It doesn't matter. They can cover all conditions with him. Btw Wood's quicker than our bowlers. Their spinners are bad though they could take a punt with Rehan.Australia have 4 bowlers capable of Mark Wood pace...
We also have the 1st and 2nd best spinners...
Well there was a complaint it was too slow. I think they want something comparable to the old school West Indies pitches that you got in the sixties. Flat as a billiard table and polished like marble, so the ball comes off the surface quickly.didn't Stokes get the get the pitch he wanted?
Bowler | Fastest Delivery | Country |
---|---|---|
Mitchell Starc | 160.4 km/hr (99.7 mph) | Australia |
Starc hasn't bowled a comparable pace to that which Wood regularly does now for a while.His fifth ball to Asad Shafique touched 156.6 kmph which is Mark Wood’s fastest ball in international cricket.
Smh
Bowler Fastest Delivery Country Mitchell Starc 160.4 km/hr (99.7 mph) Australia
His fifth ball to Asad Shafique touched 156.6 kmph which is Mark Wood’s fastest ball in international cricket.
To play the devil's advocate, the thing that caused me to fall in love with test cricket is how pro-active Steve Waugh's Australia were in forcing results. Bazball appears to be in the same philosophical realm, but a poor man's version of itThere's some astonishing stuff in there, probably McCullum's quote being the peak.
The thing that irks me about all this talk from the English camp is that their implicitly saying that without Bazball Test cricket is heading the way of the dodo.
To imply that Test cricket can only reach it's full potential when it's played ultra-aggressive all the time is laughable.
Much of this is true.A key part of what the ECB is trying to achieve is to increase participation at grass roots level. There's a genuine concern about where the next generation of fans is coming from.
That's what the 100 is all about - it's being played during the school holidays with many matches on free to air TV.
The hope is kids will go with their families, enjoy the game and as they get older start watching the longer form of the game.
I don't think the 'great and the good' of English cricket got together and said we need to play very positive test cricket to get more people interested in the game.
However, once they found out MuCullum fancied the test job, they fully embraced the way he wanted the team to play.
FWIW, I think all test teams will end up playing this way in the coming years as it's what people want to see. Maybe not cricket aficionados like us, but the average punter.
Every major change that's happened on the game since the 1960s has had the same aim - get more people watching the game. To achieve this, the game has been shortened and quickened up to produce more action.
One day cricket was ridiculed when it was introduced in the 1960s. The same with the Packer revolution of day night cricket, coloured clothing and white balls. Fielding restrictions, power plays, T20, franchise cricket, Impact players etc etc. Now we even have 10 over games FFS.
All frowned upon by cricketing traditionalists - all designed to speed the game up and put bums on seats.
Bazball is partly just an extention of that. Score quickly, take risks and entertain the crowd. Yes we want to win but its nit just about the winning, its also about how you play.
After we got beat in the last test, one of the 1st things Stokes said was something like 'if that doesn't get people interested in cricket, nothing will.'
The message for me is pretty clear.
You didn't get the memo mate? Try and keep up.....that was so last weekMakes me laugh all the noise coming out of England, most notably their big dumb 125km/ph bowler but others about how Australia are running scared, the home side made all the running but cost themselves etc.
I'd rather be on the side who's 1-0 and defending the urn, with a greater variety in their bowling line up, a world class opener who was MOM first up,and the 1-3 ranked batsmen in world cricket who all missed out first up but don't do that too many times in a row. England can improve by catching better but Australia to me have more in them.
So a pitch that would have suited Australia perfectly? Like close to Australian pitches that they keep losing 4-0 and 5-0 on? Yeah that would have helpedWell there was a complaint it was too slow. I think they want something comparable to the old school West Indies pitches that you got in the sixties. Flat as a billiard table and polished like marble, so the ball comes off the surface quickly.
The link betwen youth participation and the health of the elite team is a complex and not at all linear phenomenon anyway. Otherwise Australia would be a behemoth in soccer compared to every other sport, as its junior particpation rate dwarfs every other sport in this country. And NZ would barely ever win an international cricket match due to its small population and cricket being a secondary sport.I saw an ECB source saying there are 1.4m participants in cricket in England and most are young. Could be concerns about where the next generation is coming from are slightly over stated.
EDIT. The source says its 2.6m with 1.4m under 16. However participants might not be the correct word as it refers to people who played cricket in 2022.