*Official* England in South Africa 2019/20

[BSM]

its a very english way of thinking to want to pull your express bowlers from the team on a slow pitch, no? surely they are more likely to break through and take the pitch out of the equation rather than someone like woakes who is not only considerably slower but a proven failure away from home?

The flip side is that with their pace theoretically taken out of the equation by the pitch, they don't have much else to offer. While Wood offers express pace, he doesn't offer much else. If pace isn't on offer, then you might look to someone who doesn't necessarily rely on pace anyway, which is why I think they might go with Woakes. He also bowled well on a fairly flat pitch in NZ last time he played

 

[theegyptian]

The flip side is that with their pace theoretically taken out of the equation by the pitch, they don't have much else to offer. While Wood offers express pace, he doesn't offer much else. If pace isn't on offer, then you might look to someone who doesn't necessarily rely on pace anyway, which is why I think they might go with Woakes. He also bowled well on a fairly flat pitch in NZ last time he played

I don't agree really with your reasoning here. Take the last test for instance. By day 5 the wicket was very slow, and yet it was Stokes in the end the bowling at high 80s who took the last 3 wickets when the rest were bowling at 80mph and looking unlikely to take the wickets.

If you have 5 bowlers you may as well have a decent contrast in types between them to cater for differing conditions. Broad, Woakes, Curran, Stokes and Bess is to my mind too similar, especially if you want to limit the work that Stokes does.

 

[wpdavid]

Apparently Archer's still injured and Wood will be replacing Anderson. Something to do with PE being more conducive to his reverse swing.

 

[Starfighter]

Well if you want to define Cummins as a bang-it-in style bowler that is fine... me I think he has a few more skills than that.

Been pretty much his bread-and-butter recently. Certainly doesn't swing the it like he did earlier in his career, nor does he bowl as fast. Was more demonstrating that I disagree with your logic, I don't see why full, swingy type would do better than a bouncy type. In this case Woakes is a swingy type and is an unmitigated failure in unfavourable conditions, though it should be said I don't really rate Wood.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Cummins does everything a quality fast bowler does but swing it. Hence, contrary to popular opinion, I quite like him at first change in Test cricket


Heard talk about a possible dayboo for Dane Paterson. Not sure how that would work, he can only really come in for Pretorius, and that would leave an already thin batting lineup looking completely anorexic

 

[FBU]

The flip side is that with their pace theoretically taken out of the equation by the pitch, they don't have much else to offer. While Wood offers express pace, he doesn't offer much else. If pace isn't on offer, then you might look to someone who doesn't necessarily rely on pace anyway, which is why I think they might go with Woakes. He also bowled well on a fairly flat pitch in NZ last time he played

Cricviz
Percentage of balls swinging over one degree
Wood 32.2
Woakes 29.2
Archer 16.5

Averge degree of swing
Wood 0.907
Woakes 0.854
Archer 0.59

Percentage of balls on a good line and length
Woakes 33.9
Archer 27.3
Wood 26.6

Percentage of balls hitting the stumps
Woakes 12.2
Wood 12.1
Archer 8.4

Average speed
Archer 85.9
Wood 85.6
Woakes 83.6

Percentage of balls over 87mph
Archer 39.8
Wood 33.3
Woakes 10.6

 

[StephenZA]

Perfect time of the year to play cricket in PE. Been hot and humid last few days, which looks set to continue. Not a lot of wind about.

 

[StephenZA]

Faf needs to seriously work on his tosses...

 

[Stefan9]

Paterson for pretorius...I would rather have an extra batsman.

 

[SeamUp]

Could be a 1-match wonder. Supposed reasoning is reverse swing. Such odd choices.

 

[StephenZA]

I would prefer the extra batsmen as well... but prefer Paterson the bowler over Pretorius the bowler right now.

I really don’t like the consistent 5 bowler approach.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

weird, ICC are saying Petersen not Paterson

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Yeah strange choice, team looks light on batting bigtime. I don't mind Paterson as a bowler but don't think he's good enough to justify the strategy of 5 bowlers

 

[Daemon]

First Pakistan only play BD in Feb, then Chatara gets injured and now I'm off by just an alphabet

 

[NUFAN]

Rabada will get Crawley before he scores 6 IMO.

 

[NUFAN]

Ooft thats a bit of unexpected move.

 

[Howe_zat]

Reminds me of that time England replaced Flintoff with Harmison in the 2009 Ashes when our batting was already dodgy, and we got flattened.

Both teams selections are weird to me but it'll pale into insignificance if Philander runs through us.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Rabada's been poor with the new ball so don't understand why this is so radical? Looks like he shapes it away nicely

 

[Howe_zat]

Paterson is described as a 'medium pacer' by Cricinfo and he's just been clocked at 86mph. When Mark Wood bowls at 86mph it's pace like fire though.

 

[StephenZA]

Rabada's been poor with the new ball so don't understand why this is so radical? Looks like he shapes it away nicely

Rabada has not been poor, he just not been excellent.

I can understand the thinking where the guys that have less in the tank may need the movement from the new ball more... but it feels like a sort of defensive idea rather than using your best attacking weapons.