*Official* 2022 New Zealand Tour of England, Ireland, Scotland & Netherlands

[Anil]

Pope, England’s next superstar?

 

[trundler]

That's pretty streaky but I like this from Pope. Needs to find his balance though. A Henry bouncer shouldn't catch you in a dodgy position.

 

[kevinw]

Pope, England’s next superstar?

Gorgeous off drives. It's not an issue of talent with him, he has it in abundance. It's all in his mindset and judgement.

 

[trundler]

That was rather atrocious. Would've been another Pope cameo. Certainly Blundell's catch. Let's hope he makes it count.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

New Zealand repaying England's charity in the field.

 

[trundler]

Not being able to catch is a severe handicap on a road I reckon. Pope strayed so far from his body there.

 

[trundler]

Shades of Ian Bell there.

Glorious though jammy 50. What an excellent strike rate.

Not a #3's arsehole, mind you.

 

[Gremlin]

He's had his luck but some lovely strokes too.

Now double it.

 

[Uppercut]

That's pretty streaky but I like this from Pope. Needs to find his balance though. A Henry bouncer shouldn't catch you in a dodgy position.

Yeah he’s not setting himself right, can’t put my finger on how. Timing of his trigger movements might be off. But the end result is that he often has less time than he should.

 

[Gremlin]

Lees highest test score klaxon

 

[trundler]

Yeah he’s not setting himself right, can’t put my finger on how. Timing of his trigger movements might be off. But the end result is that he often has less time than he should.

He's still had the usual technical difficulties you'd associate with a struggling young noob promoted to #3. Has been dragged across his crease twice at least, including a dropped catch that really should've been taken and he's looked hurried both times he's tried hooking. As if he's making a last minute adjustment.

 

[Pothas]

The Foakes debut series had some seriously spicy pitches. I recall one of the doubles in the recent one being on a road. Or perhaps the bowling was inept. Or maybe the pitches were just less helpful than usual.

Yeah it was not the highest quality series but Root was just absolutely miles better than everyone else.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

This is great, except two batsman with limited techniques are going to make runs with a lot of luck on a flat wicket and book their places in the side for a summer of failure. (Insert glass half empty emoji).

 

[grecian]

This is great, except two batsman with limited techniques are going to make runs with a lot of luck on a flat wicket and book their places in the side for a summer of failure. (Insert glass half empty emoji).

Meh, i get your point, but in the end, anyone scoring runs in our top-order is good, and maybe they'll find confidence from it.

Yet I am probably in more agreement with your point than I am with mine, but ya gotta hope.

 

[trundler]

Pope definitely isn't a #3. I can see the logic of playing him at 3. You put your best batsman at his strongest position and the rest bat around him, essentially using the #3 as a jobber shield. I am not opposed to this idea as I thought Bairstow at 3 wasn't a bad idea. Moving Pope down the order again would require one of two things:

A) He replaces Bairstow and England to the Denly solution. Bring in Sibley/Burns/Vince/Compton/jobber of the week at 3.
B) Swap Bairstow and Pope.

Either would require long term faith in Pope and unwavering commitment to the idea that he's a long term test class batsman with at least more upside than YJB.

If Pope does go big here, will he have warranted this faith? I'm uncertain as scoring jammy runs on a flat track isn't supra-Bairstow returns. Yet I desperately want one of the only 3 young blokes (
Nissanka, Green being the others) who've dominated domestix to get into the team to do well.

 

[Uppercut]

Pope definitely isn't a #3. I can see the logic of losing playing him at 3. You put your best batsman at his strongest position and the rest bat around him, essentially using the #3 as a jobber shield. I am not opposed to this idea as I thought Bairstow at 3 wasn't a bad idea. Moving Pope down the order again would require one of two things:

A) He replaces Bairstow and England to the Denly solution. Bring in Sibley/Burns/Vince/Compton/jobber of the week at 3.
B) Swap Bairstow and Pope.

Either would require long term faith in Pope and unwavering commitment to the idea that he's a long term test class batsman with at least more upside than YJB.

If Pope does go big here, will he have warranted this faith? I'm uncertain as scoring jammy runs on a flat track isn't supra-Bairstow returns. Yet I desperately want one of the only 3 young blokes (
Nissanka, Green being the others) who've dominated domestix to get into the team to do well.

He’s mostly just at 3 because he’s terrible against spin. Bairstow is even less suited to 3 and offers more down the order.

All their options were meh. Compton should probably get a game at some stage.

 

[kevinw]

I don't think either Pope or Bairstow should be at three. The guy in that spot might come in on the second ball of a match. They need to have a tight technique and both are loose as hell. But then, that's not stopped Crawley cementing a place.

Bairstow has scored two recent hundreds, but his good scores are still likely to be as few and far between as Pope's. There's a case to say you should invest in the younger man, but I'm not sure Pope should be in the side tbh. I'm always of the mind that they want Bairstow (like Buttler) around as much as possible and as soon as Foakes hits a bad run of form with the bat, Jonny will get the gloves back. This pitch is flat - once you're in for 20-30 balls, you can book in for bed and breakfast. Pope has to cash in here. Bairstow too.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Pope does average over 70 for Surrey, so I can see why the selectors are prepared to give him a little leeway.

That said he wouldn't be the first batter to dominate the CC but come up short in the gold standard. Hick, Ramprakash...

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

There was a stat on the radio which I only half caught, the gist of which was about Pope having a record drop off between his FC and Test averages.

Hope he can score some more runs tomorrow.

 

[Flem274*]

I'm glad we have 550 now. Could be a real grind. Root on a flat one :/