*Official* Second Test at the Adelaide Oval

[GIMH]

Lets write Brisbane off as a draw and move on

Trott under threat?

 

[Spikey]

yeah go ahead and drop trott for this one. bring him back for perth.

 

[Maximas]

You can only drop Trott if we drop Rogers

 

[GIMH]

yeah go ahead and drop trott for this one. bring him back for perth.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Trott won't be dropped yet but he may be gone after Perth. Be the same team probably and the way we do things we will bounce back and win.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah there's a lot of doom and gloom about but it's important we don't overreact.

 

[Cabinet96]

FTR, I initially had Trott down as my surprise dropping, but decided against it because I thought they'd be faithful to Trott. Given the manner of the second innings though you never know.

I wouldn't drop him for Adelaide though, especially as it's only a drop in wicket this time. Perth is a real concern though. How do Ballance and Stokes deal with ze short stuff?

 

[morgieb]

Can't see them dumping Trott so early, and I think he'll bat out the series. Obviously after that he'll be in massive danger unless he gets out of his current rut (which I have my doubts, his form hasn't been great for about 3 years).

 

[Furball]

FTR, I initially had Trott down as my surprise dropping, but decided against it because I thought they'd be faithful to Trott. Given the manner of the second innings though you never know.

I wouldn't drop him for Adelaide though, especially as it's only a drop in wicket this time. Perth is a real concern though. How do Ballance and Stokes deal with ze short stuff?

They'd be ****ing mental to debut a batsman at Perth.

 

[theegyptian]

FTR, I initially had Trott down as my surprise dropping, but decided against it because I thought they'd be faithful to Trott. Given the manner of the second innings though you never know.

I wouldn't drop him for Adelaide though, especially as it's only a drop in wicket this time. Perth is a real concern though. How do Ballance and Stokes deal with ze short stuff?

Problem with any English player is that the conditions in England are getting slower and lower. All the play in early season doesn't really allow any fast wickets. Half the season is played on slow low seaming wickets then the second half they are just worn and lifeless with some seam/swing. There are no wickets in Eng that come anywhere near to Perth, Brisbane, Joburg- Old Trafford is the only one that would be deemed to have any kind of pace by international standard. Weather conditions and the extreme amount of cricket played mean wickets never get hard. There is also a complete lack of fast bowlers in county cricket- basically because there is a **** load of cricket played and there just isn't the scare factor for the batsmen because the wickets are slow. You're better off with a guy who nibbles in around all day at 75mph that never bounces over the stumps to someone like Tymal who bowls at 90mph but doesn't move the ball. imo.

For this reason none of the players are really prepared for the kind of bounce and pace coming from these wickets especially the ones that have played only county cricket during their career. Amazingly Bairstow would be the best bet for Perth (out of Ballance, Stokes, Bairstow) if I had the decision to make as at least he has some experience of facing quick bowlers at test cricket and has worked out somewhat of a game against short quick bowling even if the rest of his game is in pieces.

Basically these conditions are more alien than most of the turners on the subcontinent to English players.

 

[Jono]

If you are going to start an "official" match thread at least tell us what the **** the date of the match is dumbass.

 

[GIMH]

December 5th

 

[Cabinet96]

They'd be ****ing mental to debut a batsman at Perth.

They'd be ****ing mental to play Trott at Perth.

So I guess you're advocating a debutant at Adelaide?

 

[theegyptian]

Ravi Bopara with another ton in the Dhaka Premier League today. Fly him in for the Perth game. Need some true grit.

But seriously I don't think England will change the batting lineup until they're lost the series (and nor should they imo) so that's looking like after the Perth test

 

[Shri]

We'll give you Sachin if you give us Jimmy.

 

[theegyptian]

We'll give you Sachin if you give us Jimmy.

In Ravi we have our own Sachin.

 

[wpdavid]

Problem with any English player is that the conditions in England are getting slower and lower. All the play in early season doesn't really allow any fast wickets. Half the season is played on slow low seaming wickets then the second half they are just worn and lifeless with some seam/swing. There are no wickets in Eng that come anywhere near to Perth, Brisbane, Joburg- Old Trafford is the only one that would be deemed to have any kind of pace by international standard. Weather conditions and the extreme amount of cricket played mean wickets never get hard. There is also a complete lack of fast bowlers in county cricket- basically because there is a **** load of cricket played and there just isn't the scare factor for the batsmen because the wickets are slow. You're better off with a guy who nibbles in around all day at 75mph that never bounces over the stumps to someone like Tymal who bowls at 90mph but doesn't move the ball. imo.

For this reason none of the players are really prepared for the kind of bounce and pace coming from these wickets especially the ones that have played only county cricket during their career. Amazingly Bairstow would be the best bet for Perth (out of Ballance, Stokes, Bairstow) if I had the decision to make as at least he has some experience of facing quick bowlers at test cricket and has worked out somewhat of a game against short quick bowling even if the rest of his game is in pieces.

Basically these conditions are more alien than most of the turners on the subcontinent to English players.

I think that's spot on. And massively depressing, as you just can't see things changing.

As for Adelaide, agreed that Trott stays for the time being. I don't think we have the fire power to win the match, but if we bat first we might stay afloat for a bit longer. If Aus bat first, we're probably ****ed.

 

[GIMH]

I think that's an overreaction. While Bell covered for the other bats, there's still no doubt that we were comfortably better than Australia in the summer. Lets not pretend we're now a massively inferior outfit. We bowled well here in the 1st dig and a 30 minute collapse did for us. Can't fault the bowling too much in the second dig, they were on a hiding to nothing.

The things I would criticise our bowlers for:

- seeming to take the foot of the gas a bit with the Haddin/Johnson partnership - without that, it's a different match
- the bowling at the close of day two. The bowling that we started with today was needed there. If we had, it's what, 10-2 and all of a sudden things look different

We'll be okay. Australia's batting is on the mend which is going to make things tougher - but all of a sudden people are acting like they don't know where a Test win will come from.

This will be a close series.

 

[Pothas]

Agree but my big worry is heading to Perth 1-0 down. What the pitch is like at Adelaide is going to be so important, got to hope it is not a road.

 

[wpdavid]

I think that's an overreaction. While Bell covered for the other bats, there's still no doubt that we were comfortably better than Australia in the summer. Lets not pretend we're now a massively inferior outfit. We bowled well here in the 1st dig and a 30 minute collapse did for us. Can't fault the bowling too much in the second dig, they were on a hiding to nothing.

The things I would criticise our bowlers for:

- seeming to take the foot of the gas a bit with the Haddin/Johnson partnership - without that, it's a different match
- the bowling at the close of day two. The bowling that we started with today was needed there. If we had, it's what, 10-2 and all of a sudden things look different

We'll be okay. Australia's batting is on the mend which is going to make things tougher - but all of a sudden people are acting like they don't know where a Test win will come from.

This will be a close series.

Love your optimism mate. I'm not sure that we were so comfortably better than them in the summer. As you say, Bell covered a multitude of batting sins, and pitches were always going to be different out in Aus, largely taking Swann out of the equation and also giving their quicks more to play with. Anyway, whatever gets each of through the night.