Fear the crabcat.Moriarty should have played more
The Final Problem?Moriarty should have played more
Ahmed not even on there, has he not taken a top 7 wicket?
He took an absolute ton of wickets against Essex last season on a turning wicket.More seriously it is somewhat surprising that Dawson averages less against the top seven than Leach in that time.
Min 20 wicketsAhmed not even on there, has he not taken a top 7 wicket?
Leave him out I sayHmmmm......Harry Brook??
Not possible, Sherlock threw him in the Reichenbach falls years ago.Moriarty should have played more
Not been around the last few days as I was in Prague. As you will recall from 247, I was hardly Leach’s biggest backer , however what I will acknowledge is that he has learnt to bowl harder overs better than he has done as exemplified in the New Zealand series over there. Too often he had been penny plain and easy to attack. However, he does keep going and has got better at bowling 25 or so overs a day. Moeen won’t do that. It is a problem. That said, he has a fair few left handers sin the Aussie top seven. Perhaps that is something to work with.A big headache for England. No fan of Leach but he was the best option available, practically by default given the quality of the alternatives. Not sure Ahmed could or should be asked to step up. However, what are the options? Leach has 18 wickets in county cricket this summer so far, while past test picks like Dawson and Bess have 9. Being that very few English spinners have even had a chance to bowl, let alone impress with wickets.
A last hurrah for Mo?
Yes, but Tim Murtagh played test cricket: 13 wickets at 16.38 BB 5-13 (HS 54*) - I guess it can help depending on where your grandfather was born.Hain is a quality player but there are no vacancies in the England middle order right now. Compton has done well but his average is padded by playing poor standard cricket in Zimbabwe.
Coad (who plays for Yorkshire not Derbyshire) is just the latest in a long string of medium pacers who take wickets for fun in the Championship but are deemed not fast enough for Test cricket. See also Jamie Porter, Sam Cook, Chris Rushworth, Ben Sanderson, Joe Leach, Tom Bailey, Tim Murtagh, Ollie Hannon-Dalby, Keith Barker, etc.
Just reposting for no particular reason…Very disappointing. I feel that the success of England’s approach over the last year has been built as much, if not more, on their aggressive approach in the field as their batting. Their batting has often set games up, but when that approach is built around “taking the draw out of the equation” you simply have to take 20 wickets or you lose. That is axiomatic. And to take 20 wickets you need the best bowling and fielding attack you can put on the park. And that means the best keeper (and it’s hardly as if Foakes hasn’t played a number of crucial innings with the bat either).