It's gotta be Ferguson.
.
If it were Wagner that Ferguson and Henry were waiting to replace you'd be right. But Henry's test record looks a lot more respectable in games where he's opened the bowling (15 wickets in 5 games at an average of 33.93). Ferguson would still be my pick, but on a green wicket where getting it in the corridor is often more important than pace, I could see why a conservative selector might opt for Henry with the new rock.
Sorry, should have said we have more migrants from the UK than any other country, not we get. Total English immigrants is more than Indian and Chinese immigrants put together. Slightly more Indian and Chinese migrants arrived this year than 5 years ago, but total English immigrants massively outnumber Chinese and Indians overall.
Well ~70% of us are from the UK by ancestry anyway. Hard to really count people who came here 40 years ago as migrants in that fashion IMO.
Look I'm still a Henry fan and it is not that he would be expected to do a bad job if there's new ball movement - could be quite effective. Though I will mention one additional point against him, which is that he strongly prefers bowling to RHB, and a real difficulty with left handers is not what you want when replacing Boult (who excels to LHB).
You sound much like me on this, in that I’d throw the remote through the TV if Henry was selected over Ferguson tomorrow. It just wouldn’t make any sense!
Isn't this why you *would* play Ferguson over Henry then? A game with no points on the line at home would be a far better place to introduce Ferguson than a high pressure setting in Australia where newbies don't hit the ground running that easily. If we're going to find out how Ferguson takes to test cricket (which seems inevitable) better Hamilton than Perth/Melbourne/Sydney.But at this point with alllllllll these injuries and god knows how many more...I want Henry or some spinner to replace Boult and keep Ferguson rested. I would be totally behind the idea of Ferg not playing this next test vs Eng. Its not for the WTC points and we need him for bigger things down the line vs AUS & IND.
Go Henry!
I'll say it again coz I keep seeing posts like this.Some thoughts on Matt Henry...let's not count this guy out lol. At this point he's made a career out of proving people wrong. More often than not, he comes in out of the cold and takes wickets. Lets not forget that the last time he had to replace Southee or Boult, we almost tied that home test series against SA in early 2017. He took 5/113 in that match and was one of our standout performers. Lockie did have one hell of a world cup, but so did Henry IMO. Guy was a livewire in the KO phase.
Now like all of you, I want Ferguson to play, its not even a "ouu he has pace and pace is ***y, lets play pace" thing anymore. Ferguson has pretty much left Henry in the ruins...he's in much better form, has a new role to play in regards to our bowling attack, brings an entirely different dynamic to the team in a good way, and has the X-factor.
But at this point with alllllllll these injuries and god knows how many more...I want Henry or some spinner to replace Boult and keep Ferguson rested. I would be totally behind the idea of Ferg not playing this next test vs Eng. Its not for the WTC points and we need him for bigger things down the line vs AUS & IND.
Go Henry!
Is there a proper reason why Foakes doesn’t make the squad even in Bairstow's absence? (sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere at length)
It's a 2 match series that doesn't count to the world test championship so I don't think they were overly concerned about picking the strongest 15 squad and covering all bases. That's why Ali, Bairstow, Foakes, and even Anderson (who may have been fit if pushed) are not out there, and the likes of Mahmood, Parkinson, and Crawley are in the squad when they aren't really in the top 15 players in the country.
