***Official*** England in South Africa 2015/16

[Captain_Cook]

Only Australia have the depth to lose their best two bowlers and not have a big drop off imo, which is why they are the best team in the world.

They don't have any great bowlers though. All of them are on a scale from good to okay. Lyon has the most wickets by an Aussie offspinner ever. Not convinced that Starc is a test bowler. Pattinson looks the most like a test bowler out of them all. I don't rate Hazlewood as he performed so badly in England which wasn't reflected by his wicket haul.

 

[Blanco]

Why's the sa bowlers not getting swing and seam movement like eng ??

Thinking the same thing. Is it the ball?

 

[Black_Warrior]

Well then eng is the better side. Sa is lost without steyn and philander.

Well as of now yes, but not so much because of Steyn/Philander missing out but more so because of the brittle batting and loss of form of most of their batting line up.

But these things are never constants. There was a time when Cook, Trott, Bell were scoring runs for fun in 2011-12 and then faced South Africa in July 12 and suddenly stopped scoring.

Amla, Faf, ABD are players who can bounce back any time.

There seem to be other non cricketing factors behind the scenes though, which might inadvertently effect the cricket. That is far more worrying.

 

[Blanco]

They don't have any great bowlers though. All of them are on a scale from good to okay. Lyon has the most wickets by an Aussie offspinner ever. Not convinced that Starc is a test bowler. Pattinson looks the most like a test bowler out of them all. I don't rate Hazlewood as he performed so badly in England which wasn't reflected by his wicket haul.

Hazlewood is better than Pattinson imo. I don't know why anyone would say they don't rate him. I reckon Cummins is more talented than all though. If they could stay on the park, they would be a force in world cricket that's for sure.

 

[Black_Warrior]

England without Broad and Anderson would be hugely different side to be fair. Only Australia have the depth to lose their best two bowlers and not have a big drop off imo, which is why they are the best team in the world.

This is not true. Australian bowling, just like their batting has an achiless heel.

Batting - lateral movement

Bowling - Asia

Australian bowling has struggled to take 20 wickets the last two times they played in Asia, even with their best bowlers. England, South Africa and New Zealand on the other hand have bowled much better in the same conditions, which demonstrates that they can adapt much better.

There is no clear best team right now. All the top 6 test teams are very closely matched, and depend heavily on conditions and have major weaknesses. So when they find circumstances suiting their strengths and minimising their weaknesses, they come out on top and vice versa.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

They don't have any great bowlers though. All of them are on a scale from good to okay. Lyon has the most wickets by an Aussie offspinner ever. Not convinced that Starc is a test bowler. Pattinson looks the most like a test bowler out of them all. I don't rate Hazlewood as he performed so badly in England which wasn't reflected by his wicket haul.

Is there any player you actually do rate?

Seem to slag off allcomers in every post you make.

 

[91Jmay]

Not rating Hazlewood because he bowled badly in one series (and he did bowl badly) seems very shortsighted to be honest, but his record flatters him given he has been ordinary against everyone but the Windies.

 

[Stapel]

Hales thinking enough is enough. Quite right!

 

[Black_Warrior]

Is there any player you actually do rate?

Seem to slag off allcomers in every post you make.

Captain Cook of course. That's pretty obvious right?

 

[Niall]

That's not the reason for the batting collapse

They don't have the bowlers to run through England. You look at the times England have collapsed recently and their has been a few occasions

Australia did it through Starc, Hazlewood and Mitch having spells here and their in the England Ashes. Also of course Mitch and Harris ran riot in Australia. Morkel the most overrated test bowler in the world, Rabada, the abysmal Morris and Vlijoen are simply not as good as those attacks even in home conditions.

Heck even in the UAE, it was Yasir and Riaz who caused all the trouble for England and its safe to say that in home conditions those 2 are better at this moment in time than the current Saffer attack minus Steyn and Vern even in Safferland.

 

[Blanco]

Not rating Hazlewood because he bowled badly in one series (and he did bowl badly) seems very shortsighted to be honest, but his record flatters him given he has been ordinary against everyone but the Windies.

Not sure about that, his record was good even before that West Indies series.

 

[Cabinet96]

Jesus Alex.

Reckon this is umps call.

 

[91Jmay]

Hales that is so terrible.

 

[Howe_zat]

That's damn disappointing

 

[Pothas]

Pretty impressive to do that much harm to your reputation in a chase this easy. Would have been better getting out first ball.

 

[Pothas]

Compton should just hit two sixes here, would be so good.

 

[91Jmay]

Not sure about that, his record was good even before that West Indies series.

12 wickets @ 29. Would say that is a more accurate reflection of him at the moment.

 

[Captain_Cook]

Hazlewood is better than Pattinson imo. I don't know why anyone would say they don't rate him.

From what I saw in the Ashes, any sort of assistance seemed to completely throw him off his line. For someone I've seen compared to McGrath, I couldn't think of anything more unlike the great man.

Is there any player you actually do rate?

Seem to slag off allcomers in every post you make.

Plenty, I just can't shake off my natural pessimism especially about England players.

 

[Stapel]

Live I figured that Hales lbw was outside off...... Still think an umpire shouldn't give it.

 

[wowitspink]

Hales is not even 1/4 the batsman he is in shorter formats.