England Cricket chat

[TightEnd]

in the press conference cook said they considered  borthwick, roy, westley, buttler and stokes as specialist batsmen for the sixth batting spot and went with Ballance

look out for westley, the real deal

borthwick is short of runs

roy doesn't have test match technique

[fatcatstu]

Must admit I don't know that much about Westley, but that would make his inclusion all the more exciting! I'm just worried that Ballance will be found out by the quick again.

It would have been nice to see a new name in there, or Buttler coming in middle order with the license/instructions to play his shots. Going back to Ballance when he hasn't really set the world alight, just smacks a little bit of "old England" to me

[rinswun]

I was friends at school with Toby's older brother, Olly, an excellent cricketer in his own right. Toby was a three years below us.

On leaving school, a group of us established a decent standard but very much social cricket team - the Village XI. Olly used to turn up semi regularly and one day, when we were scratching around for numbers, we asked him to bring his bro and he duly obiliged. On arriving at the ground, turned out we had 12 players so young Toby was relegated to 12th man duties. Incredible to think he could go from Village XI 12th man to Test crricketer in a few short years.

Clearly our youth system doing its job! 

[fatcatstu]

It's incredible when you play against people who are now pros isn't it?

I have rather vivid memories of Liam Plunkett bowling very fast at my head when he played in our local area. Also played against a young man called weighall last year, who made his Durham debut this year, he carted my leg spin all over Stokesley!!

One of the lads in our team at the minute once got bowled for a duck by Moeen Ali when he lived in Birmingham. To be fair, he is rubbish though.

[TightEnd]

Played against battersea west Indians in the late 1990s in the Surrey league. I opened the batting. Ball one, bouncer over my head. Ball two hit in rib cage. Ball three on backside avoiding another bouncer. Ball four cleaned up by a Yorker I never saw. The bowler was a ringer real name franklyn stephenson. Over 40 by then but unplayable to someone as limited as me

[vegaslover]

Played against battersea west Indians in the late 1990s in the Surrey league. I opened the batting. Ball one, bouncer over my head. Ball two hit in rib cage. Ball three on backside avoiding another bouncer. Ball four cleaned up by a Yorker I never saw. The bowler was a ringer real name franklyn stephenson. Over 40 by then but unplayable to someone as limited as me

Franklyn wasn't much younger when he played for Sussex. Done very well with bat and ball

[nellberg]

Probably a bit of Durham bias but disappointed Borthwick hasn't got his chance here. A couple of low scores shouldn't go against him when you look at his record over the past 2/3 seasons. That being said, moving Root to 3 is a positive move so If borthwick is down as a 3 or nowhere then that's fair enough.

Mixed messages re Buttler, they encourage going to IPL, say it won't harm test chances then Cook says they didn't pick him due to lack of red-ball matches.

When Stokes is back at 7 I'd like to see Rashid in ahead of Ali.

managed to get some 11/4 about Broad being top England series bowler just after they announced Jimmy misses out on 1st test, happy with that.

[buzzharvey22]

I agree i'd much rather see Rashid in ahead of Ali, especially the way Rashid bowled in the ODI's. Looked class to me. Think Moeen is there because the frailty in the middle order.

If they are going back to Ballance i'd rather they'd went right the way back to Bell.

Even give the Butler the gloves to bat at 6 and move Bairstow to 5 as a specialist, however i guess they won't do this as they'd revert back as soon as Stokes is fit.

I definitely think this will be a close series.

[nellberg]

A 2nd ton on tour for Azhar Ali. Do we take these county games with a pinch of salt? He's clearly in a bit of form. Has a poor test record over here though. Pp still have him at 9/2 for top Pakistani series batsman.

[Woodsey]

Finally getting to fking Lord next weekend! How many years? lol 

[vegaslover]

A 2nd ton on tour for Azhar Ali. Do we take these county games with a pinch of salt? He's clearly in a bit of form. Has a poor test record over here though. Pp still have him at 9/2 for top Pakistani series batsman.

Wouldn't put too much emphasis on Sussex game, we been rubbish all season and had a very average bowling attack playing in this game.

[muckthenuts]

A 2nd ton on tour for Azhar Ali. Do we take these county games with a pinch of salt? He's clearly in a bit of form. Has a poor test record over here though. Pp still have him at 9/2 for top Pakistani series batsman.

Wouldn't put too much emphasis on Sussex game, we been rubbish all season and had a very average bowling attack playing in this game.

+1.

I wouldn't even say Pakistan dominated that hard considering. Openers are basically clueless, bowling attack toothless barring Amir and Yasir, who may be exceptional but can't win a series here on their own surely. Imo Pakistan are carrying a few too many players to match up against an England side who are insanely strong at home. England 2-0 for me.

[TightEnd]

you are probably right

but

lords will be flat, england have been hinting at discomfort that its going to be so flat

england minus anderson and with a middle order with ballance and vince. beyond cook/root/bairstow i don't see much solid test class in the top 6

obviously a lot depends on amir and yasir..yasitr in particular should cause england a lot of problems if the summer is reasonably dry

but i thought 4/1 Pakistan was a huge price for the first test. If they win the toss they are much shorter than 4/1

a batting line up of hafeez, shan, azhar, misbah, younus, shafiq and sarfraz should be competitive. If not then they've got no hope obviously

[TightEnd]

MCC World Cricket Committee get bat edges reduced to 35mm and bat depth to 60mm. Will happen by Oct 2017.

in test cricket In the 1950s one in 30 balls was hit for four. It's now one in 14.

Click to see full-size image.

[Tonibell]

Lads are 4/1 Pakistan now for a short time. Only to £25 but that's £16.75 of EV and a sweat in what I hope is going to be a really competitive series.

[EDIT. 4.8 to back for £250 on Betfair]