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*Official* England in South Africa 2019/20

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
I see potential in Pope. Burns looks a gutsy determined type despite the limitations. Not sure if Sibley has long terms credentials and need to see more of Crawley. So at least there is new blood.

Once Anderson and Broad goes with the ball though will be the most interesting.
There's another thread where we are invited to produce each country's best XI from the last decade. I think the starting XIs were offered by cricinfo and England's 3rd seamer is, er, Steven Finn. In the last ten years we haven't produced one quick bowler who's carved out any sort of test career. Maybe Archer will be OK eventually, but other than him?
 

StephenZA

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Feels like ages since we won a test match. Good feeling. Big credit to Smith/Boucher/all the staff/players. About 2 weeks ago there was none of this in place and the players had no direction and low on confidence.
Special mention for Nortje after the way he started, scored runs as well. If the top order can start scoring some runs the team will feel much better. I would love to see a Hamza ton.
 

Neptune

State Vice-Captain
Which England players come out with credit from that match? Not many I expect. Poor captaincy, poor performance. Livid.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Which England players come out with credit from that match? Not many I expect. Poor captaincy, poor performance. Livid.
Curran for his first innings bowling. Restricted SA to what should have been a reasonable score.
 

Pup Clarke

Cricketer Of The Year
The talent is there. There are no issues with a lack of talent in English cricket IMO. Yes yes it's white ball but you only need to look at the insane strength of the ODI side to see that. The question is why incredibly talented batsmen like Roy, Hales, Bairstow and even Buttler etc etc have just not been able to put together reasonable defensive techniques to hack it at Test level. It's not as if their competitors from other nations are failing to convert highly talented LO batsmen into solid and even great Test batsmen.
Um, Roy and Hales? They're talented stroke makers obviously, but very one-paced at how they structure an innings (i.e if they doesn't get off to a flyer they'll just deadbat)

With Sehwag and more recently Rohit, it of course can be done, but it needs a certain pitch/conditions completely tailored to their game for them to be influential (specifically for Roy/Hales I mean)
 
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wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Which England players come out with credit from that match? Not many I expect. Poor captaincy, poor performance. Livid.
The captaincy is comfortably the worst I've seen for England, and I'm old enough to remember Botham's stint. Maybe a few more results like this in SA will persuade Root that he should stand down. Unfortunately I don't see the coach having the balls to tell him his time is up.
 

StephenZA

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
The captaincy is comfortably the worst I've seen for England, and I'm old enough to remember Botham's stint. Maybe a few more results like this in SA will persuade Root that he should stand down. Unfortunately I don't see the coach having the balls to tell him his time is up.
SA taking down another Eng captain will become a bit of a farce...
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
SA taking down another Eng captain will become a bit of a farce...
Normally happened in England rather than out here. Usually due to Graeme Smith iirc. So this would be different. And unlike Vaughan and Strauss it shouldn't be the end of Root's career.
 
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Spark

Global Moderator
Um, Roy and Hales? They're talented stroke makers obviously, but very one-paced at how they structure an innings (i.e if they doesn't get off to a flyer they'll just deadbat)

With Sehwag and more recently Rohit, it of course can be done, but it needs a certain pitch/conditions completely tailored to their game for them to be influential (specifically for Roy/Hales I mean)
Right, that's my point. Talent there to burn, but haven't hacked the nuances of red-ball batting. Happens too many times for there not to be some underlying coaching issue IMO. That and the aforementioned basic defensive technical problems.
 

SeamUp

International Coach
There's another thread where we are invited to produce each country's best XI from the last decade. I think the starting XIs were offered by cricinfo and England's 3rd seamer is, er, Steven Finn. In the last ten years we haven't produced one quick bowler who's carved out any sort of test career. Maybe Archer will be OK eventually, but other than him?
Saw that. Finn has to be one of the weirdest stories how far he has fallen off the radar. Wasn't getting games for Middlesex. It was always a debate with him and Woakes coming through together at England u19s that they were the future.
 

SeamUp

International Coach
Special mention for Nortje after the way he started, scored runs as well. If the top order can start scoring some runs the team will feel much better. I would love to see a Hamza ton.
That is for sure. Showed massive heart to come back after the first spell.

That's what we want to see now. 100s from the top 5 -Pieter getting 3 tests now....
 

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