*Official* South Africa vs England (3 ODI):Jan 27-Feb 04, 2023 in SAfrica

[Ashes81]

I think for England much will depend on whether Stokes makes himself available as he obviously gives the team added balance.

I'd be surprised if he didn't play as he'll want to be involved and with his current workload, doesn't need to play in series like the one in S Africa.

Our batting is strong and we've got plenty of pace options but need to keep Jofra and Woody fit.

The spin options are a bit of a concern as Mo looks poor at the moment. Livingstone and Root can bowl a few but we need Mo to find his mojo with the ball.

It'll be a wide open comp and we'll be there or thereabouts as long as our key players are fit.

 

[chris.hinton]

What, lose the series but pick up a dead rubber? Yeah, devastated.

Australia will be when they lose the ashes and a massive inquest will happen as a result of it "Where are our young talent?" "Big Bash a problem?"

And so on and so on

 

[theegyptian]

Stokes issue isn't helpful. He's retired. He shouldn't be hinting that he might come back (in fairness a lot of this has been media speculation).

England looks like will take the pragmatic approach and leave the door open, which is fair enough, although leaves a lot of uncertainty.

Similar issue to De Villiers with SA before last WC iirc. He didn't come back and the uncertainty didn't do South Africa any favours.

There really needs to be resolution asap. Either make yourself available, or reiterate that you are retired, and England can move on with their planning with certainty.

I know Swann got a lot of criticism for his retirement but at least there was a finality to his decision.

 

[Socerer 01]

de Villiers was on another level with the mixed signals he gave and was skipping matches even before said retirement only to come up at the last second and make himself available to put pressure on others. that would have meant Rassie and his sweet sweet 70 avg missing out on world cup and him being possibly peeved enough at that age to take alternate routes.. not gonna blame de Villiers for his motive back then without the South African context which I lack but in the end Rassie did soften that blow by being their 2nd best batsman in the tournament

difference in Stokes’s case seems like him not wanting to burn himself out with additional responsibility elsewhere and the lack of a player like Rassie to step in to compensate. alternative seems to be going with a Livingstone or Root as the sixth bowler and hope Ali and others can bowl well enough to make their presence unnecessary or else packing the team with bowling all rounders for batdeep and having Willey or Curran at 7 which also means Ali bats six and that doesn’t sound good either.. it worked in the world cup because it was Stokes and not Ali as the all-rounder in top 6 and would he be capable of making the same contributions with bat consistently that Stokes can and would do?

 

[Molehill]

Stokes issue isn't helpful. He's retired. He shouldn't be hinting that he might come back (in fairness a lot of this has been media speculation).

England looks like will take the pragmatic approach and leave the door open, which is fair enough, although leaves a lot of uncertainty.

It didn't seem to cause too many issues for the T20 World Cup. I'm sure they'll play it just the same way. Lots of games without Stokes so if he's not available then we have plenty of options. But we know if he is available, he walks back into the team.

 

[andruid]

Are batting or bowling all rounders the more critical component of the #batdeep paradigm?