England (and Wales) gloom, doom and recriminations thread

[RossTaylorsBox]

Who do we think the fat shaming guy is. I reckon it's Malan.

 

[Prince EWS]

Who do we think the fat shaming guy is. I reckon it's Malan.

Definitely Bairstow haha

 

[Pothas]

Haha Burns

He's gonna be eviscerated for that but it's not a big deal tbh. Some people do best when they're not wasting mental energy playing the game before it happens.

Yeah that story could just as easily have been 'Burns was fixated on the first ball, wouldn't stop talking about it etc. etc.

The not talking in meetings does not bode particularly well considering not long ago he was being talked about as a potential captain.

 

[Spark]

Definitely Bairstow haha

Yeah didn't he go off at some dick in the SCG Members' for calling him fat?

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah didn't he go off at some dick in the SCG Members' for calling him fat?

Yeah he definitely seems touchy about it.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah didn't he go off at some dick in the SCG Members' for calling him fat?

Bloody Burgey

 

[SteveNZ]

I made a better and more nuanced argument than that, if you both reading it (Seems to be a trend on this forum of not reading posts but replying to them ). I said he gets to pick and choose, largely playing at home in helpful conditions and playing away when he deems it so.

The fact is, the team has to move away from Jimmy and Broad, it either happens now and players get a chance to develop or it happens later where the younger guys by that stage being in their late 20s and early 30s themselves.

If one wants England to succeed in the future, the better option is obvious.

There's no 'fact' about it at all, and most posters are of my opinion that Anderson and Broad should go nowhere. The idea that Anderson gets to 'pick and choose' is also a nonsense. You reckon he asked not to play in Brisbane?

At the moment, you have hardly any back-up. Woakes isn't a Test bowler's backside overseas. Robinson has ability but is unfit and bowls 110km at times. Archer may not ever play again. Overton isn't that much chop. Stokes is doing less and less bowling. So what's the plan? Drop Anderson and Broad and play those guys?

The only argument is age. If Anderson's body is up to it, age means absolutely nothing. If he has to miss Tests here and there, so be it. He's more capable of getting through a series than 28 year old Robinson.

If England wants to succeed in the future, dropping their best bowler is not an option. As someone else said, there is more than ample chance for other guys to develop in that attack around him. England are losing nothing by having him playing, and I find it laughable that people want to retire a guy still average in mid to low 20s with the ball while they can't score 200. It's just a fairly lame, oh well he's 39 so logic says he should retire rhetoric. He could play for the next two years, comfortably.

 

[SteveNZ]

This thread should be 100% about which England up-and-comer has the mettle and technical ability to play Test cricket. Instead, it's at times veered towards the retiring of two guys with 1100 wickets who averaged 23 and 26 in an Ashes series.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

This thread should be 100% about which England up-and-comer has the mettle and technical ability to play Test cricket. Instead, it's at times veered towards the retiring of two guys with 1100 wickets who averaged 23 and 26 in an Ashes series.

Not too surprising considering the latter exists, but the former doesn't.

 

[Bijed]

Haha Burns

He's gonna be eviscerated for that but it's not a big deal tbh. Some people do best when they're not wasting mental energy playing the game before it happens.

Yeah, the Burns one seems by far the least significant. “Nah, not really" could just be shorthand for "yeah, but I'm not stressing out over it" and suggesting that the reason he went to get out first ball of the series is primarily because he hadn't been dwelling on that specific moment enough seems a stretch.

The overall picture is, er, bleak, though

That said,

England’s only warm-up game descended into farce

sounds like it turned out to be ideal preparation for the rest of the tour

 

[Chubb]

Silverwood in particular comes across as kind of useless, and the team management - Giles, Bobat, Taylor etc - come across as broadly inept. However, ymmv, grain of salt etc, as this is clearly players venting to favoured journos and getting their side of the story in the press asap. This is more hearsay but beyond Robinson, Overton and Lawrence are apparently also targets for ire internally for not exactly appearing committed to the cause.

I think we can all agree Silverwood is toast. I'm sure many of us also sympathise with giving Taylor a position like that given what happened to him, but he clearly shouldn't be deciding on teams from the other side of the world.

Also thought skinfold tests weren't being done any more given there's been a lot of criticism about their use. IIRC the AFL has banned them.

 

[Gnske]

Even selection away from the Test team was in chaos. On the first day of the Gabba Test, England Lions were due to play Australia A. England could have used it to give time in the middle to Jonny Bairstow, Dan Lawrence and Zak Crawley. Instead Mo Bobat, the performance director who is in charge of the Lions, picked the team 48 hours before the game. England only realised their error when they saw that Australia A included Test squad players Usman Khawaja, Micheal Neser and Scott Boland. All would later play in the series and make an impression, while England were left to pick from players who had played no red-ball cricket.

This is just the juiciest peach for me. Agreeing to wrestle the Undertaker but then you see the cell get dropped around the ring.

 

[Gnske]

When England had the chance for a day off in Hobart, Robinson went and played golf even though he was troubled by a shoulder problem that threatened his chances of playing, with Craig Overton preparing to play in his place. Robinson declared himself fit on the morning of the match but then went down with a back spasm.

No wonder Jon Lewis was pissed and threw him under the bus hey?

The funny thing is, a truly elite player like Warne would have done this gladly, had two pizzas and a bottle of wine and shown up the next day and taken a 5fer no worries. I suggest Robinson double down on degeneracy.

 

[GotSpin]

Bairstow you fat ****

 

[Nintendo]

Unless I've missed something massively I don't think Clarke (and Kohler Cadmore) should be punished indefinitely for that. The whatsapp group was unedifying, and the unintended consequences were terrible but it wasn't Clarke who raped the women.

I personally don't think Clarke should be getting in the test squad anyway because he has a bit of a wonky technique but he should probably have played t20 by now, and he'd probably have played test crickt now were it not for the whatsapp group and his closeness to the Hepburn case.

Duckett had a load of issues including crashing his car while drunk. As far as I am aware Clarke has this one, obviously not insignificant, blot on his record. But is it worse than the sins of Duckett?

Clarke didn't just have the WhatsApp group tbf, continued to defend the guy who got found guilty of rape from that after it all came out and got done for fighting In public while drunk or something to that affect last year.

 

[Gnske]

He was cleared of all charges. As far as I'm concerned he's a saint and clean. He may be best friends with a rapist, but he's alright I guess.

 

[Blenkinsop]

If Clarke was a generational talent then maybe you'd hold your nose and select him, but I don't see any obvious sign that that is the case.

 

[Gnske]

Have you seen him in the BBL? That's raw talent, although Hepburn would be disappointed that he's just banging 6s now.

 

[mackembhoy]

Alex Lees being reported to open in Windies with Crawley. With Yates and Sibley in reserve

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Alex Lees being reported to open in Windies with Crawley. With Yates and Sibley in reserve

clearly written as an ode to a revolving door selection strategy.