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*Official* England in West Indies 2022

Beamer

International Vice-Captain
So Kemar has got more swing in one over than England managed in 150 overs plus...

That looked like it was going down leg by a fair distance to me.....

Edit: Terrible umpiring!!!
 

trundler

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Tbf Roach and Seales are swing bowlers. Seales in particular has an insane outswinger. I just think they are more skillfull than this particular England attack.
If Woakes can't swing a Dukes ball, he's a pointless cricketer.
 

grecian

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I do think we've kinda got to keep with Crawley as opener for a bit, he can score big, he will also get out in frustrating ways, but ATM he's depressingly our best option, and can get us off to a positive start.
 

ImpatientLime

International Regular
did that one even move? depressing ineptitude from another english opener.

edit: it did. my stream is being filmed on a potat.

seriously, beg cook to come out of retirement.
 

Beamer

International Vice-Captain
I do think we've kinda got to keep with Crawley as opener for a bit, he can score big, he will also get out in frustrating ways, but ATM he's depressingly our best option, and can get us off to a positive start.
I think he's got the most upside of England's options, the highest ceiling if you like.

Tbh Alex Lees looked like getting out in that fashion any moment. Not a surprising dismissal. Still, early days for him.
 

Preed

U19 12th Man
I support Yorkshire and was pleased when Lees left as he never performed at the standard needed.Absolutely shocked that he seemed to have improved to test standard.Early days yet I know but his dismissals are what happened at Yorkshire all the time.we really do need a selector in place who understands the game and is not swayed by the odd county game.Fletcher could pick players who were not the best in county cricket but had the nous to play test cricket
 

Red_Ink_Squid

Global Moderator
Absolutely shocked that he seemed to have improved to test standard
I think it's more that the quality of England's Test openers declined to his standard.

Obviously I'd like to see him do well but out of the myriad options we've tried since Strauss he's probably the least exciting one yet, seems a 'there's literally no one else' pick. (Which doesn't mean he's the wrong pick if there really is no one else, but I'm not certain he's an upgrade on Burns.)
 

trundler

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I think it's more that the quality of England's Test openers declined to his standard.

Obviously I'd like to see him do well but out of the myriad options we've tried since Strauss he's probably the least exciting one yet, seems a 'there's literally no one else' pick. (Which doesn't mean he's the wrong pick if there really is no one else, but I'm not certain he's an upgrade on Burns.)
Stoneman.
 

Uppercut

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That would go entirely against the dominant cricketing philosophy of the last five years that pressure is the best way for a team to squeeze out wickets, which requires minimising runs. Not just bowling purely for wickets and accepting high run rates as a cost.

Given how bowling-dominated cricket has been for the last five years, I'd say that they've got the better argument right now. Wood bowled reasonably well in the Ashes, but he did also leak a lot of runs before the last Test which regularly allowed Aus to break the shackles and continue the scoring momentum of their innings.
I think the concept of a strike bowler assumes that they're also your best bowler. And you want your best bowler to take his wickets quickly. I'd argue that Steyn's low strike rate was a major asset, because he was almost always the strongest part of the attack.

Wood has always been closer to England's worst bowler than to being their best, so his low strike rate has mostly been a liability (assuming a constant average obvs). You'd much rather he was more economical and kept England in the game until it was time for Broad or Anderson to bowl. Maybe that's different now that the other bowlers aren't great either.
 

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