*Official* England Tour of Sri Lanka 2018

[randycricfreak]

they should not play Andesron and Broad together at all in this series.

If they pick one of them the other pacer should be Olly Stone or Sam Curran at least.

They would require someone to force the pace like Stone if he's fast enough, or some variety in the case of Curran.

Rashid, Leach should play everfy match.

Sr i Lanka's middle order is dominated by right handers, and they don't play the ball spinning away from them well..

 

[trundler]

they should not play Andesron and Broad together at all in this series.

If they pick one of them the other pacer should be Olly Stone or Sam Curran at least.

They would require someone to force the pace like Stone if he's fast enough, or some variety in the case of Curran.

Rashid, Leach should play everfy match.

Sr i Lanka's middle order is dominated by right handers, and they don't play the ball spinning away from them well..

Any bold predictions you'd like to make this time?

 

[Agricultural]

Burns
Denly
Moeen
Root
Pope
Bairstow
Stokes
Buttler
Curran
Leach
Anderson

Mo & Leach plus 3 seamers and a bit of Denly's apparently much improved leg spin should suffice. Stack it with 'batting' would be the way I'd go & if Jennings plays over Burns he's definitely got pictures of Ed Smith in an extremely awkward situation.

You have a specialist bat at 8? Or is Buttler keeping?

 

[S.Kennedy]

Burns will have to be Len Hutton here, to not disappoint expectations.

 

[fredfertang]

Given that Sir Len got 0 and 1 on Test debut I wouldn't rule it out

 

[TheJediBrah]

Burns
Denly
Moeen
Root
Pope
Bairstow
Stokes
Buttler
Curran
Leach
Anderson

Mo & Leach plus 3 seamers and a bit of Denly's apparently much improved leg spin should suffice. Stack it with 'batting' would be the way I'd go & if Jennings plays over Burns he's definitely got pictures of Ed Smith in an extremely awkward situation.

Best side I've seen posted. England will need all the batting they can get, and on the wickets they will likely get more than 4-5 bowling options is surplus to requirements. The 2 spinners (+ Root) will bowl most of the overs, and 3 quick options is more than enough.

They could even go 1 further and pick another specialist batsman but that would probably be too much.

 

[Gnske]

Joe Denly could and probably will play test cricket in the year of our lord 2018.

I'm astonished, and they say Australian batting stocks have issues.

 

[Starfighter]

Mo at three is concerning if he's going to end up bowling potentially 30 or more more overs an innings. I don't think Curran's bowling will be effective at all but neither will, say Woakes', or Broad's on current form, so England should go as strong a batting lineup as possible without going overboard, and rely on spin (and don't do a South Africa. Dropping Shamsi has got to be one of the most brainless selection choices in recent times). Granted, Woakes can bat as well.

 

[Raffski]

I’d love to know what metric has led to Denly being selected, and I don’t even mean that sarcastically.

Stone I’m a big fan of. Seen him a couple of times and he’s somebody who seems to get quicker off the pitch and always hurries batsmen, which is no mean feat on county surfaces. Like a lot of out and out fast bowlers he always tends to go for runs though. Don’t see him playing here but should definitely be part of the long term thinking.

 

[Moonsorrow999]

Burns (obvs)
Mo (Pinch Hitting)
Denly (Plan B)
Root
Pope
Stokes (If he's fit enough to bowl, if not Bairstow)
Buttler
Curran
Leach
Anderson
Stone (Use him in 4 over bursts if he's actually quick and not just quick for the odd T20 game like most of these so called English quickies, if he's like that then Woakes to pack the batting, it's that or Jennings lol)

 

[Prince EWS]

Burns
Denly
Moeen
Root
Pope
Bairstow
Stokes
Buttler
Curran
Leach
Anderson

I'd go this as well, but Moeen at eight and the rest of the middle order up one. Moeen in the top order was a "never again" for me after his go opening in the UAE, and he's proven he can make serious contributions at eight before too.

 

[Prince EWS]

I hate Moeen at 3 so much but it's pretty hard to fit anyone else there considering how Root is allergic to it.

Yeah I think there are only three real options from the squad they've picked.

1. Play all three openers and bat Denly at #3 (Denly is only a pretend opener in the first place)
2. Buy Root an voodoo-repelling amulet to wear around his neck and bat him at #3
3. Bat Mooen in the top order

I have a healthy respect for cricketing voodoo but I'm voting for #2 anyway.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Out of that lot I'd stack the batting personally, playing a false opener (Denly), and go,

Keats
Burns
Denly
Mo
Root
Buttler
Stokes
Bairstow+
Curran
Leach
Anderson

But I think they'll go,

Keats
Burns
Mo
Root
Bairstow+
Stokes
Buttler
Curran
Rashid
Broad
Anderson

 

[Maximas]

Is this really going to be the last we see of phatty?

 

[Daemon]

Interesting how the consensus generally is to drop Broad.

Pretty sure he'll play and we'll see the side that Kennedy's posted

 

[Prince EWS]

Interesting how the consensus generally is to drop Broad.

Pretty sure he'll play and we'll see the side that Kennedy's posted

I don't really have a strong opinion on who to play out of Broad/Curran/Woakes, or even Stone. I think it's more important that they only select two specialist quicks than it is who the non-Anderson one is.

I agree that Broad will very likely play though. If they didn't want to play him they probably would have rested him from the entire tour.

 

[randycricfreak]

Is this really going to be the last we see of phatty?

yeah.

we will have to move-on with the rest.

Hopefullly it wont be another Mahela-Sanga-Dilshan like decline in batting.

Akila should come to the fore. Dilruwan will play the second fiddle to Akila.

Pushpakumara and Sandaken should be like the next tier bowlers for SL in Test cricket.

I'm more concerned about our batting right now.

 

[Maximas]

Dilruwan won't play second fiddle to Akila, his experience will be vital to getting us through the initial post-phatty turmoil.

Akila will ideally go on to become our no. 1 spinner for all conditions as time goes on though

 

[Essexboi]

You have a specialist bat at 8? Or is Buttler keeping?

Yeah Buttler keeping, despite his poor end to the summer I still believe YJB can become a cracking test batsman and should give up the comfort blanket of the gloves. Would have him at five and Pope at 6.

 

[Agricultural]

Interesting how the consensus generally is to drop Broad.

Pretty sure he'll play and we'll see the side that Kennedy's posted

Not relevant if we are posting the teams we want from the squad.