-
Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.
***Official*** England in India 2016/17
- Thread starter harsh.ag
- Start date
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
Furball
Evil Scotsman
Rogue 'n' in my post. Edited.
Yeah I don't think it really matters what order you have them in as long as none of them are as high as 4. We talk about this sort of thing endlessly (well I do for sure) but it all goes back to us not having enough good top 5 batsmen and loads of good options at 6-8. Hameed and Jennings might go a long way to address that, going to be the biggest factor as to how wo do the next year or two.
Shri
Mr. Glass
Shut up NotBangladeshi.
Furball
Evil Scotsman
Because no-one reads your posts to then go and report them
Did weldone have a flounce pre-series or something? I've just realised he's been absent for weeks, which probably contributed to this thread's feelgood atmosphere.
Having an opener bat 3 is such a minor issue compared to dropping England's leading run scorer for two kids who have made promising starts. The way this side is we could really do with one of them at 3 anyway.
Shri
Mr. Glass
I am ****ing zen m8. Fight me.Because no-one reads your posts to then go and report them
Did weldone have a flounce pre-series or something? I've just realised he's been absent for weeks, which probably contributed to this thread's feelgood atmosphere.
Groundking
International Debutant
Cook has scored almost 600 runs at 3 before @ 52.54. I really don't think it's that daft of an idea.
wpdavid
Hall of Fame Member
We've had openers making a decent fist of batting at 3 before. Butcher did a decent job there for a while. I think Vaughan may have done actually.
Maybe have one of the lefties at 3 so we have a RH/LH opening pair.
EDIT
And I'd forgotten that Cook had done it as well.
anil1405
International Captain
As Pothas pointed out above, its more about asking two rookies to open the batting which would be questioned.
Burgey
Request Your Custom Title Now!
I would expect the India-Australia series will be discussed in its usual light hearted and jovial manner too.
Groundking
International Debutant
Yeah that's a fair point, but I'm looking at what's the best way to get the most out of our best players, who are Cook and Root, Root will have to move down to 4 regardless IMO as I don't see Hameed or Jennings not being in the side, and I think Cook is more like to score huge runs should he be coming in after ~10 overs with the new ball not quite doing as much, and the responsibility of both opening and captaincy being removed, which could be a huge weight off his shoulders.
anil1405
International Captain
It may turn out to be a good thing for Cook but not for the team imo. Aussies would rip into Captain Cook for letting his rookies take the responsibility up top and for him dropping down the order.
It might be a good thing a year or two down the line but not now. Cook has piled on so many runs as an opener with few flaws and he should continue doing that as an opener at least until Hameed and Jennings settle down in the team.
MW1304
Cricketer Of The Year
Totes agree with this. Not to be one of those people but I said before the series that 6 bowlers is totally unnecessary and I hold to that. I get that half the specialist batsmen we tried were failures but I can't believe there aren't at least 5 that could do a job here. A third spinner or fourth seamer just seems to confuse things.
Not that it would have made any difference to the result in all likelihood. Maybe a 3-0 instead of a 4-0.
theegyptian
International Vice-Captain
Most of Ali's runs have come at 7 this year. He averages 26.26 batting in the top 6 over his career. His results were reasonable in this series with the bat but watch the innings he played. Both hundreds were on flat day 1 wickets. He also game multiple chances in both of them. Take his hundred here for instance. Before Lunch on day 1 he could have been out on multiple occasions; in the last few overs of day 1 he casually driving in the air and playing way too loose; and then he was bombed with short stuff on day 2 and looked like Broad facing the short stuff. Sure he got the runs, and that's credit to him for doing that whilst looking so bad, but he simply isn't going to long term average 40 or more.
Stokes didn't play a whole lot last summer in England, and he is considerably more equipped than Moeen against SA or Aus. If they don't get Moeen out caught in the slips, they'll get him caught playing the short stuff. It'll be embarrassing watch him batting at 5. I wouldn't bat Stokes at 5 either
I don't actually know which way I'd go with the team but I certainly wouldn't bat Moeen at 4,5 and probably not 6. My default policy also wouldn't be to play Ali and Rashid. Neither are good enough spinners and I don't think tactically the best way for England to win test matches is by playing two spinners at home. And I don't think that Moeen averaging 30-35 (which is the likely output in the long term imo) batting at 5 or 6 is good enough from a top order batsman if he is in the team as a batsman. You're better off picking another batsman who may (or may not) be capable of averaging 40+ from 5 or 6, as opposed to Moeen, who has no chance of doing it.
