*Official* England in New Zealand 2019

[Lillian Thomson]

Two wretched performances from England. I doubt they'd have the balls to leave Archer out, but despite his talent and pace he gives the appearance of being very lazy with bat and ball and in the field. In this series he'll only be remembered for making a tit of himself celebrating a non wicket. Still early in his Test career, but a pattern of often looking like he's going through the motions is emerging.
Full credit to New Zealand though.

 

[Woodster]

Two wretched performances from England. I doubt they'd have the balls to leave Archer out, but despite his talent and pace he gives the appearance of being very lazy with bat and ball and in the field. In this series he'll only be remembered for making a tit of himself celebrating a non wicket. Still early in his Test career, but a pattern of often looking like he's going through the motions is emerging.
Full credit to New Zealand though.

I'm fairly certain Archer wasn't the tit in that situation! It's not unreasonable that he expected that catch to be taken and shouldn't have needed to watch it safely into Denly's hands.

I agree, I think his body language and intent was way below the levels they should have been. We do manage to transform these quick bowlers into a medium paced version of their former selves. I understand anyone can have a below par series, but it is exacerbated by looking like they'd rather be anywhere else in the world other than on that pitch.

 

[silentstriker]

In this series he'll only be remembered for making a tit of himself celebrating a non wicket.

...what you think happened did not happen.

 

[Gnske]

As for Dobell, you really can write at least 60% of his articles in the last decade based on the following format:

"[Aspect of the game that England is poor at e.g. prising out wickets in batting-friendly conditions] is bad for cricket and teams/countries which do it or encourage it are essentially a threat to the survival of the game. Conversely, [aspect of the game that England is good at] is the summary of all that is good and holy about cricket and life in general, frankly."

I still say we all ought to tweet at Dobell that the only thing deader than that pitch is Moeen Ali's test career. And not even Ben Stokes violently assaulting a man outside a bar again will open the door for his return.

Just as a reward for his award-winning writing.

 

[Beamer]

I see the knives are out for Jofra already. I hope this isn't a painful lesson for him. In the UK they love to build people up do they can bring them down.

I can see him taking lots of wickets in South Africa though so he should be ok.

 

[hendrix]

Jofra is fine, this will have been a good experience for him.

As Broad said, you're in NZ playing test cricket for your country. Things aren't bad.

 

[SteveNZ]

I see the knives are out for Jofra already. I hope this isn't a painful lesson for him. In the UK they love to build people up do they can bring them down.

I can see him taking lots of wickets in South Africa though so he should be ok.

I'm not surprised. He needs to sort his attitude out when things aren't handed to him on a plate. He's the epitome of a fair weather bowler. Yes he's dynamite when he's on, but there's going to be plenty of times when England needs more from him on flat decks - and given the pace he has, he should be able to provide it. Knives should never be out for him in terms of selection because he'll win Tests for his team, but we'll see how he goes in the sub-continent, in Australia etc.

 

[Woodster]

I see the knives are out for Jofra already. I hope this isn't a painful lesson for him. In the UK they love to build people up do they can bring them down.

I can see him taking lots of wickets in South Africa though so he should be ok.

There’s a difference between the knives being out for someone and observing some very basic areas for him to improve, starting with attitude and intensity when it is a flat pitch and he has to work hard to make the difference.

He can be a top class operator but it’ll come with time and a desire for him to continue developing. Additionally, Root and co have to understand how we’re going to use him that’s best for England and really figure what type of bowler we want him to be for the Test side.

He has unbelievable talent and I’m certainly not considering dropping him from the squad.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

In hindsight I completely forgive the selectors for leaving ferguson out. this pitch would've killed him.

 

[Moss]

In hindsight I completely forgive the selectors for leaving ferguson out. this pitch would've killed him.

We could well be thanking them for this. Still, would rather have found out in this series (whether Ferguson can withstand the rigors of test cricket) than in Australia. I suppose it's unfair to look at him as a magic bullet, NZ's bowlers all did pretty well to keep England under 500 in Hamilton and quite possible Ferguson couldn't have improved things *that*much.

 

[Gnske]

I hope Neil Wagner inspires a generation of NZ fast bowlers who come to relish bowling 130kph bouncers on Day 4 and 5 on the flattest decks imaginable. These Adam Milne and Lockie Ferguson characters are all flash and no grit.

Either of those tests would have been ample to suss him out I reckon, physically and mentally.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Archer now saying the speed guns in NZ are faulty.

Have to say between the media and players, this has been the biggest bunch of sooks to your NZ in a long time. Has left a rather bad taste in the mouth.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

haha god that's weak

must be rough finding out you bowl only 5kph faster than sam curran

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Wow that is truly pretty pathetic. Weak as piss

 

[SteveNZ]

What a lame attitude Archer has. Got all the ability in the world but is probably going to take hundreds less wickets than he's capable of, because he's a pea heart.

'The speed gun didn't have its best game at Mount Maunganui' That tells England fans exactly where his focus is. I doubt anyone else even noticed. And a lack of pace would explain the two wickets all tour.

That's OK though England fans, because Jofra says he thinks he's done what he could all tour. So you've got that to look forward to.

 

[Starfighter]

Didn't he have one brief spell where he hit 153 on one ball or something like that? Apparently he was actually bowling 165. Surely that has to be in jest or something?

 

[hendrix]

Think you guys are reading too much into a couple of light-hearted comments.

 

[NotMcKenzie]

Is it the sort of 'light-heartedness' that comes from being bitter and upset?

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Think you guys are reading too much into a couple of light-hearted comments.

triangulate with everything else we've seen from the dude this tour and it checks out

Nah. I'm a bonafide fast bowler lover. I really want to like jofra. I like Starc ffs and he's a ****. Jofra just reeks of a lack of character I can't quite quantify.

 

[the big bambino]

I wonder if attitude is harder to correct than say a faulty technique? Have an inkling if Archer didn't mercenary himself to England he'd be an international T20 league hitman.