***Official*** England in New Zealand 2018

[Starfighter]

Actually it's both the batting and the bowling that needs fixing. Find some people who can bat and something other than 132 km/h not-McGrath-accurate seam up for starters.

 

[fredfertang]

I told a girl that I might be slightly distracted due to watching the cricket. She came over anyway to watch with me. Put a ring on it?

You don't want to fall for that old trick

 

[91Jmay]

We have about 5 players who are good enough currently .

Cook - Looks like he is done
Stoneman - Actually has looked halfway decent but not converted anything, and massively unconvinced still
Malan - Not sold but has played some great knocks.
Root - Top class
Bairstow - Bad run of form but still would consider him a very good Test player
Stokes - Class player, needs a run of games again but good knock 2nd dig
Ali - Not good enough
Woakes - Sadly not good enough with the ball
Overton - Looks like a nothing bowler
Broad - Last chance saloon territory, but only kept in the side by lack of options
Anderson - Still class but coming to the end.

We need 3 more seamers, an opener, a spinner and 1 other batsmen. Half a team, including most of the crucial positions. Team could free-fall in the next 18 months.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

We have about 5 players who are good enough currently .

Cook - Looks like he is done
Stoneman - Actually has looked halfway decent but not converted anything, and massively unconvinced still
Malan - Not sold but has played some great knocks.
Root - Top class
Bairstow - Bad run of form but still would consider him a very good Test player
Stokes - Class player, needs a run of games again but good knock 2nd dig
Ali - Not good enough
Woakes - Sadly not good enough with the ball
Overton - Looks like a nothing bowler
Broad - Last chance saloon territory, but only kept in the side by lack of options
Anderson - Still class but coming to the end.

We need 3 more seamers, an opener, a spinner and 1 other batsmen. Half a team, including most of the crucial positions. Team could free-fall in the next 18 months.

TRJ fills one of the seamer slots. But he'll be more of the same away from home.

 

[Groundking]

You're never going to win cricket matches away from home when you only have the one batsman averaging above 40 in the past 24 months, who is Root, managing 1018 @ 42.41

Everybody else is middling 30's or worse.

you can talk about the bowling all you like, when the batsmen face a huge struggle just getting to 300 consistently you are absolutely never ever going to win away from home.

Anyway for the next test I'd like to see:

Cook
Stoneman
Root
Malan
Livingstone
Stokes
Bairstow
Woakes
Wood
Broad
Anderson

 

[SeamUp]

Would like to see Leach. England need to test the spin bowling waters and he has put the numbers together for the while and done it with expectation at Somerset.

 

[S.Kennedy]

The only way England will improve is if they get rid of Bayliss for the test team. The guy has no interest in the format and was recruited by Strauss solely to win the Cricket World Cup - the test team was an after thought. Get Silverwood for the Test team. Allow Bayliss to keep his pyjama teams. Problem solved.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

Would like to see Leach. England need to test the spin bowling waters and he has put the numbers together for the while and done it with expectation at Somerset.

Absolutely. They'll probably pick him at home though and he won't do much on the pitches. The opposite issue to Moeen.

You have to reward him with a place. The stand out spinner for a while now and i don't care that he plays on a sometimes helpful deck.

 

[harsh.ag]

Ali has to go. Get a proper spinner. And because the options are so limited, wouldn't mind seeing Cook drop down the order and an opener like Hameed or whoever is in form join Stoneman.

Stoneman
Opening Bat
Malan
Root
Cook
Stokes
Bairstow +
Pacer
Spinner
Broad
Anderson

 

[LegionOfBrad]

You're never going to win cricket matches away from home when you only have the one batsman averaging above 40 in the past 24 months, who is Root, managing 1018 @ 42.41

Everybody else is middling 30's or worse.

you can talk about the bowling all you like, when the batsmen face a huge struggle just getting to 300 consistently you are absolutely never ever going to win away from home.

Anyway for the next test I'd like to see:

Cook
Stoneman
Root
Malan
Livingstone
Stokes
Bairstow
Woakes
Wood
Broad
Anderson

Was surprised Stokes wasn't as up until recently he was averaging 40 for a period of time but i guess his 250 has rolled off.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

Ali has to go. Get a proper spinner. And because the options are so limited, wouldn't mind seeing Cook drop down the order and an opener like Hameed or whoever is in form join Stoneman.

Stoneman
Opening Bat
Malan
Root
Cook
Stokes
Bairstow +
Pacer
Spinner
Broad
Anderson

Unless Stoneman gets runs next game (ie not a nice 50 and out) he'll be replaced by whoever is in form at the start of the next season. Hameed could barely hold a bat last summer and i don't like the idea of him being paired with Cook. We might get to 30/0 but it could take forever and still be inviting pressure.

 

[fredfertang]

England have got their problems, obviously, but this looked a bloody good New Zealand team from where I was sitting

 

[Shri]

Boult has 200+ test wickets at 27. **** off kiwis, why the **** do you get such good bowlers. You are barely a blip on the globe ffs.

 

[Daemon]

England have got their problems, obviously, but this looked a bloody good New Zealand team from where I was sitting

Plenty of question marks on the batting and spin bowling imo. Nothing that any other side in the world isn't facing atm, mind.

 

[vcs]

Trouble is, players like Moeen and Woakes contribute a bit with the bat every now and again, even though they're struggling to pull their weight in their main discipline. So it's a bit harder to drop them. TBF to Moeen, he was Man of the Series at home against a very good SA side, but has had a dreadful run since then.

 

[cnerd123]

The batsmen aren't scoring runs so we need the bowlers to bat
The bowlers aren't taking wickets so we need to pick more bowlers

 

[Daemon]

It's very easy to point out the flaws in the side, but there really don't seem to be too many solutions outside of TRJ coming back post injury and Leach being given a shot, neither of which are likely to be game changing solutions.

 

[Larwood's_boots]

There’s no way they’re going to play wood is there- keeping him wrapped up in cotton for the World Cup. Is there really no other fast bowler who’s a tiny but different from all of the others? It’s tikes like this you’re really grateful they’ve told joffra archer he has to wait for another 5 years

 

[harsh.ag]

Yeah, hope TRJ and Leach can do some good to the bowling. Would do wonders for Anderson to have some backup.

Livingstone is really the only choice left for the middle order. They could still try Bairstow as a full time batsman along with Foakes. Wouldn't be the worst call.

 

[Larwood's_boots]

They could still try Bairstow as a full time batsman along with Foakes. Wouldn't be the worst call.

How the hell has this not happened yet? I know bairstow apparently makes a fuss about keeping but has he seen how much better he looks in the odi side? Shouldn’t be a hard sell when foakes is averaging 40 odd in first class cricket.

Plus as a bonus it would give us the delightful fun of the foakes, woakes and stokes axis...