**Official** Group A Discussion

[flibbertyjibber]

I'm surprised he's been out so long actually. As you said he's always had it and never missed that long from it. All rather a bit odd really.

Maybe the long flight over made it flare up again.

 

[Spark]

I think Alex Kontouris has said it was exactly that.

 

[Daemon]

Should fly SQ. Or Emirates. They have beds in their A380 First Class iirc.

 

[Cabinet96]

Fun fact; if England go out in the group stages, the Sri Lanka tie will be the only game, in a sequence of 44 games, that England will have played that wasn't against New Zealand or Australia by the end of next February.

 

[uvelocity]

ha, would like to see it for that reason alone. in fact make it a washout that game

 

[Cabinet96]

England batting first and not picking their best bowler. Advantage Australia it seems.

 

[Cabinet96]

If they wanted to only play four specialist bowlers, they should have left Broad out.

 

[smash84]

Australia the favorites going into the match

 

[Stapel]

England batting first and not picking their best bowler. Advantage Australia it seems.

IMHO, England need five or six more injuries or selection screw-ups before it is advantage Australia....

 

[superkingdave]

Deary me, if we see 25 off 35 from Bopara coming in with 15 overs left...pitch is apparently 300 par, i expect we will be 130/3 after 30 overs and end up 260/270.

Have money on the Aussies as they were decent odds

 

[Cabinet96]

Think Australia should have picked Doherty though. 6 seam up options and no serious spin options is pretty interesting given what conditions are supposedly like.

 

[Spark]

are you calling doherty a serious spin option /spikey

 

[Cabinet96]

are you calling doherty a serious spin option /spikey

Pace of the ball always works against England.

 

[Spikey]

they picked their most serious spin option though. all hail adam voges

 

[NUFAN]

Think Australia should have picked Doherty though. 6 seam up options and no serious spin options is pretty interesting given what conditions are supposedly like.

Yeah maybe a spinner would have been a decent option but the Cricketers who were picked instead of him are all better batsman which could have swayed the selectors. I think Doherty's poor tour to England last time cost him - He might get a game against SL as he has had some success against them.

3 LH and 3 RH bowlers means we do have some variations.

 

[Spikey]

mckay and faulkner are the spinners btw

 

[Cabinet96]

Yeah maybe a spinner would have been a decent option but the Cricketers who were picked instead of him are all better batsman which could have swayed the selectors. I think Doherty's poor tour to England last time cost him - He might get a game against SL as he has had some success against them.

There's absolutely no way that Doherty will be more effective against Sri Lanka than England at the same grounds, though.

 

[Spark]

There's absolutely no way that Doherty will be more effective against Sri Lanka than England at the same grounds, though.

no not really. doherty has been gash against england basically every time, and flukes wickets against SL constantly

 

[Cabinet96]

Would open with McKay instead of Johnson.

 

[NUFAN]

Yeah for some reason he has gotten top order batsman from Sri Lanka out in classic dismissals like lbw or edging which England should be thankful for as I think he got into the Test team on the basis of his SL showing.

Just curious why England choose to open the batting with Bell and not Root when Root has been talked about as a potential opener in the Test team and Bell is comfortable at 4. Is there a specific reason?

Also Cabinet, I would open with McKay too, for sure actually.