*Official* West Indies Tour of England 2020

[grecian]

I occasionally post on another forum about cricket, and one of the big england supporters there was saying, you weren't complaining about the team when picked, it's all hindsight. In the end he's probably right with me, i didn't actually complain, neither did I say it was great, but TBH I think I was just so excited we had cricket.

Yet, I thought it had been pretty much decided we'd go with Foakes beforehand, and no they didn't. Why? the half-decent knock by Jos in the first innings I guess belayed this chat, but it is still remains relevant. As for dropping Broad, ya know made no sense whatsoever based on no criteria whatsoever, so probably makes it a bad decision. I guess it was done on the all-important team Stokes v Team Buttler match which traditionally is always the way people should be picked.

 

[wpdavid]

Valuable runs these

They need to be; there's not much batting after Bess.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Like the look of the boy. Bit of pace and moves it both ways.

Makes not bowling him until the 30-somethingth over all the stranger.

Holder doesn't appear to have much faith in him. Always seems the spare part of the attack.

 

[Neptune]

Pope needs to show his class here. Bess is a capable batsmen, as shows by his 30 not out in the first innings. Get the score up to 200 somehow and we’ll have a real game on our hands.

 

[grecian]

Is his technique solid enough for Tests? Seems to get bowled way too often.

Yeah, disagree with Spark here, not a Test Bat, because he can't defend when needed, first class average proves it, i suppose if he was in a team with an all-time top 5 and he could explode afterwards would be good, but those are few and far between.

 

[StephenZA]

Holder doesn't appear to have much faith in him. Always seems the spare part of the attack.

To be fair he was not great in the first innings. Been really good this spell. Definitely something to work with.

 

[wpdavid]

I occasionally post on another forum about cricket, and one of the big england supporters there was saying, you weren't complaining about the team when picked, it's all hindsight. In the end he's probably right with me, i didn't actually complain, neither did I say it was great, but TBH I think I was just so excited we had cricket.

Yet, I thought it had been pretty much decided we'd go with Foakes beforehand, and no they didn't. Why? the half-decent knock by Jos in the first innings I guess belayed this chat, but it is still remains relevant. As for dropping Broad, ya know made no sense whatsoever based on no criteria whatsoever, so probably makes it a bad decision. I guess it was done on the all-important team Stokes v Team Buttler match which traditionally is always the way people should be picked.

I don't know anyone who thought it was a good idea not to pick Broad. It was as if they couldn't choose between Wood and Archer so they picked both and Broad was the fall guy.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

I don't know anyone who thought it was a good idea not to pick Broad. It was as if they couldn't choose between Wood and Archer so they picked both and Broad was the fall guy.

Was madness.

 

[grecian]

I don't know anyone who thought it was a good idea not to pick Broad. It was as if they couldn't choose between Wood and Archer so they picked both and Broad was the fall guy.

Oh I agree, but I don't think I complained about it as I normally would, as I was so happy to see cricket back.

 

[honestbharani]

Wow. Amazing honesty there from Nick Knight in that chat with Holding. Says he found ODI cricket easier as his technique was not good enough for tests. Guy averaged 40+ as an opener at a time when England were basically the laughing stock of ODI cricket.

On Buttler, I don't think the problem is his defence. It is just a mindset thing. He just seems to play a bit loose once he is past 30, maybe ODI cricket effect on him where you don't have slips and nicking off to the keeper happens less often. But it might be a tough habit to change at this stage of his career. Could say it is worth the risk keeping him for a year. His ceiling is just ridiculous.

And yeah, Dowrich should have caught that. Did not dive properly, probably thought it was going wider than it was. Should have ideally gone with both hands, it was closer to him than he anticipated, is my take.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Gabriel hitting his length straight away in his first over back. No mean feat for a bloke in his 30s with a shady injury record.

No easy runs out there at all.

 

[Neptune]

Bess gone. Could be a difficult feat to get to 200 now.

 

[grecian]

****, no batting left now, would be happy with a lead of 200.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Ha, no disgrace getting out to that. Ripper from the big fella.

 

[Groundking]

Quality ball to get Bess there. Need to scrape past 200 lead badly

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Ha, no disgrace getting out to that. Ripper from the big fella.

Yeah, unlike most of the rest he at least has an excuse.

 

[Howe_zat]

4/30 since flibberty said the draw was nailed on....

Archer owes a few runs.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Jeez. Collapsing in a heap here.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Gabriel again

 

[vcs]

Well that certainly takes the draw out of the equation now.