*Official* 2022 New Zealand Tour of England, Ireland, Scotland & Netherlands

[ashley bach]

I wouldn't worry about the batting. England have been terrible at finishing off the tail for years. Southee and Henry/Boult/Wagner will Bumrah us everywhere.

Thanks but sadly it is a worry. When you can't even show a little fight to save a home test against Bangladesh you know there's problems there.
Certainly more grit and determination are required in this department for the black caps, regardless how woeful England have been finishing off the tail.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Lord’s apparently have thousands of unsold tickets, its games used to be guaranteed sell-outs. Taking place over a big bank holiday too.

Obviously that’s partly because they’ve set the price too high, but English cricket is in a really terrible place in terms of interest in the national team and sport more generally. There aren’t even any England fans posting in here ffs.

Your post has legitimately made me realise that this is the actual tour thread and not a NZ cricket discussion.


...I do now realise there are other ways I could have twigged to this.

 

[trundler]

Yes, NZ posters have the highest moaning to population ratio here.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Wood would have been ideal against them, actually. That plus the fact that he was the one bowler to trouble Conway last year means NZ will probably be relieved he’s not in the side. Is Potts a chance to debut?

Reports from the England camp are that Potts is indeed in line to debut. The expected XI is:

Lees
Crawley
Pope
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Foakes
Potts
Broad
Leach
Anderson

Not sure what order that tail would bat. None of them ideal at 8, but happy to see them try Potts rather than go back to COverton just because he bats a little better.

 

[trundler]

Would be pleased with Foakes

 

[ashley bach]

Reports from the England camp are that Potts is indeed in line to debut. The expected XI is:

Lees
Crawley
Pope
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Foakes
Potts
Broad
Leach
Anderson

Not sure what order that tail would bat. None of them ideal at 8, but happy to see them try Potts rather than go back to COverton just because he bats a little better.

Where's Woakes to go along with Stokes and Foakes?

 

[ashley bach]

Yes, NZ posters have the highest moaning to population ratio here.

And possibly the most critical?

 

[ImpatientLime]

Lord’s apparently have thousands of unsold tickets, its games used to be guaranteed sell-outs. Taking place over a big bank holiday too.

Obviously that’s partly because they’ve set the price too high, but English cricket is in a really terrible place in terms of interest in the national team and sport more generally. There aren’t even any England fans posting in here ffs.

The UK is going through its biggest cost of living crisis since the 1970s. People cannot afford to pay their energy bills and these muppets are charging £150 a pop for tickets.

I am one such dude who would normally be attending but just cannot afford it this year.

I appreciate I am telling this to someone who is from these islands (I think!)

 

[ashley bach]

The UK is going through its biggest cost of living crisis since the 1970s. People cannot afford to pay their energy bills and these muppets are charging £150 a pop for tickets.

I am one such dude who would normally be attending but just cannot afford it this year.

I appreciate I am telling this to someone who is from these islands (I think!)

Wow if you mean for a days play that's total insanity, or stupidity whatever way you look at it.
Surely that's 150 quid for the entire test?
LOL then you get in there and find out it's about 20 quid for a beer, another 10 for some hot chips.....then you want a couple more beers....

WARNING please do not consider coming to Lords today unless you have at least 300 cash ready available.

 

[NZTailender]

So, we're looking at:

Young
Latham
Williamson*
Conway
Mitchell
Blundell+
de Grandhomme
Jamieson
Henry
Southee
Patel

de Grandhomme is a definite 4th seamer in English conditions provided he is back to near his best. It would be very cruel for Henry to miss out after finally coming good in a home series.

That batting order is extremely top heavy. Any chance of Fletcher over Blundell? Cricinfo seems to be rating his chances.

Honestly I think Henry should get a gig ahead of Jamieson on form, not Wagner.

Having 4 right armers of medium to medium fast pace doesn't offer a great deal if the ball isn't h00ping.

 

[Bahnz]

Haha, 150 quid, that's nearly 10x the price of a ticket in NZ. I get the game is a lot bigger in England but that's crazy town, especially for a team who last toured only 12 months ago.

If we're going with Ajaz in the XI I'd probably opt for Jamieson over Wagner. If Wagner was struggling to crack 75 mph in the warmup that's a really worrying sign. Wasn't taking many wickets for ND in the later stages of the Plunket Shield either. If Boult's unavailable Henry's earned a shot at taking the new ball and Jamieson deserves a chance to show that he can recover his 2020/21 form.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Haha, 150 quid, that's nearly 10x the price of a ticket in NZ. I get the game is a lot bigger in England but that's crazy town, especially for a team who last toured only 12 months ago.

If we're going with Ajaz in the XI I'd probably opt for Jamieson over Wagner. If Wagner was struggling to crack 75 mph in the warmup that's a really worrying sign. Wasn't taking many wickets for ND in the later stages of the Plunket Shield either. If Boult's unavailable Henry's earned a shot at taking the new ball and Jamieson deserves a chance to show that he can recover his 2020/21 form.

Yes, craaaaazy prices. If they want to grow the game, make it more affordable. Lord's members probably don't want poor riff raff at their ground, and price it accordingly.

As much as I love Wags and I appreciate the important role he has played in many of best wins of the past 10 years, I have to agree.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Anyway it is a great problem to have - lots of top quality seamers fighting for a place. I remember years of seamers who were mostly either mediocre or injured. England might have their old guard back, but their seamer injury toll is horrendous.

 

[Pothas]

No Brook is kind of depressing.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

No Brook is kind of depressing.

Yeah, with all the talk of making the Test team exciting to watch and engaging the public again, you'd think he'd be the perfect player to try and include. Young, attacking style, in red hot form. MotM in the recent Roses T20 would have given his profile a boost as well.

The new batting order with Root/Bairstow/Stokes at 4/5/6 seems to lock him out for now though. The batsmen whose positions are under threat are all in the top 3, which isn't where Brook should be batting. Only way in for him in the short-medium term I can see is for Foakes to be dropped again and Bairstow moved back down to 7 with the gloves.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah I think that will probably happen. Having said that it would only take a couple of bad games for Bairstow to be questioned again.

 

[trundler]

Really hoping Pope does something here. And Foakes too.

 

[ImpatientLime]

was there really any need for root to drop back to four?

its exposed pope to a position to my knowledge he has never played before and makes it harder for brooks to get a spot.

 

[Uppercut]

was there really any need for root to drop back to four?

its exposed pope to a position to my knowledge he has never played before and makes it harder for brooks to get a spot.

I tend to think the right general philosophy for batting orders is to put your star player where they're at their best and work everything about that. The most likely way that England win this series is if Root scores a lot of runs, so you want everything geared towards that happening. If batting at 3 means he gets one more early dismissal this series, that's actually pretty disastrous for their chances.

I think that's a minority view. Most people seem to think the best batsmen are more adaptable and should move around to accommodate the others.

 

[tooextracool]

The more I think about it, the more I'm off the view that this is the right move for Joe Root (and by extension, England)

I genuinely don't think that Root's playing style makes him suited to batting in the top 3 (not saying that he wouldn't score runs there) - he doesn't leave well and routinely fishes outside off stump. In an ideal world, he comes in with England 100/2 but even if he's coming in at 40/2 with England having played 15 overs, he's still far more likely to score runs at 4 vs 3 and there is a large enough sample size over his career to see that borne out. It simply makes no sense to cut his returns when he's the only reliable bat in the side.

As far as Ollie Pope is concerned, it's not like he was scoring runs at 5 or 6, so I think the carrot and stick approach is a smart move. Batting at 3 is a privilege and its certainly better than being out of the side all together. At 24, he has the opportunity to learn the skills needed to succeed in that position. He may very well fail, and as I've noted before, he clearly needs to improve his judgement outside off stump, but if he is as talented as he is supposed to be, then he should also be able to figure out a way to make it work much like Ricky Ponting made the step up in 2001.

I would have picked Harry Brook to bat at 5 and dropped Foakes. That said, I suspect that this series will end up as a referendum on Bairstow/Foakes and we'll end up with Brook regardless.