England players and selection discussion thread

[mackembhoy]

Re Sam Curran, I was amazed that it took England so long to drop him from the 50 over set up, where his bowling has long been cannon fodder. I was truly p*ssed off that he continued to get games at the last world cup, when his lack of pace had long since made him too hittable, variations or otherwise. Slightly surprised he has been binned from the 20 over set up as he probably still has some use there, although I have just seen that he failed to pick up a wicket in his last 8 international games (5 t20s, 3ODIs).

Curran needs to go away and make himself one of England best 6 batsman to get back into the England fold in any of the 3 formats.

He seemingly expected to be called up for the Test side in the summer when Stokes was injured.

 

[wpdavid]

Curran needs to go away and make himself one of England best 6 batsman to get back into the England fold in any of the 3 formats.

He seemingly expected to be called up for the Test side in the summer when Stokes was injured.

Maybe. In the interview I read, he described himself as being 'a bit gutted' not to be called up. Some will argue that he was being presumptious to even con sider himself in the frame, but I just read it as an honest admission that he was disappointed. I think he'd been in decent form in The Hundred just before the SL series, which shouldn't be much of an issue but nowadays appears to be.

 

[wpdavid]

Curran needs to go away and make himself one of England best 6 batsman to get back into the England fold in any of the 3 formats.

I'd love to see that happen, especially as I don't see Stokes continuing after the next Ashes. How likely it is given Curran's franchise commitments is highly debateable though. Which is a shame. Wearing my Surrey hat, one of my frustrations is how many of my lads haven't kicked on as they should have done over the last couple of years, and I'd include SCurran in that list. If anything, they seem to have regressed Pope and Jacks being the other guilty parties fwiw.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Curran needs to go away and make himself one of England best 6 batsman to get back into the England fold in any of the 3 formats.

I'd always have him in the T20 stuff but agree his pathway into the other sides is only gonna come through earning a spot with the bat.

 

[Betterpolo]

Curran really should have had his bowling action (specifically his delivery stride) addressed while a younger. He can still reinvent himself I feel if he can improve his batting and maybe convert his bowling to a gentler but cannier medium pace. There is likely to be room for. proper number seven bat and handy 5th bowler. Good for all formats too.

 

[Prince EWS]

I'd always have him in the T20 stuff but agree his pathway into the other sides is only gonna come through earning a spot with the bat.

Hard to compete with the great man for a similar role.

 

[kevinw]

Scurran should only play t20s and could feasibly play at eight if you have Livingstone and Bethell in your top seven. I'm less sure about him at seven and then say, Archer at eight. Is he one of the best three seamers in this format though? Probably not as Archer and Mahmood should definitely be there and Topley is also stronger than Scurran. I wouldn't want to play Carse and Atkinson in this format if I could help it but both may be better options anyway. Scurran is only going to be good enough for England for his bowling. Like Willey they may bat higher for their counties but they're not top six at international level.

 

[kevinw]

Stokes's hamstring injury sustained in the last NZ test will involve surgery and a three month lay off. He'll miss the short form stuff and probably return for the Zimbabwe test at the start of the Summer. He's surely done as a test bowler now, which impacts the balance of the side. I wouldn't be surprised if the Ashes wasn't his final series.

 

[Betterpolo]

Stokes's hamstring injury sustained in the last NZ test will involve surgery and a three month lay off. He'll miss the short form stuff and probably return for the Zimbabwe test at the start of the Summer. He's surely done as a test bowler now, which impacts the balance of the side. I wouldn't be surprised if the Ashes wasn't his final series.

It all just seemed so inevitable and I have to say it came over as more foolhardy than courageous.

My working assumption is that the past four series have been the lead-up to a pretty momentous 2025 and 2025-26 winter, and he would call it a day after that. At which point we will maybe be in a post-allrounder era (as long as you exclude the 4 or 5 batting wicket-keepers we'll be able to field.

 

[Hungry Llama]

Tom lawes was the only player to impress for england in their recent heavy defeat by CSA XI at the end of their winter training camp [which doesnt say much for whatever the were doing there], so its a bit odd that was left out of the Lions squad for Oz for other seamers like Pat Brown whos been injured for ages and done little since his return.

 

[Starfighter]

Stokes is evidently bullish on his recovery:

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