*Official* West Indies Tour of England 2020

[GotSpin]

excellent win by the windies - you truly do love to see it!

they really are a few top order batsmen away from being a top flight team and they've got the troops so as to contend in conditions conducive to fast bowling. if cornwall can come on as an allrounder then in spinning conditions they can pose a threat too. while they don't have the bats to compete with an australia or a south africa on roady roads or fast roads, we're seeing the fruits of what holder and co have been building for the past five years or so and it's really awesome to see tbh.

maybe this is the ceiling of this squad, who knows, but really to anyone who's been paying attention, the windies haven't been the laughing stock of the late 00's-early 10's for a while now; but now they're transitioning from "team on the rise" to delivering on that potential in their own right.

cricket may not need to have a strong west indies but it's certainly damn well better for it tbh

In a perfect world theyd have a completely different top 6 but I think theyre a solid number 4 away from being very competitive

They have plenty of fast bowling depth right now, a competent captain, spinner and coach. Its such a shame that Darren Bravo fell away

 

[vcs]

Gabriel really surprised me in this match I have to say, didn't think he'd be particularly suited to excelling in England but he bowled fire in the third session on day 4 and took the game away from England right there. Was expensive at times but bowled some unplayable deliveries as well.

 

[TheJediBrah]

And seriously, drop Buttler. Never mind his batting, which is terrible, he genuinely looks like he's going to spill half the balls which go through to him. Haven't seen the crocodile method of glovework so prevalent since Burgeinho played under 10s. Bin him.

Foakes is the go. Solid keeper from what little I saw and a better batsman too than half the specialist bats England have picked.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Great match to watch. Blackwood actually looks very good when he's playing convention shots and not playing dumb uppercuts with a third man in place. Nice to see archer bowl well too, he had a pretty unimpressive couple of series after the Ashes.

And while I'm sure it's been mentioned probably several hundreds of time since it happened, it bears repeating that dropping a guy with almost 500 test wickets when he's had no noticeable dip in form is simply madness.

 

[nightprowler10]

And while I'm sure it's been mentioned probably several hundreds of time since it happened, it bears repeating that dropping a guy with almost 500 test wickets when he's had no noticeable dip in form is simply madness.

What was the reasoning behind this? I've seen plenty talking about how bad the decision was, but very little on what the team management has given as a reason.

 

[vcs]

Broad didn't take too kindly to the dropping either (understandably). I don't think his comments will help the atmosphere of the dressing room too much.

 

[Daemon]

What was the reasoning behind this? I've seen plenty talking about how bad the decision was, but very little on what the team management has given as a reason.

Coming off such a long break, they probably gave too much weight to performances in the sole warm up where Broad failed to take a wicket and Wood bowled very well. Maybe Broad isn't/wasn't bowling well in the nets either and would've been a liability in this game. Who knows.

Definitely seems daft, and even moreso in hindsight.

 

[morgieb]

Think it came down to Wood doing so well against South Africa. Problem is the Saffer pitches suit his style more (IMO) and their batting is total ****. He's only ever really done well against weak batting lineups.

 

[OverratedSanity]

What was the reasoning behind this? I've seen plenty talking about how bad the decision was, but very little on what the team management has given as a reason.

Broad said the explanation given to him was wood's extra pace. It's pretty weak honestly, especially given they have archer.

 

[Daemon]

From Broads and Stokes comments, they wanted pace because the pitch was on the slow side.

A slow pitch kinda negates someone who's just an out and out quick bowler though so you'd ideally want someone with other tricks up their sleeve.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

It reminds me a lot of Tim Southee being dropped for the 3rd test against Australia 6 months ago (in fact Southee and Broad seem very similar - leaders in their sides, veteran players who often have their places questioneed yet generally perform well). Southee was then MOTS v India on his return.

 

[stephen]

Really sloppy in the field from England but a fine advertisement for the sport. Great knock by Blackwood. I liked three look of Bess but he's provable bowling from a little wide on the crease. If he gets closer to the stumps he's got a much better chance of picking up those lbws which all went to umpires call.

 

[Daemon]

Holder is a win away from going past Richie Richardson for being the Windies captain with the most wins (11 from 33).

Getting to Viv (27 from 50) is a achievable, but Lloyd will be a struggle (36 from 74).

 

[Teja.]

95 closer to 8000!

 

[trundler]

If you want explosiveness in your attack go for the guy who has the most fifers in a single spell in test history.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Coming off such a long break, they probably gave too much weight to performances in the sole warm up where Broad failed to take a wicket and Wood bowled very well. Maybe Broad isn't/wasn't bowling well in the nets either and would've been a liability in this game. Who knows.

Definitely seems daft, and even moreso in hindsight.

Important to remember this. If he's lost rhythm and is in terrible form (eg. Gillespie 2005 Ashes) then it was doing everyone a favour by not playing him.

 

[Spark]

Coming off such a long break, they probably gave too much weight to performances in the sole warm up where Broad failed to take a wicket and Wood bowled very well. Maybe Broad isn't/wasn't bowling well in the nets either and would've been a liability in this game. Who knows.

Definitely seems daft, and even moreso in hindsight.

Yeah but like given that Broad has however many wickets and played however many Tests, surely especially with him you don’t go off what you see in a practice game, where he’s probably just trying to loosen up his action and get some rhythm rather than “bowl well” per se.

Just blatantly overthinking it on England’s part IMO.

 

[honestbharani]

The only way I thought Broad will be dropped was for Woakes and the reasoning would have been to avoid a long tail. That is a stupid reason but it is still more sensible than whatever they were smoking picking Wood over Broad.

 

[the big bambino]

Not so sure Woakes for Broad is so stupid for a circumstance you've described given Woakes' home record.

 

[Raffski]

Yep Herath has worked wonders with Bess. Skip had no clue about how to attack with his front-line spinner on day 5 that's all.

Bess was on one of the county podcasts recently and credits most of his improvement to working with Jeetan Patel.