Group B - England, Australia, Namibia, Scotland, Oman

[chris.hinton]

Buttler
Salt
Jacks
Bairstow
Brook
Ali
Curran
Rashid
Archer
Wood
Topley

The top 4 hit a century each in the IPL. Brook is a great and exciting talent. A couple of all rounders in Ali and Curran to get the balance of the team right.
Wood and Archer for the speeeeed.
Topley is one of england’s best seamers according to me.
Rashid, Ali and Jacks can deal with the spin.
Great team!

It certainly is. We are getting better with preparation. Australia will fail selecting older players will not help them

 

[Nicky]

I wasn't too far off! That's England's probable XI for tomorrow :
1 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 2 Phil Salt, 3 Will Jacks, 4 Jonny Bairstow, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Reece Topley

 

[Nintendo]

I wasn't too far off! That's England's probable XI for tomorrow :
1 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 2 Phil Salt, 3 Will Jacks, 4 Jonny Bairstow, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Reece Topley

That batting seems REALLY thin. Do you need curran at 7 and 4 other front-liners when you've got moeen and jacks in the top 6?

 

[Fuller Pilch]

I have a feeling the Scots will beat England. Mott will lose his job and Brendon McCullum will poach Brandon McMullen for the test team. Will probably poach Greaves and Watt as well.

 

[MW1304]

Feels like we have a side that could post 300 or get bowled out for 50 just as easily. Explosive potential but soft underbelly, a lot of pressure on Buttler to hold it together. And the bowling is meh unless Archer gets back to his best.

Can't really win a tournament off the back of two players.

 

[GIMH]

Phil Salt will go big

 

[Silver Silva]

I wasn't too far off! That's England's probable XI for tomorrow :
1 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 2 Phil Salt, 3 Will Jacks, 4 Jonny Bairstow, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Reece Topley

You guys are making a mistake not including Ben Duckett , he is in the form of his life , Bairstow should make way for him

 

[honestbharani]

Phil Salt will go big

U think he s gonna make other teams' supporters salty?

 

[GIMH]

U think he s gonna make other teams' supporters salty?

yes

 

[Fuller Pilch]

You guys are making a mistake not including Ben Duckett , he is in the form of his life , Bairstow should make way for him

It would also give them a left hander in the top order.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

You guys are making a mistake not including Ben Duckett , he is in the form of his life , Bairstow should make way for him

He should perhaps be in the starting XI over Mo. If we're playing 5 bowlers + Jacks already, Ali's bowling doesn't add too much.

 

[Qlder]

Fraser-McGurk and Matt Short will travel with the Aussie squad as formal reserves. Sort of defeats the point of limiting the squads to 15?

Might as well of put McGurk in the squad and had Inglis as travelling reserve in case Wade got injured?

 

[Nicky]

He should perhaps be in the starting XI over Mo. If we're playing 5 bowlers + Jacks already, Ali's bowling doesn't add too much.

agreed!

 

[Qlder]

Aussie IPL pre-form for WC. Maxwell's shocking form is a worry as is Warner and Marsh coming back from injury after not doing much in IPL

Head: 533 runs @ 44.41, SR 199.62
Stoinis: 388 runs @ 32.33, SR 147.52
Green: 255 runs @ 31.87, SR 143.25
David: 241 runs @ 30.12, SR 158.55
Warner: 168 runs @ 21.00, SR 134.40
Cummins: 107 runs @ 21.40, SR 150.70
Marsh: 61 runs @ 15.25, SR 160.52
Maxwell: 52 runs @ 5.77, SR 120.93

Cummins: 16 wkts @ 32.37, econ 9.41
Starc: 15 wkts @ 28.66, econ 11.07
Green: 10 wkts @ 30.30, econ 8.61
Maxwell: 6 wkts @ 21.50, econ 8.06
Stoinis: 4 wkts @ 31.50, econ 9.00
Marsh: 1 wkt @ 103.00, econ 12.87

 

[grecian]

That batting seems REALLY thin. Do you need curran at 7 and 4 other front-liners when you've got moeen and jacks in the top 6?

Yeah agreed, as others have said, Duckett needs to play and probably will for Curran or Ali, we'll need his sweeping constantly, on these pitches.

 

[Molehill]

Aussie IPL pre-form for WC. Maxwell's shocking form is a worry as is Warner and Marsh coming back from injury after not doing much in IPL

Head: 533 runs @ 44.41, SR 199.62
Stoinis: 388 runs @ 32.33, SR 147.52
Green: 255 runs @ 31.87, SR 143.25
David: 241 runs @ 30.12, SR 158.55
Warner: 168 runs @ 21.00, SR 134.40
Cummins: 107 runs @ 21.40, SR 150.70
Marsh: 61 runs @ 15.25, SR 160.52
Maxwell: 52 runs @ 5.77, SR 120.93

Cummins: 16 wkts @ 32.37, econ 9.41
Starc: 15 wkts @ 28.66, econ 11.07
Green: 10 wkts @ 30.30, econ 8.61
Maxwell: 6 wkts @ 21.50, econ 8.06
Stoinis: 4 wkts @ 31.50, econ 9.00
Marsh: 1 wkt @ 103.00, econ 12.87

Travis Head 3 ducks in his last 4 knocks - when he's ****, he's really **** (as Sussex found out).

 

[Nintendo]

Aussie IPL pre-form for WC. Maxwell's shocking form is a worry as is Warner and Marsh coming back from injury after not doing much in IPL

Head: 533 runs @ 44.41, SR 199.62
Stoinis: 388 runs @ 32.33, SR 147.52
Green: 255 runs @ 31.87, SR 143.25
David: 241 runs @ 30.12, SR 158.55
Warner: 168 runs @ 21.00, SR 134.40
Cummins: 107 runs @ 21.40, SR 150.70
Marsh: 61 runs @ 15.25, SR 160.52
Maxwell: 52 runs @ 5.77, SR 120.93

Cummins: 16 wkts @ 32.37, econ 9.41
Starc: 15 wkts @ 28.66, econ 11.07
Green: 10 wkts @ 30.30, econ 8.61
Maxwell: 6 wkts @ 21.50, econ 8.06
Stoinis: 4 wkts @ 31.50, econ 9.00
Marsh: 1 wkt @ 103.00, econ 12.87

The only thing here ide be worried about is Maxwell and marsh's bowling. Warner lost form BECAUSE of the injury, he broke his thumb trying to lap a fast bowler and was batting with it after that, before the injury he was got a few scores and looked good. Played a few games while ****ed after that, then he was fully fit timed the pants off a slog sweep first ball and got caught inches off the boundary, he'll be fine if he's fit. Marsh is a similar mismanagement issue. Dehli had him opening the batting and trying to slog everything, or batting at 4 rather than at 3 where he's made a million runs for Australia and the perth scorers these last few years.

Just for reference, batting 3 for Australia he has 1079 runs @43 and a sr of 145, all other positions he's averaging 20 @~115. He's had 30 innings at #3, 22 innings in all other positions.

Edit: If there's one thing to be worried about, it's the bowling, not the batting. Bowling is in the exact same situation where it was last t20 WC where he got smashed by NZ and let AFG and Ireland get closer than they should have. After a good start to the IPL Cummins has regressed to his t20 usual, not taking enough wickets or keeping the runs down, and starc is lethal with the new ball when the ball is moving, and can take cheap tail end poles at the death, but that's it. Starc isn't gonna take wickets in the middle or keep the runs down in the death vs top order bats or higher ranked sides. Zampa and haze are usually reliable in there respective middle over and powerplay roles, but there both coming in after no cricket for 3 months. Stoinis and marsh barely bowled in the IPL, and despite maxwell's good bowling form I don't think hey'll do enough with the bat to make up for it.

TLDR: Our bowling is a way bigger worry than our batting; Unless we get a miracle, we're going into this tournament with good powerplay bowling, one good middle overs death bowler and one average one, and **** all death bowling while hoping 3 part timers will patch the holes up.

 

[chris.hinton]

Australia playing their coaching staff to raise the average age to mad levels. They aren't going to be much of a threat in this competition

They are too old

 

[Nintendo]

Has maxwell made any notable changes to how he plays in t20 cricket that would affect his numbers?

He's still scoring at an absurd rate (175+) but his average has dropped from 28 to 21, and it seems like alot of that is down to him doing worse vs pace bowlers (47 @ 185 vs 19 @165), but he's also gotten better vs spin over a smaller sample size. His 2023 numbers vs pace where absurd, so in hindsight you would probably expect some regression, but a dropoff like this despite that 120* he hit vs the windies is interesting.
Pace, 2023:


Pace, 2024:


Spin, 2023:


Spin, 2024:


Overall, 2023:


Overall, 2024:

 

[number11]

This particular group seems almost a waste of time. The minnows stand no chance.