Malan basically filled in for him for much of that period. But they desperately need someone who can hold the innings together, so it's right that he's back in the squad. He's been in good nick in the SA20, hopefully he'll kick on. He was at least one of the few who got out to a decent delivery today.
Decent bowler as well (in these conditions)
If they'd picked Sam Hain when leaving Root out we wouldn't be in this mess.
Bring back Owais Shah
He needs to play more ODIs to get his rhythm back
Not an unreasonable point. I think that at the very least we are one opener short and a middle order batter short. As we know, the biggest issue is that our domestic 50 over comp is essentially a 2nd XI tourney.
I saw that earlier too. I haven't actually watched enough ODIs in recent times to be able to figure out what we are trying. All I can see is that we have overdone the short stuff from our quicks in t20s and wondering if they are doing similar in ODIs. What isn't going to really work is expecting too many wickets from our spinners with Rashid in decline (as I said earlier) and a range of support options who won't take a stack of wickets.
At 19-2 after 5 overs on Wednesday, we had a small chance. At which point we went short stuff to Shreyas who smacked consecutive 6's off Archer and the control was lost. I can only assume this was laptop strategy as opposed to continue what is clearly working on this pitch. This is Buttler's weakness, he doesn't see the game like Morgan did.
The go short strategy was something laptop Peter Moores team did. It was amazingly successful.......not!
Archer, Rashid, Mahmood and Topley are good enough with the ball but only two of those three quicks should play. I wouldn't risk Archer at eight. I suppose that will be Carse but tbh he should just play red or white ball not both. England's bowling was no better than this under Morgan. It's just that England then had possible the best top six that has ever played white ball cricket. They would win games through runs rather than with the ball. But now they can't bat for s**t so the bowlers have no chance.
Oh it was easier for the bowlers to be effective when the batting was getting serious runs on the board and you certainly can't blame the bowlers for looking less effective when they don't have much to defend. They clearly had their moment yesterday but it would be helpful if the quick bowlers don't resort to the short stuff so incessantly.
So no chin music?
More selective Chin Music!
