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How do we fix England

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Bairstow was poor at the start of The Ashes but he was decent enough in the latter half to be worth his place given his far far far superior batting. I don’t know why this is even a debate
 

howitzer

State Captain
May as well just pick Buttler again instead of Foakes imo.
Nah. If England want to look forward from Foakes then they should look forward from Buttler and Bairstow (at least as a wk) too. Ollie Robinson (not that one) should be the competition.
 

howitzer

State Captain
Yeah they should probably all be sacked in truth. But if it was a choice between Buttler and Foakes I would go with the former every time.
I disagree, and think Foakes would be doing better if he didn't keep getting ****ed around but it's an understandable opinion.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
I think both are sub-optimal at test level, it's just that Buttler has more upsides than Foakes for me (i.e., although they'd both likely be consistently underwhelming, Buttler has it in him to do the occasional remarkable thing far more frequently than Foakes imo). Picking Foakes because he is supposedly better suited to the format just reminds me of the time when Darren Maddy was selected for the T20 WC ahead of various tested international players because he was supposedly a T20 specialist. I would rather pick a great player who is not great at a certain format than pick a player who is apparently good at the format but is a much inferior player.
 

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
Lol, do people not remember how bad jos is in red ball? He averages 31 in tests and last time he kept in a test series he made start of ashes bairstow look like healy. Atleast with foakes you have good keeping and a solid county record to fall back on, jos doesn't even have that.
 

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
I think both are sub-optimal at test level, it's just that Buttler has more upsides than Foakes for me (i.e., although they'd both likely be consistently underwhelming, Buttler has it in him to do the occasional remarkable thing far more frequently than Foakes imo).
Jos has as many centuries as foakes in twice the matches despite dodging the dogshit batting series foakes has to deal with (2021 india a prime example).
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
Lol, do people not remember how bad jos is in red ball? He averages 31 in tests and last time he kept in a test series he made start of ashes bairstow look like healy. Atleast with foakes you have good keeping and a solid county record to fall back on, jos doesn't even have that.
Yeah I remember. I just still think he's the least bad option if it's a run-off between him and Foakes.
 

Red_Ink_Squid

Global Moderator
Barring injury I'd be very surprised if Bairstow doesn't play the home summer. And if the first choice top six are available that means he'll probably be back keeping wicket.

Rew definitely on the ECB radar but agree he's not ready yet. If we were desperate for wicket keepers tomorrow you'd think Robinson would be slightly ahead just now having kept for the Lions in the winter.
 

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
Can anyone say what happened to Sam Billings? I remember him from a few years back as a decent enough batsman in white ball cricket (not sure about his Test exploits or even whether he keeps in Tests).
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Can anyone say what happened to Sam Billings? I remember him from a few years back as a decent enough batsman in white ball cricket (not sure about his Test exploits or even whether he keeps in Tests).
He's effectively retired from FC cricket by signing a white ball only contract with his county.
 

Red_Ink_Squid

Global Moderator
Can anyone say what happened to Sam Billings? I remember him from a few years back as a decent enough batsman in white ball cricket (not sure about his Test exploits or even whether he keeps in Tests).
He was always around, just a little down the pecking order for Tests. He picked up a couple of caps as emergency cover - debuted in the last Ashes tour by virtue of being in the country playing BBL when England ran out of uninjured wicketkeepers in their squad. Cameo'd in a home Test as a COVID substitute for Foakes. Didn't do anything remarkable but kept ok.

Has always prioritised white ball though and I think is just a full time franchise-hopper now.
 

kevinw

State Captain
Can anyone say what happened to Sam Billings? I remember him from a few years back as a decent enough batsman in white ball cricket (not sure about his Test exploits or even whether he keeps in Tests).
Nowhere near good enough to play tests. He's been flakey for Kent for a while and had he actually stepped back from CC cricket a year earlier, Kent may have kept Ollie Robinson. Now Jordan Cox has gone to Essex, Harry Finch is keeping.
 

Socerer 01

International Captain
Lol, do people not remember how bad jos is in red ball? He averages 31 in tests and last time he kept in a test series he made start of ashes bairstow look like healy. Atleast with foakes you have good keeping and a solid county record to fall back on, jos doesn't even have that.
at this point im convinced some England fans are dissing on Foakes as their version of “own the libs”
 

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