We didn’t drop Wood after he came in for Jimmy, after that, we’ve kept the team the same as much as possible, so I’d be surprised if anyone made way for next week. Think his knock took it out of him, I doubt he’s batted for 115 balls very often! Won’t happen every day of course, Sri Lanka were tired by the time he came in, but if he can bat just a fraction as well as that on a regular basis, he’ll provide some very useful lower order runs
Given that we are already without Wood and Stokes as bowlers, it is unlikely that they would change too much more. It is good that England have won when markedly short of full strength. I have to say that I am not yet convinced of the pace bowling options away from home, but that remains to be seen.
Wood is a cheat code when fit, which is the problem, especially when there’s no sign of Jofra. Think these lot are equipped to do well abroad, but it’s important that the batters keep them rested by batting until the cows come home…what’s the longest innings we’ve had in the Bazball era?
There's good variety in style but not much in pace now that Stone has lost a couple of yards. Need Wood (and Archer?) really to offer something different, and it's no surprise they're looking at Hull given his height and that he's a lefty.
I would guess Headingley last year v Aussies. I was quite pleased England batted over a day in the first innings of this last test.
We ‘only’ batted 107.4 overs, we scored so many because Crawley and Bairstow were smashing it all over the park! Looked it up, the longest we’ve batted under McCullum is against New Zealand in the second Test two summers ago, we scored 539 off 128.2 overs, but even getting to the new ball hasn’t been too common from us (think Old Trafford was the only time we managed it in the Ashes, which is part of the reason why Australia didn’t get so many WTC points deducted!)
I think Atkinson is capable of better than what we've seen over the last couple of games, he's just looked a bit weary. It should be noted that he's played only 24 first class games including the 5 tests. He's bowled 3729 balls, which equates to just one ball off 622 overs. 878 balls being bowled in test cricket which is only a bit less than 25% of his deliveries. So it isn't really a lot of heavy bowling he's done. I suspect that he never got that many overs at Surrey simply because the likes of Worrall, Clark and say Roach had done plenty of heavy lifting in the county championship.
That first one surprised me when I saw it yesterday.
And you can add Tom Lawes and Sean Abbott to that list. Even Joverton a couple of years ago. Atkinson has been anything but an automatic pick for Surrey.
Atkinson was definitely that bit quicker earlier in the summer, probably is tiring a bit having played 5 Tests in a row (and having hit a century too!). Clearly he’s one of, if not our best bowler right now, but I wonder if we’ll use him a bit differently when abroad, will we give him a bit of a rest to make sure we can get that pace out of him when he does play?