*Official* West Indies Tour of England 2020

[grecian]

If I was a betting man, that's what I think the selectors will go for on Friday. My main worry is if the pitch turns out as spin friendly as Tufnell was predicting on TMS today, as I don't think Bess is good enough to capitalise.

Yeah I am not sure on the Bess love myself, not sure he's an huge upgrade on Root, would much rather have Leach at their right-handed bats.

 

[Flem274*]

good win from the poms. sibley's contribution being underrated for mine. inexperienced top order batsman stepping up to the plate while his mates got out and was rewarded with a ton and a match setting up partnership with stokes. i gave the top 4 for the first test a lot of **** and while the others have been a bit grim sibley's contributed in every game.

Stokes is much more a Kallis than a Beefy with the ball, it isn't feasible to expect anything more than a 4th seamer's output from him.

Though I do think that in terms of pace, accuracy and skills (just eyeballing it) he does compare quite favourably with a lot of England change seamers we've played in the recent-ish past, like Wood, Finn or Plunkett. In another universe he is still batting at 8 for England and bowling first change.

yea this. i don't think he makes it in test cricket as a bowler alone with the expected workload and results because he can spray it around dramatically, but as a batting allrounder charging in with a lot of guts his bowling is exactly what it needs to be and on his bad days he can be hidden.

ive been really impressed with how he's usually the last bowler to get discouraged under fire despite being the 5th bowler.

 

[grecian]

Yeah, I think Micheal Holding has been rightly lauded for his BLM's speech, but he was utterly ridiculous about Sibley, and him not scoring quick enough. Just pathetic really made me angry. In the end it's one of these things where people don't remember their time properly, look at the scoring rates of people like Greendige and Haynes they weren't brilliant.

In the end I think Nasser was at pains to keep on saying how an opener that stayed in and set up a big first innings score was imperative to the win, and he's right, for Mikey to spend so much time slagging off Sibley, a centurion was ridiculous IMHO.

 

[Primrose_D12]

Good win by England. I forced my husband to watch the evening session with me and he had never seen cricket before. It was interesting to try and explain the game to him. I think he got it. I spent most of the time comparing it to baseball.

 

[weeman27bob]

Good win by England. I forced my husband to watch the evening session with me and he had never seen cricket before. It was interesting to try and explain the game to him. I think he got it. I spent most of the time comparing it to baseball.

Are you married to Lokomotiv?

 

[Primrose_D12]

Are you married to Lokomotiv?

No, just a fellow American.

 

[GotSpin]

If they cant bat they could at least do some catching drills. It was all over when Stokes was given a life this morning

 

[Nintendo]

Quick reminder that England are still undefeated in home tests with Sam curran playing.

 

[honestbharani]

I know its early to speculate but if Anderson hangs up his boots this year, an attack of Broad, Archer and Curran with Leach, Stokes and Root backing up sounds really good.

 

[Flem274*]

i'd probably bring in woakes full time once anderson goes. he's more of a finished article than curran imo.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I'm well and truly aboard the Stokes bandwagon now. Don't care that he's a violent criminal who should be behind bars. Great cricketer. The next 5 years are going to be all about the Stokesman.

 

[honestbharani]

See who is about 4 years late on the bandwagon.

Although, I am pretty sure this is TJB's attempt at jinxing him.

 

[trundler]

Clich?s that fit Stokes perfectly:

Makes things happen
X factor
Big match player
Takes key wickets
Better than his averages suggest

 

[Flem274*]

Clich?s that fit Stokes perfectly:

street fighter

 

[trundler]

Laughed out loud. You win the internet for today.

 

[mr_mister]

I'm shocks Stokes only averages 38

Feels like he plays match winning knocks all the time

 

[Howe_zat]

I'm shocks Stokes only averages 38

Feels like he plays match winning knocks all the time

Just before his innings at Headingley last year he averaged 33.

 

[trundler]

44 and 28 over his last 45 matches. I feel like mid 40s averages can have a lot of variation in quality depending on the batsman's preferred skiing direction

 

[Howe_zat]

He has never really averaged 40s for a decent length of time in Tests. He’s just had two big peaks, first around 2015-17 after he established his role in the team and then what we’re seeing now.

It’s a bit masked by his ODI batting, which actually has been pretty consistent for the last 4 years.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I vaguely seem to recall he had an absolute nightmare trot just after he broke into the test side where he got like 6 blobs in 7 innings or something.

Obviously skews his figures downwards.