[91Jmay]

Only 3 Div one openers ahead of him to be fair, and one of those is Tresco who is basically a demi-god at this point.

 

[Dan]

Only 3 Div one openers ahead of him to be fair, and one of those is Tresco who is basically a demi-god at this point.

You'd agree with me if my 'easy for openers' conclusion didn't make Chopra and Westwood look bad