***Official*** England in West Indies 2015

[karan316]

Compton's an unlucky dude imo.

Compton looked like he had the right temperament, he did so well in Indian conditions, don't think I have seen any English batsmen play spinners so well in his first tour to an SC nation. He looked good after that series aswell. Think it was wrong to drop him.

 

[Pratters]

why are the fitness levels of some of the west indian players so poor? the way roach and taylor run out of steam so quickly is utterly unforgivable. if they could keep up the level of pressure they exert in their opening spells, deep into the opponenets innings they would be such a force to be reckoned with.

i seem to remember taylor against new zealand last year starting like an absolute beast and slowly as the series went on just go to pot.

if you're not good enough skill wise that is understandable as so many variables make up a players skill set. but not giving yourself the best chance to maximise what skills you do have by building a high level of fitness is shameful, especially in this day and age with so much science and knowledge built up in this field.

If you bowl Steyn for long spells like they do Taylor, he will break down by the third test too. It didn't happen just in the series v NZ last year. Taylor's record in the third test is distinctly poorer than in the first two tests over his career. Taylor is a genuine pacer with amazing talent. He should be treated properly. So too Roach. All effort must be made to see that Roach achieves his top pace levels in a year or two. If he can achieve that, Roach would be a menacing fast bowler he always promised to be, rather than being a very good bowler.

Handle your bowlers with care and they will reap you the rewards.

 

[Pratters]

Btw, how did Carberry and Compton go below Lyth and Lees in the pecking order?

At the time Compton was dropped, there were other players to do the job. After that, he has never really picked his hand up. You need to break the walls down. Carberry is an interesting one. He didn't make a lot of the opportunities he got, but he looked promising despite being flashy at times. The article where he crapped up on the English team management must have damaged his cause a bit.

 

[ImpatientLime]

i'm sorry i'm not having that. out of all the pacers in this test only stokes bowled fewer overs in the first innings of this match than taylor and jerome looked like he was blowing out of his arse in the third session of the first day when he got the new ball.

a huge part of this comes down to personally responsibility imo. these guys don't look overworked, they just look like they are lacking in basic fitness.

 

[Pratters]

Nice. So why Trott then? Is it more like a you-deserve-another-shot pick?

Can't compare Trott with Carberry or Compton. Same age bracket but Trott is a proven test player while the others are not. It's much easier for an earlier established player to make a come back. I remember Sidhu was injured once for 6 months or so. Other players made runs but he did get a shot back and made the most of it. Would have been far tougher for an Ajay Sharma, say, as he wasn't an established player.

 

[Dan]

The treatment of Nick Compton was an absolute ****ing disgrace. The English selectors should be shot for the way they treated him (and the opening spot more generally) since Strauss retired. They've created a wheel of mediocrity these days, not because all the options suck (Compton would have been good, and Robson/Lees is the long-term answer IMO), but because they've taken an ultra-short term 'two bad Tests and you're out' mentality and never given anyone a chance to settle into that role.

And that's compounded by the second opener having to be brilliant because Cook is a shadow of his former self. If you aren't averaging 50 immediately, you're getting Fulton/Rutherford results batting alongside Cook and the selectors aren't going to accept that. Meanwhile Cook is undroppable, so it's always #NotCooksFault. So Compton gets thrown out after a series win, two (admittedly horrid) Tests removed from his very, very good tour to NZ. Root comes up, then goes back down to the middle order spot because they selected Jonny ****ing Bairstow in his place. Carberry is in-and-out as a casualty of Johnson's 5-0. Then Robson, the great white hope, makes his maiden ton and is dumped a couple of matches later. So now we've got Trott, because they wanted to force Trott into the line-up somehow. Then they'll go Lyth, and he'll average 30-35 in 10 Tests and be dropped after a couple of bad innings. Same thing for Lees unless he dominates from the start.

Cook's created a wheel and pushed it down a hill. Now it's rolling uncontrollably and unless Cook takes some responsibility for the ****tiness of the opening partnership, it's going to take one hell of an effort for one of his myriad partners to stop it.

 

[Pratters]

England are in a fix also because Ashes are coming after the New Zealand tests. Too late to make a captaincy change maybe. They need to be bold and sack Cook as captain because he looks most ordinary as a captain. Maybe it will help him concentrate on his batting and save his career too some how. I don't know what the solution is frankly.

 

[ImpatientLime]

cook's hanging in partly because there is no obvious candidate to take over from him.

 

[harsh.ag]

Remember Compton did score a good hundred in New Zealand. Never understood why he was dropped for Carberry in the first place. However, once having been dropped, I can understand he may have gone downhill. It would seem Dan is correct, and the selection policy has been plain incompetent.

 

[ImpatientLime]

compton wasn't dropped for carberry. root was moved up to open and pietersen returned from injury to take his place in the middle order.

carberry never came back into the picture until the return tour in november.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

Compton should not have been dropped at the time. He wasn't dropped for Carberry, he was dropped so they could crowbar Bairstow in the team at 6. It was BS. The then management deserve some flack for basically making it clear he needed a score in that tortuous last innings he played in 2013.

From twitter earlier:

@dan_brigham
Only three century opening partnerships since Strauss retired. All between Cook and ... Compton.

Now admittedly a lot of that is on Cook. But it does tell a story however he's way down the pecking order now. I would have kept with Robson for a little longer. Fed up with these 5 tests and out picks.

I'm all for finding a slot for Trott in the team as he's a ****ing champion but not as an opener.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

Batting looking very easy this morning...

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Going to be a long haul to win this on such a placid track. Hope we kick on and declare before tea as we will need the time.

 

[mightymariner]

Seeing him sit so far in his crease, I do wonder if Ballance has ever been stumped.

 

[mightymariner]

Root chops on for 59, lead up to 270. Bat till lunch then should declare at this rate not that Cook will do

Seeing him sit so far in his crease, I do wonder if Ballance has ever been stumped.

Only happened once against Derby looking at the stats

 

[wpdavid]

Root chops on for 59, lead up to 270. Bat till lunch then should declare at this rate not that Cook will do

Neither would I. If we're saying we need 5 sessions to bowl them out, then by definition, 325 or whatever isn't a big enough target.

 

[mightymariner]

I have a feeling that Benn has no idea where the wickets are and that's whey he doesn't have one so far

 

[Cabinet96]

Did you know the earliest Trott has ever faced up in a test match was in 2010 when he was at 3, rather than any innings this test?

 

[wpdavid]

Did you know the earliest Trott has ever faced up in a test match was in 2010 when he was at 3, rather than any innings this test?

1st Ashes test when Strauss picked out point with an attempted cut off the first ball of the match?

There is a psychological aspect to this though, same way as openers tend not to like batting further down the order.

 

[Prince EWS]

Did you know the earliest Trott has ever faced up in a test match was in 2010 when he was at 3, rather than any innings this test?

He opened in Bangladesh for a Test or two as well; what about those innings?